Listen Up!

Introduction

“Listen up!”

“May I have your attention, please!”

Have you ever heard that before? Sometimes we might hear a teacher or a coach say that when kids aren’t paying attention.

Sometimes we see this warning on the back of certain products:

“Attention! This product is not for use by children under the age of 12 years old” OR “Warning: choking hazard, small parts.”

Sometimes we read or hear ridiculous warnings:

Warning: Do not eat (on those little silicone gel packets inside boxes)

I never understood that one … and then we had kids.

Caution: Contents are hot (on a coffee cup)

Warning: Do not hold on wrong end (on a chainsaw)

Caution: Remove children before folding (on a baby stroller)

Warning: Not intended for highway use (on a wheelbarrow)

Caution: Do not dry pets in the microwave (on a microwave oven)

We laugh at some of these absurd examples, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we ignore a lot of the warnings we hear. Owners manuals or instructions? Wives if you’re like my wife, you give those items to your husband. Terms and Conditions? Let’s be real, we’re all just checking the box. Airline, pre-flight checklists? Be honest, how many of you actually listen to it?

If you’ve ever flown, you’ve heard something along this lines:

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you will direct your attention to the front of the cabin …”

And then they go into the same routine about how to:

“Fasten your seatbelt”

“Should we experience a sudden drop in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling …”

Look around next time you go. Almost no one is paying attention. But the flight attendants go through the information anyway.

“Your exits are here, here, and here. If you are seated on an exit row, please ensure you are physically capable of opening the door in an emergency.”

In other words, when the plane we are on goes from 30,000 feet to zero, and when it goes from 500 mph to zero, would you, amid all the chaos, be willing to open the door and help other people? And all they need is a verbal, “Yes.” And I’m just saying I’ve seen some people who sit in exit rows, and I’m not sure I trust them.

But isn’t it true that when someone says, “Listen up!” or “May I have your attention, please?”, especially when it is something we are familiar with, we begin to think, “I already know this one.”

This week we’re going to talk about the gospel, and I’m challenging us to listen up.

Hebrews 2:1–4 NASB95

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

Listen up, because …

I. Our Anchor is the Word (v. 1)

For What Reason?

Therefore, because Jesus …

Is the heir

Is the One through whom the world was made

Is the radiance of God’s glory

Is the exact representation of Gods nature

Is the One who upholds all things by His powerful word

Is the One who made purification for sin

Is the One who sat down at the right hand of majesty on high

Is the One who inherited a more excellent name: SON

In other words, because of the supremacy of Christ, we must pay much closer attention.

Pay Attention

Notice who must pay attention.

It is not “you,” it is we must pay attention.

The author includes himself in this exhortation, which tell me no one is immune from this warning.

Pay attention is a nautical term that means to closely attend to one’s course. It means:

Intentionally following—not passive

Attentive to the destination—eyes fixed on the horizon

Attune to external factors—currents, wind, etc.

Heading warning signs

So how do we “pay attention”

Listen and Obey

The word sets our course, but we must not just hear, but obey and apply what it says.

This is why I end every prayer before the sermon in this way: “For everyone who is able to hear what God is speaking, believe it to be true, and by faith apply it to their lives, say ‘Amen’”

This is what James says:

James 1:21–25 NASB95

21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Notice that it says if we only hear, “we delude ourselves”.

Did you ever have a test in high school or college? You went to every class and you attended every lecture. You listened and you consumed and took notes.

And you thought, “I’m gonna crush this test!”

And then that test whipped your butt? Have you ever experienced something like that?

Why? Because you deluded yourself into thinking you knew the material because you heard it, but you never demonstrated an understanding and mastery of the concepts by practicing it.

This is what Jesus says 16 times:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mt. 11:15, 13:9, 13:43; Mk. 4:9, 23, 7:16; Lk. 8:8, 14:35; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22, 13:9)

This phrase always accompanies a hard teaching.

What does Jesus mean?

It’s not enough to simply hear the word; we have to listen and apply it to our lives, otherwise we will drift from our intended course.

In other words, you can get close to Jesus and still end up wildly off course.

A small degree of error, if left unchecked, can cause us to miss our intended harbor completely.

If a ship’s destination is 100 nm away, 1 degree of error will result in missing the destination by approximately 1.75 nm (~ 2 miles!)

And the scary thing about drifting is it’s often imperceptible. We don’t realize it’s happening until it’s too late.

There are a lot of people in American churches who have physical ears, but they lack spiritual ears.

There’s a lot of people who call themselves Christians and go through all the motions, but they just perpetually listen and consume without ever applying what they hear.

We can gather together as the church week after week. We can hear the word of God week after week. But if we do not listen and obey, if it does not change us, it’s all meaningless.

There are a lot of people in America—even American churches—who are going to hell, and I can tell you on the authority of God’s Word, it is not for lack of hearing.

Many Americans are going to hell because they are not attentive to the course set before them.

They have heard the Word and have done nothing with it.

If this statement bothers you, I challenge you to listen to the words of Jesus:

Matthew 7:13–14 NASB95

13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

They come in close. They come alongside. They think—because they attend a church gathering or said a prayer, or because they were baptized, or because their parents were Christians—that they are saved.

But being a Christian requires that we accept Christ as Savior and Lord.

In other words, a Christian is not merely one who hears they are a sinner in need of a Savior. A Christian is one who does that and repents—meaning to change their mind and demonstrate their change of mind through their actions

Acts 26:20 NLT

20 I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God—and prove they have changed by the good things they do.

In other words, they have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord.

