By Lyllian Velasquez, Pastoral Team Leader

The only reason we drift away from Jesus is that we regard something else as more important.

Regrets teaches us that choices have consequences. They also reveal that we need to become better decision makers.We teach our young children that choices have consequences. It is one of life’s fundamental truths. Unintended consequences of our choices often wreak havoc in our lives and the lives of others. Choices have consequences.

Decision making is a powerful force in our lives. Our decisions quite literally shape our lives. We make the future with our choices. Choices got you here, but if you don’t like ‘here’, all you need to do is start making different choices. Your choices have power. You possess incredible power and can choose what is good and holy. Or you can choose what is unholy and destructive. Your choices have power.

The book of Hebrews, the whole chapter is a declaration and celebration of God’s final word to the world — Jesus Christ the Son of God. The chapter begins, “God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days he *has spoken to us in his Son.” The point of chapter 1 is that something astounding happened in the coming of the Son of God. The LORD is the divine, incarnate Son of God recorded for us in Hebrews 1:1-4. He is the God-man. He is God with us. Because He is greater than the angels He is infinitely qualified to be the mediator between God and man. He has first spoken the good news of salvation.

This is Hebrews’ way of saying what John said in his gospel: 1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14). In other words, God the Son took on human form as God’s final, decisive Word to the world. Not final in that God has not spoken since then, but final and decisive in that, since Jesus came, all that God has to say is rooted in Jesus, and points toward Jesus, and is proven by conformity to Jesus. All the fullness of God is in Jesus (Colossians 2:9). All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Jesus (Colossians 2:3). Beyond what the Old Testament told us, whatever we need to know about God and how he relates to our lives, we learn from what we hear and see in God’s final, decisive Word: Jesus Christ.

In summary, chapter 1 says that the Son of God is the heir of all things (verse 2), he made the world (verse 2), he is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature (verse 3), he upholds all things by the word of his power (verse 3), he made purification for sins (verse 3), he sat down at the right hand of God’s majesty (verse 3), and he is greater than any angel (verse 4) because angels worship him (verse 6). He is the mighty God (verse 8).

But in chapter 2 the first thing is a command or a duty — something we must do. And the connection with chapter 1 is very important. Chapter 2 begins, “For this reason . . .” In other words, it begins by telling us that chapter 1 is the reason for this duty. Because God has spoken by his Son in these last days, and because he is the Creator, Sustainer, Owner, Ruler and Redeemer of the world — above all angels — therefore (“for this reason . . . ”) “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard.” It is easy to think this exhortation is being directed to unbelievers, but this letter was actually written to the Christians.

In the first command in this letter we’re able to hear a sense of urgency and a necessity to not only hear carefully but also (do) what we hear.

Now here is a command that we desperately need to hear in our day. What do you listen to? Whom do you listen to? God has spoken through his Son, do you listen to him? How does your listening to him compare to your listening to other things? When we want to listen to someone, we make provisions for listening. If we want to listen to the news, we make sure that we have a TV or a radio and that we have it turned on at the right time and on the right channel. So how does all this compare to our listening to God’s word to us in his Son? Are you listening to that? Are you making the right provisions for that?

What Hebrews is saying here is that in the Christian life we must go on listening to God’s word in Jesus. And we must do this with very close attention. We cannot treat this casually. We cannot act as if we already know all we need to know, or that we have nothing to gain from listening to Jesus. There is an urgency here in Hebrews 2:1. Literally, it says, “Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard.” It is not just an option that you can do if you are especially spiritual or have a crisis in front of you. This is a word to all Christians: it says “We must pay greater attention to what we have heard. “

This is not an isolated command in the book of Hebrews. This concern to get the readers to wake up and listen closely to God is repeated. For example, Hebrews 3:1 says, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus.” Consider Jesus! That’s the point of Hebrews 2:1. Listen to him. Consider him. Focus on him. Stay close to him and keep him in your thoughts. Learn more and more from him every day — what he is like and what he says and the way he sees the world. Then again in Hebrews 12:1–2 the author says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.” There it is again: “Fix your eyes on Jesus.” Consider Jesus! Listen to Jesus!

