Sermon Series: 1 & 2 Peter

Sermon transcript

Remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We recently finished a sermon series in 1 Peter. We continue with 2 Peter, and this evening I begin a brief series on Peter’s second epistle. And so our scripture reading for this evening is 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 & 2, and you’ll find that on page 1207 in your Pew Bibles. 2 Peter 1 verses 1 & 2. Dear friends, hear now the Word of God. Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.

Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Holy and loving God, our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, what a privilege it is to sit under the proclamation of Your Word, to hear Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that You have not left us clueless, but You have given us a sure and certain message from above, that You have granted to us enlightenment and truth, saving truth in the Holy Scriptures. We pray, Lord, that as we consider this portion of Your Word this evening, that Your Holy Spirit would take these truths and apply them to our hearts and use this time this evening in Your Word to strengthen our faith and to equip us to serve You in our daily callings and vocations in the week ahead. We ask these things, praying for the forgiveness of our sins, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen.

You may be seated. As you can see, the title of my sermon this evening is Apostolic Salutation, an introduction to 2 Peter, and there are four words that you can be listening for in my sermon this evening if you find that helpful to follow along. The word author or authorship, canon, believers, and Savior. Well, dear ones, this evening we embark upon a journey, a brief journey, but a journey nonetheless through a wonderful and challenging portion of God’s Holy Word, one which is full of powerful and life-changing truth, namely the epistle of 2 Peter. And even though the Apostle Peter addresses particular issues that were being faced by the original first century readers to whom he wrote, as we will see in the course of our study of this wonderful epistle, a careful study of this epistle of 2 Peter reveals just how amazingly relevant this epistle is in terms of addressing issues that continue to be present in Christ’s church and in the world today.

Just to give you an example, one of the major issues that Peter addresses as he seeks to counteract a false teaching that was influencing the believers to whom he wrote, he’s dealing with a false teaching known as antinomianism, a teaching which turned the grace of God in the gospel into an excuse or a license for sin. And certainly that is a relevant thing today as well, as we find in the church today and in our culture today, many folks making the grace of God in the gospel into an excuse to excuse sin. We also see that Peter emphasizes the importance of Christ’s lordship in counteracting these heretics who were denying Christ’s lordship. We’re not living out the implications of the lordship of Christ. And certainly that too is a relevant issue in our culture and in the church today.

And of course, Peter also, as we will see, deals with scoffers, unbelieving scoffers who mocked at the biblical teaching on the second coming, the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And indeed, there are those in the professed church and those in our culture who mock at the idea that Jesus Christ will one day return in glory at the end of this age. And so friends, like all of God’s word, this is a very relevant and timely portion of scripture for us to be considering today. And just to kind of give you a basic outline, sort of a preview and orientation toward what we will be facing as we begin and embark upon our journey through 2 Peter. In the first 11 verses of chapter 1, we find a summons to grow in the knowledge of God and to grow in personal holiness.

And so Peter opens up his epistle with a call to holiness, a call to grow in Christ. He emphasizes in this opening section what the theologians call progressive sanctification. And then later on in chapter 1, in verses 12 to 21, we find Peter focusing on the reliability of his apostolic testimony and the divine origin of God’s word. We have at the end of this first chapter important information that informs our doctrine of holy scripture. In chapter 2, the author focuses on giving a warning about false teachers and about God’s judgment upon them. And there are many false prophets and many false teachers in the world today as there has always been in the church. And finally, in the third chapter, there is a focus on eschatology. In other words, the doctrine of the last things or the end times as the apostle Peter focuses on the important truths about the day of the Lord, the coming day of the Lord.

But as we begin our journey today, the first thing we need to do is to consider who actually wrote 2 Peter. Well, we’re told in verse 1. And this brings me to my first point in your sermon outline. Let us consider, brothers and sisters, the apostolic authorship of 2 Peter, the apostolic authorship of 2 Peter. As was customary in letter writing back in the first century and in the ancient world, the author of this letter begins by identifying himself in our typical practice today of writing letters. Although, again, that’s not a very common practice. But if you were to write out a letter, you would say, Dear so and so, you would first address the recipients of your letter and you would sign your name at the end. But according to the epistolary, the letter writing practices of the first century, it was the opposite.

