Holiday Club - Acts 9:1-19

After Jesus went back to heaven, do you remember the mission to His friends?

GO AND TELL OTHERS ABOUT ME

And in the book of Acts, that’s what Jesus’ friends have been doing! But there has been a problem…

DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUUN

There was a man called Saul. And he didn’t like what Jesus’ friends were saying. So, he wanted to get rid of them!

He got a letter from the chief of the priests which said…

READ LETTER - “WE ARE ALLOWING SAUL TO PUT JESUS’ FRIENDS IN PRISON!”

Oh no! Jesus’ friends are going to be arrested! How are they going to fulfil their mission of telling others about Jesus?

If only someone could change Saul so that he wouldn’t want to hurt Jesus’ friends… Do you guys know someone who could do that?

LET KIDS ANSWER

We’ll have to wait and see…

So, there goes Saul. He’s on a way to a city called Damascus. But then something amazing happened!

TURN SPOTLIGHTS REALLY BRIGHT

There was a huge light! And then a voice said…

“SAUL! SAUL! WHY ARE YOU DOING THESE THINGS AGAINST ME?!”

But Saul didn’t know who was speaking! So he asked who the voice was…

“I AM JESUS! YOU ARE TRYING TO HURT ME!”

Wow, did you hear that?! That was Jesus speaking to Saul! And Jesus said that Saul is hurting Jesus by hurting his friends!

So then, Jesus told Saul to go inside the city. But there was a problem… Saul couldn’t see anymore!

DUN-DUN-DUUUUN

Wow, what is Saul going to do now? How is he going to enter the city? Or hurt Jesus’ friends? He can’t see anything!

Well, Saul had some friends with him on the journey who took him to the city. And for three days, he didn’t eat or sleep. Who here would be hungry after 3 days? Definitely me!

But Jesus is showing Saul that he has to stop relying on himself. From now on, Saul has to rely on Jesus instead! Because… Well, you have to wait and see.

After those 3 days, another amazing thing happened! There was a man called Ananias living in Damascus, the city where Saul was. And Ananias trusted Jesus. He was one of Jesus’ friends. And God spoke to Ananias one day and said…

“GO FIND SAUL. I’VE TOLD HIM TO WAIT FOR A MAN CALLED ANANIAS. THAT’S YOU. GO TO HIM!”

But wait a minute… Do you remember what Saul’s mission was?

ARREST JESUS’ FRIENDS

That’s right! And Ananias knows about Saul. He is scared to go. He thinks Saul is going to arrest him! But God said…

“I HAVE A MISSION FOR SAUL! HE IS GOING TO GO FAR, FAR AWAY TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT JESUS! AND HE WILL SUFFER BECAUSE OF JESUS!”

SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! Say it with me….

Did you hear that? God is going to send Saul to tell people about Jesus. Saul - the guy who was trying to hurt Jesus’ friends. That Saul is going to tell others about Jesus! But that’s impossible, right?!

But God can do impossible things guys. When Ananias goes to meet with Saul, he tells Saul “Jesus sent me to heal you. Now, you can see. And you will receive the Holy Spirit.”

And just like that, Saul could see again! But that’s not all… Saul was then baptised. To show everyone that he was now one of Jesus’ friends. And what do you think is the first thing he does? After he eats something, of course…

TELLS PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS

Boom. He immediately starts telling people about Jesus. So, the question is… HOW? How did Saul go from wanting to arrest Jesus’ friends to becoming one of Jesus’ friends?!

It’s because God can change our hearts.

A bit like this…

DO EXPERIMENT WITH BLEACH, WATER AND IODINE

Do you see how the water changed completely when I added this? That’s what God can do. He change us completely!

He can even change the heart of someone like Saul who used to hate Jesus and his friends. Guys, God can transform anyone!

So much so that this Saul is never going to be the same person anymore. In fact, he is going to be called something else. Who knows what he is going to be called?

That’s right - Paul. The guy who wrote lots of the letters we find in the Bible.

But it all started here - with God transforming his heart. Turning Saul from someone who hated Jesus to someone who loved Jesus.

And what this means is that when you and I tell our friends about Jesus, we can also have hope. Even if our friends hate Jesus and don’t want anything about Jesus… We can hope that God will transform them. Because He transformed Saul.

So, here’s the big thing to remember: God can change anyone. He can change anyone as we tell them about Jesus.

It might take many, many, many tries. It might not even happen when we do it. Or it might happen the first time we do it!

But let’s tell our friends about Jesus. Because that’s what our friends need - they need Jesus. And God can change them, just like He did with Saul.

Let’s pray.