One of the great burdens of this book is that we the readers will see how serious it is to listen to Jesus, the Word of God, and consider Jesus, and fix our eyes on Jesus. This is the first commandment in the book. It is not a difficult command. ‘To listen and consider”. These are not hard things to do — unless we don’t want to do them.

Beloved, the first command of this book is not ‘labor for Jesus,’ but ‘listen to Jesus.’ He is not commanding us to work for him, but to watch him. All our spiritual life-changes come from that (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Christian life is first and foremost a life of contemplation — listening to Jesus, considering Jesus, fixing the eyes of the heart on Jesus. Everything else in the Christian life grows out of this. Without this, the Christian life is simply unlivable.

This is why the next phrase in verse 1 is a warning: “so that we do not drift away from it.”

Now comes a second reason for paying close attention to what we have heard of God’s word through his Son: if we don’t do this, we will drift into destruction. Consider this word ‘drifting.’ It means float by. The writer had the drifting of a boat in mind. Such drifting happens naturally without an anchor to something solid. If we are not securely set in the Truth of the supremacy of Jesus, we will drift into danger with the currents of the world, the flesh and the enemy. The Ancient Greek phrase for drift away comes from the idea to slip. It was used for an arrow slipping from the quiver; for snow slipping off a landscape or food slipping down the windpipe to cause choking. It happens easily.

We need to anchor our soul in the Word of God and not drift from it. Because “it is impossible for God to lie,” and we have a “high priest forever” the writer will say later, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil” (Hebrews 6:19). The Apostle Paul wrote, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). Strong politically correct storm winds were threatening to carry these Jewish Christians away from their true spiritual harbor. The anchor that holds is to keep the mind centered on the things you have heard, the Word of God. The author does not say they are rejecting this great salvation, but they are neglecting it, just letting it pass by through indifference. It is important to note the author does not say they are actually drifting away, but the danger lies before them and may at once overtake them.

How tragic that the attractions of the world can carry a person away from the great truths of God. The author of Hebrews sounds like the Apostle John in 1 John 2:15-17. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And The world and it’s desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.”

Jesus gave a picture of what it means to be distracted by the world and “neglect so great a salvation” in Luke 14:16-20. Jesus said to a man who reclined eating at the banquet: “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come’”

Hebrews says that if we do not vigilantly pay closer attention to the word of God, we will float by — we will drift away from God’s word. You don’t have to do anything “to drift away” . Instead of absolute seriousness there is a “so what” kind of attitude. Departure from the faith usually comes from slow drifting, NOT a sudden departure.

When we do nothing about it we will:

1. Drift away from communicating with God.

2. Drift away from reading the Word.

3. Drift away from assembling together.

We all know people that this has happened to. Perhaps some are in this room. Others may be watching this on Facebook. There is no urgency. No vigilance. No focused listening or considering or fixing the eyes on Jesus. And the result has not been a standing still, but a drifting away.

So if we choose not to listen to Jesus every day and consider him and fix our eyes on him, then we are scorning his importance described in chapter 1 and we are neglecting a ‘great salvation.’ Now, why would anybody want to do that? The only reason would be if we regard something else as more important to listen to and consider and fix our eyes on. But what distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian is that a Christian has been born again with a new nature that regards Christ as supremely valuable. And so we find the argument of chapter 1 powerfully compelling. God has spoken in these last days by a Son . . .The one we are to pay close attention to is the Creator and Sustainer and Owner and Ruler and Redeemer of the world.

Acts chapter 16:23 talks about when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison then in verse 30 you’ll see when the Jailer asked them, “What must I do to be saved? They quickly answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Now I ask, “what must I do to be lost?” This question also has an answer, the answer is NOTHING. To do nothing is quite enough to be driven by the currents of the world, the flesh and the enemy and to drift away.

We will perish if we drift away from the Word of God and neglect so great salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.