I imagine that different letters in the New Testament were written with varying degrees of haste. Paul wrote an angry letter to the church at Corinth. You can tell that as he wrote it he had a lot of things on his mind. On the other hand, the Book of 1st Thessalonians consists almost entirely of prayers and praise. Obviously, there was not a great sense of urgency about the letter. When Paul wrote his brief letter to Philemon, he told his friend and former slave, Onesimus, to personally deliver it. It could have gotten there a lot faster if it had gone by the regular mail, but Paul wanted this letter hand delivered.

Then there was the letter written to the Hebrews, from which our scripture text for this morning comes. It was a thick letter. Probably took three stamps to mail it. And on the front of that letter I feel sure that the wrote: Special Delivery. There is a sense of urgency about this letter. The moment you open the letter up you know why. Hold on, it says. How many times does the author write—hold on. Don’t shrink back. Don’t despair. Don’t give up. Stir up each other. Encourage each other. Don’t stop going to your worship assemblies. Don’t get discouraged. All the way through that is the tone. The writer, who is a pastor, is trying his best to revive a church.

What is wrong with the church? When you read the letter you discover that it was once a church that was full of love and joy and fellowship. It took delight in serving each other and serving the Lord. But that is now no longer the case. Between that time of wonderful joy and the writing of this letter something dreadful has happened to this church. What has gone wrong?

I. There is heresy.
II. There is pagan worship.
III. There is persecution.
IV. But primarily they no longer care.