Baptism of Jesus

Paul continues his 2nd Missionary Journey by visiting the cities of Thessalonica and Berea. Several people began to follow Jesus in Thessalonica, but others were jealous and caused trouble. Paul went on to Berea where the people received the message of Jesus with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. Troublemakers from Thessalonica soon followed and caused so much trouble that the Christians escorted Paul to Athens for his own safety.d 

We should follow the example of the Bereans and study Scripture to understand what is true.

Bible verses used in this episode:

Acts 17:1-15

2 Timothy 2:15

Outline:

1. Paul and Silas preach in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-4)
2. Jealous Jews retaliate (Acts 17:5-9)
3. Paul teaches in Berea (Acts 17:10-15)

Tips for teaching children:

• Help the children learn how to use their Bibles.  Talk about it being a collection of 66 books gathered into one book.  Look at the table of contents together.  
• Teach them how to look up a Scripture reference (book, chapter, verse). Practice looking up verses using that same format.  Simple verses for the beginning Bible reader might be Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16. 

Tips for teaching adults:

• Questions to ask the class: 1) Why would Paul go to the synagogue first to preach about Jesus?  Who would be his audience? 2) What could they have been preaching about Jesus for the Thessalonians to understand them as claiming Jesus is a rival king to Caesar?  3) How serious is this charge about Jesus?
• As a teacher, it is good to develop your skills in studying the Scripture.  Here are some tips to keep in mind when reading, studying and preparing for your class: 1) Read the text in its context.  Don’t just pick out one or two verses out of their context.  Things make sense when put into their context.  Read the passage and then re-read it, thinking about how the text flows and how the parts of the text connect.  Try to get into the habit of reading paragraphs instead of single verses.  Context is everything.  

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  The Noble Bereans 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

Paul cast an evil spirit out of a young slave girl, but her owners were angry and brought Paul and Silas before the city magistrates.  Even though they were both beaten and thrown into prison, they were heard singing hymns and praying to God during the night.  After an earthquake, Paul and Silas taught the jailer and his household about Jesus.  Before the night was over, they were all baptised.  The next day, Paul and Silas were released from prison.

In Christ, we can experience true joy despite our circumstances.

Bible verses used in this episode:

Acts 16:16-40

Philippians 4:4

Outline:

1. Paul helps a slave girl (Acts 16:16-18)
2. Paul and Silas are arrested and imprisoned (Acts 16:19-24)
3. Miraculous release from prison. Salvation for the jailer (Acts 16:25-34)
4. Freedom and respect (Acts 16:35-40)

Tips for teaching children:

• As you tell the story draw two stick figures (Paul and Silas) and draw chains on them. Guide the children in drawing vertical lines down the paper to represent the prison bars.
• Make and decorate a poster from the verse Philippians 4:4
• Make paper chains

Tips for teaching adults:

• Read the story in the class.  Choose various people to read the different parts.  Choose a narrator, Paul, jailor, and city officials. 
• Say this to the class: “Using your imagination, what were the songs they might have been singing?”  Why do you think they were singing and praying?  What would you have been doing at midnight if that was you?
• Why didn’t Paul mention that he was a Roman citizen before he was beaten?  Why only the next day?

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson: A Jailer Becomes a Christian 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

After sailing to Macedonia, Paul arrived in the city of Philippi.  When he found a group of women gathered beside a river praying, he told them about Jesus.  One of the women was Lydia, a businesswoman who sold expensive purple fabric. When Lydia heard about Jesus, she was baptised.  Then, everyone in her household was baptised, too.  Lydia was so happy that she invited Paul and his friends to stay at her house.

Baptism was a natural response to the message about Jesus.  Use this opportunity to discuss the meaning of baptism.

Bible verses used in this episode:

• Acts 16:10-15
• Romans 6:3-4,
• Acts 2:38, 41
• Acts 22:16
• 1 Peter 3:18-22

Outline:

1. Travel to Philippi (Acts 16:10-12)
2. Lydia and her household were baptised (Acts 16:13-15)

Tips for teaching children:

• Paul travelled on Roman roads. Older children can research the Via Egnatia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Egnatia
• Experiment with making purple dye from natural products (flowers, purple cabbage, beets, berries).  Children will enjoy dipping white cotton cloth in these.
• Tie-die a T-shirt shirt purple.
• Baptism Craft: Cut a small figure of a person from thick paper and tape or glue it on a stick like a puppet.  Cut a hole in the bottom of a plastic cup, then push the stick down into the cup and through the hole.  The stick will stick out the bottom of the cup, and the “person” will be inside. Lift the stick up and down, and the “person” appears to go in and out of the waters of baptism.  

