Year C. 4th Term. Lesson 2. Bible Buddy: CORNELIUS

Scripture: for teacher background:  Acts 10,11 Lev 11

Making contact:

Play a game with matching the pairs of animals. Have two identical pictures of animals on cards. 

Choose animals that can be eaten, like sheep and cows and have others like lions. Place the pictures face down. 

A child picks one up and then guesses where its partner is. If they find the partner they keep both the cards. If not, both cards get turned over again and everyone tries to memorize where those animals are for when it is their chance to turn two cards over. 

Don’t let this go on for too long. It is just an introduction.

Speak about the difference between animals that can be eaten and those that can’t. In the Old Testament God said people could eat animals if their hoofs were split and they chewed the cud. (Lev 11:3) 

For instance you couldn’t eat pigs or rabbits and this was to protect the people, because you could get sick from these other animals. 

Today people take a chance because conditions are cleaner.

In today’s story Peter has a dream about all these animals together on a tablecloth.

 Exploration:

(As you tell this story you could have key words on cards that you hold up or a child holds up when you get to that part in the story. (The key words are in bold.)

Otherwise you could use the cards to revise the story afterwards. There is a different word for every letter of the alphabet but they aren’t used in order– see under Consolidation)

(Another idea is for the children to act out the story as you tell it.)

The apostles had been spreading the Gospel of Jesus to Jewish people in all the synagogues. Peter had been travelling around a lot and he went to stay at Simon’s house – the leatherworker, in Joppa. 

There he had a vision. It was noon and he was resting on the flat veranda on the roof. 

In his dream a huge sheet was being lowered down and on it were many kinds of animals, birds and reptiles.

 A voice said: “Get up Peter, kill and eat!” Peter said: “No, I have never eaten anything unclean!”

The voice came again and said: “Don’t think of anything unclean that God has declared clean.”

This happened three times and Peter wondered what it meant.

Meanwhile, there was a man named Cornelius, an officer in the Roman army from Italy who was not Jewish, but he worshiped God and was a good man who prayed and helped poor people.

He also had a vision where he saw an angel. The angel spoke to him and told him to send three men to Joppa, to Simons’ house where Peter was staying and give him a message to come and visit Cornelius.

Peter had just had his vision when the men arrived and as soon as he had questioned them and heard that he was invited to the house of a Gentile he understood what the vision had meant. 

It was not about animals but people. God’s plan all along was to bring the Gentiles – non-Jews, into the Kingdom. This was the beginning.

 So the next day he and some other friends hurried off to Caesarea to Cornelius’s house.

There was quite a crowd gathered there of relatives and friends.

 Now Jews would not normally go into the home of a Gentile, but God had clearly shown him through that vision that they can. 

So they went inside and Peter explained the Gospel to them. He told them all about Jesus and about His death and resurrection. 

He explained how they could believe and have their sins forgiven.

He was still speaking and something wonderful happened.

 It was just like Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came upon all those listening to his message. They started praising God and also spoke in strange tongues. 

Peter decided that if God had already blessed these Gentiles so much, what would stop him from baptizing them in water. He stayed for a few days.

Of course, back in Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians heard about all this and were very worried. What was going on? 

Why had Peter been to a Gentile home? So Peter traveled to Jerusalem and explained about the two visions. 

He told how the Spirit had come upon these people even though they weren’t Jewish.

 After this the Christian Church was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus, the Saviour.

Application

At last the people were realizing that this Gospel was for the whole world. 

They had thought it was part of the Jewish religion only. If you read the Old Testament carefully, you will often see how God speaks about His dream for the whole world and blessing all nations.

 Today there are Jews who believe in Jesus, but there are others who don’t. Just as there are some Gentiles who believe and others who don’t.

Do you believe?

 Challenge to Mission

The Gospel is for everyone and everyone needs to hear it. We need to spread it to all people, even if they are of a different race and culture.

Consolidation

On the worksheet are the following words in alphabetical order:

Angel, Birds, Cornelius, Death, Eat, Forgiven, God, Holy Spirit, Italy, Joppa, Kill, Leatherworker, Message, Noon Officer, Peter, Question. Roof, Simon, Three, Unclean, Vision, Worship X+Y = your ideas, Z = zzzzzzzzz

The children can retell the story using all these words to their family and friends.

There are also pictures of animals. They can cross out the ones they don’t eat. There is also the memory verse.

 Memory Verse

“The Lord’s power was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” Acts 11:21