The Saul / Paul story can be tough if it’s not placed in context, so this story does a recap before it begins… Older children can read the bible for the full version as this is quite simplified. The teachers page to the left can be saved as image and it will be the size of an A4 sheet for printing.
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So lets work out the story so far….
The bible tells the story of God’s people. It started with one man but soon there were thousands, the problem was they just didn’t listen to what God was saying very well. They stopped asking his advice, they gave God a big building and then ignored him when they were not there.
God wanted to talk with them so badly he decided he would send a messenger. He had sent messengers before, some had been listened to a little, some had been ignored completely. So this time he would send his son, they had to listen to him, because he was God.
But still they didn’t listen. The people who worked in God’s building, who were meant to help people listen to God, got very angry. They said God wasn’t a man, his name wasn’t Jesus, and when it came to what God wanted they were right, Jesus was wrong. They got so angry with Jesus that they decided to kill him.
So Jesus died. It was part of God’s plan all along. Jesus dying destroyed the wall that people’s actions had built between themselves and God, the things we call sin. And after 3 days Jesus came back to life, he proved he was greater than death, he saw lots of people and told them to carry on telling the world his teachings. Then Jesus went back to his dad in heaven.
But the story doesn’t end there
You see there were still lots of angry men, they had killed Jesus but still everyone was talking about him. People were starting to ignore their teaching and go listen to Jesus’ disciples. The Jesus followers needed to be got rid of.
Now there was a man called Saul, he hated the Jesus followers, and he wanted to be the man to get rid of them. First one Jesus follower was killed by lots of angry men, Saul watched them smiling. Then Saul put lots of Jesus’ followers in prison. Then got permission to go to the towns outside the city and arrest the followers there.
But God had other plans, he saw Saul could be a good man, a great man, but he was filled with darkness and couldn’t see the light Jesus had brought to the world. So while Saul was travelling along the road God decided to join him.
A huge light from heaven shone on the travellers. It was so bright it hurt the men’s eyes. Everyone stopped, Saul fell to the ground.
Only Saul heard the voice. A voice in the light. It asked him why he was trying to hurt him. Saul was confused “who are you?” he asked. “I am Jesus” replied the voice. Saul didn’t know what to say, if this was Jesus he must have been wrong, very, very wrong. “Go to the town and wait” said the voice. Then the light was gone.
Saul got up, but he was blind. He was blind as they walked to the town, blind as he went to bed that night, blind for three days, until a follower of Jesus knocked on the door, came in and prayed for him.
Saul became one of the greatest Jesus followers, he told everyone about Jesus, he started churches, he even wrote lots of the books in our bible. He changed his name to Paul, but most importantly he had changed his life, he had let Jesus’ light in.