Tips for teaching adults:

• If practical and possible, organise the class to study this lesson by a stream, a river, a lake, or even a swimming pool, whatever works best.  Be sure to spend time in prayer. Make it more special by sharing a meal. 
•  Although baptism was not a major focus of this lesson, it is important to note that the text explicitly mentions Lydia and her household being baptised.  You can ask the following discussion questions: 1) What body of water were you baptised in? A baptistery, a swimming pool, lake, or river? 2) What are some memories you have of the place you were baptised?  3) Who has experienced being baptised at the same time with family/friends? What was it like then and now? 

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  Lydia Becomes a Christian 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

Paul suggested to Barnabas that they re-visit the churches they had established on their 1st missionary journey.  Before leaving Antioch, he and Barnabas disagreed over who they should take with them, so they took different people and went to different places.  Paul re-visited churches and attempted to enter new areas to teach people about Jesus.  The Holy Spirit actively guided Paul and his companions, and one night, Paul had a vision of a man from the region of Macedonia standing and begging him to come and help. By entering Macedonia on this, his 2nd missionary journey, Paul will now taking the Gospel to Europe for the first time.

Bible verses used in this episode:

Acts 15:36 through 16:1-10

Outline:

1. A Rough Start to the Journey (Acts 15:36-41)
2. Timothy joins Paul in Strengthening the Churches  (Acts 16:1-5)
3. Missionaries Led by the Spirit (Acts 16:6-10)

Tips for teaching children:

• Learn about missionaries.  You might interview one, send letters, or print pictures of places where missionaries work.
• Trace Paul’s missionary journey on a map.
• Sing  I Can Be a Missionary

Tips for teaching adults:

• Look at a map of Paul’s 2nd mission journey to put his travels in context.  The show notes will have a link to the Viz Bible maps
•  A good question that calls for some imagination is:  What might Timothy’s growing up be like in a mixed race and faith home? What challenges might he have faced?  What about those today growing up in a home with different ethnicities and faiths?  How can the church best serve them?
• Guide the class into exploring the possible dynamics of Barnabas and Paul not budging on their view of John Mark.  Who was right?  Why?  Who was wrong? Why?  Why do you think Paul was so adamant against John Mark joining them on this journey?  What is helpful to us as we read and reflect on this incident and its results?

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  Macedonian Vision 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

The Holy Spirit directed the Antioch church to send Barnabas and Saul on a mission trip to teach people about Christ.  This trip is often called “Paul’s First Missionary Journey”.   One of the stops on this journey was the city of Lystra, where Paul healed a man who had never been able to walk.  A frenzied crowd first worshipped Paul and Barnabas as gods, then turned on them and stoned Paul.  Despite this, Paul miraculously stood up after the crowd left as if not injured.  After revisiting some of the previous stops, Paul and Barnabas returned to the Antioch church to tell them all of the things God had done.

Bible verses used in this episode:

Acts 14:8-23

Outline:

1. Response to a Miracle (Acts 14:8-13)
2. Paul’s Sermon (Acts 14:14-18)
3. Paul’s stoning and exit (Acts 14:19-20)
4. Strengthening the churches (Acts 14:21-23)

Tips for teaching children:

• Find Antioch, Lystra, Derbe and Iconium on a map
• Make a relief map out of salt dough
• Talk about how the crowd became angry and stirred up.  Relate this to Proverbs 22:24-25
• Illustrate how one bad person can make a crowd turn bad. Build a tower of cards or blocks.  Pull out one piece from the bottom and watch the tower fall apart.

Tips for teaching adults:

• Even though we only covered part of the 1st journey in this episode, I suggest you read the whole of ch.13-14.  In a class, the best way to do this is to divide the text up and assign different readers.  Reading the whole story makes it more compelling and helps to understand the context.
•  Consult a map that outlines this 1st mission journey.  There is an excellent series of maps here: https://viz.bible/journeys/ © Copyright 2018 Robert Rouse
• Ask a few people to calculate how many kilometres/miles they travelled on this journey.  Ask a few others to Google the average travel time on foot between the cities mentioned in chapters 13-14, considering the average travel time with a small group with supplies.
• Here are a few questions you can ask: 1) What can we learn about God from this story? 2) What can we learn about how to tell others the good news from this story? 3) Why is strengthening churches and forming leadership important to Paul’s purpose in planting churches? What can we learn from this for our churches today?