You would first identify yourself. You would put your signature right up front, if you will. And then you would address the recipients of your letter. And that’s what we find Peter doing. And he identifies himself as Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Now we’re going to focus for a time on the issue of the human author of this epistle, because it’s an important issue. It’s an apologetic issue, actually, as we will see. But it’s important to remember all the while as we consider this important subject, that the divine author of this portion of scripture is none other than God, the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit employed, used Peter as an apostle, an official spokesman for the Lord Jesus Christ to convey his word to his people. So the divine author is none other than God himself, the Holy Spirit.

And yet the divine author chooses to use a human instrument to convey his word. And the human author is again identified as Simon, or more correctly, Simeon Peter. Who is this Simeon Peter? Well, he is the rock that Jesus refers to in Matthew 16 verse 18. He is one of the original 12 apostles, the spokesman for the apostles. However, having identified himself as Simeon Peter in verse one, it’s important for us to recognize that there is a lot of skepticism out there, especially among critical Bible scholars who deny the authorship of Peter. They deny that Peter actually wrote this epistle. Second Peter is one of those disputed epistles, one of those portions of the New Testament that was questioned in the early church, and that has been questioned by rationalist, skeptical, critical scholars of the Bible who say, well, actually, no, Peter did not in fact write this.

This is a work of what is called pseudepigraphy, which literally means false writing. And so let’s consider the critical denial of Peter’s authorship of Second Peter, and allow me to give responses to these critical denials of Peter’s authorship, because this, brothers and sisters, is an important issue of defending the faith. Many skeptics of the Bible and critics of the Bible will look at portions of scripture like Second Peter, and they will say, well, critical scholars say that Peter didn’t actually write this, that this is a false writing. How do we answer the objections of the critics to Peter’s authorship? Well, we’re going to dive into that a little bit, and I hope to equip you to answer the critics so that you will have a ready answer to the critics, and so that your own faith in the apostolic origin and authorship of this epistle will be bolstered and strengthened.

Again, it has often been claimed that Second Peter is a work of pseudepigraphy, in other words, a spurious work written by an unknown author who assumes the name of a famous or well-known author in order to get a hearing for his message. Now, what are some of the reasons that are offered by the critical scholars for rejecting the Apostle Peter’s authorship and for claiming that Second Peter is a work of pseudepigraphy? Well, let me just name a number of the arguments that they raise, and let me offer some responses to those arguments. First of all, if you compare First Peter and Second Peter, you will notice, if you read those two letters carefully, you will notice that there’s a different writing style in First Peter as opposed to Second Peter, and so it is often claimed by the critics that the obvious differences in writing style between First and Second Peter make it impossible for us to believe that the same author wrote both letters.

Well, how do we respond to that? Even conservative and Bible-believing scholars will recognize that there are indeed stylistic differences. For example, one of the things that is often pointed out about Second Peter is that, in terms of its style, is that it is written in sort of a brisk, almost an urgent style. It has an urgent style to it. Well, one thing to understand about ancient letter-writing customs is that it was often customary in the ancient world for authors to employ secretaries or scribes to write down what they spoke. These scribes and secretaries were often given a certain amount of freedom and liberty to sort of conform the author’s wishes and thoughts and to kind of mold them into the secretary’s own particular writing style. Picture, if you would, a business executive who has a trusted secretary, and let’s say that this business executive has to write an official letter to another business, another company, and he wants to make sure that the letter, this official letter, is well written, and he has some ideas of what he wants put into the letter.

So he calls his trusted secretary into his office, and he says to his secretary, this is what I want to communicate to the company that we’re writing to, and he gives his secretary notes and he gives her an idea, and then he trusts her to write a letter on his behalf, and then she comes, he or she, the secretary comes and brings the finished product, and the business executive looks it over, makes corrections where there needs to be corrections, but then the final product is approved by the businessman. Well, that’s an example of what happened, what often happened, in first century letter-writing customs. In fact, the apostle Peter in 1 Peter clearly used an amanuensis or a secretary in order to compose that letter. That secretary is referred to in 1 Peter 5 verse 12 as Silas or Silvanus.

