Acts and the letters: a teaching pack
Plan one 45–60 minute session, or spread these five activities across a short series. Learners need a Bible, the route map, and space to write. Begin with the story, compare it with a letter, and end by naming both a connection and a question. The printable pack includes room for observation, interpretation, and application.
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11 · Acts 18:1–18
What this shows
Acts narrates a journey; letters speak into particular relationships and needs. A chronology helps place them alongside one another, but some dates and connections are reconstructions. Use the date ranges and confidence notes in the timeline below. A matching place or person can illuminate a connection without proving every proposed sequence.
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11 · Acts 18:1–18
Study sessions
011 · Find the route
Acts 13:1–4 · Acts 16:6–12 · Acts 20:1–6
Allow about eight minutes. Find Antioch, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome on the map. Ask learners to trace the broad movement from the eastern Mediterranean toward Rome. The familiar numbered “missionary journeys” are a way of organizing Acts; they are not headings Paul gives his own life.
For reflection Which places recur? How might a second visit differ from a first arrival?
Save my place022 · A place becomes a partnership
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11 · Philippians 4:10–20
Allow about twelve minutes. Read Acts’ account of Philippi, then compare Paul’s gratitude and thanks for support. List the people and actions explicitly mentioned in each reading. Put possible connections in a separate column. Acts and Philippians illuminate a relationship from different angles.
For reflection What can you say directly from each passage? Which connection is plausible but not directly stated?
Save my place033 · Read beside a historical anchor
Acts 18:1–18 · 1 Corinthians 1:10–17
Allow about ten minutes. Acts places Paul in Corinth during Gallio’s time as proconsul. An inscription from Delphi helps date Gallio’s office, giving the chronology an external point of reference. It does not date every event in Paul’s life. The later letter shows a community facing divisions beyond the moment of its founding.
For reflection What does the Gallio evidence help establish? What does it leave open about the letter’s exact date and circumstances?
Save my place044 · Leave room for a question
Acts 9:26–30 · Acts 11:27–30 · Acts 15:1–29 · Galatians 1:18–2:10
Allow about ten minutes. Compare the Jerusalem visits in Acts with Paul’s account in Galatians. Readers differ over how the visits correspond. Invite learners to notice purpose, companions, and sequence before choosing an explanation. It is reasonable to leave a question open while learning from what each passage clearly says.
For reflection Which details would a proposed correspondence need to explain? How can a timeline display uncertainty honestly?
Save my place055 · Explain one connection
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11
Allow about ten minutes. In pairs, prepare a two-minute explanation linking one place, one passage from Acts, and one passage from a letter. Include a clear observation, an interpretation supported by the reading, and one question that remains. Finish by considering how the relationship described might shape a community today.
For reflection What would you want a new reader to understand, and what would you avoid claiming more confidently than the evidence allows?
Save my place1. 1 · Find the route
Acts 13:1–4 · Acts 16:6–12 · Acts 20:1–6
Allow about eight minutes. Find Antioch, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome on the map. Ask learners to trace the broad movement from the eastern Mediterranean toward Rome. The familiar numbered “missionary journeys” are a way of organizing Acts; they are not headings Paul gives his own life.
For reflection Which places recur? How might a second visit differ from a first arrival?
2. 2 · A place becomes a partnership
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11 · Philippians 4:10–20
Allow about twelve minutes. Read Acts’ account of Philippi, then compare Paul’s gratitude and thanks for support. List the people and actions explicitly mentioned in each reading. Put possible connections in a separate column. Acts and Philippians illuminate a relationship from different angles.
For reflection What can you say directly from each passage? Which connection is plausible but not directly stated?
3. 3 · Read beside a historical anchor
Acts 18:1–18 · 1 Corinthians 1:10–17
Allow about ten minutes. Acts places Paul in Corinth during Gallio’s time as proconsul. An inscription from Delphi helps date Gallio’s office, giving the chronology an external point of reference. It does not date every event in Paul’s life. The later letter shows a community facing divisions beyond the moment of its founding.
For reflection What does the Gallio evidence help establish? What does it leave open about the letter’s exact date and circumstances?
4. 4 · Leave room for a question
Acts 9:26–30 · Acts 11:27–30 · Acts 15:1–29 · Galatians 1:18–2:10
Allow about ten minutes. Compare the Jerusalem visits in Acts with Paul’s account in Galatians. Readers differ over how the visits correspond. Invite learners to notice purpose, companions, and sequence before choosing an explanation. It is reasonable to leave a question open while learning from what each passage clearly says.
For reflection Which details would a proposed correspondence need to explain? How can a timeline display uncertainty honestly?
5. 5 · Explain one connection
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11
Allow about ten minutes. In pairs, prepare a two-minute explanation linking one place, one passage from Acts, and one passage from a letter. Include a clear observation, an interpretation supported by the reading, and one question that remains. Finish by considering how the relationship described might shape a community today.
For reflection What would you want a new reader to understand, and what would you avoid claiming more confidently than the evidence allows?
Sources
Acts 16:11–40 · Philippians 1:3–11 · Acts 18:1–18
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