Paul's first missionary journey told by LEGO Bible New Testament Acts

Paul’s First Missionary Journey lesson

After the brief break from Paul’s story to hear about Peter and Cornelius, our Sunday School lesson is back to talk about Paul’s first missionary journey.

Paul's first missionary journey as told by LEGO

Have you ever looked at a map of Paul’s first missionary journey?

Most Bibles will have a map of Paul’s missionary trips in the back.  When I was a kid I used to trace the route with my finger over and over again and wondered why he took each route.

Then I grew up and learned a bit more about Roman history, and read the book of Acts a couple of times.

Paul's first missionary journey looking at the map

If you notice in most of Paul’s trips it goes like this:

  1. Paul goes in and preaches the news to the Jews.
  2. The Jews at first eagerly embrace Paul, but then they get jealous of the attention he’s getting.
  3. Paul gets kicked out of the synagogue.
  4. Paul goes to the Gentiles and preaches to them, he is successful and grows a large crowd.
  5. Someone and this depends on the flavor of the city either Jews or those who lead the local religion, get upset with Paul taking their parishioners and the donations that go with it, and report Paul to the civil authorities.
  6. The civil authorities don’t want a riot and the “official attention” that brings, so they either throw Paul in jail, beat him, or just go straight to kicking Paul out.
  7. Paul moves to the very next major town out of reach of the previous magistrate.

This cycle repeats over and over again.  I think there’s only one city Paul isn’t kicked out of, and I think God had a reason for that as well.

This is why God needed someone who is stubborn to the point of idiocy because Paul is going to have a rough go of it.  A very rough go of it, and a lesser man would recant, saying he’d made it up, or something else.  Paul keeps going.  I have to admire that.

The Lego history of Paul’s missionary journey

The kids had already noticed Paul has some fun on his trip, and as I gathered materials they studied their map from Wonder Maps of Paul’s missionary journeys.

Do you know what they came up with?

Paul's first missionary trip map

This part of Paul’s journey looks like a dinosaur head.  See Mom, there’s the horn, there’s the mouth.  That part over there is his body.  And once they pointed that out of course that’s all I could see.

Sigh, not so helpful that.

Paul's first mission trip 1

Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by the Antioch church to go out and preach to the Gentiles.  They set sail and went to Cyprus.

Paul's first missionary journey 2

There they met with the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus (side note, up until a few years ago skeptics pointed to this name as proof the Bible was not real, and then they found a cornerstone from that time period with his name on it), and he basically said, “Not my circus, not my clowns”  (You can look, it’s right there in the Greek, right there in my special Ticia translation), but then he believed what Paul said, and gave him leave to teach in Cyprus.  They traveled around the different cities in Cyprus

But, that cycle I mentioned earlier happened, the Jews got angry and they were thrown out of the last town in Cyprus after a stoning.

Paul's first missionary journey 3

They traveled off to Iconium, their stay there was so short I didn’t have time for a picture.  So they sailed off to Lystra.  Isn’t that a great name?

Paul's first missionary journey 4

They came to town and Paul healed a lame man.  The locals said, “This must be Zeus and Hermes.”  When Paul realized what was going on he laughed so hard he fell over (again that’s in the Ticia Greek translation, much like my Bible professor’s translation said “zap” and “dude.”)

But just like before they got mad at Paul, I mean he did laugh at them and make them look like fools, so they stoned Paul and Barnabas leaving them for dead.

Paul's first missionary journey 5

Their fellow Christians, you know the people who’d converted in the last month or so came to get Paul and Barnabas off the trash pile and bury them when they discovered the two men were alive.  So they snuck Paul and Barnabas out of town and sent them off to the next town.

Paul's first missionary journey 6

From Derbe, they felt God calling them back to their home in Antioch.  They traveled home and gave their report to the believers there and in Jerusalem.

Paul’s first missionary journey activity

I wanted the kids to get just how serious traveling then was, and have a bit of fun so I had them plan their own travel supplies.

Paul's first missionary journey activity 1

They happily set to drawing and writing their supplies.  You can tell the differences in my kids when Princess immediately started writing as fast as her marker could write, and the boys immediately started drawing every single item.  EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM.  I mean they literally drew out each shoe.  It was kind of funny.

Paul's first missionary journey packing items

Some of the items they packed were genius, like a pocket knife or food for the trip, but I was a bit amused at Superman’s decision to pack his Legos.  Or Batman’s question, “Am I packing as if I was a kid or an adult?”  So, he packed lots of grown-up things like a pocket knife, and a lighter.  Princess meanwhile was worried about the weather, and what kind of clothes should she pack.

Paul's first mission trip

Paul’s first missionary journey resources

(Amazon links are affiliate links, marked with asterisk)

Next up Paul in Corinth, or get the whole series on the Acts of Apostles for kids.

Paul's first missionary journey told by LEGO Bible New Testament Acts

Comments

12 responses to “Paul’s First Missionary Journey lesson”

  1. I love the way you used legos for this lesson.

    1. Thanks! The kids had lots of fun with the hair I was able to find for the figures. For whatever reason I just felt they HAD to have hair.

  2. Oh yes! Legos always make any lesson more fun! What a great idea.

    1. Thanks! It’s been one of those days where I wanted to do something fun, but wasn’t feeling too adventurous for activities.

  3. Great idea getting the kids to “pack” for a mission trip.

    1. It was so much fun to see what they would pack. Especially since they changed their answer once I said they were pretending to be grown-ups.

  4. carrie yearick Avatar
    carrie yearick

    Love the Lego idea- where did you find the red boat?

    1. Our Lego collection is an amalgamation of my Legos as a kid and my kids’ Legos now. I think the red boat is from a pirates set from the 1990s.

  5. April D Avatar
    April D

    I love this idea! We actually found a map of Paul’s journey at Milestone Books through Rod and Staff for their 4th grade. The kids add the lines, though, so it may be harder for younger children. Here’s the link if you’re interested. Thanks for the great idea with the Legos and the “What would you bring on a mission trip?” https://www.milestonebooks.com/item/1-11481/?list=Rod_and_Staff_Grade_4
    (I am not affiliated with Milestone; I just use them to order books really often.) 🙂

    1. I have a few companies I order from all the time.

      I can always get my kid’s attention if I use Legos for the lesson.

  6. We use maps but I’d never thought of using Lego people to trace routes – genius! Thanks for sharing this humorous account of the journeys.

  7. I’ve never used Legos have made peg dolls or take empty travel size shampoo and lotion containers make people out of them.

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