Paul's Nephew Saves Him

This week begins the last part of our study of Paul in the book of Acts! Paul stays faithful and goes to Jerusalem, even though he knows that he will be put in prison again. Today's worksheet is about giving our time to God and can be used for several different lessons.

Agabus had warned Paul what would happen if he went to Jerusalem, but Paul went because "It's what the Lord wills". A crowd took him from the temple and made such a disturbance, that the commander took his soldiers to see what was going on. The soldiers chained him with two chains and as they were going up the stairs, Paul asked to talk to the people.

Paul stood on the stairs and explained who he was and how he became a Christian and how God wanted him to tell others about Jesus.

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The people were still hostile to Paul, so the soldiers took him to the barracks. The centurion wanted to whip the information out of Paul, but Paul told him he was born a Roman, so they couldn’t harm him. 

Paul went before the council and they were trying to discover what Paul was up to, but the people were divided about him. Lysias, the commander, was afraid that Paul would be pulled to pieces by the people, so he told the soldiers to take Paul back to the barracks!  Our scripture for today is Acts 23:1-35.

[Today's Bible Verse: Acts 23:11] That night the Lord came to Paul and told him “Be of good cheer. You have talked about Jesus in Jerusalem and now you have to tell others in Rome.”

The next day, over 40 Jews got together and made a pact that they wouldn’t eat or drink until Paul was dead. When Paul’s nephew (Paul’s sister’s son) heard about them planning to kill Paul, he went to the barracks and told Paul. Paul called to one of the centurions and told him to “Take my nephew to Lysias, the commander. He has something to tell him.”

Lysias took Paul’s nephew aside and asked privately what he wanted to tell him. Paul's nephew told the commander about the plot to have Paul killed. He said that over 40 men are waiting and plan to kill Paul. Lysias told him not to tell anyone.

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The commander, Lysias, called for two centurions and said “Prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea during the night. Have a mount for Paul and take him to Felix, the Governor.”

Lysias wrote Felix a letter telling him about who Paul was, how Paul became a prisoner, what he was accused of. Lysias said that Paul hasn’t done anything wrong to deserve being chained or being put to death. But people are waiting to kill him, so Lysias is sending Paul to Felix to keep him safe.

The soldiers did what they were commanded. The soldiers took Paul about halfway, and then went back to Jerusalem while the horsemen continued to Caesarea with Paul to the where the Roman governor was in charge.

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After traveling about 60 miles, Paul and the soldiers arrived safely in Caesarea and after Felix read the letter from the Lysias the commander, Felix put Paul in Herod’s headquarters to wait until Paul's accusers arrived to testify against him.

These worksheets can be used for a lot of different lessons and were kept plain on purpose for this reason. It is a great discussion starter on things we can do for others. Everyone will have different answers, and these can be printed in color and black & white. This has been updated with an option with different time pieces.  Click here to print.

Click here to print the worksheet.

You can find all the Acts worksheets here.

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Bible Verse: Acts 23:11

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

Used by permission.

Passport: Jerusalem

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These include all the visuals for Acts 23. All are not shown.

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

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