The gospels talk a lot about the kingdom. The book of Matthew in particular talks a lot about the kingdom of heaven. The gospels often use “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven” interchangeably.

I’ve often misunderstood many passages about the kingdom. For instance, I believed that the Parable of the Wheat and Tares in Matthew 13:24–30 referred to true versus false believers, but after looking more closely, it appears that’s not quite the case when you consider that Jesus said the field represents the entire world. I think there are many passages that we interpret through a particular doctrinal lens (e.g. Calvinism in this case), but we often miss the Jewish cultural and biblical roots that informs the meaning of the passage.

One resource that has been very helpful for me is Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s Yeshua — The Life of Messiah — From a Messianic Jewish Perspective. On pages 225–232, he describes five aspects of God’s kingdom program:

1. The Universal or Eternal Kingdom — this simply refers to God’s eternal, sovereign rule across all time and space, his rule across both worldly and heavenly realms.

2. The Spiritual Kingdom — this represents God’s rule in the heart of the believer, that a man must be born again to enter the kingdom of God (John 3)

3. The Theocratic Kingdom — this refers to God’s rule over the nation of Israel during the time of the judges and kings, from the covenant at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 to the fall of Judah in 586 BC in 2 Chronicles 36.

4. The Messianic/Millennial Kingdom — this refers to Christ’s literal, earthly 1,000-year reign that fulfills the Davidic covenant.

5. The Mystery Kingdom — this last one refers to the “mysteries” of the kingdom, previously hidden truths that have now been revealed by Christ and His apostles, a word often used by Paul (e.g. Eph. 3:5, 9; Col. 1:26)

So, What About the Church?

To answer the question, the church then is an outworking of God’s kingdom on the earth. God’s kingdom is not limited to just the church, but it is a major piece of the kingdom of God. As Jesus modeled us to pray to the Father, “Let your kingdom come and let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10), so we as the church pray that the kingdom, God’s righteous rule, would be manifested in our individual hearts but also corporately as God’s kingdom ambassadors on the earth. Ultimately, God’s eternal purpose is to manifest His glorious, multi-faceted wisdom through the church to every ruler and authority in the heavenly realms (Eph. 3:9–11), and we do this by allowing Christ to dwell in our hearts (Eph. 3:17) and manifesting the same essence and nature of Jesus Christ as our life and expression (Eph. 4:20–24; Col. 1:26–27). As the centrality of God’s reign was the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament, now His centrality is the church as the temple and expression of God (Eph. 2:22). This is a present and future reality; God’s kingdom is growing on the earth as He builds His church, and one day He will present the church as fully mature and complete in Christ (Eph. 4:13–15), as a spotless bride in all her splendor ready for her Bridegroom (Eph. 5:25–33).