Hebrews 2:1-4--Do Not Neglect Your Salvation

Hebrews 2:1-4 • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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The warning given to us by the author of Hebrews encourages us to not Drift away from the truth that is revealed through Jesus Christ, but to ground ourselves in this truth. We are to hold fast to God's work, and his will.

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Do Not Neglect Your Salvation

- Warning Against Neglecting Salvation

[1] 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. (ESV)

In the movie castaway, Tom Hanks character near the end watches his “friend” Wilson, drift off into the ocean, never to be seen again. The main character had taken his eyes off of his friend for one second, and the next thing you know Wilson is so far gone that there is no hope of retrieving him. In the movie this is a very dramatic scene. In the christian life however, moments of drifting away happen all too often. In , as we will see, there is a warning for Christians agains Neglecting Salvation.

There are Three main themes that I want to address in todays message:

The Faithful Warning

The Faithful Witness

The Faithful Calling

The Faithful Warning

In order for us to jump into Chapter 2, we must first pay attention to the first word. In my translation it says “Therefore”. Some other translations might say “for this reason”, or “because of this reason”. Now, a common thought when looking at the text is that if it starts with “therefore”, we must find out what that “therefore”, is there for. We don’t just start sentences with “therefore”. There has to be a reason, a preconceptual thought that is given to us leading up to why someone would say this. “I think I’m getting tired, therefore I should get some sleep”. What this word should do anytime we are reading Scripture is to cause the reader to pause and say “hmm… what is the logic that comes before this passage that causes him to lead into this passage.” It shouldn’t be crazy to think that there is some thought put into a letter such as Hebrews, and the author has a very important reason to say “therefore”.

If we take a look at the history of the church at this time, we can note that Christians were beginning to face some serious persecution. In fact, the persecution was so severe, that Christians were considering abandoning Christianity and going back to Judaism. At the time Judaism was still a legal religion while Christianity was not, and the persecution that the church was facing was causing some to stumble and reconsider what they were doing. They were starting to realize that living the christian life is hard, and that perhaps it wasn’t worth it. So this is what the author of Hebrews is addressing. He’s saying “No. Stop. Don’t go back. It’s not worth it. Jesus is better.” So begins this brief timeline found in the opening chapter of Hebrews. In the OT, the old covenant, God spoke to his people by way of prophets. Now we have God’s son. God appointed the Law as an overseer until Christ came. Christ came and established his reign of all things. He is the the radiance of God’s glory. Exact expression of his nature. He has made purification for our sins. We no longer are we required to make a sacrifice, Christ has atoned for us once and for all, and our faith purifies us and makes us whole. God made Jesus superior to the angels. So the overall point that the author is trying to articulate is the Christ, the one for whom they were facing heavy persecution for, is way better than the old ways. The Son is one of heavenly authority, and the angels role as servants to “those who are to inherit salvation” talking about the Christians here. The angels are to servants to Christ, but also to His people, who inherit salvation through union with Him.

So given all these exclamations the author points to he then declares this warning: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

○ So begins this brief timeline found in the opening chapter of Hebrews

■ In the OT, the old covenant, God spoke to his people by way of prophets

The warning here uses the word drift, as one would drift away from the teachings that they would hear. I used the example of Cast Away, where Wilson drifts away from the raft. The language here suggests nautical terminology, something like a ship drifting from a dock. Drifting like this is not intentional, but when an anchor breaks away from the ocean floor, a ship has a chance of dangerously drifting away. In the biblical times, they of course did not have the motorized tools like we have today. They would have to carefully navigate their boats to the docks. If the captain was too careless with his maneuvering, he could possible crash into the docks. If he took down his sails too early, there was a possibility of the ship beginning to drift away back into the ocean. Now of course, a ship captain wouldn’t intentionally put his boat, or his crew at risk, nor would he want to be held responsible for the damages of a dock if he were to get too close. Rather, situations like this come from inattention and carelessness. This is what was beginning to happen in the church. In their persecution, they were starting to become careless about their anchor that was in Christ Jesus. They were beginning to drift away, not intentionally, but over time and through what must have become worsening persecution, they found themselves further away from the anchor of Christ and closer to the shores of Judaism. So here we have the author saying “Pay attention to what the teachers you have heard and the teachings they have said, lest you forget the truth of salvation.” All too often, Christians neglect their anchor, and unknowingly begin to neglect the master who bought them. This usually doesn’t look very dramatic, there might not be friction, but just a slow, casual departure from Christ. Sadly, there are many churches that we see doing this today. Through perhaps a desire to not ruffle feathers, or worried about what others might have thought, they didn’t take this stand on a theological issue, or neglected this individual truth. Churches like this might look healthy on the exterior, but as the author of Revelations says “you have abandoned the love you had at first.” ().