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  An Angry Crowd in Lystra 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

King Herod (King of the Jewish people) persecuted Christians and ordered the arrest of the apostle Peter. The whole church was very afraid, so they gathered together in a house to pray. While they were praying, an angel visited Peter’s prison cell and miraculously released him. Peter found his way to the house where the church was praying. Peter then went into hiding.  Herod continued to seek public approval desperately and even allowed people to praise him as if he were God.  An angel struck Herod with an illness, and he died a terrible death.

Bible verses used in this episode:

Acts 12:1-24

Outline:

1. Persecution and Arrest (Acts 12:1-5)
2. An angel frees Peter from prison (Acts 12:6-11)
3. Peter reunites with the praying church (Acts 12:12-19)
4. Herod dies (Acts 12:2024)

Tips for teaching children:

• Talk about prayer and pray together.
• Learn a new method of prayer and try it in class.  
• Make an angel craft.

Tips for teaching adults:

• Ask these discussion questions: 1) Why does God allow James to be killed but orchestrate Peter’s escape from death?  2) What can we learn about prayer?
• Visit a prison; write a letter of encouragement to prisoners; interview someone who has worked in prison ministry.

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

Barnabas was already known as a great encourager, so when the church in Jerusalem heard about all of the new Gentile believers in Antioch, they sent Barnabas to help.  He encouraged the Antioch believers, and even more people followed King Jesus.  Then he travelled to Tarsus and found Paul so that Paul could come and help, too. This was a great mission-minded church.  Followers of Jesus were first called Christians at this church.

Bible verses used in this episode:

• Acts 11:19-30  
• Acts 12:25-13:3  

Outline:

1. Barnabas and Saul and the Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:19-26) 
2. Sending Help to Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30)
3. Ready for Mission (Acts 12:25 through 13:3)

Tips for teaching children:

• Sing the song “I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N” 
• Discuss the meaning of courage and how encouraging someone is to give them courage.
• Look up Jerusalem, Antioch and Tarsus on a map.

Tips for teaching adults:

• Discuss some of the issues that may come up in a multi-cultural / multi-ethnic congregation.
• Discuss the name “Christian” and how it is used today.  In what contexts is it used negatively or positively?  Is it the best name to designate followers of Jesus?  Why or why not?  

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  The Antioch Church 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

Until the conversion of Cornelius, the gospel message had been preached almost exclusively to Jewish people.  Any Gentile (anyone not born into a Jewish family) who wanted to follow Jesus would have first converted to Judaism.  But the good news of Jesus was for everyone and not just the Jews.  God used a vision of animals on a sheet and a miraculous pouring out of the Holy Spirit to reveal this important truth to the Apostle Peter and those he was teaching.  Following this, Peter baptised Cornelius, a Roman centurion, making Cornelius the first Gentile to become a Christian.

God wants everyone to hear about Him and become Christians.

Bible verses used in this episode:

• Acts 10:1-11:18
• 1 Timothy 2:4

Outline:

1. (Acts 10:1-8) In Caesarea: 
   An angel comes to Cornelius in a vision and tells him to send for Peter.
2. (Acts 10:9-23a) In Joppa: 
   Peter has a vision and then decides to accompany messengers 
3. (Acts 10:23b-48) In Caesarea again: 
   Cornelius is converted
   1. Cornelius welcomes Peter into his home 
   2. Peter makes a speech
   3. The Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius and the other Gentiles he had gathered.
4. (Acts 11:1-18) In Jerusalem: 
   Peter explains everything to the Jewish Christians

Tips for teaching children:

• Define the words “Jew” and “Gentile”
• Make a collage of pictures. To do this, you can first have children copy the words of 1 Timothy 2:4 on the centre of a paper or poster.  Surround these words with pictures of people.  These pictures could be ones you have gathered from magazines or downloaded from the internet and printed.  Children will enjoy cutting these out and glueing them to the poster.  If you prefer, the children can draw pictures of people instead of cutting and gluing.

