Hebrews 1:1–2:4 R.A.F.T. — How Not to Drift from Jesus

Good morning, Freedom Church. Today we are beginning a new

series in Hebrews called Jesus Over Everything.

That really is the great theme of this book. Hebrews is all about the

supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. It shows us that Jesus is

above every rival, beyond every substitute, and enough for

everything His people need. He is not one voice among many, one

help among many, or one option among many. Hebrews lifts Him

high and says, “Look again. There is no one like Him.”

That is why this book matters so much.

Hebrews is rich and deep. It is full of Old Testament language and

imagery — prophets, angels, sacrifices, priesthood, covenant,

temple worship. At times it can feel a bit overwhelming. You start

reading and think, “Yes, lovely, very profound,” and then a few

verses later you feel like you need a strong coffee and a friendly

theologian to come and help you untie all the theological knots

you’ve tied your brain in. But the point of Hebrews is not to

confuse us. It is to make one thing unmistakably clear: Jesus Christ

is greater than anyone and anything else, and He is worth holding

on to.

This letter seems to have been written to believers under real

pressure. Later in the book we learn that they had already suffered

publicly, endured hardship, and even lost property because of their

faith. Following Jesus had become costly. They were tired,

exposed, and vulnerable.

And the danger they faced was not necessarily that they would

suddenly stop believing in God altogether. The temptation was

subtler. It was the temptation to step back from costly devotion toJesus and move toward something safer, more comfortable, more

socially acceptable, and less demanding.

That is why Hebrews matters for us too.

Our pressures may not look exactly the same, but we know what it

is to be distracted, worn down, disappointed, and spiritually tired.

We know what it is for faith to cool gradually rather than collapse

all at once. We know what it is to carry on externally while

something internally has begun to drift.

So Hebrews begins in exactly the right place. Before today’s

passage warns us, it shows us Jesus. Before it tells us not to drift,

it lifts our eyes to the glory of the Son.

And I want to walk us through these opening verses using a simple

acrostic:

R.A.F.T.

Because if life is full of currents that can carry us off course, we

need something strong enough to keep us steady.

R

—

Revelation

Hebrews opens like this:

“Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our

ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he

has spoken to us through his Son.”

God has not left us guessing. He has spoken. In the past He

spoke through the prophets — through the story of Israel, through

promises and warnings, through law and poetry and history. The

Old Testament is the unfolding story of God making Himself known

and preparing the way for His Son.

But now, says Hebrews, something greater has happened. In these

last days, God has spoken to us through His Son.Jesus is not simply another messenger in a long line of

messengers. He is the climax of revelation. In Him, God has

spoken fully and finally.

So if you want to know what God is like, you look to Jesus.

And that matters, because people often end up with a distorted

view of God. Some imagine Jesus as kind and welcoming, but the

Father as harsher and less warm — as though Jesus is the gentle

one trying to smooth things over with a rather severe God. But

Hebrews will not allow us to think that way.

Verse 3 says that the Son is “the radiance of God’s glory and the

exact representation of his being.”

Jesus doesn’t improve the Father for us. He reveals Him perfectly.

Everything that is true of the holiness, righteousness, purity, and

majesty of God is true in Christ. And everything we rightly love in

Christ — His mercy, compassion, patience, and grace — is not

somehow absent from the Father.

And the writer wastes no time showing us who this Son is. He says

the Son is the heir of all things. Through Him the universe was

made. He radiates the glory of God. He reveals God perfectly. He

upholds all things by His powerful word. Then, after making

purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of Majesty.

That is not a small beginning. This is not, “Here are three practical

tips for having a slightly better Wednesday.” This is the writer

saying from the outset, do not think small thoughts about Jesus.

The Jesus who entered our world is the One through whom the

world was made. The One who went to the cross is the radiance of

the glory of God.

And right in the middle of all that majesty comes this phrase full of

gospel hope: “after making purification for sins.”The One who made the world came to deal with our guilt. He did

not simply come to instruct us. He came to save us.

That is the gospel.

So right at the beginning, Hebrews gives drifting hearts what they

need most: a fresh view of Jesus.

A

—

Above

From verse 4 onward, the writer begins comparing Jesus with

angels. That may feel a bit odd to us, because most of us are not

spending much of the week weighing up Christ and angels as

competing options. That is not usually the presenting issue in

pastoral ministry. But for the original readers angels were honoured

servants of God, associated with divine revelation and deeply

woven into the whole world of Old Testament faith.

The point is clear: however honoured angels may be, Jesus stands

far above them.

The writer keeps asking, in effect, “To which of the angels did God

ever say this?” And the answer is always the same: none of them.

No angel is addressed as the Son in this way. No angel is invited to

sit at God’s right hand. No angel is given an eternal throne. Angels

serve, but Jesus reigns.

