Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
February 15, 2026 :: Hebrews 2:1-4
Pay attention to Jesus.
Pay close, careful, focused, heart-attention to the Son of God.
That’s the main point of application in these four verses.
And that’s, of course, the point of the whole book. Our series’ title comes from chapter 12, verse 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.”
Pay attention to Jesus.
That’s what we’re here to do today, and we’ve been doing it, praise God! And that’s what our church is here for, praise the Lord! To focus on that “one single candle, shining so bright.” And to not take our eyes off of Him. Pay attention to Jesus. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
Interestingly, this is the first explicit point of application that the writer to the Hebrews makes in his sermonic letter.
He jumped right in to an amazing description of Jesus as “the Son” in the first paragraph, and then he gave a complicated Old-Testament-based argument that the Son is superior to the angels in the rest of the first chapter (remember that?), and there are many implications for all of that deep theology, but this is the first application that he wants to draw from it.
Notice the word “therefore” in verse 1. “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
What have we heard? We have heard from God through His Son. Because Jesus is everything that he said He is in chapter 1, we should pay careful attention to Him.
Pay attention to Jesus...or else.
These four verses of chapter 2 are not just the first application that the writer includes in his letter, they are the first clear warning.
Embedded in the Letter to the Hebrews are several serious warnings against falling away from following Jesus. Not only does the writer encourage us to fix our eyes on Jesus, he constantly warns us that we are serious trouble if we do not.
Listen to verse 1 again. “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” So that we do not get lost.
Have you ever gone body-surfing in the ocean?
You go to the shore. You go to the beach. You lather up with sunscreen. You head out for a swim, and the main thing you do is ride the waves as they come in. Up and down. Up and down. Some people can do it for hours. I always want to get back to my chair and my book. But it’s fun. Have you ever been out there enjoying yourself for a long time and you kind of lose track of where your beach towel is? And where your cooler is. And your beach umbrella and your family? And you’re just living in the moment, and then the next thing you realize is that you are really far from where you started.
Those are the undercurrents, right? You can be a mile down the beach. And if you aren’t paying attention, you can get sucked out into the ocean. You have to keep an eye on your kids, right? And an eye on some of the adults, too. If we are not paying attention, we can just drift away.
The writer is warning us to pay attention to Jesus or we might drift off and be lost.
Now, that sounds kind of scary because it is. It’s a warning! And the writer was concerned that some of his Hebrew readers were in danger of doing that very thing.
But notice that he includes himself. “We must pay more careful attention.” He’s not saying anything to them that he isn’t saying to himself.
And he expects them to heed this warning and to not drift away. Because he’s told them just how worthy Jesus is of our attention. He’s the Son! Heir all of things, maker of all things, sustainer of all things. The radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. He never changes, and He sits at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (see 1:1-4). That’s the Son! Superior to all of the angels.
So we need to hear and heed this warning, but we should also be encouraged by it if we are paying attention to Jesus. If you are paying attention to Jesus, then this passage should encourage you.
But if you are no longer paying attention to Jesus or on the brink of ignoring Jesus, then this passage should serve as a “wake-up call” for you.
Why would we stop paying attention to Jesus? How would you answer that for yourself?
I think one thing would be distractions of this world. There are so many thing vying for our attention. Good things and bad things. We can get so caught up in the rat race, in our jobs, in our families, in our sports, in our politics, in our entertainment, in our social media, in our accumulation of money and possessions, that we take our eyes off of Jesus and start effectively worshiping those things instead.
What is it for you? What keeps drawing you away from focusing on the Son?
Last time, we talked about angels. Some of these folks might have been tempted to fix their eyes on God’s amazing supra-human messengers instead of the Son. Angels are good, but they are infinitely inferior to Jesus. We don’t worship them. We join them in the worship of Jesus.
What is it for you? Maybe not angels, but what is that undercurrent that threatens to pull you out to sea away from Jesus?
For the original recipients of this letter, it seems that it was persecution. Life was getting hard. They were being attacked for following Jesus, and they were tempted to stop focusing on Jesus and go back to “just being Jews.” That was hard enough.
Can you relate? Life is hard enough without the added pressure of people attacking you just because you follow Jesus. And so...you start to drift.
Life is hard so you stop coming to church every Sunday.
Life is hard so you stop meeting with other Christians for Bible study and encouragement and prayer.
Life is hard so you skip your Bible reading today and then again tomorrow and then before long you don’t remember the last time you opened that thing.
Life is hard so you skip your prayer time this morning. You’ll do it later. You’ll do it tomorrow. You’ll do it next week. You’ll...drift away.
Now, I’m not saying, and neither is the Bible, that we are sinning if we miss church for good reasons or that you have to legalistically read your Bible and pray every single day to somehow maintain your salvation.
