Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 15, “Grow in Grace” 2 Peter 3:14-18 January 13, 2019 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Tonight, we conclude our sermons on 2 Peter. We spoke last time from this same concluding paragraph about Peter’s comments on the writings of the Apostle Paul, viz. that Paul’s […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 14, “The New Testament Added to the Old” 2 Peter 3:11-18 January 6, 2019 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn We’ve been away from 2 Peter for a month and have but the final paragraph before us. Let me remind you that Peter’s subject in this final chapter […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 13, “Living Sub Specie Aeternitatis” 2 Peter 3:10-13 December 9, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Last time, from verses 8 and 9 we considered the time of the Lord’s Second Coming; in particular, the long years that have now separated his first coming from his […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 12, “The Second Advent” 2 Peter 3:8-10 December 2, 2018 It is an ancient tradition during the season of Advent (a word that means “coming” or “arrival”) to preach on both of the advents of the Lord, his first coming when born a human baby to […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 11, “Believing in the Flood” 2 Peter 3:1-7 November 25, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn It has been several weeks since we were last in 2 Peter. We spent some weeks in chapter 2 exploring some of the prominent themes of that fascinating chapter, […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 10, “Whistling in the Dark” 2 Peter 2:4-10 November 4, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn I have so far selected from this chapter verses here and there to illustrate Peter’s uncharacteristically severe condemnation of the false teachers whose influence Peter is combatting in […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 9, “The Origins of Heresy” 2 Peter 2:12-16 October 21, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Our service this evening being shorter than is customary and with such an important congregational meeting before us, I realized that by returning to Second Peter chapter 2 I […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 8, “Was Peter a Calvinist?” 2 Peter 2:1-3; 17-22 September 30, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn This evening I am reading just two sections of this chapter, in fact, the paragraphs that begin and end the chapter. We spoke of Peter’s relentless condemnation of […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 7, “Speaking Ill of Others” 2 Peter 2:1-22 September 23, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn I’m reading the 22 verses of chapter 2 without much in the way of comment this evening. We will read these verses again to other purposes in the coming […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 6, “The Place of the Bible in the World” 2 Peter 1:16-21 September 16, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Peter has so far urged his readers to press on in their Christian faith, to remember its foundations, its promises, and its purposes. Now he […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 5, “Memory as a Spiritual Grace” 2 Peter 1:12-15 September 2, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Peter’s exhortation to these Christians to move forward in their Christians lives, to hold fast but not to stand still, ended in v. 11. Now he will explain […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 4, “Assurance” 2 Peter 1:3-11 August 26, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn We have read vv. 3-7 before, but we’ll read them again to establish the context. Text Comment v.8 Notice Peter’s point: if you have these qualities mentioned in vv. […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 3, “Moving On” 2 Peter 1:3-7 August 19, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.5 A point we are going to ring the changes on this evening is the connection between Peter’s statement in vv. 2-4 and the verses that follow. […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 2, “Theosis” 2 Peter 1:1-4 August 5, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment For those who are interested, Peter, like Paul, had a penchant for long sentences. In Greek his first sentence runs from v. 1 to v. 11. It is […]
Download Audio Download Text 2 Peter No. 1, “The Apostle Peter” 2 Peter 1:1-2 July 29, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn As it happens, I have never preached through 2 Peter. I have how preached through 1 Peter twice, but never 2 Peter. So, it seemed right to me, having just […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 29 “The Brotherhood” 1 Peter 5:12-14 July 22, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.12 Silvanus and Silas are two forms of the same name, Silvanus the Latin form of the Greek Silas. We know from Acts 16:37 that Silas was a […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 28 “The God of All Grace” 1 Peter 5:10-11 June 17, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment 11 The statement in v. 10 is an inclusio, matched by the statement in chapter 1:3-7 where the same thing is said at greater […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 27 “Resisting the Devil” 1 Peter 5:6-9 June 10, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Remember, we are in a long section in which Peter has been considering the suffering being endured by his persecuted Christian brethren. We don’t know the details – precisely […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter, No. 26 “Humility” 1 Peter 5:5-7 May 27, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn We mentioned last time that humility was an essential qualification for a leader in the church. But Peter goes on to say that it is what every Christian needs both as […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 25 “A Christian Government” 1 Peter 5:1-5 May 20, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.1 The ESV somewhat understates the “therefore” that begins v. 1. But still the “So” does indicate that what Peter now says is related in some […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 24 “The Difficulty of Salvation” 1 Peter 4:12-19 May 13, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn One of the features of Holy Scripture that no honest reader can fail to observe is its terrible seriousness. It is a book of almost unrelenting seriousness. It is […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 23 “A Strange Pleasure” 1 Peter 4:12-19 April 29, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.12 “Beloved.” Because he is going to be talking about the suffering they are enduring, he begins by reminding them that they belong to a fellowship of […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 22 “The Cardinal Virtues” 1 Peter 4:7-11 April 22, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.7 “The end of all things is at hand” – how are we to understand that when so many centuries have passed? It is a complex subject, […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 21 “Don’t be an American!” 1 Peter 4:1-6 April 15, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment Tonight, you are going to hear Peter tell you not to be Americans! In effect that is what he will say in v. 3. His readers […]
