Sermon Cloud

 

Enduring in the Covenant

Hebrews 10:32-36

Grace Fellowship Church

May 5, 2008

Series 3 Sermon 43

³² But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴ For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. ³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. ³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Introduction

How many of you really enjoy remembering?  One of the things that I have always really enjoyed is stories.  All of you have great stories and I love to hear you tell them.  You talk about places that you have been and how you got there and the people that you knew.  Doug tells the story of his grandfather who was a medic in WWI and served with General Pershing.  Mark tells the story of going to Europe in the cargo area of a military plane and nearly freezing to death only to arrive early and upset a dignitary that he was supposed to stay with.  Larry told the story about how he asked his dad the first time he was served rice if they were poor.  Tom will always have a fantastic story in the courtship of Alan and Bethany.  I could go on and on and relate some of the stories from the Melancon’s or the Potters particularly about someone’s former hairstyles.  Remembering is a wonderful thing and sharing those stories from our past are marvelous ways for people to get a glimpse into who we were then and how that affected who we are now.  Just yesterday the kids were enthralled when Dani told them the story of how she set her friend’s kitchen on fire.  Joshua Livingston really enjoys stories.  He will come up to us often and ask that we tell him a story about when we were a kid.  I am with Joshua and I love to listen to stories.  I have always loved to listen to people who lived during the Great Depression or World War II tell of the stories of growing up and living their early adulthood.  It fascinates me to hear someone tell of their life that has lived during the century that saw people go from horse drawn carriages to commercial flights to space travel.  I like to hear stories of people who sat around the radio at night as a family for entertainment because television had not been invented.  I like to hear old men talk about their old cars and their jobs. 

 

I like to be there when these folks take trips down memory lane.  One of the benefits that I got from taking care of Dani’s dad was all the great stories I got to hear.  He was a commander on a destroyer and sailed around the world stopping in places that I have only dreamed of going.  And for every destination there was a story. 

 

I have always had this idea that if I could sit down for one hour with some of the greats of the faith who have long since gone to glory then I could have a much better perspective on things. 

 

But we all like to reminisce.  We all like to think back fondly on times that we spent with certain people.  I will always think fondly on the time that I spent with brothers in Christ in seminary.  I will always think back fondly on the first few months of our church and what a tender time that was as we grew accustomed to one another.  I will always think fondly on the months after I was converted and all that I learned, much of which was wrong, during that time. 

 

God has given us the gift of memory.  But in that gift comes the realization that although the person we are sharing a particular story with may think that what we are telling them about happened a long time ago, in our mind it is as if it happened yesterday.  Time moves on step by step and in events where we think time should stop it never does.  It keeps ticking away taking us further and further into our lives. 

 

Remembering often serves to give us a proper perspective.  If I could go back to some very crucial points in my life I would make entirely different decisions.  I can say with confidence having the perspective of time would have aided me in making a better decision.  That is why they say that wisdom comes with age.  You have already experienced many things in life and those experiences now shape the way you react.

 

Old soldiers rarely get rattled but a new soldier is all adrenalin. 

 

Context

The writer of Hebrews has been explaining to us Covenant faithfulness.  We have been severely warned to avoid the sin of breaking the covenant and finding ourselves under the judgment of God.  Chapter ten of Hebrews has been a very practical chapter in a highly theological book of the Bible.  In light of the completed work of Christ on the cross and His provision for eternal redemption, sanctification, and eternal perfection of those in the covenant the writer of Hebrews outlines in the remainder of chapter ten how we are to react to that salvation.  We are to continue to draw near to God through Christ.  We are to continue to hold fast our confession of Christ.  And we are to continue to encourage or provoke faithfulness in one another even in the most difficult circumstances. 

 

To not do these three things is to abrogate the covenant and fall into the hands of the living God who will deal righteously with us and judge us as He deems necessary.  We took a side road together and saw from Scripture how God deals with those who are His people and those who are not His people in judgment.  We also saw the importance of the God given protection and authority of the local church for spiritual as well as physical protection.   The reason we looked at that aspect of protection is because the writer mentions the fact that meeting together is part of these covenant obligations.    

 

So this morning we turn our attention to how we can endure in the covenant.  It really comes down to mindset.  God has saved us, He is sanctifying us, and ultimately He will glorify us as His children but times here on earth can get difficult.  What we can see from Scripture and what we can see from history is that God’s people have always been a suffering people. 

