Listen up

Step 2 of “Pay Attention” pertains to Hebrews 1:1-3, where the supremancy of God’s Son, Jesus Christ is exclaimed. Considering how to get attention, the writer of Hebrews declared vital news to his listeners. He wanted to capture their attention. He did it by asserting central truths about Jesus Christ.

To get attention, he challenged the audience’s understanding of who is Jesus Christ. In Share Jesus Without Fear, one of the diagnostic questions is “To you, who is Jesus?” It's a tool, like a thermometer, that not only gets the hearer’s attention, but it assertains their core belief about Jesus.

To get your class members to “listen up”, you could hold up a thermometer and say, “let’s take your temp” and you’ll get everyone’s attention. Say, in effect, this is how the book of Hebrews starts. The writer wanted to get the attention of the readers.

Alternatively, if you want to start similar to Hebrews, pick some member of the class and discuss with him a detail of his life not known to the class. Start your class by saying, “We all know so-in-so as [state the well known facts such as father, lawyer, teacher, etc], but in talking with him before class I found out that in the past he was [state the new detail such president of an industry association, member of Who’s Who in America, etc.]. After this, state this was how the writer of Hebrews started his epistle. He wanted to get his readers to Listen Up!