This sermon began recording five minutes into the message, a full transcript of the sermon is below:

“Pay attention!” I want you to think about the different times and circumstances and situations in your life when someone has said those words to you. “Pay attention!” The teacher says it to her distracted classroom full of students: “This is going to be on the test. Pay attention!” The young mother says it to her toddler son who is struggling to focus during dinner: “You’re getting spaghetti everywhere. Pay attention!” The coach shouts at it his player who hasn’t guarded his opponent carefully enough: “You’re leaving him wide open! Pay attention!” The flight attendant says it to a plane full of passengers who completely ignore her: “Now it’s time for our flight safety briefing. Please pay attention!” The father says it to his teenaged driver, with a raised voice that communicates urgency, if not anger: “You’re about to run us off the road! Pay attention!” The wife says it to her husband who is distracted by his phone during a conversation: “Are you hearing what I am saying? Pay attention!”Pay attention. Sometimes it is a gentle reminder about something important. Sometimes it is a not-so-gentle demand to heed what is urgent and critical. Pay attention.

Hebrews chapter 1 has been telling us why the message of Jesus is worth paying attention to. Jesus is the Superior Son of God. He is the heir of all things. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He sustains the universe by the Word of his power. He is superior to angels. We should listen to him. That’s the message of Hebrews 1. Hebrews 2:1-4 tells us what is at stake if we don’t listen to him. If we don’t pay attention – to the message of our supreme Savior. Let’s read: Hebrews 2:1-4.

In hindsight, the signs of drift are often obvious. Nate went off to college. The big state school. He made friends quickly. And he didn’t live wildly or recklessly. But he also didn’t prioritize the things that had always been important to his family growing up: gathering with God’s people on the Lord’s Day, engaging in biblical community with other Christians, personal spiritual disciplines. He was sort-of engaged in a Bible study that happened on the second floor of his dorm. But honestly, it wasn’t a big priority. By his junior year, following Jesus was off Nate’s radar completely. But that drift began the first week of the first semester of the freshman year. In hindsight, it was obvious.

Jane’s marriage was troubled. Her husband was rarely engaged with the kids. He wasn’t emotionally available. Sometimes he drank too much. And Jane felt isolated and alone. She wouldn’t open up to anyone in her small group at church. But there was someone – a coworker – who she felt a connection with. He, too, was in a troubled marriage. That common bond eventually became something more. She left husband and kids and church and Jesus in the rearview mirror, as all those things represented obstacles to the happiness and freedom she felt – for the moment, at least – in an affair. All that was a surprise to some who knew Jane. But the signs were there. The flirty looks in the breakroom. The text threads. In hindsight, her drift was obvious.

Brooke and Tom were faithful members of a church – until Tom’s job uprooted them and moved them across the country. In their new home, there were a lot of good, healthy churches around. But none of them felt the same. The community didn’t “click” right away. The vibe wasn’t right. Whatever. Six months in, they had tried a bunch of churches but weren’t any closer to landing in one. Twelve months after that, they were sleeping in and planning brunch dates every Sunday. Looking back, it was obvious what had happened. Sometimes the signs of drift are obvious. What surprises us is who the drift can happen to. Hebrews says: 

We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it (2:1). He says that to Christians. Struggling Christians, yes. But Christians nonetheless. And – notice – he includes himself in this warning. He doesn’t say: lest you drift away from it. He says: lest we drift away from it. Everyone is susceptible to this kind of drift, he says. Everyone. It's the image of a boat at sea. But there’s no anchor. And the man at the oars – that’s you, or me, in this metaphor – he’s not attentive. He’s not paying attention. So his boat drifts with the tides. It’s blown about by the winds. Before long, he is nowhere near where he intended to be. How did it happen? Well, he didn’t pay attention. He did nothing. And that is why drifting is so dangerous. We don’t have to reject any central beliefs of the Christian faith. We don’t have to deny the deity of Christ or the historicity of the resurrection. We don’t even have to rush headlong into some sinful behavior or destructive habit. Yes, those things will make a mess of your Christian life. But do you know what else will make a mess of your Christian life? Doing nothing. Assuming that you are fine. Assuming that you will stay where you are. That you are safe from drifting away.

I want to be sure my point doesn’t get lost. We’re talking about a book written to warn and guard pastors against drifting away from the gospel. And even some of the men who were trusted to endorse the book drifted away from the gospel. If it can happen to them, it can happen to us. That’s my point: No one is immune from drifting. None of us. The persistent pull of the sinful human heart is away from, not toward, God and the things of God. We are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. All of us.