Take a flyover view of biblical history with me.  Cain was murdered.  Noah had to build an ark.  Abraham had to leave a comfortable life to be a sojourner.  Moses was ran out of Egypt to save his life and then had to go back.  David was chased around by Saul who kept trying to kill him.  Most of the prophets were ostracized, abused, and often killed.  Ten of eleven of Christ’s disciples were martyred.  Paul was beheaded.  Christ was crucified, Stephen was stoned.  Difficulty is part of the Christian life. 

 

So how do we handle difficulty?  How do we handle suffering?  How do we handle the fact that there are factions who are supposed to be Christians who have very loud voices that tell us that if we are suffering we are outside the will of God?  How do we deal with the outright Biblical confusion that permeates the church today?  Do we run out and buy a copy of the latest health and wealth teacher and start learning that pack of lies in order to avoid suffering?  Which is in essence abandoning the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. 

 

The way we deal with it is to have a firm foundation of biblical understanding about what God has called us to do.  If He has called us to suffer as believers, and He has, then how do we get the right mindset to not succumb to our flesh and flee from the suffering or what is causing the suffering? 

 

It’s like hitting your finger with a hammer when you are working.  It hurts and so you are more careful to avoid it but you still have to use your fingers to hold the nail in place so that you can hit it with the hammer. But Christian suffering often can only be avoided by denying the faith and living as a pagan.  And we know we have not been called to that. 

 

So we know we can’t walk away from the faith in order to avoid suffering so how do we get the right mindset to endure in the covenant?  What has God instructed us to do in order to remain faithful covenant people? 

 

The New Covenant is wonderful.  “They will be my people and I will be their God” says the Lord. “They will all know Me from the least to the greatest and the knowledge will be so great that one will not say to another, ‘Know the Lord.’”  And how about this?  “I will remember their sins no more!” 

 

But with that covenant comes a declaration of war on the flesh, the world, and the devil.  These three are the enemies of our souls.  Our own flesh wars with our spirit to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. The world that we live in wants to draw us in to its way of thinking and doing and wants to affirm our flesh in its desire for fleeting pleasure.  The Devil is in the midst of this stirring the pot and when we resist the battle will often grow hotter which is greater war on our souls. 

 

So how can we think and act in such a way that it confounds the world and glorifies God as we live this life within the New Covenant?  Confounding the world and pleasing and glorifying the Lord means keeping covenant faithfulness.  So how do we keep covenant faithfulness when difficult times loom on the horizon? 

 

PNP

In our text this morning, Hebrews 10:32-36, the writer gives us two commands to avoid covenant unfaithfulness. 

 

1. We are called to remember the early days of our faith.

2.  We are called to hold on to our confidence.

 

Purpose

My purpose this morning in preaching this passage comes right from verse 36.  This was the writer’s purpose and the people’s need.  Look at verse 36 for the purpose statement.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

 

The word endurance, hopomonace, is placed by the writer at the very first of the sentence.  It is emphatic and he is pointing us clearly to what we need.  Let me give you a synonym for this word endurance: steadfastness.  This is endurance in a difficult situation.  I don’t need much endurance if I am sitting on the couch with my feet up watching TV.  But when you engage the Christian life head on you are going to need all the hupomonace you can get.  And the writer correctly states this and this is a universal truth for all Christians for all times and that is that you have need of endurance. 

 

In chapter 11 the writer is going to unpack the concept of endurance for us in the examples of the lives of faithful men and women in biblical history who through great difficulties endured this life to receive the promises of God. 

 

RPNP

So let’s look together this morning at these two commands to avoid covenant unfaithfulness. 

 

1. We are called to remember the early days of our faith.

Notice verse 32.

³² But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened,

The first command the writer of Hebrews gives us to keep covenant faithfulness is to “recall” or “remember” your translation may say.  The situation is difficult.  The going is tough and it’s uphill.  The full assault of the enemy is driving you it seems further from God and you are teetering on the edge of despair and apostasy and the writer commands you to remember or recall. 

 

What are we to recall?  Look at verse 32 again.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened,

Enlightened here is a synonym for converted or regenerated or saved.  So the command for us is to recall the first days after we were converted. 

 

When the battle is raging for a marriage the counselor will tell the couple at odds with one another to think back to the first time they met. Think back to the early days of your marriage.  Think about the love and devotion that you felt that should have grown stronger as time passed by. 

