Year C. 4th Term. Lesson 6. Bible Buddies: LYDIA, ACQUILA and PRISCILLA

Scripture: for teacher background:  Acts 16:3-5,11-15 Acts 18 Romans 16:3,4 1 Cor 16:19 2 Tim 4:19

Making contact:

Maybe you managed to get the children to wear or bring something purple.

Talk about the colour purple and what it means today – a lovely bright colour. 

Long ago only the very rich people could afford purple material and it was often the colour that the king wore. 

Try and have pictures of a crown or purple robe. They even put one on Jesus when they were mocking Him just before they crucified Him.

A different idea is to talk about jobs and careers and what they would like to be when they grow up. Explain what full time ministry means.

 Exploration:

We learnt about a boy and his mother and granny last week – do you remember their names? Today we are going to learn about a rich lady called Lydia. She was a dealer in purple cloth.

Paul and his helpers went to the city of Philippi. On the Sabbath day they went out of the city to the riverside where they thought there would be a place where Jews met together to pray. 

There were a group of women gathered there. One of these was Lydia who sold purple cloth. She loved God and she listened very carefully to what Paul said about Jesus. Then she said: “If you think that I am a true believer then please come and stay in my house.”

It was so special that she could use her wealth – her home and money to support these travelling missionaries.

Later on Paul traveled to Corinth. He used to do his work during the day and every free moment he had he would preach.

Paul was a tent maker. He met another tent maker called Acquila and his wife Priscilla. They invited Paul to stay with them. 

Every Sabbath, he would hold discussions in the synagogue. When his helpers Timothy and Silas arrived, then he could preach full time. Acquila and Priscilla were a big help to Paul and taught the Christians how to follow Jesus.

 Application

God needs everyone to help spread the Gospel and support the work of the Kingdom. Today we have seen how a rich lady and a married couple served God. 

They carried on doing their daily work – selling purple cloth, making tents, and they put God first and learnt all they could about Jesus and then used their work to support the Gospel. 

Not everyone will become a full time missionary or minister like Paul; some people will keep to their trades and give money and hospitality to others. All work is very, very important.

We actually call work that people do on the side “tent making”. This is to keep bringing in money, but their main work is to spread the Gospel.

Challenge to Mission

 Discuss what hobbies the children have. Do any of them make things with their hands? 

A friend of mine makes little bars of soap with praying hands on them. She is donating 50 for a mission that we are having. 

Somebody else can draw well and they are making a poster. 

There are ladies who are going to make food and milk tarts for the weekend.

 The Gospel needs our support and talents as well as our feet and voices.

Think about what you can do to help at your church or in a mission outreach. You can have a tent-making job one day – not making tents, but doing work that brings in cash to live on.

All work is holy to God and some people can be separated to work full time in the church and mission field, but all work is just as important to God.

 Consolidation

The worksheet has a sketch of Lydia – the children can use lots of purple colour to colour her in. 

They can tick a picture of a job they would like to do one day.

 Discuss these and explain that it is good to work at jobs like these, but we should all do Gospel work all the time too.

Explain how people with jobs give their offering to support the people who do full time work in the church.

 Memory Verse

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord.”  Colossians 3:23