You Have Need of Endurance

There are five sober warning passages in Hebrews, and this morning we will complete the fourth. One of the challenges as you study Hebrews is to determine exactly which church attenders its warnings were targeting. Like every church, in every decade, these first century churches were comprised of a mix of true Christians and pretend Christians and outright unbelievers. So who was the author writing to as we read these often terrifying admonitions? Let's use last week's and this morning's connected passages as an example. Last week we drilled down into a fiery, terrifying warning against apostasy.That text (vv.26-32) was primarily directed at unbelievers in the church who were considering protecting themselves from persecution by apostasy – slipping out the back-door of the church and never returning. Even though the entire congregation is listening, you know the target of this warning is church-attending unbelievers because a true Christian (as we'll see this morning) won't desert Jesus.The intent of this warning is to urge the wavering gospel procrastinator against desertion. Then the intent of the verses that follow immediately after is to encourage the congregation's Christians to endure suffering by reminding them of their past faithfulness and their need for continued endurance. And the fuel of endurance is faith. So this morning's text is faith-check! Suffering is coming; temptation is coming; is your faith "enduring faith"? Let's examine a: i.) Faithful former response (vv.33-34); ii.) Earnest present appeal (vv.35-38); iii.) Promised future reward (v.39).