No. No. No. It doesn’t work that way, and I’m not trying to shame or guilt anybody. We don’t need legalistic religion.
But we sure need Jesus! And if we don’t have Him, we are lost.
And we pay attention to Jesus by reading His Word, praying in His name, and meeting with His people. It doesn’t have to be this church, but we need the church! Because the church is Jesus’ people on Earth, and we need Jesus. Amen? You don’t have to listen closely to me, but you do have to listen closely to Jesus.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
I’ve seen so many people drift away.
Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus. It’s dangerous. That’s what the writer emphasizes in next two verses. Look at verse 2.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away...For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (vv.1-3).
Do you see his logic? What’s he talking about?
He’s, once again, contrasting the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. The Old Testament with the New Testament. The Law given through Moses and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Look more closely at verse 2.
“For if the message spoken by angels was binding...”
Aha. We’re back to angels. What message is he talking about? That was the Law given through Moses at Mount Sinai. There were apparently thousands of angels, “myriads of holy ones” (Deuteronomy 33:2) present and helping to hand down the Law through Moses to the people at Mount Sinai.
“For if the message spoken by angels was binding [reliable, true, applicable] and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment...”
What’s he talking about there? He’s talking about all of those times in the Old Testament when the people disobeyed, and the Lord brought judgment. Think about the golden calf. Think about the quail. Think about the wilderness wanderings. Think about the man who broke the Sabbath and was executed. Think about all of those times in the Old Testament when they broke the Law, and they received the retribution of God.
Was that good? Of course it was good! It was holy. It was right. It was righteous. God is holy, holy, holy, and He judges sin.
Now, here’s the logic. It goes from lesser to greater. If God was just and right to bring that earthly judgment on those sins against the lesser Old Covenant (and He was) then... Verse 3. “...how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?”
What’s the answer to that one? How shall we escape?
We shall not. No way. No how.
Do you see the logic here? Remember in chapter 1, verse 1, the writer said that, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways...” And that was good! But now, He’s spoken to us through, something much greater. He has spoken through His Son!
So what do you think? If you disobeyed the prophets and ignored the prophets and you got God’s justice, what happens if you ignore the Son?
Some people think that the Old Testament is stark and scary and full of God’s wrath. Well, it is...for those who are disobedient. But they also think that the New Testament is just sweetness and rainbows and soft things. But the New Testament is even heavier in some ways because the Son is so much more worthy and glorious.
If you reject the Son of God and the salvation that He offers, then there is no escaping the eternal judgment of God.
That’s what we learned about all week at the Theology Conference.
If we ignore such a great salvation, how shall we escape?
We won’t! We just won’t.
So these Hebrews who were considering going backwards and falling out of the race and ignoring Jesus, were in danger of eternal judgment. Because the salvation is so great, the punishment for ignoring it is so great, as well.
Pay attention to Jesus.
The word for “ignore” in verse 3 could be translated “neglect” or “disregard.” It means to make light of something and consider something else (anything else) as more important.
Do you remember the parable Jesus told (in Matthew 22) about the king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son and sent his servants to bring in those who had been invited?
But then the guests refused to come? So the king sent some more servants and said, “Tell them that the beef brisket is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!”
“But they paid no attention [same word in the Greek, ignored, neglected, paid no attention] and went off–one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.”
And do you remember how the king responded? “[He] was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (See Matthew 22:2-10.)
“...how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (V.3).
Now, this probably raises some questions for some of you. It does for me, too. And I don’t necessarily have all the answers.
Some of you have very tender consciences, and this kind of talk makes you worried that you’re going to miss your salvation because you have sinned here or there. You have lost your focus on Jesus from time to time, and this wigs you out.
I believe that if you love Jesus and are even just wanting to fix your eyes on Him, that is the last thing you need to worry about.
We do not save ourselves by being sinless or keep ourselves saved by focusing on Jesus. No. But if we are saved, we will focus on Jesus. If we are truly saved, then we will heed this warning. But if we are truly saved, we will pay attention to Jesus because He’s the One who saves us and because our hearts will want to pay attention to Him.
The very fact that you are here today to worship Jesus should encourage you that you are fixing your eyes on Jesus. It does me! The very fact that you are singing, “Here’s my heart, Lord! Speak what is true” should encourage you that you are paying careful attention to Jesus.
But! If you are dropping out or considering dropping out of the race or have checked out, then let this be a warning to you. If you are not singing the songs at least in your heart. If you are turning your back. If you are putting your fingers in your ears when Jesus speaks to you, then be warned. Be scared. Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
Because we (any of us) shall not escape if we ignore such a great salvation.
Why would we even want to?!Why would we want to ignore this salvation?! It’s crazy!
You can almost understand those outside of the church. Maybe they haven’t heard. Maybe they’ve been turned off by church people. (None of those are excuses. There are no excuses.)
