who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father,

because we recall ¹  in the presence of our God and Father ²  your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope ³  in our Lord Jesus Christ.

so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. ¹ 

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope,

This is what we proclaim to you: ¹  what was from the beginning, ²  what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life –

For certain men ¹  have secretly slipped in among you ²  – men who long ago ³  were marked out ⁴  for the condemnation I am about to describe ⁵  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ⁶  and who deny our only Master ⁷  and Lord, ⁸  Jesus Christ.

to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

So pray this way: ¹  Our Father ²  in heaven, may your name be honored, ³ 

In ¹  reply all the people said, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole his body ¹  while we were asleep.’

as he promised ¹  to our ancestors, ²  to Abraham and to his descendants ³  forever.”

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, ¹  to guide our feet into the way ²  of peace.”

Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ¹ 

and how our chief priests and rulers handed him over ¹  to be condemned to death, and crucified ²  him.

The God of our forefathers ¹  raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree. ² 

But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed ¹  Moses ²  aside, saying, ‘Who made ³  you a ruler and judge over us?

and he made no distinction ¹  between them and us, cleansing ²  their hearts by faith.

we have unanimously ¹  decided ²  to choose men to send to you along with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul,

who ¹  have risked their lives ²  for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ³ 

For you are bringing some surprising things ¹  to our ears, so we want to know what they ²  mean.”