Acts 27

Lesson Aim

To understand that God was protecting Paul throughout his journey to Rome.

Hook 1: Outline of a sailing ship

Have an outline of a sailing ship with several pieces of paper Blu tacked to the ship. When you reach the part of the story about the storm have a child remove one piece of paper. On the rear of the paper should be written one of the things which was thrown overboard (a compass, ropes, sails, equipment, cargo, food, anchors etc. – or use pictures for very small children). Then other children can remove another piece of paper. The last two pieces could have ‘sailors’ and ‘prisoners’ written on them. For sailors, explain how several of them tried to escape and for prisoners explain how the soldiers wanted to kill them all before the centurion stopped them.

It’s helpful to display the words down the side of the picture to show how the situation became progressively worse.

Hook 2: Large box

Have the largest box which you can obtain and pretend that it is a boat. Place a leader or a child in the box as ‘Paul’. Handcuff Paul and give him various objects or pictures of objects to throw out of the box as the journey progresses to Malta (see Hook 1 for items to be thrown from the boat). Paul could also pretend to be seasick and when the boat nears Malta he needs to dive out of the boat  into the water.

Hook 3: Questions

Have you ever been on a boat that was going up and down so much that it made you feel seasick? This can happen for an hour or even a whole day. In today’s Bible story it happened for fourteen days, two whole weeks and then worse was still to come.

Story tips:

When writing the Book of Acts, Luke gives a detailed account of Paul’s journey to Rome. A lot of these details are unsuitable as material for a children’s talk and need to be glossed over. Concentrate upon :-

·         Why Paul was going to Rome

·         Paul’s conviction that God wanted him in Rome

·         The story of the shipwreck

Above all remember to keep the story moving.

Application

The Bible tells us that Paul and everyone else on the boat got to land safely. They were on the island of Malta. God took care of Paul and even through the violent storm, God was in charge. God looked after his people then and God is still in charge today. Even when Christians have the greatest difficulties, they can know that God is in charge.