Our Lord Jesus warned us against worrying about the trivial things of this world, because we ought to be seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
The disciples wanted a physical kingdom like King David's, and they thought that Jesus would take up the sword and liberate the land of Israel. They wanted a political savior.
No doubt they recalled the many old testament texts about Christ's reign and destruction of the wicked, and the glories of His rule that was promised.
But Christ rejected such calls, for He had a far more urgent mission: the saving of His people from their sin. He preached the righteousness of God, and He prepared to lay down His life as an offering for His people's sin.
Note well, that Christ came not to die for their persecutors' sins, but for their very own. The world detests the idea that it has sins to be atoned for, but rather always seeks to place the blame on "those other people."
The idea that Christ's people were the ones in need of redemption came as a shock to most of them.
There is a manifestation of the Kingdom of God right now - it is Christ's defeat of sin and death in His people, and the work of the Holy Ghost in believers to conform them to Christ's image and to obedience to Him. We are justified and being sanctified, and subdued to the happy rule of Christ in us!
Hebrews tells us that, so far, we do not yet see all things conformed and obedient to Christ, so the kingdom is not yet perfected in this world.
Thus the kingdom is, as of now, mostly spiritual in the hearts and minds of believers.
Christ told Pilate at His trial that His kingdom was not of this world now.
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...