What is the kingdom? The kingdom is the totality of Christ as life, spread into us with all of His activities. The kingdom is not a totality of doctrines or any other things, but of Christ as life, spread into us with all of His activities. Do not forget Mark 4:26-29. In that parable the Lord Jesus likened the kingdom to a seed that is sown into the earth, grows, brings forth fruit, and eventually produces the harvest. The harvest signifies the full manifestation of the kingdom. Long before the harvest, the kingdom has already come as a seed. Strictly speaking, the coming of the kingdom began with the coming of the seed. The manifestation of the kingdom comes through a process of growth.
This is completely different from the concept of some Christian teachers who teach that the kingdom is suspended and will one day suddenly come down to earth. This concept is absolutely wrong. The kingdom comes as a seed which is sown into the earth, grows, and produces the harvest. The harvest is the full coming, the full manifestation, of the kingdom. The coming of the kingdom began when the Lord Jesus came as the seed nearly two thousand years ago, and it has been coming gradually through a process of growth ever since. Today we are still in the growth process of the kingdom, expecting the harvest to be ripened one day. When the harvest is ripe, that will be the day of the full manifestation of the kingdom. The harvest completes the coming of the kingdom.
This is not merely an interpretation of prophecy. This is the proper understanding of the pure Word. Mark is not the only book that gives us such a parable. If you collect verses from other books of the New Testament, you will see that these verses fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to give us a full picture of Christ, that wonderful Person, who came as the seed nearly two thousand years ago. Christ not only came as the seed of the kingdom, but He came also as the sower of the kingdom, sowing Himself into the human earth. At that time the kingdom began to come. After this wonderful seed has been sown into us, it begins to grow. Let us water it that it may grow and grow. Today the seed is still growing. This growth is simply the process of His gradual coming. This process is the gradual coming of the kingdom, until one day the growth will bring forth the harvest. That will be the completion of the coming of the kingdom. The harvest will be the full manifestation of the kingdom.
I am very happy that we have heard the proper tidings of the kingdom. This matter of the kingdom has been hidden, covered, and veiled for centuries. But by the Lord's mercy and grace the veil has been taken away. The kingdom has never been so open and so transparently clear as it is to us today. The kingdom is the totality of Christ as life, spread into us with all of His activities. The coming of the kingdom began when Christ came to sow Himself into the human earth that He might grow, mature, and bring forth the harvest, which is the full manifestation of the kingdom. The kingdom has come! Now the kingdom is growing and is coming through this growth process. We all have the seed, and we all are in the growing process. One day we will be in the harvest. We have the Lord Jesus, the wonderful seed. Have you ever realized that He is so much to us? He is the issue of so many human generations mingled with the Triune God. He is Jehovah-plus and God-plus! Such a wonderful One is the seed.