Hebrews: Paying Attention to the Message of Deliverance

My name is Russ Masterson, the pastor here at Redeemer.

Whether you're here in our sanctuary or watching online, we extend a welcome to you as well.

We know for some of you, perhaps it's your first time here.

Perhaps it's your first time back in a church building, in a sanctuary in a while.

And we are so excited and glad that you are here.

What we love to say every week at our church and what we've been saying for years and years and years is we are more broken than we originally thought, more broken than we even think right now, but we're more loved by God than we could ever dare to dream.

That is such good news to rest in this morning, to worship, to grow in.

That is the news we celebrate in Jesus.

I have a few announcements before we get into the sermon.

September 13th, the Sunday after Labor Day, we will welcome back classrooms birth through second grade.

We'll be splitting into two services here in person in order to maintain spreading out here in the sanctuary and lower volumes in the classroom.

So those will be at 9 a.m.

and 11 a.m.

We'll be trying to halt to about a 45-minute service, kind of clean the building in between, get everybody out, get new people in.

So that was what it'll look like.

Our hope is to get third through fifth grade in later in the fall.

Maybe perhaps learn something these first few weeks as we uh enter this new schedule.

Uh, if you're online watching and you're worshiping with us online beginning in September the 2nd and the 4th Tuesday from noon to 1, we will have communion pickup on the front patio of our church.

So you can come by between noon and 1.

We'll be out there and we can give you your communion packets and pray with you.

And then while you're at home worshiping with us during communion time, you can receive your communion with us.

September 17th, there's a women's gathering outdoors.

You can get details on our website.

September 23rd, there's a men's gathering outdoors.

Those are both at different people's homes.

All those details are on our website in the calendar page, or you can sign up for our email newsletter to get all that.

So hopefully we'll be able to see you guys at some of that stuff that's outdoors.

So we are jumping our way through the book of Hebrews.

Last week was our first week.

And our passage this morning, when I read the verses, they're a bit alarming.

They've actually been used a lot for kind of guilt-driven faith.

But as you would guess, that's not what we'll do here this morning because when we see it in the context that it comes after chapter one, we know it's not guilt-driven faith, it's something else.

It's actually an encouragement in the language of an urgent, urgent, urgent encouragement because it's attached to the promise of chapter one.

So, what chapter one taught us last week, if you remember, it taught us that Jesus is God, Jesus is the Christ from the beginning by which the world was created, the world is upheld, by which we are redeemed.

We have all the forgiveness we ever need.

We don't have to add a single thing.

That's why chapter one had nothing for us to do.

Chapter one is all about celebration and declaration.

There's no rules, there's no commands, it is all the declaration and celebration of Jesus.

And then in chapter two, we get the word therefore.

Meaning, because of all of that, because of his supremacy, because of how final our forgiveness is in Jesus, we get a warning about neglecting that very message.

So over the summer, I took my first guided fly fishing trip down a river in a boat where you're straight, you're kind of your legs are strapped at the front of the boat, or you're the back of the boat.

I was at the front of the boat, and my buddy Kurt was he was at the back of the boat.

The guide's in the middle, he has two oars, and we were going down the Snake River, really wide river in the mountains, a beautiful river.

And so the guide is moving us from the left bank to the middle to a riffle to a bank to a shelf.

He's he's guiding us all over.

And it's so much fun.

I was having a blast toward the end of the day.

I'm still at the front, I'm strapped in.

We're fishing uh kind of a bank over on the left side of the river.

Don't you all love?

I keep telling fishing illustrations, I'm realizing that at this point, but we'll get to the point of it.

It's not, it has nothing to do really to do with fishing.

But I'm we're fishing a bank over here because that's where the fish like to hang out by the bank.

So we're we're we're fishing that bank, we're trying to catch some trout, we're fishing that bank.

And he says, Hey, I'm gonna move us over the middle of the river, there's a good riffle, and then we gotta we gotta get over, we gotta get over to the right side of the river.

We get we can fish that bank for a little bit, and then he gets us over there and he says, Hey, here's the deal, guys.

You got 200 yards of really good bank to fish here.

And then when I say you gotta reel in and sit down, I mean you have to reel in and sit down because there's a little eddy that I have to get us in in order for us to have the takeout for the day.

We can't miss the eddy.

And so he says, reel in, sit down, we reel in and we sit down, and he gets us in that eddy.

He gets us into the safety of the eddy for us to take out.

