Books of the New Testament (Part 2) Verse Kit

October 12, 2023

Review the previous 3 weeks:

1 John 3:20 NIV God is greater 

Ephesians 2:10 NIV For we are God’s handiwork

Genesis 1:31 NIV God saw everything 

Tonight we used the popsicle sticks from September 13 and reviewed the books of the NT. Whatever they already knew, we added 1-4 extra books, depending on the child’s learning ability. As usual, we incorporated what we were working on 7 times, at least, without the child realizing it had been done that many times. Honestly, most of my kids know the first 6 books (after tonight), with a couple of them adding 1 & 2 Corinthians, and 1 child adding through the 4 prison epistles: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.

A couple notes about the Prison Epistles: 

The Prison Epistles

1. The word “prison” can sound like “prism” on a phone call. Interchange it with jail if necessary to be sure there’s no confusion. 
2. Paul wrote these 4 books while he was in prison, and they are fairly short, approximately 4-6 chapters each. 
3. If it helps, the first letter of each book in order is GEPC, easy to remember when you add Go Eat Pop Corn!

Below are the notes from the September 13 Lesson, in case you need the information at your fingertips:

The 4 Gospels

The 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are each named after the person who wrote it. The 4 books are eye-witness accounts to what happened when Jesus was on earth. They all lived and worked with Jesus, but their perspectives were different. For instance, Mark was a soldier, but Luke was a dr. The Christmas story is found in Luke because as a doctor, Luke was fascinated with the miracle of the birth of Jesus. (Note: it helps to mention the 2 Ms are together: Matthew and Mark.)

Acts

Acts is the book of the acts of what happened after Jesus died on the cross for our sins, rose 3 days later, walked the earth for 40 days, and then ascended into heaven. It’s the beginning of church as we know it today and it explains how the Gospel spread (persecution). 

Romans

Romans is the 1st of the 13 books that Paul wrote. You can’t name all 13 after Paul (1st Paul, 2nd Paul…13th Paul!). So they named the books after the city where the church was located that Paul was writing to. Hence, Romans was written to the church in Rome. (Discuss the addition of the suffix “an” referring to the people who lived in the city or country of blank, such as Americans, Mexicans, etc)

Bible Literacy:

Do an old-fashioned sword drill where the child looks up the books you are specifically learning as you say the name (out of order). After the child finds the book, be sure they can locate the first verse in the first chapter. Quite often, there is a summary of the book prior to the first verse, and this is a concept that is confusing to children.

Song: