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When light from God shone into Saul’s life, it knocked him for six. It is hard to imagine a greater turn-around than the conversion of Saul. When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was on his way to arrest Christians, so convinced was he that they had got everything wrong. Three days later he was now certain that Jesus was the Son of God and he was prepared to stand up and tell his fellow Jews that they had got it all wrong.
No wonder the Christians back in Jerusalem found it hard to accept that Saul was now one of them. Maybe the light of God had to shine so dramatically for Saul because he was destined to reflect so much of that light in his missionary work around the Mediterranean. And Saul, who later used his Roman named Paul, could not forget the day the Jesus appeared to him. In fact it seems that he must have often spoken about it when preaching. We have two accounts in the New Testament (in Acts 22 and 26) from Saul of what happened, where he tells his amazing story. Saul’s encounter with the light is the theme of this outline.
Make use of the retelling of this story in The The Barnabas Schools’ Bible, pages 285-287, stories 326-328.
You can find the story in a Bible in Acts 9:1-31.
1. Saul was a very devout Pharisee and the idea that the ‘followers of the way’ (as the Christians were called then) could claim that Jesus was God’s Son was pure heresy… the worst sort of lie! You couldn’t have found anyone more determined to stamp out Christianity. The context of this story is that most Christians at this time were running for cover, in fear of their lives.
Play some simple hide-and-seek games to pick up on this situation. Either hide some small objects, which the children have to go and find, or, if you have the space, play a proper game of hide-and-seek.
Alternatively, why not play a version of the game of pairs. From a pack of cards make use of the number cards only, placing them face down on a large table. How many same suit or same number pairs can each child find? Saul was out to find groups of Christians hiding in Damascus!
Another way in to this story would be to play an adapted version of the game of battleships. Divide your class into two teams, each one with a ten by ten grid, numbered across the top and with letters down the side. This grid in the game represents the streets of Damascus. Each team then secretly hides five sets of two of three Christians together somewhere on the grid. Each team in turn now tries to guess in which squares the Christians are hiding; is it A1 or B7 (and so on)? Which team of Pharisees from Jerusalem can find and arrest all the other team’s Christians first?
2. Step into the story of this Damascus visit. Give some background to the story and then divide your class into two groups, one of which become the soldiers with Saul on the way to Damascus and the other a group of Christians hiding in the city. Give each group time to discuss the following together:
What sort of things will they be talking about together?
What do they think will happen in the next couple of days?
What are their main worries or hopes?
What secret things are they thinking about?
Hear what they say and then build on this as you tell the story of what happened next.
3. Ananias was certainly a very brave man indeed! There are all sorts of reasons why he should have perhaps ignored the vision he had (Acts 9:10-16). Set up a choice circus, in which half your children’s group become Ananias’ conscience, urging him not to go to see Saul and the other half his conscience urging him to go. Whose arguments will win the day?
4. I wonder what was going through Saul’s mind during those three days when he could not see. The light had been so bright that it had blinded him. When he did see again, everything looked different! Those who were once enemies he now saw as his brothers and sisters; his former friends were now out to kill him; Jesus, who beforehand was an impostor and a fraud, he now believed to be the Christ - the Son of God.
Saul’s life had been turned upside down.
Play some games that pick up on this change from one extreme to another.
In a circle, play a word game where one child says an adjective/describing word and the next child or maybe the child opposite has to come up with an adjective that says exactly the opposite.
Or play this back-to-front game, in which a leader spells certain words slowly backwards (perhaps words that appear in the story). Which team or individual can spot the true word first?
5. Saul’s conversion on the road has become famous. It is often used to describe a complete change of heart and mind about something - ‘a Damascus road experience’. It is important to recognize that this was not just Saul/Paul having a rethink about life. He really saw the light of God and he heard the voice of Jesus.
His story soon became well known. Ananias clearly had heard something about it (see Acts 9:17) and later Barnabas had heard it as well (see verse 27).
Ask your class to imagine that they’re working on the reporting team for The Damascus Daily. They’ve been sent to interview Saul following his experience. Work out what sort of probing questions you would like to ask him. What sort of story will you write up for the newspaper? What will be your eye-catching headline?
6. The escape over the walls of the city is really quite comical, although of course in reality it was very serious. It’s now Saul’s life that is in danger. Why not act out this story with your group working up scenes linked to:
sneaking through the Damascus streets, dodging the religious police
climbing up the walls
sorting out the ropes and the basket
saying goodbye and giving some last words of advice
lowering the basket down precariously
talking about what had happened once Saul disappears into the night - is it relief? Sadness? Or fear?
7. ‘A light from heaven flashed around him’ (verse 3, NIV).
This was Saul’s experience of the light of God in Jesus and it was this that he went on to reflect to many people, in many places in the years that followed.
For a simple time of reflection on this story as a class, collect together the following:
a camera that has a flash
some large arrows.
Put the arrows together, all facing the same direction in the middle of the circle where you gather.
The light from God meant that Saul’s life was turned around and that he saw things differently.
Talk with the group about the things that they would like to see changed in this world; what new beginnings do they hope for; what dead ends have they experienced that they would like to change?
As each situation is mentioned, ask one of the children to turn one of the arrows to face the other direction and at the same time the camera should flash. Link this to Saul’s experience by saying together:
Shine your light, Lord, and help us to see things differently.
