Pay Close Attention!
Hebrews 2:1-4
Harry Stoliker
June 4, 2006 EBC
I have taught 4 of my 5 kids how to drive a car. Soon, I’ll teach Corissa how to
drive and complete the manly task of teaching your kids how to drive. I suppose
I could boil down all my instructions about the art of driving a 3,000 lb. machine
in 2 words! PAY ATTENTION! How many times have you told your kids that as
they learned to drive! Why were you so persistent in telling them to pay
attention? Because driving a 3,000lb. machine is a very dangerous thing and
people can get seriously hurt and even killed if they don’t pay close attention.
Well, there is something even more serious than driving a car here in the
book of Hebrews, and the author realizes that so he presses the point home in Chapter
2, verse 1 “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have
heard…” Notice how the issue is highlighted with 5 words in the English:
“must” - “pay” - “more” - “careful” – “attention.” First word is an imperative,
a command. It leaves no alternatives. This is God’s imperative to
the recipients of the letter. The word for “more careful” in Gk. means
“superabundantly” “exceedingly”. The Gk. word for “attention”
means “to hold the mind” “to apply oneself to” “to be cautious”.
Something very important is at stake here! God isn’t being superlative
just for the fun of it. The book of Hebrews is giving us many WARNINGS. Warnings
are good, aren’t they! Can you imagine buying some electrical device
and there not being a warning about how to use it or what conditions it is safe
to use it in? Can you imagine drugs and medicines being prescribed without
a warning label, telling you about side affects and conditions that must be known
so you don’t kill yourself! All the more critical are the warnings of the Bible
because we are dealing with eternity! We are dealing with heaven and hell!
Wouldn’t you then expect there to be many serious warnings?
What’s the warning here in Chapter 2? It is simply this: Pay very close attention
so that you don’t drift away! Pay close attention to what? So you
don’t drift away from what? Listen to this fine quote: “Both phrases
(‘pay attention’ and ‘drift away’) have nautical connotations. The first refers
to mooring a ship, tying it up at the dock. The second was often used of a ship
that had been allowed to drift past the harbor. The warning is to secure oneself
to the truth of the gospel, being careful not to pass by the only harbor of salvation.
The closest attention must be paid to these very serious matters of the Christian
faith. The readers in their tendency to apathy are in danger of making shipwreck
of their lives.” (John MacArthur)
“One great and fatal offense under the O.T. was apostasy from the worship
of Jehovah. This was punishable by death. The author strives to impress upon
his readers that their danger was the same, their crime if they forsook Christ
would be greater, and their punishment far more severe. It was greater, as
much as Christ was greater than Moses, and His blood more sacred than that of bulls
and goats. We need this caution and exhortation.”
There is a powerful word in this verse: “Therefore!” It is
placed in different positions depending upon your translation. Why is it powerful?
Because it points back to everything that was said in Chapter 1. The reason
you and I should pay close attention to our hearts is because Jesus Christ is
God’s prophet, priest and king who created, owns and reigns over
the universe! That’s why the author took all that time to carefully unpack the qualification
of Jesus’ superiority and supremacy.
This letter was written to a congregation of Jewish believers in Jesus that
was facing persecution for becoming Christians. Some of the people in that
new church were flirting with the idea of going back to Judaism in order
to try to avoid the persecution that identifying with Jesus Christ was causing.
The question became for those who were looking back: “Were they believers in the
first place?” The way the author deals with that question is to tell them
that there was nothing to go back to and that going back was perilous to their
souls!
Suppose you had a friend who seemed to have become a Christian as the result
of your testimony to him. Then he started to receive all kinds of criticism and
difficulty from his family, his extended family, and his non-Christian friends.
He comes to you and says, “I think things were better before when I was in that
other liberal church. No one seemed to bother me about what I believed or how I
lived. I’m going back there.” What would you tell him? You would warn him of the
danger of his pending decision to return to that liberal church, wouldn’t
you!
How would you go about warning him of the danger of going back? How would
you encourage him to face the persecutions and pressures that he was facing
from his family? I think you would do it the same way our author is doing
it. You would begin by telling him how great and majestic and divine Jesus
Christ really is. You would unpack the superiority and supremacy of Jesus. Then you
would warn him not to ignore what this Supreme Jesus has said, wouldn’t
you?
Look at V.2-3 “For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every
violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if
we ignore such a great salvation?”
What is our author doing in these two verses? He’s making yet another COMPARISON.