In our passage, Hebrews gives us two reasons why drifting is so dangerous, and so foolish. Two reasons to strive to avoid the drift. The first reason is the gravity of the consequences. The second is the authenticity of the message. Let’s think about each one. First, the gravity of the consequences of drifting away from the gospel. Look back at verse 2: 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? (2:2-3a). The message declared by angels refers to the Old Testament. The Bible nowhere says this explicitly, but many Jews by the time of Jesus believed that God’s Old Testament Law was delivered to his people through angels. That’s the idea that Hebrews is building on. He says two things about the Law: One: it “proved to be reliable” (2:2b). And two: “every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution” (2:2c). One: the Law was true. Two: sinning against the Law invited God’s wrath. That’s what Hebrews says. We can be tempted to think that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God we read about in the New Testament. The Old Testament God seems wrathful and vengeful.

He warned his people about disobeying his Law, and then he punished them severely when they disobeyed. People would grumble against God and he’d strike them down. He’d send vipers to bite them. People would violate God’s commands and he’d strike them dead. Ultimately, after generations of disobedience, God punished the entire nation by sending them into exile. We read the Old Testament and think: This God is all about wrath and punishment. And then we think: But the New Testament God is different. He is all about love and forgiveness. He is the God who welcomes little children and talks about turning the other cheek and stuff like that. But Hebrews’ point is that if God punished disobedience and drifting under the Old Testament, how much more will he do that under the New? If drifting away from the message declared by angels meant just retribution, how much more the message delivered by Jesus himself? That is why he asks the rhetorical question in verse 3: how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (2:3a). The answer is: We won’t! The consequences of drifting away from what we have heard are severe. They are grave. They are heavy. We should, therefore, not drift away. My family’s home is on two levels. My oldest two children sleep upstairs and spend most of their time upstairs. Which means it takes an act of God to summon them from their bedrooms when it is time for a family meal. Now, you need to know this about me, church: When we make dinner at home, I am very particular about when we eat that dinner. I am of the view that the meal we have prepared decreases in quality at an exponential rate every minute that it sits on the table cooling off before we eat it. To me, it doesn’t matter how well prepared the meal is. If it sits there for ten minutes, on the table, before anyone sits down – you might as well throw it away.

Which is why I get pretty flared up about summoning my upstairs children to dinner. I’ve developed a strategy, and it is a strategy that escalates in intensity. The first thing I do – about five minutes before I think dinner will be ready – I start yelling their names up the stairs. Now, that never actually works. That’s never enough to disrupt them from the who- knows-what they are doing. But I’m fine with that, because it’s just the first step. The second thing I do, about three minutes before dinner, is I text them. We were dumb enough to give them phones. I figure I might as well use them. So I will text them, hoping they might respond. They never do. I’m canceling the phone plans. The third thing I do is I send one of the other children upstairs in my place. This is – to my sons who have grown used to my methods – the first sign that I’m really serious. My youngest, the child that I send upstairs to fetch his brothers, he has one job. He is to annoy his older brothers into submission, and most of the time this works. Let’s say four out of five times he bothers them just enough that they come down and we can eat. But the fifth time…The time they ignore him? That’s when I have to go upstairs myself. And when I have to do that – well, the phrase that comes to mind is: every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. I am not happy about that. I am not happy – because they have ignored my previous instruction. And that is the same issue that Hebrews is speaking to. The revelation of God also escalated in intensity. Furthermore, the messengers who delivered that revelation escalated in glory. The Old Testament was delivered through prophets and angels who were commissioned by God. The New Testament – a more glorious message, was delivered by the Son himself – a more glorious messenger. How shall anyone escape if we neglect such a great salvation? We won’t. That’s reason number one why we must not drift away: because of the gravity of the consequences of neglecting such a great salvation.

The second reason, according to Hebrews, why we must not drift away is because of the authenticity of the message itself. Hebrews says we can be confident that the message of the gospel is true – for there are four witnesses who attest to its authenticity. The writer lists them, starting in the middle of verse 3: It [the message of our salvation] 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 (2:3b-4). Do you see the four witnesses? Number one: The gospel was declared at first by the Lord. Jesus himself. The Supreme Savior. The Messianic Son. The One who is superior to the angels. Jesus says the gospel is true. So, too, do the apostles. That is the second group of witnesses: it was attested to us by those who heard (2:3c). The apostles were eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They heard his teaching. They passed on that teaching to the church – they attested to it to the church. Every time you read your New Testament, that is the witness that you are receiving. The pages of our New Testaments are filled with the testimony of the apostles to the gospel. A testimony they lived for and (many of them) died for. Because it is an authentic testimony. The third witness: the signs and wonders done by the apostles in the name of Jesus. Verse 4: God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles… (2:4a). Read the book of Acts. The miraculous things done by the apostles – casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead. These things attest to the truthfulness and authenticity of the gospel. The final witness: the Church, filled with people ministering to one another by the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to them. If you are a follower of Jesus today, you have been gifted by the Holy Spirit – not for your sake, but for the sake of the church that surrounds you. You have not been gifted to help you, but to help us.

