27th Mar 26 | 16:08
Studies by Book
03 Acts 09 32-43 THE MINISTRY OF PETER 09 Acts 09 35 Turn around
📖 Acts 09:32-43
09 – Thu06Jun2024 – *Turn around* - _Acts 09:32-43_ – THE MINISTRY OF PETER – _Joel 02:12-13_
_Acts 9:35 So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord._
Let us stay one more day on this verse of how people in that region turned to the Lord. We have said already that this is conversion. This turning away from the facts of life and turning to the Truth is conversion. Many of us who claim to be believers have not turned from fact to Truth. Are we converted at all?
Before I go any further, allow me to stop and thank the Lord for the general election results in India. *The Lord has secured us the victory, and He has graciously given us one more opportunity to reach our people and bring them to the Truth.* So, let us strengthen our hands and knees to pray more earnestly and serve our people joyfully.
Let us look at the commission for John the Baptist. _Luke 1:16-17 And *he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God*. (17) He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, *'TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,* to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."_
To make ready a people prepared to receive the Lord into their hearts and lives, John the Baptist had to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
Turning the hearts of the fathers to the children is challenging. _Matthew 18:1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" (2) Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, (3) and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, *unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven*. (4) Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven._
The disciples were squabbling amongst themselves as to who was the greatest among them. _Mark 9:33-34 Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" (34) But they kept silent, for *on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest*._
The Lord gave the disciples an object lesson by placing a little child in their midst. *Unless they were converted and become like little children they would not enter the kingdom of heaven.* This was a final statement. This is a conversion that has not happened to many of us adults.
A little child trusts implicitly and sees safety and security in the caregiver. As we grow older we trust ourselves. That is what the world teaches us. *Whereas, the message of the Gospel is to trust in Jesus completely, with our whole life.* Without this trust in Jesus we cannot enter His kingdom. This lesson of trust is what we learn from little children.
This is the reason why little children are precious. It is great wickedness before God to destroy the trust that a little child places on us. John the Baptist had to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. He had to bring adults to the place of trust.
He had to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
Justification before God is by the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Him. _II Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, *that we might become the righteousness of God in Him*._
People had to be made ready to receive this justification by faith in Jesus. They had to be made conscious that their righteousness was like filthy rags before God, (which was difficult for the religious Jews to accept). They had to turn and walk in the fear of the Lord for that is wisdom.
The turnaround that John the Baptist was bringing about was peculiar to his context, though we can apply the principles to ours. Aeneas’s life was causing a turning of the people in that region to the Lord.
What is the turnaround you and I are causing in our context? What are the issues in which our people are caught and blinded? What are the bondages from which we must set people free? These are the questions that must occupy the hearts and minds of the church.
Today, we are praying for our personal needs and concerns. We are not asking the Lord to show us the slaveries and oppressions in which our people are trapped and how we ought to pray and work to set our people free and turn to Jesus. Do we even know our own context sufficiently? Are we bothered to know? Please remember, we are kept in our context as the watchmen for our land. The blood of the people will be required from the watchmen’s hands. We are expected to stand before God on behalf of the land so that it does not perish.
God expects us to bring a turnaround in our situation.
_Joel 2:12-13 "Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." (13) So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm._