Paul is Captured in Jerusalem

This week we are studying about Paul being faithful to God and doing no matter what it takes to do the Lord's will. There is a Venn Diagram for the students included.

Last week a prophet named Agabus came to Paul and took his belt off. Agabus wrapped up his hands and feet and told Paul that he would be tied up just like this if Paul went to Jerusalem. The people begged Paul not to go, but they said if that is what the Lord wants, then that is what he would do. Paul was ready to be put in prison or even to die if that’s what God wanted. The people said, "The Lord's will be done." The lesson is found in Acts 21:27-40 & 22:1-30.

Paul went to Jerusalem and while Paul was in the temple, some Jews from Asia saw Paul and they got the crowd worked up. They shouted out that “This is the man that teaches against the law, and he even brought Greeks into the temple to ruin the holy place!”

The whole city was getting worked up and they grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Immediately the doors were shut. They were trying to kill Paul by beating him and the commander of the garrison received word that all of Jerusalem was in chaos and at least 200 soldiers came running to the temple!

The commander immediately took his soldiers and ran to where the crowd was. When the people saw the commander with the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. The commander went and took Paul and the soldiers tied him up with two chains. (According to my studies, Paul probably had a chain on each wrist with a soldier attached on each side. That would be the two chains in the scripture. Acts 21:33) The commander asked Paul who he was and what he had done.

The crowd kept shouting different things to the commander and because of the commotion, he couldn’t decide who was telling the truth. He commanded the soldiers to take Paul to the barracks. When they reached the stairs, Paul had to be picked up and carried by the soldiers because the mob was so vicious. The people followed shouting “Away with him!” The people were trying to grab Paul from the soldiers!

While Paul was being taken to the barracks, he asked the commander if he could speak to him. Paul told the commander who he was and asked if he could talk to the people. The commander said that he could, so Paul stood on the stairs.

Paul held out his hand to the people and when they were quiet, he spoke in Hebrew to them. He said, "Hear my defense." Paul told them who he was, how God led him to preach about Jesus. And how he became a Christian. But the crowd didn’t want to believe, and they cried out, tore off their clothes, probably their outer robes, and threw dust in the air.

The chief captain, Lysias, ordered the soldiers to take Paul back to the barracks. Lysias said "Maybe if we scourge you, we will find out the truth."

 Click here to download the Roman Citizen poster.

But Paul asked him if it was lawful for them to do that to a Roman citizen? When the centurion heard that, he told the commander to “Take care what you do because this man is a Roman.” (Click here to download the updated posters.)

The commander said, “You’re a Roman?” and Paul answered “Yes.” Paul told him that he was born a Roman. That made the commander afraid to hurt Paul, so he left. The next day the commander came to Paul and asked what the Jews had accused him of.

He took off the bonds from Paul and told the council to gather while they kept Paul under 'protective custody'.

[Look up and read: Acts 23:11] Luke tells us that the Lord went to Paul during the night and told him to be happy. Paul has been able to teach people about Jesus while he was in Jerusalem, and now he will be able to tell people about Jesus in Rome.

I used this Venn Diagram and had the students write things that they want to do on the left side, then things that God wants them to do on the right side. It isn't always easy to do what God wants, but that is what He expects us to do. This is a great conversation starter and the kids enjoyed it. This has the color and black & white worksheets to print.

The Venn file was updated and has this Jesus picture in color and black & white included.

  Click here to download the updated file.

Click here to print the worksheet.

You can find all the Acts worksheets here.

Bible Verse:  Acts 22:26

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

Used by permission.

Passport: Jerusalem

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

Click here to download the lesson.