What causes a christian to drift away? there are many reasons I can think of. Number 1 is that we tend to drift away because of the natural tides of life. This life tends to be a long, hard one, and after some time, the fight for the christian life just becomes harder and harder. There are many who at one time or another in their life were professing christians, who after one thing or another, one event after another, they slowly began to drift away from their faith. I had a friend, who actually brought me into his church, and reminded me of the goodness of God’s love, who now is a professing atheist. He had been a christian for years, and I thought he was a really strong Christian, but slowly but surely the church attendance slipped, followed by his outlook on the world, and I think after so much time being away from what the truth had, he simply could not keep up the facade. The race became too hard.

● Now we have God’s son

■ God appointed the Law as an overseer until Christ came

A slow drift, given enough time, will carry you to another continent and its dark uncharted waters.-Kent Hughes.

There is also this familiarity with the truth. This view of “yeah I know this, or I know that”. Some of you might be right along with me on the message. We’ve been here, we’ve heard this. You’ve become used to the message and in a way its started to become boring to you. I’m guilty of this same infraction. I’ve read my bible, I’ve gone to church, I’ve studied this book, I have no interest in jumping back into this text again and again. While in some ways familiarity can help the reader maintain joy in the love of Christ, it also can become dangerous as we become too familiar with it. We have to mentally check in before we mentally drift away.

● Christ came and established his reign of all things

For some it can be busyness. this one folks are all too familiar with. Even pastors can become too busy to sit down and focus on the truth revealed through Scripture.

● He is the the radiance of God’s glory

● Exact expression of his nature

All this is why the author tells us to pay “careful attention to what we have heard.” This is the cure to our drifting nature. In the military we have a saying that we use ad nauseum. We constantly yell “stay vigilant”. I remember one time in training, I was responsible for guarding the rear of our unit. When we would halt I would move ten paces to the rear and lay down on the ground with my rifle in a prone position, and await the all clear. I was supposed to be scanning the trees and the road for intruders, but after six weeks of training, I was a little tired, and unintentionally, fell asleep. I woke up ten minutes later and my unit had formed up and moved out. I was all by myself. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, it just happened. but i was careless in that moment. I wasn’t paying attention. In a real situation I could have gotten my unit killed, I could have gotten lost. All because the fight was getting exhausting and I wasn’t staying vigilant. Now I could argue that my unit should have noticed my disappearance, but I won’t go there. But it just shows us that if we aren’t careful it is too easy for us to get lost or drift away from our mission.

● He has made purification for our sins

So the author tells us that vigilance to the truth is our persevering factor. and we see this as we read verse 2. “For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

So where is the author going here? the argument seems to be framed that if the truth given to us by the angels was reliable, including the penalty given to those who were disobedient to God in the OT, then how much more reliable is the teaching of Jesus Christ and the promises that he has given to his church?

So because of who Jesus is, and because of what he’s done, we should pay close attention lest we drift away. and because of this message of salvation, thats been declared by the angles and proved to be reliable,

○ No longer are we required to make a sacrifice, Christ has atoned for us once and for all, and our faith purifies us and makes us whole

One thing that the author points out is that the common teaching of both Christians and Jews were that angels were the ones that were mediators for giving the law to the people. Its mentioned in , and even Stephen addresses his accusers with this truth in . He reminds them that “you have received the law that was put into effect through angels.