 

Dani and I will often talk and laugh about when our kids were babies and toddlers and how funny they were with their unique personalities.  We will also think about them now and how much joy they bring to our home and our marriage even though there are times of suffering and great tribulation such as the earth has never seen. 

 

Our hearts are warmed and laughter happens and sometimes tears flow as we think on the blessings of God in our ten plus years of marriage.  Couples fall in love again when they think back to the early days of their marriage and how much they really love and need each other. 

 

Tom brought a picture of Alan and Bethany that was taken in the midst of their courtship and they both had smiles you could not wipe off with sandpaper.  They look so happy and in love.  I told Tom to make sure that he saved that picture.  The reason I said that was so that when Bethany was at home all day homeschooling their 5 school age children and the house was still a mess because the toddler in diapers that has been walking for a few weeks now has pulled everything to the floor that he or she can reach and dinner is not cooked and the dishes are in the sink waiting for Alan to get home who had to stay late to solve a problem or twelve at work, and chaos is happening when a weary worn out Alan walks in to greet a weary and worn out Bethany who has had all she can take and just needs to get into the full size twelve passenger van and drive around the block a few times to avoid the insane asylum, Tom can hold up that picture and this now ten year married couple with 6 children and one on the way can remember those early days, those first days and how new their love was and how wonderful they made each other feel. 

 

Life happens.  It happens fast and furiously and no matter what we think or do it continues full force until all that the Lord has set out for us to accomplish is accomplished.  Our rest is in heaven not on earth. 

 

The call to remember or recall is a pretty consistent theme in Scripture. 

Ephesians 2:11-13 says:

¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

 

Paul told Timothy in the context of calling him to be a good soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Timothy 2:8-9:

⁸ Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, ⁹ for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.

 

In 2 Peter 3:1-2 Peter tells his readers why he is writing that letter to them.

¹ This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ² that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

 

To the church at Ephesus the Lord Jesus told them to “remember from where they had fallen and repent.”  And to the Church at Sardis the Lord told them to “remember what you have received and heard; and keep it and repent.” 

 

I don’t know about you but after I was converted I remember a very strong hunger for the things of God.  I remember a burning zeal for serving the Lord.  I remember a whole lot of zeal with very little knowledge.  I remember soaking up every word of some pretty bad preaching.  I remember being thrown in to teach Sunday School when I was the one that needed to be taught.  You all probably remember some pretty similar things. 

 

But I want you to notice what the writer of Hebrews, in order to provoke and secure covenant faithfulness in this group of believers, calls his readers to recall or remember.  Look at verse 32 again. 

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

Now I know this goes against our modern idea of reminiscing.  Imagine telling a couple who is on the brink of divorce to remember their first big fight. 

 

What we have here in Hebrews 10 is a suffering, persecuted church that is in need of covenant faithfulness to avoid the judgment of God due to impending apostasy and the writer tells them to remember the early days after they were converted and how they endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

 

Now I can tell you from experience that the writer of Hebrews must have missed that day in seminary where they taught us how to council people in spiritual difficulty in Pastoral Care and Counseling class.  Or maybe we truly do not know most of the time what people need to hear.  But God does and the Holy Spirit of God superintending these words to flow from the pen of this writer tells them to remember the early days and the struggles that they went through and the suffering they endured. 

 

I will be the first to admit that I may be wrong in my understanding of why the writer says this here but I think I know.  Let’s put this on a personal level.  When you first were converted think about how little of the Bible you actually understood.  Maybe you were even in a church where the truth was scarce and even the pastor did not know much.  Now think about how much you know now and even with all that knowledge of the Gospel we all still have a very long way to go in understanding the length, breadth, and depth of all the wisdom that God’s gospel holds. But we are further along.  We are learning to trust in Christ more and more, at least we should be.  So would this early church. 

 

They probably knew very little when God changed their heart under the hearing of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They had now grown in grace and had been given all of the fantastic theology that we ourselves have been given in this epistle.  So they, like us, should be better equipped to handle the trials that come our way.  Right?  Well you would at least think that. 

 

But what is the purpose of the passage?  Its verse 36.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

 

At this time they should have had endurance to suffer the sufferings of Christ to fill up as Paul would say, what is lacking.  So what had they forgotten that they now need to remember?  Look at verse 33. 

³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

Verse 33 gives us a glimpse of what this church of new believers went through. 