And this is deeply pastoral, because one reason people drift is that

their sense of scale gets distorted. The pressures right in front of us

start to feel ultimate. The loudest voice in the moment begins to

shape our thinking more than the voice of Christ.

Hebrews brings us back into proportion.

It does not deny that life is hard. It does not deny suffering,

confusion, or weariness. But it reminds us that none of those things

has displaced Christ from His throne.He is still the Son. He is still reigning. He is still worthy of worship.

He is still exactly who He has always been.

And we need that reminder, because it is easy to become over-

impressed by the world around us. Politics, anxiety, and the

pressure of ordinary life can loom very large. The news can make it

sound as though the world is ending every other Thursday. But

Hebrews says, lift your eyes. Look again. See the Son.

Ultimately, it matters a lot less than we often think who lives at

Number 10 or who sits in the Oval Office. What truly matters is who

sits on the throne of eternity. Christ reigns whether the world

notices or not.

That means faith is not foolish. Perseverance is not naïve. Staying

with Jesus is not a waste.

And if Jesus is above everything, then He is above every season of

our lives as well. He is above our victories and above our

confusion. He is above the prayers we prayed and saw answered,

and above the questions we still wrestle with.

Trouble is real, but Christ is greater.

And if Jesus is over everything, then no part of life is untouched by

His lordship. Our priorities, our habits, our decisions, our suffering,

our joys — all of it sits beneath His rule.

F — Fasten

Then chapter 2 turns the corner:

“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we

may drift away from it.”

This is the first warning in Hebrews, and it comes exactly where it

should. Because if God has spoken in His Son, and if that Sonstands above every other messenger, then we cannot treat His

word casually. It calls for attention. It demands a response.

And notice the danger the writer names. It is not open rebellion

against God. It is drifting gently from Him.

That image is powerful because it is so ordinary. I like to go

canoeing on the River Dee, so I can tell you first hand, if I am trying

to paddle upstream, I do not have to make some dramatic decision

to head the wrong way. I just stop being intentional, get distracted

for a minute, maybe start admiring the scenery, and before long the

current is doing what currents do.

Spiritually, that is often how it works too.

Most people do not wake up one morning and consciously decide

to move away from Christ. Usually it happens by degrees.

Distraction grows. Tiredness goes unattended. Small compromises

become easier to justify. Spiritual habits begin to loosen. Over time,

what is convenient starts to look more attractive than what is

faithful.

That is why the writer says, “We must listen very carefully.”

It is possible to hear truth without really taking ownership of it. It is

possible to remain around Christian things without being deeply

shaped by them. We can know the songs, know the language, stay

involved in church life, and still find that our attentiveness to Christ

is fading.

And that drift usually shows up in ordinary ways. Prayer becomes

patchy. Scripture moves from the centre to the edge of life. Sin is

tolerated more easily. Repentance becomes slower. The heart loses

some of its tenderness.

So what does it mean to fasten ourselves to what we have heard?

It means we stop leaving our spiritual lives to chance. We stay

close to the word of God. We pray even when we do not feel

strong. We stay close to God’s people because we need oneanother. We take sin seriously, repent quickly, and keep bringing

our hearts back under the truth of the gospel.

In other words, we put ourselves where grace keeps shaping us. To

quote my dad, “Put yourself under the spout where the grace

comes out.” It is not especially polished, but it has stayed with me.

And sometimes the lines that sound the least sophisticated are the

ones you actually remember.

Now, some people hear a warning like this and immediately feel

crushed. They think, “I’m already tired. I’m already struggling. I’m

already barely holding it together.”

But Hebrews is not written to crush weary believers. It is written to

keep them.

So if you are tired, this is not a call to pretend you are stronger than

you are. It is a call to stay near Christ in your weakness. Do not

loosen your grip because the season is hard. Fasten yourself more

firmly to Him.

Most faithful discipleship is not flashy. A lot of Christian growth

looks like quietly staying close to Jesus on ordinary days. It is

usually less fireworks and more faithfulness. Less spiritual glamour,

more showing up again with your Bible open and your heart saying,

“Lord, help me.”

Stay close to Jesus, on purpose.

T — Take Care

Then the writer sharpens the warning:

“So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great

salvation?”

This is serious language.If God’s earlier word carried real authority, how much more the

word now spoken in His Son? If the message delivered through

servants mattered, then the message brought by the Son Himself

cannot be treated lightly.

And the danger he names is neglect.

That is what makes this so relevant, especially for church people.

Neglect does not always look dramatic. It can hide inside routine. A

person can still know the songs, know the language, know the

pattern of church life, and yet slowly be neglecting Christ Himself.

That is one of the strange dangers of church life. You can become

very familiar with holy things while your heart is quietly elsewhere.

You can turn up, sing, smile, say amen in roughly the right places,

drink the coffee, and still not really be attending to the Lord. You

can even own several Bibles and still somehow never know where

any of them are.

