Now that we have seen that the kingdom of God is Christ as the seed that is sown into us, develops, and consummates in a harvest, we need to ask what it means to enter into the kingdom. To enter into the kingdom of God is to enter into the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom. However, we may not understand what it means to enjoy Christ as the kingdom. The whole world opposes the entering of God’s people into the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom. Judaism, for example, has been usurped and utilized by Satan to frustrate the believers from entering this enjoyment. Throughout the centuries, other forms of religion—Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam—have also been used by God’s enemy to keep God’s people from entering into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the kingdom of God.
Acts 1:3 tells us that through a period of forty days the resurrected Christ appeared to the apostles and spoke to them “the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Peter and all of the one hundred and twenty had been brought to the Lord, and they had received the essential Spirit for their life, living, and existence. They were truly followers of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, in chapter one of Acts they had not yet entered into the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom of God, as God’s ruling realm. It was still necessary for them to enter into the realm of the full enjoyment of the resurrected Christ as God’s kingdom. On the day of Pentecost Peter and all the others surely entered into this realm—the realm of the full enjoyment of the resurrected and ascended Christ as the sphere in which God rules over His people. As Peter was preaching the gospel in Acts 2, we see with him and the other apostles a picture of the kingdom of God. In Acts 2 the one hundred and twenty were in the full enjoyment of the resurrected and ascended Christ as God’s ruling realm. Such a realm is the kingdom of God.
Very soon after the believers entered into the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom of God, the Jewish religion came in to frustrate this enjoyment. If in chapters three, four, and five, Peter, John, and the other believers had shown any weakness, they would have lost the full enjoyment of the resurrected Christ, and as a result they would have missed the kingdom of God.
In the light of what we have seen concerning the kingdom of God, let us now come back to Acts 14 and ask if the disciples whom Paul was entreating had entered into the realm of the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom of God. No, those believers had not yet entered into that enjoyment; they were still on the way. Therefore, Paul charged them to enter into the realm of the full enjoyment of the resurrected and ascended Christ as the kingdom of God. Here he seemed to be saying, “I have preached to you the resurrected Christ as the holy and faithful things, as the grace of God, as eternal life, and even as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The full enjoyment of grace, eternal life, and the Spirit is a realm, and this realm is God’s kingdom. You have not yet entered into this realm—you are on the way. Therefore, I entreat you through many tribulations to enter into the kingdom of God. You should expect opposition and be prepared for it. You will face much tribulation. But through all these tribulations you must endeavor to enter into the realm of the full enjoyment of the resurrected and ascended Christ as the kingdom of God. When you have the enjoyment of such a Christ, you will be under the divine rule. Then you will become the kingdom of God, which is the proper church life.”
Romans 14 indicates that today’s church life is the kingdom of God. In this chapter Paul speaks concerning the church life. Then in verse 17 he says, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Righteousness, peace, and joy all are the issue of the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the church life, and the church life is a realm of the enjoyment of the resurrected and ascended Christ.
Acts 14:23 says, “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fastings, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” The Greek words rendered “in every church” contain the preposition kata with the distributive usage—according to church. The phrase “in every church” in 14:23 equals “in each city” in Titus 1:5. The comparison of these phrases indicates not only that the jurisdiction of a local church is that of the city in which it is located, but also that in one city there should be only one church. The eldership of a local church should cover the entire city where that church is. Such a unique eldership in a city preserves the unique oneness of the Body of Christ from damage. One city should only have one church with one eldership. This practice is illustrated, beyond any question and doubt, by the clear pattern in the New Testament (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Rev. 1:11), and it is an absolute prerequisite for the maintenance of proper order in a local church.
All the churches in which the elders were appointed respectively by the apostles in Acts 14:23 were established within less than one year. Hence, the elders appointed in these churches could not have been well matured. They must have been considered elders because they were comparatively the most matured among the believers. They were not voted in by their congregation; they were appointed by the apostles according to their maturity of life in Christ. They were charged by the apostles to care for the leadership and shepherding in their churches.
According to 14:26, from Attalia Paul and Barnabas “sailed away to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled.” We have pointed out that this grace is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to bring the processed God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may live in resurrection. Thus, grace is the Triune God becoming life and everything to us. It was by this grace that Saul of Tarsus, the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15-16), became the foremost apostle laboring more abundantly than all the apostles (1 Cor. 15:10). His ministry and living by this grace were an undeniable testimony to Christ’s resurrection. The grace that motivated him and operated in him was not some matter or some thing. Rather, it was a living Person, the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God the Father becoming the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who dwelt in him as his everything.
Acts 14:27 and 28 conclude, “And having arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and that He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed with the disciples no little time.” In verse 27 we have the end of Paul’s first ministry journey, which began in 13:4.
When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them. This gathering was for fellowship regarding God’s move in the spreading of His gospel; it was not for a report of duty.