HEBREWS 3:1-6 - The Household of Faith

Introduction

Years ago, when Jodee and I were raising our support as missionaries with WorldVenture, we had the opportunity to visit a lot of churches and—along with that—stay in a lot of people’s homes. We’ve had some adventures; some really nice places, and others that were, shall we say, very memorable for other reasons.

Staying with a church family for a deputation weekend was always an opportunity to get to see how other people lived, to experience for a little bit what the word “home” meant to them. And whether it was a big, luxurious house or a modest little bungalow (or anything in-between), our hosts would always say the exact same thing to us: “Make yourself at home!” And it always struck me as funny, because I used to threaten Jodee that someday I would!

Think about it—if you ever really did act in someone else’s home the way you do at your own house... you’d probably wear out your welcome in a hurry! Because as much as you can have gracious hosts who are gifted in hospitality and as much as you can enjoy your time staying at someone else’s house—at the end of the day, it’s just that: someone else’s house! You’ll never really feel completely comfortable or at your ease unless you are in your own house!

One of the first things that you notice as you read through our text in Hebrews 3 this morning is that the word house appears seven times in six verses—a good indication that it is worth exploring what the author is intending to teach with that image. Verse 6 summarizes the passage well, so let’s start there:

Hebrews 3:6 (LSB)

but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope.

So the “house” that these verses are concerned with is God’s people—the “household of faith”, as Paul puts it in Galatians 6:10. What is in view here in Hebrews 3:6 are the people who have called on God in faith for salvation and who have been brought together as a people.

Now we will see in these verses that the author of Hebrews is tying both the Old Testament people of God and the New Testament people of God together in one people—making the same point that the Apostle Paul makes in Ephesians 2, that Jews and Gentiles are one people in Christ. We are often prone to cut a sharper line between the Old Testament people of God and the New Testament people of God; and while there are some important distinctions, we must not allow ourselves to sharpen those distinctions to the point where we begin to entertain the thought that there are two distinct ways that people are saved—Old Testament or New, Jew or Gentile, the only way anyone has ever come to saving faith has been through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And this is precisely what the writer of these verses is so keen to show his readers—that there is only one household of faith. One of the tensions that exists throughout the book of Hebrews is the temptation of the Jewish Christians to “go back to Jerusalem”, as it were; to retreat to the old righteousness codes of Moses’ Law for righteousness. They had grown up with Moses, after all—the Law was comfortable, it was familiar; when they were following the old rules and traditions they felt that they were really at home.

But by going back to what they thought was going to make them “feel at home” in their faith was actually threatening to estrange them from the household of faith in Christ. They were “making themselves feel at home” in the household of Christ in ways that were completely inappropriate. And so the writer of Hebrews ties together Moses and Christ and the household of faith in a beautiful way in these verses to demonstrate to his Jewish Christian audience that Christ was the One Moses was pointing them to all along! What these verses demonstrate to those first century Jewish Christians (and to us as well) is that

Being at HOME in the house of faith means HOLDING FAST to its BUILDER

Now we may not have all come out of a Jewish background where we feel the pull back to the familiar works-based religion of our childhood; but we all of us get to the point at one time or another where we act as if our own performance is what counts for Christ to accept us. Everyone in this room; all of us begin to slip back into a mindset where we feel that the only way God will accept us is if we work harder at our faith. That God is disappointed in us as Christians because we have not shared the Gospel enough or read our Bibles enough or prayed enough or participated in ministry outreaches enough, and on it goes.

And so we need to hear this exhortation right alongside our first century brothers and sisters—we need to come to understand that belonging to the household of faith does not mean hitting all the holiness benchmarks and achieving all the ministry milestones of a real Christian. Belonging to the household of faith means holding on to Jesus!

Verse 6 of our text serves as a good structure for exploring this passage:

Hebrews 3:6 (LSB)

but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope.

