The Book of Hebrews

1. The Book of Hebrews Paying Careful Attention, 2:1 Three Key Warnings

2. Review • Hebrews is a warning and an exhortation to second generation Christians in danger of turning back • Shows the superiority of Christ over all the things they might turn back to • Gives the practicals on how to grow and stay strong in Christ

3. Three Key Warnings • Pay Careful Attention • Draw Near to God in Faith • Worship God in Reverence and Awe

4. 1. Pay Careful Attention • Driving illustration – know how to drive and pay careful attention • Hazards – carelessness • Texting, talking, doing other things • Alcohol, drugs • Using cell phones during church

5. Hebrews 2 1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

6. We must pay careful attention • Paul: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). • how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? • A relationship with God is serious business! • Peter: “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them” (2 Pet. 2:21).

7. Must pay careful attention to what we have heard • Parable of the sower, Matt. 13 • Hard, packed soil = hard heart – devil snatches word • Shallow, rocky soil = lacks depth – dries up • Thorny, weedy soil = competition – choked out • We must keep our hearts soft, deep and sincere, and well-weeded. • We must take our relationships with God very seriously. • We must live thoughtfully and carefully!

8. 2. Draw Near to God in Faith • Jesus died on the cross so that we could be with him and so that we could live in freedom and confidence. • Jesus died on the cross so that we could live fully and abundantly. • Jesus died on the cross so that we don’t have to. • God wants a relationship with each of us and to live otherwise is most insane.

9. Hebrews 10 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

10. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

11. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

12. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back,    I will not be pleased with him.” 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

13. We have a great high priest • God is faithful in his promises • Deliberately living in sin after receiving the truth leads to no further sacrifice for sins • Deliberately living in sin brings back fear and judgment • We must persevere to do the will of God—faith is from beginning to end, not just at the beginning! • We must LIVE, beginning to end, by faith • If we shrink back we will be destroyed with the rest.

14. Three Admonitions: • v. 22 – “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith • v. 23 – “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” • v. 25 – “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing”

15. 3. Worship God in Reverence and Awe • In our quest to draw near to God, we often diminish God to our levels rather than allowing him to elevate us to his! • We must let him change us rather than us trying to change him! • God will never, can never, conform to our pitiful attempts to minimize him, marginalize him, or humanize him. • We must always yield to his right-of-way as any crash will always end in our demise.

16. Hebrews 12 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

17. 14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many …

18. 25See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

19. 28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

20. Admonitions • v. 1 – “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. • v. 2 – “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus” • v. 3 – “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men” • v. 14 – “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy” • v. 15 – “See to it that no one misses the grace of God”

21. v. 25 – “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks” • v. 28 – “let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe”

22. Conclusion • Pay Careful Attention • Draw Near to God in Faith • Worship God in Reverence and Awe