Hebrews 2:1-4 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

Do you pay attention to warning signs? The problem is that we now live in such a litigated society that there are warnings everywhere, not so much to protect us, but to protect others from being sued by still others. I’m still amazed that I now live in a world where the plastic coffee cup I drink from has this informative sentence: Caution: The Beverage You Are About to Drink Is Extremely Hot! To think that I needed that in writing, on the cup. What next? Warning on beds? Caution: the bed you’re about to lie on has edges over which it is possible to fall off. When warnings are just legal protections against stupidity, they lose their power. So in all this silliness, with warnings attached to food, medicine, appliances, we could be in danger of paying attention to some real warnings, warnings from our God and Creator. We’re going to see one of them here in Hebrews.

The writer of Hebrews is a pastor at heart, and he often breaks into his theology with some kind of application, or exhortation. He loves theology, and is a master at it, but is not content to simply give theology without practice. And here, having just given us an exquisite portrait of Christ, and a psalm-saturated comparison between Christ and the angels, now turns it into application.

His application comes in the form of the first of five warning passages in Hebrews. These passages are found here, in chapter 3, chapter 5 going into 6, chapter 10, and chapter 12. These warning passages have struck some fear into the hearts of those who read them, and so they should. Listen to some of them:

• 6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, (Heb. 6:4) if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Heb. 6:6)
• 26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (Heb. 10:26)
• 25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, (Heb. 12:25)

Each of these seem terrifying in their prospects. And they are meant to. But the relative level of threat to you depends upon the state of your heart. It depends on who you are with respect to Christ. Remember, the writer is addressing several groups of people, and he knows as much. He is speaking to Jewish believers. He is speaking to Jewish people intellectually convinced that Jesus is Messiah, but not committed. He is speaking to Jews and Gentiles who are not persuaded and don’t yet believe. He is speaking to Gentiles who are considering a return to Judaism. To each of those groups the warning is going to have a different effect, because each is in a different state of heart.

Let’s imagine a school library where the books are regularly going missing. The principal assembles the school and says, “I am glad to tell you that we have just installed a state-of-the-art book protection technology in the library. First, all books have been magnetically tagged, and a tracker placed in each one. Any book leaving the library without being checked out will immediately sound an alarm. Furthermore, using GPS, we’ll be able to track the book. Finally, if attempting to flee, each book now has a taser mechanism which will send 50,000 volts through the body of the fleeing schoolchild.”

Well, as a silent awe settles over the students, think about how the different audiences within the group are experiencing this warning. There are those kids who have never stolen, haven’t been particularly tempted to. They’re thinking, “Wow, glad I’ve never dabbled in that. I certainly won’t in the future.”

Then there are the kids who’ve been seriously toying with the idea, and had their eyes on a particular book. They’re thinking, “Wow, this changes everything. I could get into serious trouble for what I was planning.”

Then there are the kids who’ve already stolen books, and cold sweat breaks out on them, and they are thinking “I better put an end to that. I wonder if that can track the books I’ve already stolen?”

And maybe there’s a fourth category of hardened criminals, who’re thinking, “Now this will be a challenge to get around!”

But do you see that the same warning given to all has different effects for the ones hearing it, depending on their relationship to library theft?

The same is true for both the original and modern day audiences of these warnings in Hebrews. Depending on where you are with respect to faith in Christ, the warning may have very different applications for you. Whether you have trusted Him as Lord, whether you are toying with the idea, whether you don’t accept Him, or whether you’re pointed back to the Old Covenant, these warnings, and this warning, will have the right effect on you.

To break it down, this warning comes in the form of a command, what we must do, and then a conditional threat, what will happen if we don’t.

I. We Must Pay Careful Attention to Christ

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

Therefore, linking this to the previous section on angels and Christ, we must, it is necessary or essential, to give the more earnest heed. This means close attention, careful attention, concentrated focus. And then he adds the qualifier translated “earnest” to tell you just how close. This word means going beyond a standard of abundance. So if you were known as class champion for paying attention, then you are supposed to top that. Riveted, scrupulous, intense, longing attention.

Now I don’t know in our day what pay attention means to you. In Canada, some researchers studied the brain activity of 112 people using electroencephalograms, and surveyed 2000 others. They found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, which was more or less when the smartphone revolution began, to eight seconds.

