Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”
In the above passage the "brothers" (followers of Jesus) were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and it was time to establish His kingdom. The Jewish people so wanted to be out from under the rule of the Romans that they failed to see that the real rule of Jesus was in the heart, not in the land. Jesus would begin to talk to them about the freedom they would find in Christ from their sins, but they were so earthly kingdom minded that they failed to hear the truth in His worlds about the spiritual world that His kingdom was really about. They wanted him, as stated above, to seek His kingdom and give them earthly freedom. This is true of me and of all men. We think freedom from our food habits, or our physical habits is the point. And, whereas there will be fruit produced in us via the Spirit to change the physical world we live in and have come accustom to, the real realm of Jesus power is in the spiritual. Jesus time, in the above passage, was not yet then. But, it did come. But, that coming of time was for the purpose of spiritual blessings in our lives and to set us free from the penalty and the power and, eventually, the presence of sin. We have to be careful that we don't get so caught up in the earthly blessings of His salvation that we forget that this is truly about the spiritual blessings of freedom. Too many people follow Jesus hoping for a change in their physical life. And, whereas that can happen, their can be suffering. God provides relief in this life, but escape is still future. The real escape today is in the freedom we have from the penalty of our sin and the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives.
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