Turn back to 1 Peter chapter 5 and look at verse 12. It says this, by Silvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. So in 1 Peter, Peter had employed Silvanus or Silas as his secretary, and he described Silvanus as a faithful brother, a trusted brother in the Lord. Well, it’s quite possible that either Peter wrote 2 Peter himself, and that the brisk writing style represents his own writing style, or it is possible that Peter employed a different secretary to compose 2 Peter as opposed to 1 Peter. In any case, my friends, here in 2 Peter, the apostle is aware that he is nearing the end of his life, and that too may account for the difference in writing style.

Just because there’s a difference in style when you compare these two letters does not mean that there is a difference in authorship. Sometimes the same author can employ a different style if he faces different circumstances or if he’s addressing a different audience. The bottom line, brothers and sisters, is that this critical objection to Peter’s authorship that is based on differences in writing style between 1 and 2 Peter is not a good reason for rejecting the epistles claim to have been written by none other than the apostle Peter himself. Another objection that is raised against Peter’s authorship of this letter, this epistle, is its late acceptance into the canon of the New Testament. You know, it’s often been pointed out that 2 Peter was one of those few handful of disputed books that wasn’t immediately accepted into the canon of the New Testament scriptures.

And by the way, by the term canon, the issue of the canon is the issue of which books belong in the Bible and which books don’t. There were some disputed books, there were some pseudepigraphical books and writings out there that were rejected, rightly rejected, by the early church. So the early church had to wrestle with which books bear the marks of divine inspiration, which books actually belong in our New Testaments, in our Bibles. Well, 2 Peter was one of those disputed books. There were questions raised about it early on. And its slow recognition by the early church is another reason why some scholars deny that it was written by the apostle Peter. Now, how do we answer that objection? Well, there are a number of factors that can account for this epistle’s slow acceptance by the early church without denying Peter’s authorship of this letter.

One possible reason for its late acceptance was 2 Peter appears to have had limited geographical circulation. Oftentimes, when the apostles wrote a letter, like for example, Paul writes the letter to the Romans, what would happen when that letter reached Rome? Well, it would be read in the public worship services and then people would want copies. And people would make copies of Paul’s letter to the Romans. And then it would be spread abroad throughout the Roman Empire. It would be circulated widely in the Roman Empire. But this particular letter may have been sent to an out-of-the-way geographical location. So there may have been limited copies of the letter and a limited geographical distribution of it. This may be a reason why some of the early churches in some regions of the Roman Empire may not have been aware of the existence of 2 Peter until a later date.

Another thing to understand is that because there were some fraudulent letters and deceptive pseudepigraphic letters written by heretics that were being distributed among the various churches, there was a certain suspicion in the early churches of any writing that had made apostolic claims. There were numerous heretical writings in the early church that falsely claimed to have been written by apostles such as the apostle Peter. Some of the pseudepigraphic Petrine works, works that claim to be written by Peter but in fact weren’t, were works like the Apocalypse of Peter or the Gospel of Peter. Those second century works were rightly rejected as canonical by the early church. And they were rightly excluded from the canon of the New Testament. The existence of numerous works claiming to have been written by Peter, works which were clearly spurious and pseudepigraphical, may account for the slowness of the early church in recognizing 2 Peter as a genuine apostolic letter.

The point I’m trying to make brothers and sisters is that the case of the critics when carefully examined, the Bible critics who dismissed 2 Peter and say oh well that wasn’t really written by the apostle Peter even though it claims to have been, it was a work of pseudepigraphy. The claims of the critics do not hold up. They do not hold up under careful investigation and so there’s no reason for us to doubt Peter’s authorship of this letter that bears his name. But we’ve considered the critics case against Peter’s authorship. Let’s now consider some of the reasons for accepting the apostolic authorship of 2 Peter. There’s internal evidence supporting Peter’s authorship as well as external evidence. Let’s first of all focus on the internal evidence. First and foremost it is a letter that claims to have been written by Peter and the way that Peter describes himself is unique.