But if we drifted past that eddy, we just move on down the river.

We're past where we needed to be.

We're past the safety of that calm water.

And that's the image here in this passage.

The image here, this passage, is the possibility of drifting past the safety of what we actually already have in Jesus.

And drift is what happens just in life and in relationships.

It doesn't mean the relationship ends, but drift is what happens when we're just not paying attention.

Right?

I mean, that's why the fishing guide was saying, but you've got to pay attention.

When I say sit down, you gotta sit down because we can't miss this.

All right, now we're ready for Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Therefore, all right, because of all of chapter one, the greatness and the supremacy, how final the forgiveness of Jesus is, therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

So, point number one is this because Jesus is so good, keep your heart set on Jesus.

So I could say that much more theological.

If we want to get intellectual, I could say it this way: Christ's supremacy calls us to keep a contemplative awareness to the message of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Don't ever leave that message.

A few weeks ago, our city school system had an online meeting.

Maybe you listened to it online, the board met online, and Christy and I we were in our kitchen and we put the meeting on our laptop and she was preparing dinner, and I was sort of acting like I was helping.

Maybe I was just kind of sitting there listening to the meeting.

So she's listening to the meeting, I'm listening to the meeting.

We're not really talking because we're so tuned in to the meeting.

We don't have the radio on, we don't have our phones, we're not checking our phones, we don't have the TV on.

We are tuned in to this meeting because this affected our lives.

We wanted to know and hear everything, right?

We we made arrangements in our lives to listen to that which mattered.

I mean, it's the same reason when you go to tuck in uh my kids at night, uh, all our girls share a room, so you head into that room, and usually the two little ones are getting in bed, and maybe the older one is out still hanging out in the house.

And so you get into one bed and you're tucking one kid in, and maybe you remember this, or you've done this, or you're doing this in your life now, and you're tucking one kid in.

Well, you're tucking one kid in, the other kid's yelling for you, while you're tugging that kid in, and you have to say, hey, just a minute, I'm with your sister, just a minute, I'm with your brother, and then you go to be with the other kid, and then the other kid, and then you say, Hey, just a minute, I'm you know, I'm with your brother, I'm with your sister, just or you know what, hey, I'm I'm with your dad, I'm with your mom, you know, just a minute, because what you're trying to do is you're trying to make arrangements to listen to that person that's right in front of you.

Because we make arrangements to listen to what matters.

And this is what the contemplative life is of Christian faith.

It's making arrangements, creating patterns and postures and practices.

That's why we say, you know, read your Bible and pray.

So those are practices of grace for us, have devotions, worship, come to church, learn.

These are all practices and postures of grace for us to be setting our hearts on that which matters, for us to remember chapter one, how good Jesus is for us.

So God's calling us to this remembrance and this contemplative life to heed this and remember this message.

We get chapter two because we have chapter one.

And Hebrews is an encouragement for people and for us to hold fast to the message that actually helps.

And the writer is emphatic and he is urgent.

Literally, verse one says, a literal translation would say this it is exceedingly necessary that we give heed to what we have heard.

I mean, there's an urgency to it in the language.

Jumping to verse two.

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?

It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

So the writer says, this message was proven out.

But he says there was a message that came before this, and it was given by angels.

And that's that's the key phrase here for us to unlock what this could possibly mean.

Point number two is this people are sinners.

We are people and sinners, and sinners easily drift.

We need all of that, right?

Like people are sinners, I am a person, and I am a sinner, and sinners easily drift.

I mean, we just need to come into the confession of that.

That actually helps us.

Christy and I've been married for 16 years.

I believe it's pretty easy to be married to Christy.

She's a pretty flexible person, she's not too demanding, she's kind.

I married up, right?

I married up.

But life's complex.

I get fussy, I get tired, Christy gets fussy and tired, you probably get fussy and tired in your relationships, right?

It's easy for us to miss a date night.

It's easy for every single conversation to become logistical.

Any amens?

Any married people just say amen?

You know that, or maybe you remember that, maybe you don't even know what I'm talking about, and you will one day you'll know what I'm talking about.

And this is when Christy will say to me, I just don't feel like we're connecting.

That's what she's saying.

I just don't feel like we're connecting.

And she's always right, right?

Like I haven't said it, take me about another week to say it, but she says it much earlier, and she's always right, and that's when we know, okay, we gotta sit on the porch by ourselves without our children, or we need to go out for tacos without our children.