But for those who have heard about Jesus?
For those who have sung the songs and prayed some prayers?
For those who have been loved by Jesus’ people?
To then turn their backs on Jesus and walk away forever?
If that’s you or me, we will not escape. And Hell will be the right place for us for all eternity.
Some of you are worried that’s it too late for you. As we get further into this letter and bump up against some of the even more heavy warnings, you may feel that even more strongly.
What I would say to you is that if you have started to walk away and regret it, and you can turn around and return to Jesus and run back into His waiting arms, then do it!
And if that’s you, then you haven’t gone too far. It’s only those who cannot find repentance that have gone too far.
That’s why the writer warns these folks. He’s saying, “Don’t go there! We must pay more careful attention. We must not drift away. Let’s not drift out to sea!”
Focus on the shore.
Focus on the Son.
Pay attention to Jesus.
Because He has provided “such a great salvation.”
And it’s all true. That’s the point of the rest of verse 3 and all of verse 4. We can trust that this salvation is true because...just look at the witnesses to the gospel message! Verse 3.
“This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (vv.3b-4).
You see the three steps? Announced, confirmed, testified?
Salvation was announced by Jesus Himself! “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is here.” “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus says so! Salvation is announced!
And then (second step) the salvation was confirmed to us (notice he includes himself again) “by those who heard” the Lord. That’s the apostles. That’s what we have here in our Bibles.
And that’s not all. The third step is even more witnesses–not just the Son and the Apostles but the Father and the Holy Spirit! This testimony is triune like our God! V.5
“God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles [that’s the Book of Acts], and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”
And He’s still doing that today–gifting God’s people to serve the church and share the gospel with the world. It’s true. It’s all true. The Triune God and the people of God all bear witness to this salvation. It’s true, and it’s great.
I was trying to think this week why it’s called a “great” salvation in verse 3. I agree with that, of course, but what exactly did the writer have in mind?
What’s so great about this great salvation? And I kept coming back to three things. First, it’s great because we are saved from our sins.
#1. SALVATION FROM OUR SINS.
Our sins are very great because they are sins against a holy God.
The speakers at last week’s Theology Conference emphasized this. We deserve Hell. Hell is good and right and just. Hell is not bad. We’re bad. Hell is good. It’s hard for us to accept mainly because we don’t realize how sinful we are and how awful our sins are before a holy God.
We need to come to see the gravity of our sin and the danger we are in. And then we’ll understand that amazing grace that we have been shown.
We tend to think that maybe an eternal Hell is not justice. And we think we’re maybe more merciful than God. But the merciful One is the One who purified us from our sins. From every “violation and disobedience” and rescued us from our “just punishment” (v.2).
Remember that’s what salvation is. Salvation is rescue!
“Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Saviour’s name
He has hushed the Law’s loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame
He has washed us with His blood.”
- John Newton
And that’s the second thing I thought about in our salvation’s greatness. We are saved from our sin, and we are saved by the Son.
#2. SALVATION BY THE SON.
“He has washed us with His blood.” He didn’t just announce the salvation and then step aside for someone else to deliver it. Like an angel? No, He did it Himself. The Son! The Son of chapter 1 did it Himself!
Chapter 1, verse 4 said that “he made purification for our sins.” Jesus did it. He did it on that Cross. With a love divine, of all loves excelling, Jesus took our place and took our punishment.
One of the speakers this week said that if you are concerned about injustice, then look no further than the Cross. Because the Holy One of God was crucified for your sins on that Cross. He didn’t do anything to deserve being there, and yet, there He was! Talk about injustice!
It was such a great salvation because the salvation was purchased by the blood of the Son.
And lastly, it’s a great salvation because it’s an eternal one. We are saved from our sin by the Son forever and ever.
#3. SALVATION FOR ALL ETERNITY.
We are saved from an eternal hell and to an eternal heaven. Or, more precisely, an eternal new heaven and new earth. One ruled by the Son! Because, as we saw last time, He is God and He never changes, and He accomplished our salvation, was resurrected[!], and came to sit at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And one day He’s going to bring the Kingdom of God in all of its fullness to Earth. And He’s going to bring that salvation that He has purchased for us with His blood.
Remember chapter 1, verse 14 says that angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” Salvation is here in part, but the fullness is still on the way. And Jesus is going to bring it some day soon.
We’re going to see that again when we get to chapter 9.
Where it is written, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrew 9:27-28). And it’s going to last forever!
Notice who will get that salvation. Those who are “waiting for him.”
Not those who have given up.
Not those who have checked out.
Not those who have turned their back on Jesus and fallen out of the race.
Not those who have drifted away.
Not those who have ignored such a great salvation!
But those who are paying attention to Jesus.
May that be you and me.
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