Acts 2:36 NASB95

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

And if we tune out the very real warnings in Scripture because we think “we know this one”, we are setting a dangerous precedent for our lives.

Passages like this are not there to discourage us.

They exist because drifting from truth happens gradually and imperceptibly, and He loves us enough to show us where we are drifting and tell us what we must do to course correct—repent and believe the gospel.

Listen up, because …

II. Our Reward is Just (vv. 2-3a)

The Supremacy of the Message

In Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:38, 53; and Gal. 3:19, we see that angels were involved in the giving of the Law. There are two prevailing theories:

God gave His word through angels

God was accompanied by angels as He gave His word

I’ll let you look up those verses and decide for yourself, but here is the key:

If the word of God spoken through angels—Hebrews 1:1 “… to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways”—was binding, how much more binding is the word God speaks through His Son?

The Law was binding and resulted in real consequences for breaking it.

Israel was constantly warned: if you choose to follow Me, I will bless you; if you choose to forsake Me, I will curse you.

Other nations, who were not given the Law directly, were judged apart from the Law, because God has written His law on our hearts.

The entirety of the OT bears witness to this truth, that our actions bring about our “just reward”

If the word of God given through angels was so binding, how much greater is the word spoken through His Son? If Hebrews 1 is demonstrating the supremacy of Christ—that He is greater than everything—how much greater and final is His word?

If those who had the Law could not escape, how can we expect to escape?

The answer is simple: we won’t.

There Are Only Two Paths—There is No “Third Way”

Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who find it; narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Every single time Jesus uses the phrase, “He who has ears, let him hear” it accompanies a hard teaching and an eternal dividing line:

In Matthew 11 it follows the truth that John the Baptist was the messenger who would prepare the way for the Son, the final revelation.

In Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, it accompanies the parable of the soils, and the reminder that only seed planted in good soil bears fruit and is harvested.

In Matthew 13 it accompanies the teaching that the wheat and the tares will be gathered, and the tares will be burned in the fire.

In Luke 14 it reminds us that salt that looses its saltiness is good for nothing.

In Revelation 2-3 it accompanies what Jesus has both for and against His church, and that as head of the church He calls us to both repent and overcome.

In Revelation 13 it reminds us that everyone whose name was not written in the Lamb’s book of life will be slain.

Every single one of those is accompanied by the phrase “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” In other words, listen up!

What we must listen to, what we must pay closer attention to, is the message—the gospel—that lays an eternal inflection point at our feet.

The gospel is this—God stepped into history through His Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal Himself to the world. That through His offering and sacrifice, He provided a means by which we, as sinners in rebellion against God, could be reconciled to Him.

The point is if we neglect—disregard, fail to pay attention to—the great salvation revealed through Jesus Christ, we will not escape. There is no other option.

You are either for Christ, or you are against Him.

Someone will sit on the throne of your life: it’s either you, or it’s Jesus.

And so my question to you is: at what point did you repent of your sin—change your mind—and turn to Jesus as Lord of your life—demonstrated through your actions?

Our Reward is Just

You either have submitted to Christ, or you haven’t submitted to Christ.

It’s our decision that determines our just reward.

Hell is not a place where God sends all the people that He really didn’t like. Hell was not made for you. Matthew 25:41 tells us:

Matthew 25:41 NASB95

41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

Hell is not a fire and brimstone tactic that should be used to scare people into submission.

Here are several truths the Bible has for us:

2 Peter 3:9 tells us that “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

Any — any

All — all

Repentance — a change in mind that results in a change of action

In Romans 2, after Paul has explained that God’s judgment rightly falls on those who sin, he cautions against condemning those who sin, because we have fallen short in the same ways. He then says:

Romans 2:4 NASB95

4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

We are not drawn to repentance by judgment or fear of punishment, but by a merciful, loving God.

But then in Mark 1:15, we are instructed what to do following our repentance:

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

What’s the gospel?

That God revealed Himself, stepped into human history through His Son, and Jesus provides the only means for salvation—entrance into the kingdom of God.

In John 15, we see there will be evidence for our decision:

John 15:5 NASB95

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

John 3:36 tells us “‘He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”

We see that the contrast of “believe” is “obey”. To not obey is to not believe.

And, as Hebrews 9:27 says, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” we get this life, and this life alone, to make our decision.

There are only two ways. You either choose to submit to Christ, or you choose not to. You either choose to repent, or you choose to live in rebellion. You either choose to believe, or you choose to neglect this great salvation.

By neglecting this great salvation, we receive the reward for our sinful works, as Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death

OR

By paying attention to this great salvation, we receive the reward for Christ’s righteous works, as Romans 6:23 also says, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Our reward is just because it’s what we desired.

Listen up, because …

III. Our Confirmation is the Continued Testimony of God (v. 3b-4)

The Reality of So Great a Salvation Has Been, and Continues to Be, Confirmed

God spoke through His Son, Jesus

God confirmed it to us [the author of Hebrews, the Christians he writes to, and we who read it today] by those who heard [the apostles and others who witnessed the resurrection]

God continued to testify with them through:

Signs and wonders — works of God that testify to Jesus

Miracles — works of God that go against the natural order of things

Gifts of the Holy Spirit — the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on His church

Why?

Because God wants the testimony of His Son—that He is the one way, the one truth, and the one life, and there is no one that comes to the Father but through Him—He wants that testimony to reach into every corner of this world, into continent, into every nation and people group, into every state, into every city, and into every individual and family.

Conclusion