Paul teaches Lydia about Jesus. We learned about the purple fabric that Lydia made and why it was so important and expensive.
Review: We learned last week that Barnabas decided to take
Mark and go a different direction to preach about Jesus. Paul took Silas and Timothy
to travel to other churches and preach about Jesus. Remember, Timothy was younger,
about 15 or 16 and his mother and Grandma taught him the Old Testament. Paul
taught him about Jesus.
Paul had a vision one night. The man in the vision
begged Paul to come to help them in Macedonia, so they left for Macedonia the
next day.
Then, Luke started traveling
with Paul also. Read Acts
16:8 & 10. So, we also learned last week that when Luke is traveling
with Paul, the Bible says we and us, but when Luke is not with Paul, Luke says
them. Remember, we are studying from Acts and Luke wrote it.
There are several photos of today's view of Neapolis and Philippi. These photos, and more are @
http://www.padfield.com/photoindex.html and are used with permission by David Padfield.
Lesson: Scripture is Acts 16:12-15. Now,
Paul has Silas, Timothy & Luke traveling with him. They traveled 10 miles
to Philippi. The Roman roads were paved here, and there are still parts of them
there now! They had been in Philippi, which is in Macedonia, for some days. On
the Sabbath day, they went out of the city gate to the riverside. People gathered
together there to pray. The city of Philippi didn't have enough Jewish men to
have a synagogue, so the people went to the river to worship.
It
was mostly women worshipping there. They would pray, study the Old Testament
laws from scrolls and talk about what they had read. This would have been a
great privilege to have a man there to teach them.
After they had sat down, they
talked to a woman they had met there. One of the women that was there
worshipping was named Lydia. She already believed in God and didn't worship
idols. She sold purple fabric. Let's talk a little bit about how she made the
purple fabric, and why it was so expensive.
I have cut pieces of purple cloth and shells
on the front table for the kids to pick up when they come in to class. They do
their passports and pick up whatever I have for them so there is not time
wasted handing out things. And, if there are choices, like the shells, they can
pick before class. And, first come, first picking!
Purple cloth was very expensive. The reason it was
so costly was that it was difficult to make. The dye for the cloth came from
a shellfish. Purple
dye had to be gathered drop by drop from the veins of certain shellfish found
only in this area of the Mediterranean.
The little bit of juice was white while it was in
the veins of the fish, but when it was exposed to the sun, the liquid changed
into bright purple and red colors. It took thousands of seashells to make a
yard or two of purple cloth. It took a lot of work to catch enough shellfish
to dye even one garment. It was a statement of status, power, and wealth in
Roman times.
The beautiful cloth was mainly used by members of
the royal families and Roman senators who were required to have a purple band around the
edge of their togas, or robes.
(This info gathered over years of research, and I do not know exact origins.) |
Lydia listened to Paul. Lydia and her household were
baptized, immediately, and then she begged Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke to go
to her house to stay.
This worksheet is a concept chart. As you are reading through Acts 16:11-15 with the students, they can fill in the facts that are stated. This includes the color (w/o logos), black & white and a teacher's answer sheet. Click here to download.
When I make these, I use the
Accucut diecut machine to cut the (large) shells for the outside. But, I
have included the outside, as you can see, and the inside. Once I glued the
outside on, I trimmed a little of the inside so it would look nicer, but
that is just me. Because, actually, the kids will be cutting and
gluing these, so I won't be trimming theirs. Here is the color printable.
Here is the black and white printable. Please note, though, that I used the same cream shell for the inside
because I couldn't find a plain outline of a shell to use, and you couldn't see
anything if I used what is available. You can print in grayscale if you want
to.
Bible Verse: Acts 16:14
Passport: Philippi in Macedonia
Not all are shown.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)
Passport: Philippi in Macedonia
You can find the free Lydia visuals at Free Bible Images.
(Used with permission)
Scripture taken from the New
King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
(Used with permission)
Used by permission.
Love all your lessons. I use them slot. Thanks for your dedication to teach the Bible.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing. The images for Lydia really brought the lesson to life. The visuals made it more realistic for the children.
ReplyDelete