Jesus Is Better, pt. 3 :: Pay Attention

The Book of Hebrews is ::

· A book for evaluation

Evaluation was needed in the middle of a world filled with conflict, mixed messages, and the temptations to depart the faith.

o The “better-ness” of Jesus

o The perfection in Jesus

o The eternal with Jesus

Jesus Christ and the new life He alone gives us are better because these blessings are eternal and they give us a perfect standing before God.

· A book with exhortation

o Beware of drifting from the Word (2:1—4)

o Beware of doubting the Word (3:7—4:13) hard-heartedness

o Beware of dullness toward the Word (5:11—6:20) sluggishness

o Beware of despising the Word (10:26—39) willful sinfulness

o Beware of defying the Word (12:14—29) refusing to hear

· A book of examination

You may be asking yourselves… “What am I really trusting?” “Why should I be trusting what I trust?” “How can I trust what I should trust?”

We need to have our hearts established by grace ()

o Revelation

o Creation

o The Trinity

o The Relationship of the Old & New Testament

o Christology

o Atonement

· A book of expectation

This book not only relates to our past and present but gives incredible focus to the future that awaits the follower of Jesus Christ.

· A book in exaltation

o The original glory of God belongs to Jesus

§ Jesus is God’s glory; therefore, we see with amazing clarity that the glory of God consists not in crushing men & women & reducing them to miserable submission & slavery, but in serving them & loving them and in the end dying for them. It is not the glory of shattering power but of the glory of suffering love.

o The coming empire belongs to Jesus

§ The New Testament writers never doubted Jesus’s ultimate triumph. They were quite certain that God’s love was backed by His power and that in the end the kingdoms of the world would also be the one who redeemed it.

o The creative agency belongs to Jesus

§ The early Church held that God’s love was backed by His power and that in the end the kingdoms of the world would be the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ.

o The sustaining power belongs to Jesus

§ These early Christians had a tremendous grip of the doctrine of providence. They did not think of God as creating the world and then leaving it to itself. Somehow and somewhere, they saw a power that was carrying the world and each life on to a destined end.

o The redemptive work belongs to Jesus

§ By His sacrifice, He paid the price of sin; by His continual presence, He liberates from sin.

o The exalting worth & excellent grace of Jesus

§ He has taken His place on the right hand of glory; but the tremendous thought of the writer to the Hebrews is that He is there not as our judge but as one who makes intercession for us, so that, when we enter into the presence of God, we go not to hear His justice prosecute us but to hear His love plead for us.

For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. —

The Spoken Message About The Reality of Jesus ::

· The Inheritor of all things

· The Creator of all things

· The Sustainer of all things

· The Radiance of the Almighty

· The Mediator of all who believe

· The Majesty of all rule

· The Superior above all

When you have a weak Jesus…

· you have a weak God

· you have a weak salvation

· you have a weak grace

· you have a weak fellowship

· you have a weak obedience

· you have a weak discipleship

· you have a weak mission

I. The Contemplation of Drift (2:1—3)

· The real potential (v. 1)

· The real perception (v. 1)

· The real punishment (v. 2)

· The real peril (v. 3)

· The real plea (v. 1)

Orthodoxy and obedience are the oars we must use for fighting against the strong current of spiritual drift. Theology and practice will keep us sailing forward in fidelity… We avoid spiritual drift by dropping the anchor of our souls in the deep waters of the Word of God.

n R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

If the old covenant which was delivered by the angels was held to judgment, how much more so the new covenant delivered by the Son of God.

The danger of spiritual drift is not only that we might miss out on a spiritually flourishing life, the true danger of spiritual drift is that we abandon the gospel itself and find ourselves under the judgment of God.

II. The Examination of Deliverance (2:3—4)

A Great Salvation ::

· Our Justification

· Our Regeneration

· Our Sanctification

· Our Glorification

A Great Confirmation ::

· Spoken by the Messiah

· Shared by the Messengers

· Settled by the Majestic

A Great Evaluation ::

· the Cost

· the Completion

· the Circumference

· the Change

III. The Concentration of the Divine (2:5—10)

· God’s Purpose in the Knowledge

· God’s Purpose in the Knife

· God’s Purpose in the Knight