They were publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.  The Greek word for publicly exposed is the word θεατριζόμενοι.

 It is where we get our word theatre from.  Imagine being drug out of your home or the church meeting place and publicly mocked and beaten.  Imagine as Peter and John who were flogged publicly for their witness for Christ enduring the beating, being publicly humiliated for doing what God had called them to do.  Acts 5:41 says:

So they went on their way from the presence of the Council , rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

 

Not only had this church in the beginning suffered shame publicly they had also done what Christians do when their brothers and sisters suffer.  They identified with them.  Look at verse 33 again. 

³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

Instead of acting as if they did not know the ones suffering these early Christians openly identified with their suffering brothers and sisters.  And by doing so they put their own lives in jeopardy.  Notice the first part of verse 34. 

³⁴ For you had compassion on those in prison,

Two words ought to stand out to you in verses 33 and 34.  These words are partners (your translation may say sharers) and compassion (your translation may say sympathy).  What these words mean is that you get right on down in there with them. 

 

It’s like this.  When I was a teenager I worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool.  The Red Cross taught us that when someone was drowning if we could not reach them with a float or the life pole we had to go in after them.  Going in the water after a drowning person, especially an adult is extremely dangerous.  Drowning people are panicking people and have been known to drown themselves and the person trying to rescue them.  To go into deep water and pull an adult out means you are becoming a partner with them in their situation.  You have to get right down in that water with them and the minute you get within arms reach you are in danger. 

 

This early group of Christians knew that by partnering with those who had suffered and having compassion on those in prison they were putting their lives in danger.  In the first century when they put you in prison they did not feed you or provide anything for you.  You had to have friends or family do that and when they did they identified with you.  That is why the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 25, “I was in prison and you visited me.”  The sheep were willing to die to care for their brothers or sisters in Christ who were in prison. 

 

This is why James 1:27 says: ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The word distress in James 1:27 and Hebrews 10:33 for affliction is the Greek word thlipsis.  These widows and orphans were in that condition because their husbands and fathers had died in service to Christ.  And the churches were to episkeptomai (to watch over and in that watching over was to make sure they had everything they needed) these widows and orphans.  And that is exactly what this early church did.  The sheep look out for one another.  The goats look out for themselves. 

 

Here is where we know that this early church understood this.  They partnered with those in prison and then look at the rest of verse 34.

 and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property,(how could they do this?) since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

 

The stuff that was taken from them was stuff that moth and rust could destroy.  Fire could quickly wipe out those goods.  But they knew they had a better possession.  And notice that they understood that this was not a temporal possession.  Look at the end of verse 34.

since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

What is that possession?  It is Christ.  It is being a member and recipient of the benefits of the New Covenant.  It is having your sins forgiven and being granted eternal life.  It is now being under the covenant of grace and mercy of God as His son or daughter and not being under His wrath as His enemy.  It is understanding that you have a place prepared in the Father’s house in Heaven with Christ.  That is the better and abiding possession. 

 

So how do we come to understand this like the early church did?  How do we begin to view our circumstances from a biblical and not a worldly view?

 

How do you get through the day at a job that you can’t stand but you understand that everything you do you are to do to the best of your ability to the glory of God?  How do you endure when you are trying to establish yourself and order your life in a world where being a Christian grows more and more difficult?  How do you endure being separated from your family because you have been deployed to another continent?  How do you get through the day and homeschool your children when you walk into the room where you teach and the dread of the struggle comes over you?  How do you stay faithful when you are physically not well?  How do you remain steadfast when you are hurting emotionally and grieving over someone?  What do you do when you lose your job, your spouse, or a child?  How do you stay faithful when life seems to crash in around you in so many ways?

 

I think we need most of all to understand in the 21^st century what has been understood by the church for 20 centuries.  We need to understand that we are pilgrims passing through.  We are on a journey in this life that runs the gamut of emotions and experiences. We have joy and we have sorrow.  We gain and then we lose.  We can become wealthy and then live in poverty.  We are faithful and then we are faithless at times.  The emotional responses to our everyday experiences vary like the direction of the wind.  So what we can not do is be so focused on the here and now that we forget that all of our possessions, family, friends, and wealth is passing away.  As Pilgrims on a difficult journey we have to grasp this concept. 

