Sabbath School Class Week 3

Sabbath School Class Week 3

I wrote the following last week and never posted it.  I'm sorry for that.  I was tired and fell asleep with it unfinished and then realized in the morning after you all had already finished Sabbath School.  I hope you find the following study one that draws you closer to God.  Thanks for your understanding.  I can't wait to share all the details of the festivities. I can not be in church this Sabbath.  I was planning to be there but Andrew and Becca arrived home around 12:30 tonight and leave for Asheville at 10am.  They head from Asheville straight to California where I will not see them until September.  If you will grant me the gift of not being at Sabbath School tomorrow morning, I am going to get up fix my kids breakfast and then probably have a good cry.  All happy tears I assure you, but tears non the less.  Happy Sabbath and love to you all! Beth

Introduction:  I am sitting in the upstairs bed room of a house that sits on the coast in East Boothbay, Maine. Tomorrow is the first day of the wedding weekend festivities.   We are so thrilled about the weekend, about the marriage of our son and the time spent with family.  These week ends also have the potential to bring up family issues, to hurt people's feelings, and to just be exhausted from all the work that needs to be done.  As I read and studied this passage I couldn't help but think of what is about to take place.  More about that later.

READ:  Hebrews 2:1-4

2 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ² For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,³ how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴ God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Remember this is written to the Christians who were back sliding, so to speak.  This was to warn them, so what is the first warning or command?

1. "We must pay the most _______________________, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not  _______________________________. 

2. "How shall we escape if we ______________________________ a salvation?

So first we are told to pay careful attention to what we have heard, so we don't drift away.  How does paying close attention keep them from drifting away?

Sitting here in the room this weekend getting ready for my son to get married, I can't help but think how important this message is for them.  Andrew and Becca.  They are getting ready to vow to one another, to choose each other for life.  To give themselves.  Yet if they don't pay attention to all that they vow to each other, if they let life get in the way over and over, and if they ignore what they are giving to each other they will loose site of the beauty, the gift of each other.  

Over and over marriages do just that.  They are strong and beautiful to start with and then they forget, they ignore, they gloss over the vows, the commitment, the gift.  Without paying close attention, without hearing each other, without accepting the gift of each other, there is no way a marriage will survive.  

Ignore?  What does this word mean?  When have you been ignored and when have you ignored someone? Why? Is to ignore intentional?

Trying to answer these questions myself I find that when I am ignoring, I am choosing to not pay attention, to gloss over, turn the other shoulder etc.  I am choosing it.  To ignore something I have to on some level know it is there to ignore.  So here the author asks the question, "How shall we escape so great a Salvation"  this implies that they knew about the salvation. They had accepted it at one time and yet now they were choosing to ignore it.  To pretend it wasn't there.  Why?

If they didn't accept Jesus Christ as there Savior then they could perhaps go back to life as they had known it.  They could "ignore' what they knew and could just go back pretending to live as the jews they had been.  

Couples often do the same, ignore the vows, ignore what they know so they can go back to the "single" life as they knew it.  Yet how well does that work out?

They passage goes on to read in verse 4:  4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The author is reminding them that this is not just a fable, just a story but that Jesus gave us signs and wonders, miracles and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Over and over again He showed himself.  Over and over He was the fulfillment.  

As I sit in this room,  I realize that this group of people had decided to ignore the great gift of Jesus.  They had ignored his precious gift of Salvation.  They had chosen to return to what they had known and ignored what they knew.  My son is getting ready to gift to Becca His life.  As a mother I am overwhelmed with joy, but I also hope and pray that his gift, his love will not be ignored, overlooked, but cherished.  

Do you cherish the gift of Salvation?  Do you remember the words spoken by Jesus to you?  Do you remind yourself of His great sacrifice for you?  Or do you ignore it, set it aside, overlook it so that you can continue in your former life?

How can you this next week, live like someone who KNOWS of the gift?  How can you this next week remember to pay close attention to what has been said so that you don't drift away?  This week will it end with you closer to Jesus, or farther away?  

Just as I hope and pray that Becca will accept the gift of Andrews heart I know God also deeply yearns for each of us to accept the gift of his son, and not squander it away.  Will you?