The Book of Acts gives us the establishment of the kingdom of heaven and of the church among the Jew and the Gentile, after the rejection of the King by the Jews. The Lord, in answer to the question put to Him by His disciples as to whether this was the time when He would restore the kingdom of Israel, answered that it was not for them to know the times and the seasons, which the Father had put in His own power. But they should receive power after that the Holy Spirit should come upon them and they should be witnesses unto Christ, both in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. He thus intimated that the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth was for an interval to replace Judaism and that it would not be until after that interval that the kingdom would be restored to Israel and set up in power. The Lord then ascended to heaven, and the disciples return to Jerusalem to await the promise of the Father. Acts 2 gives us the account of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the formation of the church of God.
Peter the Administrator
Peter, as the administrator of the kingdom, is prominent in the testimony. He preaches on the three names, Jesus, Christ and the Lord, as setting forth the glories of the Person of whom he was speaking. In charging the Jews with the sin of having rejected Jesus, He declares that God had made Him, whom the Jews rejected, both Lord and Christ. He was the same person David thus spoke of, raised from the dead to sit on David’s throne, and He was sitting at the right hand of God till His enemies were made His footstool. Three thousand received the word and were baptized unto the name of God’s rejected King, thus owning likewise His lordship. By His death and resurrection they were brought on new ground, having thus saved themselves from the Jewish nation as a whole.
All who in baptism bowed to the claims of Him whom God had made Lord and Christ become the professed subjects of the rejected King. In Acts 3, Peter adds to the testimony — that if the Jewish nation repented, God would send Jesus again and set up the kingdom in power over Israel. This testimony was rejected and ended with Stephen’s martyrdom.
After Stephen’s death, all the assembly at Jerusalem was scattered except the apostles. Philip went down to Samaria and preached the Anointed to them. His testimony, no doubt, was to Him as God’s King rejected by the world, but exalted in heaven and coming again to reign. He preached the Christ unto them.
The people gave heed, among them Simon Magus the sorcerer. And when they believed Philip preaching the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon Magus was brought into the kingdom and into the circle of Christian profession (today called Christendom), but not into the true church. Here we have an outer circle of privilege and responsibility, where Jesus was owned as the Anointed and Lord. Peter, having the keys to the kingdom, comes to Samaria. He opens the door to them and they receive the Holy Spirit.
Baptism
Baptism is an initiatory ordinance that places the baptized in a new position. It is always connected with a status upon earth, and not with heavenly privileges. With Peter, Christian baptism seems more connected with the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 16:1919And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:19); Acts 2:38; 10:4838Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38)
48And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. (Acts 10:48)); with Paul it is connected rather with the house of God when he did use it. Paul had a new commission. He is not found, like Peter, ministering in the midst of a known people who had promises, calling souls out of it to repentance, that they should receive remission and be separated from the untoward generation.
Paul was raised up as God’s special messenger, and he, not neglecting to preach the rejected King, as we see in his discourses at Thessalonica and Corinth, and seeing that the converts were brought into the kingdom by baptism, at the same time was made the great minister of the church in its double aspect of the house of God and the body of Christ. With him it was not only that the Gentiles were admitted by baptism into the kingdom of heaven on earth, but that they had common privileges and a common part with Jewish believers, as fellow-heirs, members of Christ’s body and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. He was the great administrator of the church, the body of Christ. This is developed in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Differences Between Kingdom and Church
It is important to distinguish between the kingdom of heaven, set up and administered through Peter’s ministry, and the church composed only of those whom Christ built in, living stones, those indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of heaven embraces, during its present aspect, all those who professedly subject themselves to Christ, the Anointed, during the time of His rejection. Peter was the administrator of it, and the twelve were to disciple all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He opened the door to the Jews who repented and to Cornelius the Gentile afterwards, and they were admitted by baptism. Philip did the same thing to the Samaritan, and Paul recognized it at Thessalonica and Corinth and other places, though he was not the minister of it.
The church, as the sphere of Paul’s ministry, was a circle inside the kingdom at present, but before the Lord comes again, it is to be taken out of it. Jew and Gentile believers were fellow-heirs, members of one body, partakers of God’s promise in Christ by the gospel. There is an outer sphere of the church, now called the great house, composed of all who are baptized and profess to be followers of Christ. This great house is full of vessels, some to honor and some to dishonor. The word to every true Christian now is, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19). While, therefore, evil in the kingdom is not now to be taken out but to be left until the time when the Son of Man is to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, the saints are responsible to depart from iniquity, to gather on the true ground of the church, to the name of Christ alone, recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. They are to exercise discipline, to put away evil from their midst if it comes in, to express communion with Christ and with one another, as members of His one body at the Lord’s table, and to break bread in remembrance of Him.
A. P. Cecil, adapted from The Kingdom and the
Church, and from the Concise Bible Dictionary