It’s a way that we would expect the apostle to describe himself. He says Simeon Peter, not just Simon Peter, not just Peter, not just Cephas. He identifies himself as Simeon Peter. Simeon is I believe a transliteration of his Hebrew name. The combination of Simeon with Peter is actually in evidence in favor of Peter’s authorship since usually other biblical authors when they refer to Peter refer to him simply as Peter or sometimes as Cephas. So the opening identification is to be taken I believe at face value. This was indeed written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the apostle Peter. The apostle also recounts his eyewitness testimony to the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 1 let’s skip down and look at verses 16 through 18. And here the author claims to have been an eyewitness to this marvelous supernatural event of our Lord’s transfiguration.

It says for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And then he recounts the miracle of our Lord’s transfiguration on the holy mountain. He says in verse 17, for when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves, we apostles in other words, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain. One thing I have to say having read these words, if second Peter was in fact a work of pseudepigraphy, if it was a work of an anonymous early Christian author who was simply trying to pretend to be Peter so that he could get his message out to the churches, then this author, this pseudepigraphical author was incredibly deceptive for he claims here to have been an eyewitness to the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see if second Peter was written by a pseudepigraphist one has to wonder why he would include this reference to the transfiguration. What would be the purpose of including this detail? This recounting of our Lord’s transfiguration makes much more sense coming from Peter himself than it does coming from someone falsely and deceptively writing in his name. Another internal evidence for Peter’s authorship of this letter that again claims rightly so to have been written by Peter is that the author in this letter refers to his imminent death. Peter writes this knowing that his death is approaching, he knows that his time on earth is limited. Look at chapter 1 verses 13 to 15 where we read these words. He says, I think it right as long as I’m in this body to stir you up by way of reminder since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon.

In other words I know I’m going to die soon. He knows he’s going to be martyred soon as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. He’s making the effort by writing this letter to remind them of the things that they need to be remember after he is gone. Again I have to ask why would an anonymous author who assumed Peter’s name mention this particular detail? What would that promote? How would that help the case that he makes? Another reason for accepting Peter’s authorship is the way that he refers in this letter to the apostle Paul. The author refers to the apostle Paul in chapter 3 verse 15 as our beloved brother Paul.

This wording, this language would seem to assume that both the author and the original readers of this letter personally knew the apostle Paul. Again why would an anonymous pseudepigraphical author mention this detail? Another evidence for its apostolic authorship is the fact that the content of second Peter is clearly orthodox and apostolic. You see most ancient authors in the church who engaged in the practice of pseudepigraphy were actually trying to spread heretical doctrines and ideas under the pretense of apostolic sanction. And so for example in the second century this was a favorite tactic of the gnostic heretics who were trying to gain a hearing for their heretical ideas in the church and so they would write gospels or epistles claiming to have come from one of the apostles like Peter or Paul and they would seek to promote their heretical ideas and spread their heretical ideas under these pseudepigraphical works under the guise of apostolic sanction.

But friends a careful study of second Peter and a careful comparison of second Peter with clearly orthodox writings like first Peter makes it clear that its doctrinal content is completely apostolic and orthodox and that’s what we would expect if it was written by the apostle Peter himself. So there’s much in the way of internal evidence that supports Peter’s authorship of this letter but just briefly there is a bunch of there is strong external evidence as well. What external evidence outside of the text itself? Well second Peter’s eventual acceptance by the early church under the sovereign providential guiding hand of God and even during a time when numerous spurious writings claiming to have been written by Peter were rightly rejected by the church. The fact that the church at that time eventually did accept this letter is indeed an evidence for its apostolic authorship.