Download Audio Download Text First Peter No. 20 “The Baptism that Saves” 1 Peter 3:17-22 April 8, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.20 “Eight in all”, i.e. Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives. The significance of eight is how small that number is. Only […]
Download audio 1 Peter 3:18-22 Download Text First Peter No. 19 “Swimming Elephants” 1 Peter 3:18-22 March 11, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn 18 The ESV is right not to capitalize Spirit. The NIV editors capitalized “Spirit” because they took it to be a reference to the Holy Spirit. But the contrast […]
Download audio 1 Peter 3:3-18 Download Text First Peter No. 18 “A Christian Observed” 1 Peter 3:8-18 March 4, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comments I’m reading vv. 8-12 again, the text we read two Lord’s Day evenings ago, because they are part of the argument extending on to […]
Download audio 1 Peter 3:8-12 Download Text First Peter No. 17 “The Christian Spirit toward Others” 1 Peter 3:8-12 February 18, 2018 The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn Text Comment v.12 Psalm 34:12-16 is cited to confirm Peter’s point. The Lord will take care of his children who suffer at the hands […]
Download audio 1 Peter 3:1-7 Download text Remember where we are now. We are in the middle of Peter’s exposition of the Christian life, a life, as he explained in his introduction, that is to be the life of sojourners and exiles in this world, a life that bears witness to others of the glory […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:18-25 Download text Before reading this evening’s text or beginning this evening’s sermon I need to say something about last Lord’s Day evening’s sermon. I take some comfort from the fact that John Chrysostom, the great 4th century preacher of Constantinople, had on a few occasions to begin his sermons either […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:13-17 Download text Peter has given us in vv. 11-12 a general introduction to this next section of the letter and we have looked at that introduction in some detail. Now we enter the main section itself which is like a number of other passages in the NT letters. Here Christians […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:11-12 Download sermon I have said that there are three fundamental perspectives on the Christian life in Peter’s introduction to his description of that life in these two verses. The first is that, since we are exiles and sojourners – that is, resident aliens – in this world, our life is […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:11-12 Download sermon We took these two verses last time and considered from them the fundamental importance of our living lives that are easily distinguished from those of unbelievers around us. In many ways our lives look like anybody else’s lives, but they should in other ways look very different. But […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:11-12 Download sermon Now, that’s an odd use of the term Gentile, because most of the people to whom Peter would have been writing were literally Gentiles. I remember once in Greece we were worshipping at a small Presbyterian church in Piraeus, the port city of Athens, and on several occasions […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:4-10 Download sermon Text Comment v.5 Take note of Peter’s assumption, so common among the writers of the NT, that the worship of the ancient church, the temple, the Levitical sacrifices, and so on were evangelical worship. We can use the language of that worship to describe what we Christians do […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:4-10 Download sermon Text Comment v.8 A strong predestinarian note. We struggle with this – all Christians do, of course, from time to time – but God is God! He works out everything according to the purpose of his will. There is much to this effect in the Bible and it […]
Download audio 1 Peter 2:1-3 Download sermon Text Comment v.1 Take note that the particular sins mentioned all have to do with sins against the community of faith. All of these sins are sins against others, and, in context, particularly other Christians. They are the opposite of the “sincere brotherly love” that Peter had urged […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:22-25 Download sermon Text Comment v.22 Notice the emphasis. Not simply a sincere love for one another, but an earnest love from a pure heart. That word translated “earnest” is used of the Lord’s agonized prayer in Gethsemane. [Clowney, 74] Every Christian knows that he or she is duty bound to […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:13-21 Download sermon Text Comment v.19 As I have often reminded you, whenever you read in the Bible of the blood of Christ remember that what is meant is the sacrificial death of Christ. The shedding of blood was how the sacrificial animal was killed for sacrifice and so blood became […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:10-12 Download sermon Text Comment v.10 “Prophets” certainly refers to the biblical prophets and especially those who wrote of the future, as most of them did to some degree. But the term extends to the entire Scripture and its doctrine of the future, at least all the Scripture that had been […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:3-9 Download sermon Text Comment If either Paul or Peter had Mrs. Tamminga for their writing teacher, they would have had their fingers rapped for run-on sentences. Actually vv. 3-9 are one sentence in Greek. They are broken up by the translators of the ESV into five separate sentences. But it […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:1-6 Download sermon Text Comment v.3 Let me read to you a fine passage from the late Dr. Edmund Clowney’s commentary on 1 Peter. He is reflecting on the phrase “born again to a living hope.” “In his play No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre gives his own vision of hell. Two women […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:1-2 Download sermon Tonight we read the same two verses that we read last time, the opening address of the letter. In the epistles or letters of the New Testament the opening address is much more significant than our “Dear so and so…” or, as it is now becoming in the […]
Download audio 1 Peter 1:1-2 Download sermon Text Comment v.1 If you consult the map in the back of your Bible you will find that these areas are found in the northern half of Asia Minor, present day Turkey. Interestingly, they were largely areas in which the Apostle Paul did not minister. Eusebius, the 4th […]