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#4: Why We Must Pay Close Attention

Hebrews

Jan 25, 2015


by: Jack Lash Series: Hebrews | Category: NT books | Scripture: Hebrews 2:1–2:4

I. Introduction
A. In Chapt.1 Hebrews told us about Christ, but nothing about what we’re supposed to do. Finally here in 2:1 we get our first directive, our first instruction, based on the things we were told in Chapt.1.
B. Hebrews 2:1–4 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
C. Though this passage has four verses, it would be more naturally divided into three:
II. 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
A. We begin here to see the struggle that’s dogging the Hebrew Christians.
1. They’re distracted from Christ and His word, drifting away from Christ.
2. Elsewhere (e.g., Heb.12:1-2a) we see that they are weary, they’re giving up, they’ve stopped trying, they’ve lost focus.
B. Drifting away
1. Verse 1 warns about the possibility of drifting away from Christ, which raises the question of falling away, a subject talked about a lot in Hebrews.
2. Can you lose your salvation? Yes and no.
a. True salvation truly saves. Eternal life lasts forever. You can’t have it one day and lose it the next, or it wasn’t eternal.
b. This means that if a person falls away, it’s indicative that he never truly was saved in the first place. This is clear from a number of NT Scriptures:
(1) “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (1John 2:19)
(2) “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” (Matt.7:23)
c. But all this doesn’t mean that you can’t LOOK saved and then fall away.
d. And it doesn’t mean that you can’t THINK you’re saved and still fall away.
e. The fact is that we can’t see whether or not a person is truly saved.
f. True faith is lasting faith (“He who endures to the end will be saved.” Matt.10:22; 24:13) — not because the faith is inherently lasting but because when God gives it, He also sustains it:
(1) “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” – John 6:39-40
(2) “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.” – Jn.10:27-29
3. We see here the beautiful balance in the Bible.
a. The epistle of Hebrews talks a lot about the danger of falling away from Christ.
b. The epistle of 1John, on the other hand, is filled with teaching about the assurance of salvation.
c. Together, the epistles of Hebrews & 1John form two fences to keep us from falling off two opposite cliffs.
(1) Hebrews builds a fence to prevent us from falling off the cliff into a spirit of complacency and disengagement, of not taking Christ seriously.
(2) 1John builds a fence to prevent us from falling over the cliff into a spirit of self-condemnation, gloom and doom.
4. Okay, we’ve seen that, if you truly lose your faith, you can know it wasn’t true faith to begin with.
5. But sometimes when you lose your faith, you lose it gradually. That’s why this verse warns against drifting away from Christ. Faith can be eroded little by little.
6. It’s sort of like getting out of shape. You don’t get out of shape overnight as a result of poor choices. It’s not a result of some evil action. It’s the result of inaction.
7. Drifting is what happens when you do nothing. It doesn’t take evil effort to drift away from God, it only takes doing nothing.
8. What is the solution to the very real danger of drifting away? “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
C. Paying much closer attention
1. Hebrews shows us the ease at which people can lose interest in things, even the most important things and the most glorious things.
a. We see here that because of sin, God, though He is magnificent & supreme, still doesn’t necessarily command our attention.
b. There is something wrong with us that we are prone to pay attention to trivial nothings instead of to the weighty, crucial things of life.
2. And so the author calls us to focus on Christ, to pay closer attention to Christ, much closer attention!
a. We can’t just wait for something to grab our attention.
3. There is a crowd of voices competing for our attention. In the midst of the noise, we’ve got to focus on the Voice that matters.
4. When we really want to listen to music or to the news or to a sports event, we find a way to do so.
5. The same must be true re: listening to Jesus Christ.
6. An old favorite movie of mine is called The Well. In it, a town is brought together when they realize that a missing little girl has probably fallen into an abandoned well. To determine whether she is down there, they lower a microphone at the end of a cord way down into the hole. Then they connect the wire to a giant sound system with a large speaker, turn the volume up high, and put their ears up to the speaker to see if they can discern the slightest breath or movement from the girl below.
7. I think this is a good illustration of the kind of listening we’re called to here in Heb.2:1.
8. There are a lot of fine things to listen to in this world. The Bible tells us we should listen to the counsel and advice of others, for example. However, nothing can be compared to the importance of eagerly listening to the word of Jesus.
D. Notice that the command begins with a “therefore,” referring us back to what was said about Christ in chapter 1.
1. Chapter one was devoted to showing what a great Savior we have, the One for whom all things exist, the One who is God’s final word, the One who is the exact representation of God’s nature in human flesh, the One who created the universe, the One who is superior to and worshiped by angels.
2. “Therefore” — in light of what a glorious and exalted savior we have — “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Because of who Jesus is, we must pay much closer attention to His word, lest we drift away.
3. The first commandment of this book is not to labor for Jesus but to listen to Jesus. you see, when you walk with Jesus, the duties flow out of the glory. It’s because we have such a glorious Christ that we are called to such a high standard.
a. It begins with Jesus and who He is.
b. Then it moves to our recognition of His wonderfulness.
c. This results in our attentiveness to Him, our listening to Him.
d. And then finally this results in living life according to His word.
4. So, this is pretty much what Hebrews has said thus far: “God has fully spoken to us in His Son, so listen carefully to what He says so you don’t fall away from Him.”
