Message Theme & Verses: A new way to see: Acts 6-9, 12-28; Colossians 2; Romans 8, Ephesians 2
Memory Verse: Acts 9:20 Immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
Have you ever heard of Saint Paul? Usually when somebody has the word “saint” in their name, we think they are really good. What if I told you that at first Paul was really bad. Well, he thought he was good, but he was actually bad. He was really good at a lot of things. He was smart and very obedient. He was really good at obeying the laws in the Bible. But, he was missing one very important thing. Paul didn’t have faith. Paul did not believe Jesus was the Son of God. Paul had never met Jesus. He thought that Christians were bad and he worked really hard at chasing Christians and putting them in jail. He was really good at doing this bad thing. But God had plans for this guy who was so good at being bad. God introduced Paul to Jesus.
One day, Paul was riding his horse to a town called Damascus to catch Christians there and punish them for believing in Jesus. Suddenly, a bright light from heaven shone around him and he fell from his horse! Jesus called out to Paul from heaven and commanded him to go to the city. Paul was all of the sudden blind, but he still obeyed the voice of Jesus. Paul was blind for three days. Jesus sent His servant Ananias to help Paul. Ananias was afraid, but he trusted Jesus met with Paul. Suddenly, Paul could see and was baptized to show that he now had faith in Jesus.
Right away, Paul began telling people about Jesus. He had a special message. Being with Jesus is about having faith which is a gift from God. He told people that you can’t get to heaven by being good or following the rules. Only by God’s grace can anyone receive salvation. It is God who saves people! Paul traveled all around the world to tell people about God’s message of salvation. He started a lot of churches and trained people how to obey Jesus.
Barkadang Questions
1. Have you ever been really good at doing something bad?
2. Can you tell us about a time when you thought you were right, but turned out to be wrong?
3. Did you know that Paul’s name is Saul in the Hebrew language? Do you have a different name?
4. If you could ride on any animal, would it be a horse, or a different animal?
5. How do you think Paul felt when he fell of his horse and went blind?
6. If you had to lose one sense, what would you choose; sight, smell, hearing, touch, or taste?
7. Why do you think God chose to use Paul to be a great missionary and preacher? (God loves to surprise people. Paul’s life changed so much when he met Jesus. He went from sending Christians to jail to going to jail himself for being a Christian. Paul was willing to give up his life because Jesus had saved him. Paul wanted other people to know about Jesus’ gift of love so much that he told everyone even if he got beat up and even killed. God was showing how it’s not doing the right thing or obeying God’s laws that saves people. Only God can save people! He saves people by His free gift of grace. God gives people faith so they can believe in Jesus and be saved.)
8. How do you think Ananias felt when God told him to go and be friends with the Christian hunter?
9. Do you think that God will ever ask you to do a hard thing? What would you do if God told you to love your enemies and to be kind to people who hurt you? (This is exactly what God commands Christians to do. We can do it on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to give us the special power we need to obey God and to love our enemies. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to tell others about Jesus.)
10. If you were to start a church, what would you call it? What would you teach the people to do?