Paul and the Early Church

Video Workshop ("Holywood")

Summary of Lesson Activity:

Watch the DVD, The Ministry of Paul from Nest Entertainment.

Scripture:

Acts 1-12. (The Contemporary English Version (CEV) is an easy-to-read translation.)

Concept:
Paul had to work hard, against enemies, to share the love of Jesus.

Objectives:

1. The children will view the video “The Ministry of Paul”.
2. The children will learn that Paul spread the Gospel to the Gentiles.
3. The children will discuss what they can do to be disciples/followers of Jesus.

Lesson Plan

Opening:

Greet the children

Explain the purpose of this workshop. This unit is a study of the early church. This lesson is about how the apostle Paul struggled to spread the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.

Open with a prayer.

Dig:

Provide some background to the story of Paul. Our story begins just after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Peter and the other disciples were telling other Jews about Jesus Christ. The Jewish leaders did not like this. They were afraid that the people would not follow Jewish law. They wanted to stop this talk about Christianity. A man named Saul for Tarsus worked with the Jewish leaders in trying to stop people from becoming Christian. He helped to imprison, beat and even kill Christians. Stephen was stoned to death for believing in Jesus as our Savior as Saul watched.

Then Saul had a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus. He became an apostle and began to use the Greek form of his name, Paul (Saul is the Hebrew form, Paul is the Greek form). He began preaching and healing in the name of Jesus.

But the Jewish leaders were still afraid. They did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Christianity was threatening to the Jews. They wanted to keep their Jewish laws. They were very mad at Paul because he was so good at telling others about Jesus and because Paul said that God was the God of all people, not just Jews. (That REALLY got to the Jewish leaders who believed that their God was only for the Jewish people). But Jesus had told the Apostles to preach to everyone (Acts1:8) so Paul preached to the Gentiles too. The word Gentile was used to described everybody who wasn’t a Jew.

Paul was not one of the original disciples of Jesus, but Paul was an Apostle. An apostle is a special messenger of God. Paul did more than anyone at that time to spread the Good News about Jesus. Paul wrote many letters telling people in the newly formed churches about how to live as Christians. These letters are part of our Bible in the New Testament. There are 13 books of the Bible that are credited to Paul. We are thankful to Paul for his work so that we too might know about Jesus and how to be good Christians.

Application:

Start the video. It’s about 30 minutes long. Distribute the popcorn.

Recap some of the highlights. Discuss how hard it was for Peter, Paul and the other Apostles to share the good news about Jesus. Who did Paul preach the Good News to? (Gentiles). Who are the Gentiles? (Everybody who wasn’t a Jew)

The story about Paul and the early church is written by Luke in the book of Acts. Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke, traveled with Paul and wrote about what happened.

Paul wrote several letters to churches that were just getting started. He wrote about how to be good Christians and encouraged them to keep their faith.

Today we can safely come to church and learn how to be a follower/disciple of Jesus. How can we be good disciples? (come to Faith Quest, be kind to someone who is picked on at school, not fight with siblings, smile at a new kid, share something with a friend or sibling, pray, be polite and say “Thank you”, learn about Jesus, etc) 

Reflection:
Give the children an activity sheet and pencils/markers. Ask the children to take their completed sheet home and show a parent.

Prayer: Thank you God for Paul and all the other early Christians who preached to others about Jesus and his love. Thank you for our church, where we can come and learn to be followers of Jesus too. Help us to be good disciples for Jesus. Amen

References:

• Nest Entertainment, The Animated Stories from the New Testament - The Ministry of Paul .
• Nest Entertainment, The Animated Stories from the New Testament Activity & Resource Book – The Ministry of Paul. 

 A lesson written by member Catherine, from Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church,
Cary, NC

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