You see the church was very rigorous in weeding out frauds when it came to recognizing the canon. By the way as an aside the church of Jesus Christ did not create the canon. The Bible the New Testament is not authoritative because the church says so. The church was led by the providential guiding hand of God to recognize those books which had the marks of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and to include those writings in the canon of Holy Scripture. And what is so impressive was that the church was not favorable towards the practice of pseudepigraphy. You will sometimes run into even evangelical scholars who accept second Peter as a work of pseudepigraphy and they’ll say well yeah Peter didn’t actually write this but it still is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It still is part of the scriptures but if that’s the case that would imply that the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of truth chooses to use a lie to promote his truth because second Peter is a lie if it was a work of pseudepigraphy.

Friends the fact that the church did eventually recognize this as a genuine work written by the apostle Peter is one of the strongest evidences for its authorship by Peter. In other words in spite of the doubts about its genuineness and authenticity on the part of some not all but of some of the early church fathers and in spite of the objections of critical scholars there is no sound basis for rejecting second Peter as a genuine work of the apostle Peter as a product of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and therefore as a work that has a rightful place in the canon of holy scriptures. Now I know that I have belabored this point but I do so brothers and sisters to help bolster your faith and to give you ammunition if you’re ever in an apologetic situation where you’re discussing the matter of the authority of the Bible with someone who’s skeptical or someone who knows about what the discussions of these critical scholars how are you going to answer them?

Well I hope that I’ve given you some ammunition to defend the apostle Peter’s authorship of this marvelous portion of holy scripture known as second Peter but having hopefully in your mind established Peter’s authorship I want you to notice in verse one Peter’s self-description. He identifies himself as the apostle Peter and how does he describe himself? Well look at the latter part of verse one he says I’m sorry the look at verse one the beginning Simeon Peter a what a servant or bond servant or bond slave as it could be translated and apostle of Jesus Christ. The first thing he says about himself is that he is a servant and by the way as an aside I think that too is an evidence of Peter’s authorship because if this was an anonymous Christian trying to to promote his own views in the name of Peter he wouldn’t be emphasizing the fact that he’s a servant he’d be emphasizing right out of the gates his apostleship but he doesn’t.