a. The message is actually very similar to what God says in Matthew 17:5, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
III. 2:2-3a “For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3a how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”
A. This is the first warning in an epistle of warnings.
1. Harsh? A warning implies not only danger, a warning implies concern, love.
B. The message He’s talking about is the OT law, which was delivered by angels (Ac.7:53, Gal.3:19).
C. There is a contrast here between the word revealed through angels in the days of Moses and the word revealed in Jesus, which here is referred to as “such a great salvation.”
1. In the OT law we see clearly that there were punishments for those who would not heed God’s commands. It detailed the punishments which should be administered for every offense.
2. So, if there are punishments for failing to heed the old, inferior message from God, how much worse will be the consequences if we fail to heed such a fantastic gospel of salvation!
3. You see, the Bible says that the more you are given the more is required of you (Luke 12:48).
4. So, if the consequences of neglecting God's word spoken through angels are severe, imagine how severe will be the consequences of neglecting God's word spoken through His own Son!
D. This whole epistle is exhorting the Hebrews to not forsake Christ but press on in their faith.
1. And in chapter one we saw that the author’s first argument is to remind them of what an amazing savior they are thinking about leaving.
2. Well, here we see the next argument he makes: he warns them of the dire consequences of turning their backs on Christ.
E. The same exact point is made again in Hebrews 12:25 “If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.”
1. But Heb.10:28-31 says it even more vividly: “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
IV. 2:3b-4 “It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”
A. This great salvation was first declared by Jesus when He was here. Then, after Jesus returned to heaven, the apostles who had been with Christ were His designated spokesmen to declare His word to the rest of us. (As we saw in week one, the author includes himself in this final group, which probably means the author was not Paul or any of the other apostles.) But this is not all...
B. “God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit”
1. The Bible tells us many times that God uses miracles to confirm new manifestations of His word.
a. Moses (Deut. 4:34; 6:22; Ps. 135:9; Jer. 32:20–21)
b. Jesus (John 14:11; 20:30-31; Acts 2:22)
2. And so it was with the apostles’ testimony. These original apostolic declarations of the gospel were verified by means of signs, wonders and miracles performed by the apostles, and by gifts of the Spirit distributed to members of His body. These miraculous deeds did not merely accompany the proclamation of the gospel, but “bore witness” to the truthfulness of the message.
a. Acts 14:3 “So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there [in Iconium], speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.”
b. 2Cor.12:12 “The things that mark an apostle – signs, wonders and miracles – were done among you with great perseverance.”
3. So, Hebrews 2:4 cites past miracles as proof of the validity of the apostolic message.
C. I’m not going to get into this right now, but I want to point out that here is the issue that distinguishes Charismatic from non-Charismatic theology.
1. Non-Charismatic theology argues that the miraculous and revelatory gifts were given during the days of the apostles to bear witness to the truthfulness of the gospel being preached.
2. Charismatic theology argues that these gifts are more for the general health and growth of Christ’s people and therefore continue through the entire age of the church.
V. In conclusion, I’d like to go back to Heb.2:1, which is the heart of this passage: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
A. These folks, having grown up as Jews, heard and embraced the word of Christ. And yet, now things have grown difficult for them. And they’re being pressured by friends and family to return back to Judaism.
B. I went through a little bit of the same thing after I became a Christian. I stopped going to meetings. I stopped reading my Bible. I don’t know why.
1. God had revealed Himself to me. He had given my ears to hear. But my newly opened ears still needed to pay attention to the word of Jesus.
C. Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mt.11:15, 13:9; Mark 9:4) This means that just because a person is given ears which are able to hear what God says doesn’t mean that the person is always going to listen to what He says.
1. If God has given you the precious gift of ears to hear, you still need to use them to listen to him, something the Hebrews were failing to do.
2. You see, the apostasy here isn't an apostasy of heresy or even an apostasy of rebellion, but an apostasy of neglect.
D. It’s not enough to meet Christ. That is just the beginning. It must go on as a relationship characterized by attentive listening.
E. In John 15 Jesus teaches us about abiding in Him as a branch abides in the vine.
1. You see, it’s not enough to be connected to the vine. You have to drink in the life of the vine or you’ll shrivel and die!
2. John 15:2-6 “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away... 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
F. The important question chapter one addressed was: Who is Jesus Christ?
1. The important question this passage addresses is: Who are you going to listen to? And specifically, Are you going to give your highest attention to Jesus Christ?
2. We’ve seen that He’s supremely worthy of our best listening.
3. We’ve seen that those who will not listen suffer a dreadful end.
G. The movie Gravity and several other movies have scenes which depict a horrifying danger no human being has actually experienced except in nightmares, and yet is such a real danger that billions of dollars have been spent to make sure it doesn't happen. I remember when I was 11 years old and the first space walk took place. I was haunted by the mere possibility of drifting away into space.
1. Well, the danger of drifting away from Christ is even worse.
2. Or the danger of never coming to Christ in the first place. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” That’s not what I say, that’s what God says.