And when you see the church in action, when you see Christians loving and serving one another in Spirit-empowered ways, then you can see the truthfulness and authenticity of the gospel. Many of us never go deep enough to experience this. We never go deep enough with a church to use our gifts, or to be blessed by the gifts of others. But those who do are less likely to drift – because the authenticity of the gospel message is confirmed for them through the ministry of the Body.

This is why we should avoid drifting away from the gospel. Because of the gravity of the consequences for those who do drift. And because of the authenticity of the gospel message itself. But how do we avoid drifting? How do we – verse 1 – we have heard” (2:1a)? “pay much closer attention to what We must acknowledge that there is no silver bullet here. There is no one thing that you or I could do that would ensure that we never drift. If you are grieving the drift of someone you love, there is no one thing that you failed to do or that they failed to do. We cannot reduce this to a simple formula. But we can consider the means God might use to keep us from drifting. The things we can do and prioritize that God might use to anchor us in the truth of the gospel. Let me suggest three such means for us – before we turn our attention to the Lord’s Supper today.

Second, we should invest in deep relationships with other Christians. Community helps us fight drift; isolation accelerates drift. Relationships strengthen us; individualism weakens us. Therefore, we need community. And in the context of that community, we need to commit to honesty and vulnerability with one another. I said a minute ago that we usually can’t see drift in ourselves once it has started. But other people can. We need relationships with other people who have permission to speak into that drift if they see it. We need relationships with other people who are allowed to address our blind spots. Before company comes over, Kristen and I will spend some time preparing our home for guests. Tidying up the areas of the house that don’t stay tidy with four children in the home. As we are tidying, Kristen will ask me: Help me to see the messes that I don’t see anymore. The messes that she looks past – because she looks at them every day. We need people who have that kind of permission from us. Permission to tell us: I see this mess that you don’t see anymore. I see this sign of drift that you are blind to. That will never happen in isolation. We need deep relationships with other Christians. Finally, most critically, we must focus our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Jesus is supreme. That’s the message of Hebrews 1. We need to pay much closer attention to that message. We need to reflect on and meditate on the supremacy of Jesus. We need to dwell on it and chew on it and savor it. We need to linger over the supremacy of Christ in all things. The way you’d linger over a fine meal. Consider that: If you go to a chophouse and lay down $65 for a steak, you don’t eat that thing in four bites. You savor it. You enjoy every taste. You chew slowly. Because you know you are experiencing something worth savoring. A $4 burger from a fast-food joint? Perhaps you would crush that in four bites. But a fine steak, you savor it. You linger over that meal.

With that same kind of attitude, we need to linger over who Jesus is. We need to meditate on his attributes. Reflect on his perfections. Savor his supremacy. That is one way that gathered worship helps us. We sing truths and pray truths and study truths – going over, again and again, things we already know. We aren’t chasing after something new. Rather, we are learning to savor the meal that is the gospel. To taste and see that the Lord is good. And we do that because, in the end, it is our good Lord who keeps us. He is – so to speak – the silver bullet that keeps us from drifting. He saves us to the uttermost, Hebrews 7 says. He does not let those who are truly his sheep wander too far from his flock. He does not let those who are truly his children forsake his family. And so we savor the supremacy of Christ because it is Christ who will keep us from drifting away.

And it is in that spirit that we will come to the Table of the Lord’s Supper this morning. For many of us, we have been here before. We know the taste of this meal. But we come again to savor it. Not because the taste of wafer or juice are appealing – far from it, in fact. But because Jesus is. And when we take the elements of holy communion, we can reflect on and savor his supremacy. We can find hope and comfort and joy in the one who will save us to the uttermost. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul warned the church: Whoever…eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup (1 Cor 11:27-28). Let’s take this moment to examine ourselves before we take the bread and cup. The screens will lead us in a moment of quiet reflection. Then I’ll return to prepare us for the Lord’s Supper.