Sermon Tone Analysis

*In Danger of Drifting*

*Hebrews 2:1-4*

 

Big Idea:  We must adhere strongly to the message of salvation given to us by God through Jesus.

I.

Introduction

A.            Fishing in my Grandma’s boat

1.             Growing up in Michigan

2.             Fishing from the dock

3.             Going out on aluminum  row boat with a cousin

4.             After fishing for some time, losing sight of where we were supposed to be

5.             Drifted off course, or away from our dock

B.            Drifting definition - The deviation from a set course due to external forces, like cross winds and currents

C.            In Danger of Drifting?

1.

In marriage, one spouse or another may be moving away from the course that was set by their vows or from the common goals that they had once agreed upon.

2.             Graduating – getting out of the home

3.             Tight economic times, many are doing things that they wouldn’t normally do in order to try to save money or gain extra money

D.            Role of circumstances

1.             Circumstances change all the time.

2.             We use circumstances as an excuse to compromise in areas where we once stood firm.

E.             Result of drifting

1.

Because of this drifting we may have found ourselves in a place where we don’t want to be.

2.             We may have lost joy, or purpose, or contentment

II.

Transition~/Background

A.            In the Book of Hebrews, the author addresses people in just this situation: they are being confronted by outside forces that strongly desire them to change, and they are giving in to it.

1.

The main problem that these Christians were facing was persecution from Judaizers.

a.              Judaizers were Jewish people who would come in behind an apostle as he set up a church, and after he left, would begin to “encourage” the people to “modify” their faith.

b.

They would adhere to “saved by grace through faith” (Eph.

2:8)

c.

However, they would say that as Jews, or as Gentiles who wanted to be “full Christians”, they would need to add certain things into their Christian walk.

i.

They would tell them that they needed to add certain Jewish religious practices into their life.

ii.

They needed to keep the Sabbath, keep Jewish festivals, worship angels and keep kosher.

iii.

Paul addressed this very same issue in Colossians 2:16-23

d.

If people resisted, the Judaizers would throw them out of synagogue, ostracize them from any community, and sometimes, even do them physical harm.

e.              Peer pressure to the extreme.

2.             Because of this, people were losing sight of Christ and His supremacy over all things as our reason to worship Him, and as a result, were substituting other, inferior things instead.

B.            The author starts the process, with the opening verses, with re-educating the discouraged believers as to why we should worship Jesus and Him alone.

1.             First, Jesus is God in the flesh (Heb.

1:3), and as such whenever Jesus speaks, it is God speaking.

a.              God had spoken previously, but it was through prophets (in what we would call the OT)

b.

Now, God was speaking, through His Son, which gives a superiority to His message

2.             Second, Jesus is superior to angels in His relationship to God as Son, His attributes of deity, and in His dominion over the earth.

a.              Again, the people were being coerced into worshipping angels as part of accepted Jewish practice at the time.

b.

The author wanted them to remember that by doing so, they were actually worshipping something that was inferior.

C.            At the beginning of chapter 2, the author seems to break from his flow of thought and the development of his argument in order to exhort or warn his audience over what he thought was an important point.

III.

Exposition

A.            *The Command (Heb.

2:1)*

1.

After going through all that he does in chapter 1 of Hebrews, the author says, “Therefore we must”

a.

The imperative here is of the strongest force

b.

Because of all that I have said, it is of a logical necessity to do what I am about to tell you.

2.             What he commands the listeners then, and us now, is that we pay much closer attention to, we hold more firmly to, or as the /Message/ says, “we keep a firm grip on what we have heard”, so that we do not drift away from it.

3.             The language that the author uses here is nautical in nature and is evocative of a ship trying to enter port.

a.

The phrase “pay much closer attention” is used to describe how a ship captain diligently concentrates on keeping his bearings so that he can hold the ship toward port.

b.              “Drift away” is the exact opposite, where apathy and lethargy take over and the ship is allowed to go wherever the wind and currents take it.

4.             What have we heard?

a.

The gospel message spoken by the Son of God, which we will get to in a moment.

b.

This is what we need to hold on to and not drift away from.

c.              Next, the author gives two encouragements as to why we should hold on fervently to this message.

B.            *The Negative Reason (Heb.

2:2-3a)*

1.

The first encouragement has to do with consequences.

2.             To make his point, the author tells a truth that everybody understood and could easily see.

a.

He said that the Law given to Moses on Mt.

Sinai was a valid and reliable message from God.

i.               Later rabbinic teaching said that God gave the Law to angels to give to Moses.

ii.

Reasons are God’s holiness and our sinfulness

b.

The Law is holy and righteous and good (Rom.

7:12)

i.

Because it was a legally valid document, every transgression or disobedience deserved just punishment

ii.

The words for disobedience and transgression imply a willingness to stop listening to the message and deliberately turn away from what is being taught.

c.

We see examples in the OT where deliberate sin is justly punished

i.               On an individual level, after hearing the commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex.

20:8), a man in Num. 15 was found working on the Sabbath and was consequently taken outside the camp and stoned to death.

ii.

On a national level, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were both removed from the Promised Land because they repeatedly broke the first commandment which says, “You shall have no other gods besides me” (Ex.

20:3).

3.             The author uses this point and argues from the lesser to the greater.

a.

If angels are inferior to the Son of God

b.

Then the message given by the angels is inferior to the one given by the Son.

c.

Then, if the people were justly punished for deliberately disobeying the Ten Commandments, which were given to Moses by angels,