With that thought in mind, let me make a radical statement:

The Lord Jesus Christ mentioned and referred to the church more than He did the kingdom of God.

But He didn’t do it by using the word ekklesia.

Remember that small band of disciples Jesus called unto Himself and lived with for three and a half years?

They were “the Twelve,” added to what Luke called “the Women.” Probably around twenty individuals in all.

Those twenty people were a community that lived a shared life under the headship of Jesus Christ. Christ was the center of their lives and fellowship.

In other words: They were the embryonic expression of the ekklesia.

What is ekklesia (church) in the New Testament? It’s a community of believers who share a common life in Christ, assemble together regularly, and make Jesus central, supreme, and head over their lives together.

Those twenty were the community of the King. And that’s precisely what the ekklesia is.

Each local ekklesia is an outpost of the kingdom of God. Put another way, each community of believers that enthrones Jesus as Lord is a colony of God’s kingdom in a sinful world.

Consequently, every time you see the Twelve (and “the Women”) with Jesus in the Gospels, you’re seeing a microcosm of the ekklesia.

And virtually every time Jesus spoke to His disciples and used the word you …

“You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14).

“You are the salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13).

“But the Helper … will teach you all things” (John 14:26 ESV).

“I am the Vine, you are the branches …” (John 15:5).

He was referring to the church.

In addition, when John used the word we, he was most often speaking of the church: “And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16 ESV).

Do you remember when Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces a lot of grain” (John 12:24 ISV)? The phrase “a lot of grain” refers to the church.

How about when Jesus referred to His brethren? “But go to my brethren, and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father’” (John 20:17 KJV).

Or how about when He prayed for His disciples in John 17 and said, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who will believe on me through their word” (v. 20).

Who are the “those who will believe on me”?

The church.

Who are the Lord’s “brethren”?

The church.

There are eighty-five unique references to the kingdom in the Synoptic Gospels. And five in the gospel of John. So the Gospels total ninety unique references to the kingdom.

Put that against the many references to the church given above, and the count is less for the kingdom.

When we come to the New Testament writings (Acts to Revelation), the kingdom is mentioned thirty-one times and the church is found seventy-seven times.

The word brethren—which refers to the brothers and sisters in the churches—is used 249 times in Acts through Revelation.

The word saints (holy ones), which is a reference to the individual believers in the churches, is used sixty times.

Now, in light of all of the above, can we please stop pitting the church against the kingdom?

To do such is to violate the gospel and the whole drift of New Testament revelation.

Accordingly, you cannot separate the Lord Jesus Christ from the kingdom of God, and you cannot separate the church of Jesus Christ from the kingdom. What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.

In short, Jesus is this earth’s true Lord, and the church is His instrument for making this fact a visible reality.

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For more see Reimagining Church and Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola Author and George Barna.