Tips for teaching adults:

• This is a long story, but it needs to be read in class.  Divide the story into sections.  The best way is to do it according to the different scenes in the story.  Look for scene changes.  For instance, scene 1 would be 10:1-8, scene 2 would be v.9-16 and so on.  Choose a reader for each scene, and have the reader stand in a certain place in the room to read.  This would represent the different scenes in the story.  Then, read the story.
•  Ask the class to reflect on the two primary characters: Cornelius and Peter.  What boundaries did Cornelius cross to become a devout follower of the God of the Jews?  How had his life already changed?  What boundaries did Peter have to cross to interact with Cornelius?
•  Ask the class these questions: What are some good things about boundaries?  What are some bad things about boundaries? 
• Follow up with: What boundaries do you still need to cross for the sake of the gospel?   What boundaries must our congregation cross to take the gospel to people?

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  Cornelius Becomes a Christian 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

Dorcas (or Tabitha) was a woman who “was always doing good and helping the poor” in her city of Joppa. When she died, everyone was very sad, and they called Peter to come to her house. When Peter arrived, all the widows were crying and showing the clothing that Dorcas had made for them. Peter sent all of them out of the room and then, by the power of God, made Dorcas come back to life.

Bible verses used in this episode:

• Acts 9:36-43
• Galatians 6:10

Outline:

1. Dorcas dies (Acts 9:36-37)
2. Peter raises Dorcas (Acts 9:38-41)
3. Many in Joppa believe in Jesus (Acts 9:42-43)

Tips for teaching children:

•  Find the cities of Joppa and Lydda on Google Maps.  These are in the area of modern-day Tel-Aviv, Israel.  Joppa is now Jaffa and Lydda is now Lod.
• For a craft, sew something.  Make it simple, like sewing a button onto fabric.
• Visit a facility that provides clothing to people in need. 
• Collect used clothing to donate.

Tips for teaching adults:

• Message everyone before class (give them plenty of time) and ask them to bring a clothing item someone had made – something knitted, sewn or crocheted.  It could be a dress someone, a cardigan or sweater, someone knitted or a pair of booties someone crocheted for them as a baby.  Any piece of clothing will do. During the class, ask the members to show their clothing items and explain why each is special to them.  Share the story if there is a story connected to it. After this, talk about the story in Acts 9 and the importance of leaving a good legacy to be remembered.
• Challenge the class with these questions: “How do you want to be remembered?”  and “What are you doing to be remembered this way?”

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  Dorcas is Raised from the Dead 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org

Saul (later known by his Roman name, Paul) threatened and hurt followers of Jesus.  On the way to persecute disciples in Damascus, Saul experienced an encounter with Jesus that changed his life. Following his baptism, Saul immediately began preaching the truth about Jesus, making the astonished Jews in Damascus plot to kill him. One night, the disciples snuck Saul over the city walls in a basket. He went on to Jerusalem but was not safe there either.  Saul's life was immediately and completely changed by Jesus.  He continued to preach about Jesus for the rest of his life and often suffered because of it.  

Bible verses used in this episode:

Acts 9:1-31

Outline:

1. Saul’s Conversion (Acts 9:1-19)
2. Preaching in Damascus (Acts 9:20-25)
3. Saul and the Jerusalem church (Acts 9:26-31)

Tips for teaching children:

• Define “persecution”.  Persecution means being hurt for believing something.
• Display a map so children can find the places mentioned in this story (Jerusalem, Damascus, Caesarea and Tarsus).  This can also include the regions of Judea, Galilee and Samaria.
• Make a craft with a figure of Saul inside a basket.
• Draw an outline of the shape of a man (Saul).  As children learn about Saul, they can add words or pictures to the inside of the outline.

Tips for teaching adults:

• Tell the story of how you became a follower of Jesus.  Ask students to share their story.  Are there any similarities between the stories?  Are there any significant differences? 
• Ask the class: “In what ways has your understanding of what it means to follow Jesus changed since you became a follower?”  Be sure to give the class time to think about this. 

Full teaching instructions free from Mission Bible Class:

Bible Lesson:  Saul (Paul) Becomes a Christian 

Scriptures quoted from the International Children’s Bible®, copyright ©1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson. Used by permission.

Excerpts from Mission Bible Class used by permission.

For questions or comments email: mary@missionbibleclass.org