And the tragedy of neglect is not simply that we are being careless

with our faith. It is that we are being careless with so great a

salvation.

That phrase deserves to slow us down.

It is a great salvation because of who achieved it: the Son Himself.

It is a great salvation because of what it cost: Christ gave Himself

in our place. It is a great salvation because of what it

accomplishes: forgiveness, reconciliation with God, cleansing from

guilt, access to the Father, hope beyond death, and a new identity

in Christ.

And this salvation makes a real difference to everyday life.

It gives us hope in darkness. There was a time in my own life when

I went through a real period of darkness and depression, and came

dangerously close to ending my life in hopelessness. What kept me

was not my own strength. It was the fact that God would not let go

of me. It was the truth that He loved me and would sustain me

even in the darkest moments.Sometimes hope does not feel bright. Sometimes hope is simply

clinging to what God has said when your emotions are struggling

to catch up.

That is part of what makes this a great salvation. It is strong

enough for the darkest moments, not just the brightest day.

It also teaches us forgiveness, gives purpose in suffering, and gives

us identity in Christ. Later in Hebrews 2 the writer will say that

Jesus is not ashamed to call His people brothers and sisters. By

grace, His righteousness is counted to us. We are accepted in Him.

That is no small thing. That is great salvation.

So Hebrews says: take care.

Not because Christ is weak, not because salvation is small, but

because our hearts are prone to wander and neglect is dangerous.

Hebrews warns us because it wants to keep believers from drifting

into ruin. The warning itself is part of the kindness of God.

Sometimes the kindness of God feels like a warm embrace, and

sometimes it feels like a holy handbrake.

So what do we do with all this?

For most of us, the danger is not going to look exactly like it did for

the first readers of Hebrews. But the danger of drift is still very real.

Life gets busy. Prayer gets squeezed. The Bible becomes

something we agree with rather than something we sit under.

Worship becomes familiar. Church becomes routine. The gospel

remains in our vocabulary, but its weight begins to lessen in our

actual lives.

Hebrews says that is dangerous.

That does not mean every tired Christian is on the edge of walking

away from their faith. But it does mean none of us should be casual

about our souls.If you look on the Freedom church website, you will see that three

of our values are being a church that is:

• Wholeheartedly adoring Jesus

• Living God’s truth

• Being family together.

And this passage speaks to all of that. You cannot adore Jesus

wholeheartedly while neglecting Him. You cannot really live God’s

truth if you only hear it casually. And you cannot remain steady in

isolation.

We need Christ. We need His word. We need His people. We need

grace. And we need to remember that the Jesus Hebrews presents

to us is not only majestic, but merciful.

So if you know you have drifted, the answer is not to hide. It is not

to pretend. It is not to spiral into despair. The answer is to come

back.

Come back to the Son in whom God has spoken. Come back to

the One who has already paid for your sins. Come back to the King

who reigns above all. Come back to the Saviour who is able to

keep His people.

And perhaps for some people today, coming back simply means

being honest. Honest about tiredness. Honest about

disappointment. Honest about numbness. Honest about the fact

that you have been around the things of God without really

attending to God Himself.

That honesty is often the beginning of healing. Usually not with

dramatic music in the background. Usually just a quiet, truthful

moment before God where you stop managing appearances and

say, “Lord, I need You.”

The point of Hebrews is not merely that drifting is dangerous. The

point is that Jesus is worth holding on to.Conclusion

When Hebrews opens, it does not begin with advice. It begins with

Jesus.

This passage is not mainly telling us to try harder. It is calling us to

look again at Christ. The writer knows that weary people do not

need a motivational talk. They need a fresh sight of the Son of God.

And this is where the gospel lands so powerfully.

The Son through whom God made the world is the same Son who

came into the world for us. The One who radiates the glory of God

is the One who made purification for sins. Jesus has opened the

way back to God through His death and resurrection. He has dealt

with sin, carried guilt, and finished the work needed to save us.

The Son has done what we could never do. He made purification

for sins, and He sat down because the work is finished.

Salvation is received, not achieved. It is grace from beginning to

end.

So the heart of this passage is not, “Sort yourself out.” It is, “Do

not drift from Christ, because there is no one like Him and there is

no salvation like His.”

And that is why this series is called Jesus Over Everything.

Because Jesus is over every voice that competes for our attention.

He is over every fear that tries to dominate our hearts. He is over

every pressure we face and every substitute we are tempted to

trust. He is supreme over all, and He is sufficient for all.

So as we finish, the question becomes personal:

If Jesus really is over everything, is He over everything in me?

Is He over my attention, my trust, my fears, my habits, my wounds,

my decisions, and my future?However the Spirit is pressing this home, the right response is not

to move away from Jesus but towards Him.