“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)

The book of Hebrews is probably my favorite book in the Bible. I’m not sure why – maybe it’s because of the emphasis on Christ’s redemptive work; maybe it’s the no-holds-barred take on salvation and the part we play in it; maybe it’s the way the author connects the Old Testament to the New; maybe it’s just the mystery of us not knowing who wrote it – but I know that I’ve loved it for some time and turn there when I need encouragement. Which is why I’m so excited that the text for this week’s message on encouragement is coming out of Hebrews.

I’m not going to cover the entire passage we’re looking at (if you want that, you can come to Crossroads this Sunday and hear Bruce talk about it yourself), but I do want to take a moment and talk about hope.

Whenever hope is talked about in the Bible, it is with the idea that hope does not disappoint. You see, people in that culture understood hope differently than we do today. Today, it’s common to here a child say, “I hope to get some ice cream after church today.” Or I’ll say to a friend, “I hope some extra money comes along this week for groceries.” In today’s culture, hope is an uncertain wishing for something we do not yet have. There is no assurance of the fulfillment of our hope.

In biblical thought, hope is inseparably tied to assurance. Biblical hope leaves no question of whether or not that hope will be fulfilled; biblical hope is the waiting for our assurance to happen. You see, biblical hope is always predicated on the past, the way things have happened before. Themes of biblical hope are God’s patience, redemption, mercy; they are founded on the character of God, who he has proven himself to be.

A woman might throw her pen into the air and say, in a biblical sense of hope: “I hope my pen comes back down.” There is no real question as to it coming back down or not; the pen has come down every other time it’s been thrown.

In the same way, I might say: “I hope God is faithful to me in this trial.” God has been faithful in every other instance; he certainly will be faithful to me in this one.

Or, in the sense of the passage: “I hope for the redemption that will come when Christ returns and sets all things right.” This hope is based on the truthfulness of Christ, who has promised to return. He has never lied; I have no reason to doubt his promise.

Last Saturday, some friends and I played a concert at Common Ground Coffee House and Deli. We closed with a song I wrote, called “The Sun Will Rise Again.” The chorus says:

The sun will rise again, just wait and see
It always has before, the sun will rise
The sun will rise again, just like before
and hope does not disappoint, the sun will rise

The sun has always risen, and it will again tomorrow. So let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.

-Joe