■ God makes hum superior to the angels

But the point of this statement is to mention that the words of the angels were reliable. They were binding. they were fact. They were so binding that as verse 2 mentions, “every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. If we were able to do a 35,000 ft flyover of the OT, we would see multiple occasions where the disobedience of those against God meets their just reward. Sometimes we would see God rain fire from heaven. Other times he would use snakes. To show an example of the just retribution, in we see a man picking up sticks on the Sabbath. This wasn’t ignorance, but rather flat-out disobedience. He knew the Law. The Israelites locked the man up and asked God what to do, and he told them to take the man out of the camp and stone him. Why? Was this unjust? no! The angel had already told Moses, who told the people, that they must be obedient.

○ So the overall point that the author is trying to articulate is the Christ, the one for whom they were facing heavy persecution for, is way better than the old ways.

So now the author asks “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” so basically the author is saying, if the message from the angels were binding, and now we have Jesus, and Jesus gives us a message, how much more important is that message than the ones given to us by the angels. The question is rhetorical because he answers the question in the second part of verse 3. “It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,” Lets break this down one by one.

○ the Son as one of heavenly authority, and the angels role as servants to “those who are to inherit salvation” talking about the Christians here. The angels are to servants to Christ, but also to His people, who inherit salvation through union with Him.

It was declared at first by the Lord

Our first point is that Jesus himself proclaimed it! The angels mediated the law, but Christ, he was more than just a mediator. He is the divine Son of God, he was the incarnate son of God (Incarnate is just a fancy word for in the flesh, human nature). This alone makes his mandate much more valuable than anything the angels could have given.

Philip Hughes mentions that “The good news of salvation, then, derives from the Lord, whose mediatorship is absolutely other than that of the angels.” Proclaims that “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time”.

So it was declared by Christ

Second it was confirmed

This message given to us by Christ was also confirmed to us by those who heard him.

This part of the message is pointing to the Apostles, the ones who went out and preached the good news that a savior had come. The passing along from faith to faith. The same message that Jesus gave the Apostles, who gave it to others, which has been handed down and guarded faithfully, all the way to where we are right now, where we get to hear of this wondrous news of what Christ has done for us.

Testified

Lastly, God testifies to it himself, as mentioned in v.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.

The testimony, and signs pointed beyond themselves to the mighty hand of God. Wonders brought awe and amazement to those who saw them. Miracles showed the power that God has beyond human ability. and finally, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were given according to God’s will.

Considering this testimony I think we could all agree that the argument is pretty solid. It also shows in a sense the heaviness of the words of Jesus, words that were backed up by his Father in heaven.

All these answers drive us back to the question “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

This is a message for those who have heard the good news of the gospel, have seen its affects, but have become disillusioned by it. This is a message that is directed towards the attitude of the christian, whose allowing the world to dictate what he is to enjoy, when we know that it leads to sorrow and pain. This is message for those who have lost their desire to cling to the anchor that is Christ Jesus, and have drifted away.

The truth is that there is a reward for those that have heard and have not anchored themselves to the truth. The reward is just retribution for the ignoring of the gospel. The author reminds us that there is no escape. there are terrible consequences to be had for ignoring the truth that Jesus revealed. And they will be far worse than what happened in the old testament.

John Calvin is quoted as once saying “It is not only the rejecting of the Gospel, but even the neglecting of it that deserves the severest penalty in view of the greatness of the grace which is offered in it… God wishes His gifts to be valued by us at their proper worth. The more precious they are, the more sour is our ingratitude if they do not have their proper value for us. In accordance with the greatness of Christ, so will be the severity of God’s vengeance on all despisers of the Gospel.”

So what do we do here? How do we keep ourselves anchored? How do we keep ourselves from drifting away?

First, we must not let our attention on Christ lose its focus. We must remind ourselves daily of the supremacy of Christ. We are to meditate on him day and night, focusing on the passages that we have been given. Tuning a sharp focus on the truth that is given to us in Christ Jesus.

CS Lewis once said to a little girl: If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you always do so.”

Second, We must pay close attention to what we have heard. This means living in the revelation of God’s Word. In Deuteronomy we see crucial words given to us, that we should consider heavily. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.