Peter here identifies himself as a servant as a slave of Christ a bond servant the irony of God’s kingdom is that true liberty true freedom is found by being a servant a slave of Jesus Christ. He is a servant like all Christians the apostle Peter recognizes that he is under Christ’s lordship so this letter begins on a note of deep humility on the part of Peter but he also notes his apostolic authority he says Simeon Peter a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ why is that significant? Well what was an apostle? Friends an apostle was an officially appointed spokesman of the lord Jesus Christ a witness of the resurrected Christ a divinely commissioned divinely appointed divinely inspired representative of Christ an eyewitness to the resurrected lord Jesus Christ and thus a part of the church’s foundation as we’re told in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20 the church is built on the foundation of the apostles plural and prophets you see contrary to what our catholic friends tell us the church is not just founded upon the apostle Peter as the supposed first pope no the church is founded upon the apostles not upon them as persons but upon the apostolic teaching the gospel that they proclaimed by the authority of God and that’s why his authorship of this epistle is so important because if this epistle was not written by an apostle or by an apostolic man one who spoke for and represented the apostles then it is not divinely inspired it does not belong in the holy scriptures but it was in fact written by one who was an official spokesman an apostle of the lord Jesus Christ and as an apostle his words carry the weight of divine authority dear ones the words of this epistle are not merely Peter’s words whether those words are communicated directly in his own handwriting or through a secretary and if a secretary was employed then the holy spirit was involved with that as well but these are not merely the words of a man the man Peter they are God’s words do you receive dear listener the words of the Bible as the words of men or as the word of God ultimately the word of God this is the word of God let us receive it as such embrace it and build our lives upon it so we have the author the author being the apostle Peter and and briefly my second point let’s consider briefly the original readers of second Peter he writes to those who what who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ now the Bible scholars debate you know was second Peter written to Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians or a combination of both and there are pros and cons for all of those positions personally I think that that Peter is likely writing to a group of mostly Gentile Christians because one of the amazing things about the new covenant is that in Christ in the new covenant Gentile believers in Jesus the Messiah have a faith of equal standing with their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ and so I think that is what this is getting at here he is writing to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing and this is not a faith that they have attained by their own merit or their own works righteousness no it is a faith which is a gift of God and he writes to those who have obtained this faith of equal standing with ours they have obtained it how by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ now this is a general description of all believers and this therefore has led some scholars to conclude that second Peter was written as sort of a circular letter a letter that was not written to any one particular congregation or group of Christians but was meant to be read among many congregations however in chapter three verse one Peter mentions that this is his second letter in chapter three verse one it says this is now the second letter that I’m writing to you beloved in both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder what was this first letter well the most natural way to understand this is that the first letter to which he alludes is of course first Peter and if that is the case then the original recipients of this letter would very likely have been the same as those of first Peter although some have suggested that maybe there was a lost letter of Peter that he’s referring to and again we can get well I’m not going to get into the the details of that particular debate but whoever this was written to it was written to believers who by the grace of God had obtained a faith of equal standing even with the apostles and they had done so they had received this equal standing by the righteousness of God now in this particular context is this referring to the imputed righteousness of God that believers in Christ receive as a gift in their justification or is this referring to the moral righteousness of God the justice of God well probably in this particular context it is referring to the latter the second Peter Peter is certain would certainly not deny the truth of justification by faith alone but here what he is probably referring to by his use of this Greek term dick as soon as is the justice of God as one commentator puts it either in the sense of the impartiality of God’s justice in giving all believers an equally privileged faith or in the sense of God’s granting of salvation being compatible with his justice but then this this righteousness that has given to us this righteousness of God that has granted us graciously granted us a faith of equal standing this is by the righteousness of whom the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ now some of you who may be following along in the King James Version might be scratching your heads and saying okay wait a minute pastor in my Bible it says of God and our Savior Jesus Christ as if as if Peter is making a distinction here between the persons of the Trinity between God the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior and certainly Peter would affirm the Trinity Peter’s writings are deeply Trinitarian but nevertheless versions like the English Standard Version translated more correctly in my view as our God and Savior Jesus Christ think about that the Greek would seem to support this translation as the correct one and if this is the case then friends what we have here in this passage is one of the clearest most direct affirmations of the deity of Christ in all of Scripture no wonder Satan has been attacking the authenticity and the authorship of second Peter because its testimony to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is so clear so plain in passages like this one where we are said we are told to have received a faith of equal standing with that of the apostles by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ and so what this means my friends is that Jesus Christ he is our Savior but he is also our God he is fully divine and it is because he is fully God that he is qualified and able to be our Savior as Peter proclaims here Jesus Christ is not only our Savior he is also our God do you dear listener trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and God the Bible summons us to do so and it is required of us to do so in order to receive Christ for salvation as it says in Romans 10 verse 9 that if you confess with your lips Jesus is Lord divine Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved but this faith of which Peter speaks is this faith in the sense of the faith the body of doctrine such as is summarized for example in creeds today like the apostles creed or is this subjective faith faith in Christ saving faith the faith of the heart and there are those on both sides of that debate but it seems to me in the context here brothers and sisters that he is speaking of saving faith saving faith is a gift of God have you received this gift may the Holy Spirit open your heart and your mind to receive and rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ the word made flesh the God man for your salvation from sin and if you do have that faith don’t pat yourself on the back and boast in your your free choice and boast as if you obtain that faith by your own worthiness or works or merits no it is a gift of God and you have obtained that gift in accordance with the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ let us trust him let us proclaim him let us live for him under his lordship amen let us pray heavenly father we thank you and praise you Lord for your word we thank you for this precious portion of your word and we thank you for how you have raised up apostles and prophets to communicate your word to your people and we thank you Lord for including this wonderful portion of scripture in the canon of scripture we would ask Lord that as we study this portion of scripture that your spirit would deepen and strengthen the faith that we have received as a gift from you and now bless us Lord and prepare us and fit us to serve you in the week ahead we pray these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen.

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