Right?

I mean, the whole time, I mean, we're still upheld by our marriage commitment and the marriage covenant.

Like that didn't go anywhere.

Like the emotion of that day or the disconnect of that that short season didn't all of a sudden threaten the marriage covenant and the commitment, that loyal love, right?

Like it didn't threaten that, but yet there's still like a disconnect within the safety of the relationship.

This is the beauty of the of the covenant we have with God.

That we can be in a covenant relationship with God that is secure, and at the same time, we can still be living in some disconnect of the experience of the relationship.

And it's just for us to set our hearts back on Him.

Your salvation was never a threat.

It's not all of a sudden God's gonna walk away from you.

We don't have to fear any of that.

But understand that we've got to understand verses two and three because verses two and three read very strange to a lot of us.

And the key is that phrase, the message declared by angels.

So, what is the message that they are talking about?

Well, the writer is referring back to the message declared by the angels that would have been spoken to Old Testament prophets and to Moses.

And so, what the writer is talking about, he's talking about the law.

And the law said, and the law still says, obey, and if you obey, obey, and then you will be accepted by God.

And that same law held serious repercussions for these people.

They would have known it.

When they read this letter, they read this verse, they would have known exactly what the writer's talking about because they lived in a society governed by law that had serious repercussions and punishments, not just understanding from God, but societally.

And so when they read this, they would have said, Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.

I was stuck in that sort of religion.

I was stuck in that sort of life where law had punishment.

But we're not under law.

Law was not the end of the story.

Not for Christians, because for Christians, we believe Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the law, and we do not live under law, we live under grace.

Jesus fulfilled the law, so we live in the gospel.

The law guides us, but the law leads us to our need of Jesus.

And that's what the writer is urging these people.

Do you not remember what the law does?

Do you not remember what a performance-based life does?

It crushes you.

If you always have to obey, or you always have to perform to be accepted, you will be crushed.

But the gospel says you're already accepted, you have chapter one.

So heed it and remember it.

Stick to it, don't miss it.

I think the point of the verses comes to life.

I was looking at some different translations this week.

Uh the N-E-T translation says it this way: for if the message spoken through the angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Now, all of a sudden, that translation makes you kind of think back to this idea of law.

Like it's talking about law and the punishment of law.

Verse 3 comes to life a little bit in the NEB translation, but it says this what escape can there be for us if we ignore a deliverance so great.

A Rust translation, it's not official.

I couldn't find it online.

A Rust translation says this Where are you gonna go when trying to be enough no longer works?

Where are you gonna go when the law doesn't work?

Last point is this.

We are saved from a performance-based life and saved into a contemplative, grace-centered life.

That's what Jesus gives us.

And it is in an urgent tone this morning in these verses, motivating us to see and remember and set our mind's attention and our heart's affection on the security and how wonderful Jesus is.

For application into our hearts this week, I have a few questions for us.

I have three questions for you to consider, perhaps this morning just now, or perhaps you write them down and you could consider them in your time this week with the Lord.

Number one is this what spiritual practices might be helpful for you to grow deeper in Christ's work and love for you?

What spiritual practices might be helpful to you?

Not that you need those spiritual practices in order to be accepted by God, but because you're so accepted by God, what spiritual practices could just bring more joy to your heart to remember who you are and the love that He has for you?

Number two is this how have you seen Jesus' righteousness for you?

How have you seen Jesus' righteousness deliver you from the toil of performancism?

And just to remember that, the ways in your life that Jesus is righteous, that you have been declared fully righteous by his work for you because he fulfilled the law, fully worthy, free from a performance-based life.

In what ways have you started to see freedom in your heart?

And then lastly, what areas of your heart need deeper healing from performancism?

What areas are you still vulnerable to performance-based life that we might find refuge in the loving welcome of Christ?

And those questions are just for us to know more grace of this grace that's already given to us.

So, my brothers and sisters, may the Holy Spirit give you greater awareness of how supreme and good Jesus is for you to turn your mind's attention and your heart's affection on him.

To remember him and heed this great message.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your goodness to us.

Thank you that we have chapter one before we read chapter two.

Thank you for that great word there for.

Because you have been so good and you are so supreme and your forgiveness is so final.

May we not adrift away.

May we stay connected to the very security we have in our relationship with you.

May we turn our heart's affection and minds' attention to you.

Thank you for the grace you give to us for every day and every moment that we fall short, that we are always your beloved.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.