Aim to understand that God has no favourites, but loves all people
Aim
* To understand that God has no favourites, but loves all people
* To learn key words: Jew, unclean, Gentile, convert,
Materials
* Bible stories
– Peter’s Vision (Acts ch. 10:9-16)
– Peter & the Romans (Acts ch.10:1-8, 17-48)
– Peter in prison (Acts 12:1-11)
* Visual Aids
– large pictures of the story
– display cards of the key words
Key words
1. Jew – the Israelite people who were descended from Abraham, the chosen people of God that Jesus taught.
2. Unclean – some animals were considered unclean by the Jews. They shouldn’t be eaten
3. Gentile – not a Jew. Gentiles were thought ‘unclean’ by Jews, because they didn’t follow the strict Jewish rules
4. Convert – to change from one belief to another. Saul changed from persecuting the disciples of Jesus to becoming one himself
Lesson Outline
1. Review previous lesson
2. Story
3. Questions
4. Activities – memory game, act out the story, worksheet
5. Review the aims
6. Prayer
1) Review previous lesson
Saul was persecuting Jesus’ followers. On his way to Damascus, to find and arrest them, he was 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. The disciples Ananias was sent by Jesus to Saul. He laid his hands on him and he got his sight back.
Then Ananias baptized him. Later Saul changed his name to Paul Last week the children learnt about Saul’s conversion. Show the picture of Saul being blinded by light. Can the children remember what happened? Can they say what convert means?
2) Story
* Today’s story is about Peter, the leader of Jesus disciples. Show the pictures as you tell the story.
There are four parts to the story:
1. He raises Tabitha back to life
2. He has a vision of a large sheet from heaven filled with many ‘unclean’ animals.
3. Peter visits a Roman soldier and gentile. He receives the Holy Spirit and becomes a new disciple
4. Peter is put in prison and freed by an angel
3) Questions
1. How many animals were on the sheet?
– twelve
2. What animals were on the sheet and thought unclean?
– Lion, pig, camel. two kinds of snake, crab, lizard, mouse, vulture, insects, rabbit, tortoise
3. What did the voice of God say to Peter?
– “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.”
4. What did the vision of ‘unclean’ animals mean?
– God was trying to tell Peter that he wanted to welcome the Gentiles as well as the Jews. God has no favorites. He accepts people from every nation. Jesus had come to be the Messiah for everyone, not just the Jews. Jesus had taught his disciples that God did not treat someone as unclean by what they touched or ate. He was more concerned with whether people’s thoughts and
actions were clean and wholesome. It is the same with us. God wants us to have ‘clean’ or good thoughts and good actions
5. What was the name of the Roman officer?
– Cornelius
6. What happened to the Romans that Peter met?
– They received the Holy Spirit just like the disciples on the day of Pentecost
7. Who put Peter in prison?
– King Herod
8. How did Peter escape from prison?
– An angel freed him
4) Activities
* Play a memory game. Put picture cards of animals onto a sheet. Children look carefully and try to remember them. Cover them, take some away. Can the children say which ones are missing?
* Act out the story of Peter’s escape from prison
* Colour the picture, answer the questions
5) Review the lesson aim
* To understand that God has no favourites, but loves all people
* To learn key words: convert, Jew, unclean, Gentile,
6) End with a prayer
