27th Mar 26 | 16:08
Studies by Book
03 Acts 09 32-43 THE MINISTRY OF PETER 07 Acts 09 35 The church must challenge society
📖 Acts 09:32-43
07 – Tue04Jun2024 – *The church must challenge society* - _Acts 09:32-43_ – THE MINISTRY OF PETER – _Colossians 01:13_
_Acts 9:35 So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord._
The Lord worked mightily through Peter and Aeneas was healed instantly. He arose and made his bed. The healing for Aeneas did not stop at this point. We do not have a description of the transformed life of Aeneas but we know the outcome of his conversion.
Our verse for today tells us, in very simple terms, the impact of Aeneas’s life. Peter’s role was over and now it was the turn of Aeneas to be part of the ongoing work of God of bringing His kingdom in that region.
We see this happening again and again.
_Acts 6:7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith._
_Acts 9:42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord._
_Acts 11:21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord._
_Acts 19:10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks._
_Acts 19:20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed._
This is the heart of God. He longs to see nations (people groups) turn to Him. He is God whose desire is to see the light of His kingdom prevail over the rule of darkness that presently controls the world. _Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and *conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love*,_
This reality of people turning to the Lord is the promise of the Lord to Abraham. _Genesis 12:3b … And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."_
We can see how the Lord gave the Gospel to Abraham. _Galatians 3:8-9 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, *preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."* (9) So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham._
The Lord is therefore bringing all nations together under Christ. The Jews are His chosen people but we too are brought to become heirs of Abraham.
_Galatians 3:26-29 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise._
*The healing and transformation of just one life, the life of Aeneas, caused a cascading effect on the growth of the Gospel in that region.*
This principle for the growth of the Gospel of His kingdom continues to operate. We must not see healing as ‘stand-alone’ experiences. Healing of a person produces the total transformation of the individual, which is powerful in that people are impacted and large numbers turn to trust Christ.
Healing has happened in the past and continues to happen in the present. As those who are giving the healing of Jesus to one another in the body of Christ, let us be part of the ongoing work of the Gospel.
Let us not remain satisfied that healing has taken place. As we pass on the healing of Jesus to people, *let us encourage people to let God work in them His great purposes of His kingdom*.
We have all seen people who have experienced astonishing healing, they then shared their testimonies in church, and many were blessed, but after some time their lives faded away. They returned to life only based on fact, not on Truth. Some even went back to their old ways and habits, have suffered and are suffering the consequences of their choices.
In a way, all of us are guilty of this syndrome that we have received the blessing of God repeatedly in life. We went to the Lord with our burdens and He has healed and restored us. We were thankful to God but we did not let the healing of the Lord lead us into a life so powerfully transformed that we now lived only based on Truth not based on fact.
Many of us in church are only going from one crisis to the next and from one healing to the next. We have reduced the Christian life to a life of experiencing God’s healing. God is the healer and He will heal but ought not we to be moving on to life in His kingdom, where we see nations transformed? We remain satisfied with God’s healing and we sing, ‘Way Maker, Miracle Worker’.
*Aeneas moved from personal healing to the transformation of nations.* Let us ask the Lord to so move us that the healing that we have already experienced in life will become the basis for us to live out the transformed life of Christ. ```We will live a life based on Truth not on fact.```
This must be the character of the church that the society around us will be shaken and turn to Jesus as their Lord. Today, society sees that we too are living lives based on fact, just as they are, so they are not intrigued about us.