 

That way we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine or even by life’s storms.  The reason the people whom the writer of Hebrews was writing to could endure the great affliction wrought on them early in their faith is because they understood this.  And if we are going to faithfully endure all that our Lord allows us to go through in this life then we have got to stop thinking like the world which has for its goal the amassing of all the material wealth it can gather and trusting in that to see them through difficulty. 

 

As pilgrims we have to have at least three things to hold onto.  The writer is going to unpack those things for us over the last chapters in Hebrews.  The first one is our next point which is a boldness or confidence that we have the truth.  Second we need an enduring true saving faith which will be explained and illustrated for us in chapter 11.  Third we need to have the proper focal point of this confidence and enduring faith and the writer tells us how in chapter 12 when he says, “fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” 

 

We have seen that we are called to remember the early days of our faith.  Lastly this morning we need to see how we can remain faithful.

 

2.  We are called to hold on to our confidence.

Look at verse 35.

³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

The question that has to be answered here is exactly what this confidence is.  Is it the proof of our salvation because of our suffering?  IS it how good we have become?  Is it our church attendance or personal good works and holiness? 

 

What we know is that the writer of Hebrews is telling his readers that there is confidence in the Christian life.  There is a bold confidence to which we can hold onto in times of great difficulty. 

What was it that gave this church the ability to endure the early barrage of attack and what is this confidence that will allow us to endure all things for the glory of God remaining faithful to His covenant?  The confidence is in the sacrifice that was offered to God that secured our place in the New and better covenant. 

 

Let me remind you of what the writer of Hebrews has told us.  Hebrews 1:1-3 says: 

¹ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, ² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world . ³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

 

Hebrews 2:9-11 says:

⁹ But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. ¹⁰ For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. ¹¹ For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

 

And then in verses 14 and 15 the writer says:

¹⁴ Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

 

Chapter 3 and verse 14 is the summation of all of this and the writer proclaims:

¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

 

God and His promises proven in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is our confidence.  Because God the Father allowed Christ to suffer we must arm ourselves with the same resolve and understand that when we suffer, nothing out of the ordinary is happening to us.  We are not to be hand wringers.  “Oh why has God allowed this to happen to me?!!” 

 

From Prison Paul wrote to the Philippian church, “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, ³⁰ experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

 

To Timothy he writes, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

 

The Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ.  And that is what the writer of Hebrews is telling this struggling, persecuted, teetering church. 

 

What is the confidence?  If it is anything other than confidence in the Triune God expressed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection which secured our eternal redemption it is nothing. 

 

Notice verse 35 again.

³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

The opposite of reward is judgment.  And throwing away your confidence in Christ in the face of suffering causes you to lose your reward. 

 

I can’t be sure, one day I will get to ask him, but I think when Martin Luther was facing his trial at the Diet of Worms that this passage must have echoed through his mind over and over again as he faced recanting or death.  Denounce your faith in Christ or suffer the same fate as those who came before you.  John Hus was burned at the stake.  John Wyclif died of natural causes but was exhumed from his grave, burned, and his ashes cast in the River Thames.  The path of righteousness is covered with the blood of the faithful and Martin Luther knew this and he was no superman.  He was flesh like us.  He was fearful of dying and suffering just like us.  But, I pray like Luther, we will fear God more than man.  That is why Luther wrote in the 4^th verse of “A Mighty Fortress is our God” these words:

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

 

We must have this perspective.  We must say with the writer of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, and brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before us that no matter what the enemy takes from us; our property, our cars, our houses, our jewelry, our very lives, all of this is mere dust and worth nothing in eternity.  Our confidence, our boldness, our rock, our firm foundation is in Christ alone and they can take everything from us including our lives but they can not take Christ from us and He who has allowed us to suffer will comfort us in His presence for all eternity. 

 

Revelation 7:13-17 is a picture of the reward.

¹³ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" ¹⁴ I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple ; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. ¹⁶ "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

 

By the way, the goal of the Christian life is to get to be in the presence of God for all eternity. The goal is to live eternally in the New Covenant with Christ.  Revelation 7 is a glimpse of the reward that awaits us.   When we come out of the tribulation of this life then we go to our reward which verse 35 says is a great reward. 

 

So what do we need to get there?  Look at verse 36.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

 

Many sermons could be preached on the topic of endurance.  The Bible uses the metaphors of a race or a fight when talking about the Christian life.  And to get through this life you need endurance.     May the Lord grant that endurance to you this day and all the days that you and I need it. 

 

Let’s pray.