Aim to know the main points of Saul’s conversion
Aims
* To know the main points of Saul’s conversion
* To learn key words: persecute, convert
Materials
– Book of Acts ch. 9
– Children’s Picture Bible, Retold by Carol Watson
* Visual Aids
– large picture of the story
– display cards of the key words
* worksheet
* torch
* blindfolds
Lesson Outline
1. Review previous lesson
2. Story
3. Questions
4. Activities – a trust walk, act out the story, worksheet
5. Review the aims
6. Prayer
1) Review previous lesson
Because people didn’t listen to Jesus and he was crucified, he couldn’t finish what he started. Jesus’ spirit appeared to his disciples for 40 days after he resurrected. He wanted them to teach people the way to God and find many followers. On the 40th day he ascended and went to spirit world. On the 50th day, the disciples received the gift The Holy Spirit. First, they heard the sound of wind, then tongues of fire appeared over their heads. They were filled with God’s love and they spoke in different languages. It gave them the courage to teach about Jesus and the power to cure sick people. On that day they went out and baptized 3,000 new followers of Jesus.
2) Story
* Peter healed a crippled man, in the name of Jesus Christ. The Jewish leaders wanted to stop him talking about Jesus.
* One of the new disciples was Stephen. Many people listened to him, but the Jewish leaders became angry, and they stoned him to death. Stephen was the first Christian follower to die.
* One man, who stood watching Stephen stoned to death, was Saul, a very educated man. He was also against Jesus followers, and wanted to have them arrested.
* He travelled to Damascus, to find and arrest many of them. On his way, he was suddenly struck by a blinding light. He fell down and heard the voice of Jesus saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me?” When he got up he was blind. His soldiers helped him into Damascus. For three days he wouldn’t eat or drink.
* Jesus appeared to Ananias, one of the disciples, and told him to go to Saul. When Ananias arrived, he laid his hands on Saul and he got his sight back. Then he baptized Saul as a new disciple. Later Saul changed his name to Paul
Note: Because there is a lot of text, the story about Peter and Stephen can be summarized,
Then the story of Saul can be told in more detail.
3) Questions
1. Who was stoned to death? – Stephen
2. What did Stephen say before he died? – “Father forgive them.”
3. Who stood and watched? – Saul
4. Where was Saul travelling to? – Damascus
5. What did Saul want to do in Damascus? – arrest followers of Jesus
6. What did Jesus say to Saul? – “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
7. What does persecute mean? to treat someone badly because of what they believe. Disciples were arrested and put in prison, because they taught people about Jesus
8. Which disciple did Jesus appear to? – Ananias
9. What did Ananias do to Paul? Put his hands on his eyes and gave his sight back and baptized him
10.What does convert mean? to change from one belief to another. Saul changed from persecuting the disciples of Jesus to becoming one himself
4) Activities
* Have a trust walk – Using blindfolds, hold hands and be lead through an obstacle course. Or children listen to verbal instructions. Ask them to share how it felt to be blind.
* Act out the story of Paul’s conversion (use a torch light, fall down, voice of Jesus, soldiers help Paul, Ananias’ vision of Jesus, visit to Paul, sight restored, baptized)
* Worksheet – colour the picture, paste picture of Jesus and words, answer the questions
5) Review the lesson aims
* To know the main points of Saul’s conversion
* To learn key words: persecute, convert
6) End with a prayer