In a society that now honours and even requires multi-tasking, tasking vast amounts of superficial information, skimming hundreds of forms of communication a day, to having screens on in just about every conceivable place, to say nothing about the shallowness of social media occupying even more time, we are probably the generation whose knowledge will be a mile wide, and an inch deep.

And it’s because few Christians are paying attention to the idea of paying attention.

Let me give you an example of paying attention. This was given to me in one of my first classes on interpreting the Bible. It was written by a student at Harvard, who enrolled to become an entomologist, and was assigned to study under Louis Agassiz, a famous professor of biology in the 19th century.

On the day he arrived at Agassiz’ office, he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol.

“Take this fish,” he said, “and look at it; we call it a Haemulon; by and by I will ask what you have seen.”

With that he left me. . . . I was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for gazing at a fish did not commend itself to an ardent entomologist. . . .

In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in that fish, and started in search of the professor, who had, however, left the museum; and when I returned, after lingering over some of the odd animals stored in the upper apartment, my specimen was dry all over. I dashed the fluid over the fish as if to resuscitate it from a fainting-fit, and looked with anxiety for a return of a normal, sloppy appearance. This little excitement over, nothing was to be done but return to a steadfast gaze at my mute companion. Half an hour passed, an hour, another hour; the fish began to look loathsome. I turned it over and around; looked it in the face—ghastly; from behind, beneath, above, sideways, at a three-quarters view—just as ghastly. I was in despair; at an early hour, I concluded that lunch was necessary; so with infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar, and for an hour I was free.

On my return, I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the museum, but had gone and would not return for several hours.

Slowly I drew forth that hideous fish, and with a feeling of desperation again looked at it. I might not use a magnifying glass; instruments of all kinds were forbidden. …I pushed my fingers down its throat to see how sharp its teeth were. I began to count the scales in the different rows until I was convinced that that was nonsense. At last a happy thought struck me—I would draw the fish; and now with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature. Just then the professor returned.

“That is right,” said he, “a pencil is one of the best eyes.” With these encouraging words he added—“Well, what is it like?”

He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknown to me; the fringed gill-arches and movable operculum; the pores of the head, fleshly lips, and lidless eyes; the lateral line, the spinous fin, and forked tail; the compressed and arched body.

When I had finished, he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment: “You have not looked very carefully; why,” he continued, more earnestly, “you haven’t seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself. Look again; look again!” And he left me to my misery.

I was mortified. Still more of that wretched fish? But now I set myself to the task with a will, and discovered one new thing after another, until I saw how just the professor’s criticism had been. The afternoon passed quickly, and when, towards its close, the professor inquired, “Do you see it yet?”

“No,” I replied. “I am certain I do not, but I see how little I saw before.”

“That is next best,” said he earnestly, “but I won’t hear you now; put away your fish and go home; perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning. I will examine you before you look at the fish.”

I went home, and spent a restless night, and returned in the morning.

“Do you perhaps mean,” I asked, “that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?”

His thoroughly pleased, “Of course, of course!” repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night.

After he had discoursed most happily and enthusiastically—as he always did—upon the importance of this point, I ventured to ask what I should do next.

“Oh, look at your fish!” he said, and left me again to my own devices. In a little more than an hour he returned and heard my new catalogue.

“That is good, that is good!” he repeated, “but that is not all; go on.” And so for three long days, he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else, or to use any artificial aid. “Look, look, look,” was his repeated injunction.

This was the best entomological lesson I ever had—a lesson whose influence was extended to the details of every subsequent study; a legacy the professor has left to me, as he left it to many others, of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we cannot part. . . .”

That’s pay earnest attention. It’s becoming a lost art in our world. But the writer says, therefore, in light of this supreme Christ, in light of His superiority to angels, we need to give this kind of attention.

To what? To the things which we have heard. By that, he means the message of the Gospel. This epistle, which is all about where God has spoken, tells us that God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. He means the truth about Christ, as it has been reported and written down by the apostles and their associates.

We need to give God’s Word, and the Gospel about Christ, the kind of scrupulous attention the student gave the fish.

We gather. We listen intently, taking notes if it helps us. We study the passage again at home. We visit it anew on Wednesday. We access the treasure-trove of tools and resources to help us study the Word. We read. We meditate. We pray. We apply.

“Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it be only the bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place). Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God’s presence envelops you… Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it. Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be what and who you are without regard to what others think… Learn to pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work… Read less, but more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration. All the above is contingent upon a right relation to God through Christ and daily meditation on the Scriptures.”

Because if we don’t, the writer says we will drift. The image is of a boat, unmoored, and uncontrolled, now taken by the current or the waves, at the mercy of the elements, rather than using them. What’s interesting is the word for take heed, or pay attention actually also has a nautical, sailing shade of meaning, it can mean to moor a ship. So these words may well be meant to stand as clear opposites: you either anchor your attention on Scripture, the Tanakh and the New Covenant, or you drift. You can only do one of those activities at once, but you cannot do both, and there is nothing in between.

The sinful heart drifts. An unbiblical view of the heart sees it like a tranquil lake, and sometimes we aren’t really going anywhere, because we just not rowing hard enough. A biblical view of the heart sees it as a river running rapidly towards the waterfall of destruction. The currents of fleshliness, worldliness and foolishness are so strong in the human heart, that if you want to see if this is true, just leave your children to follow the currents of their own heart. Don’t make any rules, don’t discipline them for disobedience, don’t require immediate, cheerful obedience. And definitely don’t force any religious view on them. Let them follow their wishes and whims, and see in 20 years time if their heart was a tranquil lake, or stream rushing to destruction.

If you are neglecting to pay close attention to the Word, you are not stationary with respect to Christ, you are drifting. Drifting is slow at first and fairly easy to stop. But the longer it goes on, the further you go.

If you have never trusted Christ, you need to know that you cannot postpone the matter, and not find yourself drifting away from Christ. That’s why you find the person who seems so interested one day, so keen, but does not maintain that attention and close with Christ, he finds himself slowly but surely less interested. His conscience seems less bothered as the days go by. He is drifting. He was once quite absorbed with this notion of Jesus being God and Messiah, but now it seems to fade. Other things seem so much more compelling, more interesting.

If that’s you, then the call today is, pay attention. If a doctor told you, “Look, you’re dying, I don’t know how long you’ve got. I don’t have time to tell you about it. I’ve written everything down in this report, as well as the steps you can take to save yourself. Read it if you wish.” What would you do with that report? So what will you do with the life-saving Gospel of Jesus?

If you have trusted Christ, or think you have, drift is still possible. A coldness in your walk with God. A distaste for preaching. Increasing interest in the world. Bitterness and resentment growing in your heart towards believers and the church. Boredom with the things of God. Increasing scarceness at times of corporate worship, for no serious reason. At first, most of us don’t detect the drift. But give it long enough, and it’s obvious to even our own self-deceived hearts. We are condoning sins we never would have accepted years ago. We’re finding more to like about the world, and less to like about the church than ever before. If you had to honestly assess your life of meditation and prayer, you’d have to admit it’s mostly dead.

How did it happen? When you gave up the discipline of earnestly paying attention to Jesus Christ, which is another way of saying, the discipline of worship.

Pay attention to the things we have heard: the Scriptures which reveal Christ, where God has spoken.

He has told us the command, the exhortation, what we must do. He is now going to give us the warning, the threat, the danger, if we do not.

II. The New Covenant is Stricter than the Old

Hebrews 2:1-4 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

The contrast between the old covenant, the Law, and the New, is seen in verse 2. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast. There’s a fairly long tradition that the Law was partly mediated to Moses through angels. We read in Psalm 68:17: The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.

Deuteronomy 33:2 says: And he said: “The LORD came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came with ten thousands of saints; From His right hand Came a fiery law for them.”

Acts 7:53 says: “who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

He is arguing from the lesser to the greater. If something was true of the lesser Law, it will be even more so with the Greater Law.

Notice his argument:

For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward.

So, if the Word spoken by angels, the Law, was fixed, and each and every wrongdoing was punished justly from Sabbath breaking to murder,

how shall we escape just punishment for our sins if we neglect so great a salvation? If the lesser, angelically-mediated covenant did not vacillate when it came to justice, how could we think justice will vacillate in this New Covenant?

The Law was spoken through angels, but notice who spoke this covenant:

Verse 3: at the first began to be spoken by the Lord. This Gospel, this great salvation came from the lips of the one described in verses 1:3 as the radiance of God’s glory and the express image of His person.

