Cornelius & Peter's Vision

Our lesson today takes a look at Peter's Vision. We will talk about the Old Testament laws concerning clean and unclean animals. We will also learn about Peter visiting Cornelius. There are a couple of puzzles for today's printables.

The Bible scripture can be found in Acts 10:1-48 and today we are studying about Cornelius. He lived in Caesarea and was a centurion (captain of 100 men) of the Italian Regiment (military). He was faithful and feared God. He gladly gave gifts to the poor and he prayed a lot.

About three in the afternoon an angel of God came to him and said “Cornelius.” He was scared when he saw the angel! The angel told him that God has heard his prayers. The angel told him to "Send for Simon Peter, and he will tell you what to do." The angel left and Cornelius told two servants and a soldier to go to Joppa to get Simon Peter. It was a 10-hour trip.

The next day, at about noon, Peter went to the housetop to pray. He was very hungry, and he fell into a trance. Peter saw the heavens open up and something like a huge sheet tied by its four corners come to earth. It had all different kinds of animals on it. Peter wondered what that meant. This happened three times, and then went back up into heaven. (Acts 10:16) (In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. ESV)

While he was thinking about it, the three men sent by Cornelius asked if Peter was there. Peter went down and told them that he was the Peter they were looking for. After they explained why Cornelius sent them, Peter invited them into his house.

Peter got up in the morning and prepared to travel with Cornelius’ men. Peter took six Jewish believers along with him on this journey. They split the traveling into a two-day journey from Joppa to Caesarea. 

When they went into the house, all the people that Cornelius had invited were there to greet Peter. God sent Peter to teach Cornelius and his family. Peter told them that God doesn’t show favoritism. Everyone is treated the same in every nation that fears Him and is faithful to Him. Peter told them about Jesus and how He died. He said that we are commanded to preach to all people so all can go to Heaven.

The thing was that at any other time, Peter and Cornelius wouldn’t be seen together, especially talking to each other because it was unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with someone from another country. 

But when the people that were at the house of Cornelius heard what Peter had to say, they believed. The last verse (Acts 10:48) states that Peter told them to be baptized in the name of the Lord and then they asked Peter to stay for a few days with them. (Bible verse for today.)

These updated Roman Centurion posters can be used for any lesson with a centurion. The last poster is Cornelius. These are in color only. Click here to download.

This is an updated chart of clean and unclean animals. It is a very basic list with animals that are in the Bible or easily recognized animals. It is not intended to be an in-depth list. This includes the color and black & white. Click here to download.

These posters are more of a teacher's visual when discussing clean and unclean and were used with the above student handout chart of clean and unclean animals. Remember, this is intended for early elementary and is not an in-depth adult study on the laws God made for clean and unclean. There is a very basic outline that can be used with the posters and this lesson. Click here to download.

I use this display with this lesson. Click here to see more with instructions. I also  send a note home the week before for the students to bring two of their favorite stuffed animals (no dolls, animals that God made smaller than 12") to use today. Click here for an updated reminder note you can print in color or black & white. Click here to see how we use their stuffed animals.

This is an updated worksheet using the questions from the puzzles below. This is an application worksheet that can be used as a conversation starter for this chapter. This includes the black and white only and a teacher's answer sheet. Click here to download.

These Fill-in-the-Blank Puzzles are facts from Acts 10. The scriptures are on each puzzle and the  puzzles are slightly different so they can only be connected together. I used the detective theme graphics for the IFA: Investigating Facts in Acts since the students will be searching Acts 10 for the answers to fill in. I give them envelopes or zipper bags to keep the pieces together.

 Click here to download this set of Cornelius puzzles in color.

  Click here to print the puzzles in black & white.

As I was working on the first set of puzzles, I wanted to add a puzzle with the steps of salvation. We have the Bible as our manual. These steps are written in more than one place in the New Testament, some are written about together and some are not, so I used the scriptures in the book of Acts, since that is where our study is. And, I used Paul's reference to staying faithful since we will be studying him. Click here to download the puzzle.

Click here to print the worksheet.

Click here to download the lesson.

Click here to download the updated visuals as shown above.
The visuals are for Acts 10-11. Not all are shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

 Bible Verse: Acts 10:48

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.

Each week for this series of Acts, I will have something for the students to add to their IFA bag, Click here to see more. Some items will be purchased and some will be printables. This week's addition is the above puzzles. I used investigator graphics on the review puzzles. The students filled in the blanks, cut them out, and will store them in a quart size baggie.

 

You can see this lesson with several different ideas here.