He is comparing the past, old covenant situation, with the present new covenant
situation. There are a few allusions in the Bible that angels were somehow
instrumental in the giving of the Law at Sinai (See Acts 7:53; Gal.3:19).
His point is that in the old covenant, every violation of God’s Holy Law
was justly punished, should you expect that in the greater covenant there would
be an even more severe punishment for neglect such a great salvation as we have
in the gospel? He’s comparing again Jesus to the angels. The angels delivered
a word from God that, when broken, ignored or violated, the result was punishment.
Now, Jesus has delivered the full, clear gospel of God and we dare not ignore
Him! We will see this idea many times in Hebrews. The New Covenant is greater
that the Old and brings greater privileges, responsibilities and greater punishment
for neglecting it.
“How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” If a man or woman
thinks they can live their entire lives and just ignore who Jesus Christ
is and what Jesus Christ demands of them, they are in for a dreadful day
at the end! There is only one way of salvation, one way to gain heaven and
avoid hell, and it is full submission of your heart and life to Jesus Christ.
It is utter trust in His work on your behalf at Calvary. It is the complete
abandoning of your ideas of self-righteousness and a simple trusting
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to you as an undeserved gift.
It is the repenting of your rebellious attitudes against Jesus, you independent
spirit of self-idolatry, your prideful self-worship of your own supposed
intelligence and human wisdom.
Men think they can escape God’s way of salvation. They think they are like
Harry Houdini and can find a way out of facing God’s Law through their
own self-made religion. Yes, every man has a religion! It may be the
religion of atheism or agnosticism or science or philosophy
or just the religion of trying to ignore religion! Every one of you sitting
here today is religious! The question is whether your religion is biblical!
Biblical religion is made up of repentance for evil attitudes and actions;
it is made up of giving Jesus Christ the honor and glory of being absolutely
the only way of gaining God’s forgiveness. It is made up of faith and trust and
obedience to every thing the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
Conclusion: I want to share my heart with you this morning. I’m carrying a
burden that is at the same time a blessed burden and a heavy responsibility
that I want to be absolutely faithful to.
The Book of Hebrews in part was written to people who thought they were listening
but who really weren’t hearing the message. Can you remember how many
times Jesus said after his powerful sermons and parables: “He who has ears
to hear, let him hear!” Why would he say that? Because many people hear the
words, the noise, the movement of air that hits their ear drums,
but they aren’t really hearing the truth.
What is my burden? My burden is for our church, you people. I greatly
desire that you really hear the gospel of salvation and the glory of Christ!
In every church audience there are some people who trying to fool themselves
and fool others that they really know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
There are some tares among the wheat that think they can escape in the end
if they live a ‘good life’ and are ‘decent, kind, generous, church-going’ people.
But that just won’t do it. You must be ‘born-again’! You must stop your rebellion
against Jesus and submit your heart and soul to Him as you Master. You must repent
and believe!
When I get home to heaven and Jesus asks me if I warned the people I preached
to in love that they should “pay close attention” to
the true gospel, I want to say, “Yes, Lord, I earnestly warned them in love
that they should not be self-deceived about our ‘great salvation.’ So, I
say as Jesus said: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” If you have ears in
your soul, so to speak, listen to what the Scriptures say.
There’s a second half to my burden that applies to everyone here this morning.
It is this: far too many of us think that we can hear the word of God preached
or read it ourselves in the Bible and remain unchanged. That kind of attitude
do not qualify as “listening with spiritual ears.” We cannot remain unchanged.
Listening means that we do not remain unchanged in hearing the content of chapter
1 of Hebrews. If you remain unchanged in some way, you haven’t heard the message.
When you read the Bible or come to church and hear it faithfully preached
do you comprehend that you must change in some way. When God speaks he expects
change. He doesn’t speak just to hear his own voice. We ought to be frequently
asking ourselves:
“Is the Word of God changing my life?” Don’t settle for some vague
“Well, I guess so!” answer.
My burden is that we are not asking this question frequently enough. We tolerate
mediocrity in our lives. We tolerate compromise with the world in
our lives. We make excuses for not aggressively examining whether
or not the Word of God is actually changing our passions and desires.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we
do not drift away.”
“Your ears will only hear what your heart wants to hear.” What do you want
to hear this morning, my friend? Do you want to hear the Voice of God? What is He
saying to you? Don’t make up your own message. Look into the Bible and hear
what He has spoken through His Son, Jesus Christ. Then let His words shape your
life around His will.
Pay attention!!
Let's pray.
H.