Verse 3: It was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. This is a reference to the apostles. These specially chosen 12 men were delegated the task of communicating the new covenant to Israel, twelve of them for the twelve tribes, and then to unlock the church to Samaritans, and to Gentiles. Notice whoever the writer of Hebrews is, he does not see himself as an apostle, but is obviously close to the apostles. He has heard the apostles speak of their experiences.

Verse 4: On top of this, to prove that these apostles were ushering in the new covenant, God bore witness, He confirmed, He authenticated them with four things: signs, wonders, miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit.

You realize that in biblical history, outpourings of signs and wonders have not continued steadily. They’re actually quite concentrated and punctuated. The three main periods of signs, miracles, and wonders were the period of Moses and Joshua; second, the period of Elijah and Elisha; third, the period of Jesus and the Apostles. And notice they accompany something significant. Moses and Elijah, the Mosaic Covenant is given, God establishes Israel as a nation to Himself. With Elijah and Elisha, Israel, for the first time, is actually worshipping a foreign god, they have committed spiritual adultery and broken the covenant. God inaugurates the era of the prophets, calling Israel and Judah back to Himself.

And then Christ and the apostles is obviously the inauguration of the new covenant. Signs, miracles, wonders, and the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic era authenticated the messengers, and signaled that a covenant was being made or renewed, and that new Scripture was about to be given.

This writer had seen some of them, maybe he’d participated in them, but it almost seems as if he writes of this as if it’s already mostly in the past. This is just thirty, or thirty-five years after Christ’s ascension, and it seems as if the confirmatory work is already done.

But here’s the big point, this new covenant message was spoken by God the Son, repeated by the apostles, who were authenticated with Moses-like and Elijah-like miracles (notice all three persons of the Trinity are involved in this – the Lord speaking, the Father confirming, the Spirit gifting).

This is obviously so much superior to the old covenant which was mediated by angels!

So, if the standard for that old covenant was fixed, and punishment came for every offence, what will the punishment be under the greater new covenant if we commit the greater sin of neglecting this gospel? The word neglect here means to care nothing for, to pay no attention to, to disregard. How shall we escape? And the answer is, we will not.

At first that might sound very odd. After all, didn’t Peter say that the Law was an intolerable burden? Doesn’t Paul describe the new covenant, with Spirit-enabled obedience, as a freedom? Yes, indeed. But it’s a freedom of mobility, not of authority. I move freely under Christ; it’s not that I am now free to make the law for myself. There are enablements and privileges in the new covenant that were unheard of in the old. But with those greater privileges and greater enablements come greater responsibilities, and greater accountability.

That’s why it’s amusing to me when I hear people say, “Well that was old covenant, we’re free now under the new,” as if the old covenant was strict, and the new covenant is just do-as-you-please living. The book of Hebrews says literally the opposite. It says, yes, it is better, yes, the fear need no longer be there, yes, we need no longer depend on physical types and shadows, yes, this is now permanent, better, eternal. But, it also says, this new covenant is now a clearer and more direct voice of God. It has been more thoroughly attested than the old. It is God’s personal, complete, direct form of revelation with man. That means if you live in the era of the new covenant, you will face a stricter judgement. To whom much is given, much will be required. Prophets longed to see the things you already know from childhood. You have providentially been born in the time when there is perhaps the highest potential exposure to the Word of God than any other time, through the Internet, multimedia, books, e-books. Of all peoples, except perhaps the next generation, if the Lord tarries, we are the ones with least excuse for rejecting the Son of God.

Are you drifting with respect to Christ? The warnings in Hebrews get increasingly more severe as the book goes on, because prolonged unbelief, or prolonged hardness to the chastening hand of God turns drifting from God’s Word into doubting God’s Word, from doubting into dullness, from dullness into despising, from despising into defying. Stop the drift.

Here’s how: pay earnest, close attention to Christ. Like Agassiz’s student. Pay attention till it hurts, till it inconveniences you, till you’re sure you have. And then keep paying attention.

Pay close attention to Christ in His Word. Unbeliever, examine His claims to be the Messiah. Rivet your focus again on Him. Unbeliever, knock and keep on knocking until you find.