We are to “hold fast” to Christ in three ways—let’s look at them one at a time. First, you “hold fast” in that

I. All of your CONFIDENCE is in Christ (Hebrews 3:2)

Your confidence that you belong in the household of faith rests in what Jesus has done! We studied this a couple of weeks ago when we looked at the active obedience and passive obedience of Christ. The faithfulness of Christ is one of the great threads that weaves through the book of Hebrews, and we see it here in verse 2 of our text:

Hebrews 3:1–2 (LSB)

Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession—Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.

This is the only place in the entire New Testament where Jesus is called an “Apostle”—literally, a “sent one”. Just as Jesus sent His twelve Apostles out with the Gospel, so Christ was sent as God’s “final Word” of salvation.

And He was a faithful apostle—He completely and utterly fulfilled the task His Father had appointed to Him to be the Word that saves His people. And in comparing Him to Moses, the author is demonstrating to his Jewish Christian audience that Christ carried out the same task in the Household of God’s people that Moses did—in fact,

He is more FAITHFUL than Moses (cp. Numbers 20:11)

We see throughout Moses’ life that he was given proclamations from YHWH for His people; he was sent to them from Mount Sinai to declare God’s will to Israel in the wilderness.

But unlike Christ, who never failed in His faithfulness, Moses failed to perfectly carry out God’s will. We read about it in Numbers 20, where the people were complaining about dying of thirst, and instead of speaking to the rock, Moses disobeyed God and struck it instead:

Numbers 20:10–11 (LSB)

and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses raised high his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.

For all of his faithfulness for so long, Moses blew it at that moment—and as a result, God tells him

Numbers 20:12 (LSB)

But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

For one disobedience; one flare of anger, one moment of lost temper Moses was barred from the Promised Land.

This is what comes home to us when we begin believing that we have to earn God’s favor; that the faithfulness and obedience of Christ on our behalf needs a little extra input from us. But are you really ready to play with those kinds of stakes? This is what the author of Hebrews is warning his readers here in these verses:

Stop TRUSTING your own PERFORMANCE

Moses can’t equip you to be pleasing to God—Moses couldn’t even deliver himself into Canaan. If you try to “make yourself feel at home” in the household of faith by focusing all your attention on how happy God is with you because of what you do, you have missed the point of Christ’s work: God is pleased with what Christ has done, and is pleased with you in Him!

Can’t you see how freeing that is? (Now, as we will see next week Lord willing, this does not mean that we are “free” to go sin because Christ has already paid in advance for our future sins!) But can you grasp how utterly liberating it is that God’s delight in you is utterly independent of how good you are at being a Christian?!? You don’t have to have it all together; you don’t have to have a perfect score at beating temptation; you don’t have to be the next Ray Comfort in evangelism or the next Ken Ham in apologetics, because your performance as a Christian is irrelevant to God’s satisfaction with you! Stop trusting in your own performance; you are at home in the household of faith because all of your confidence is in Christ!

Being at home in the household of faith means that you hold fast to the Builder of the House, Jesus Christ. All of your confidence is in Christ, and

II. All of your BOASTING is in Christ (Hebrews 3:3-4)

Verse 3 tells us that

He is more GLORIOUS than Moses (2 Cor. 3:7-9)

Hebrews 3:3 (LSB)

For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

Now, this isn’t to say there was no glory for Moses—but compared with the glory revealed in Christ, Moses’ glory was temporary. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 that

2 Corinthians 3:7–8 (LSB)

But if the ministry of death, in letters having been engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more in glory?

Moses was the one who brought God’s people out of Egypt; but he did not create that people. He was the one who brought the Law to them at Sinai, but he was not the creator of the Law. the glory that shone in his face was not his, it was only reflected in his face from God Himself. And in the same way, Christian, whatever boasting you do, it cannot come from your own works, can it?

Your HONOR is not your OWN (cp. Galatians 6:14)

The Apostle Paul makes this clear when he writes about the false teachers who wanted the church in Galatia to go back to Moses and the Law—he writes in Galatians 6--

Galatians 6:13–14 (LSB)

For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they want to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

The writer of Hebrews tells us in our text (v. 4)

Hebrews 3:4 (LSB)

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Christian, did you come to be part of this household of faith because of your own superior moral or spiritual existence? Did you earn your way into this house on the basis of your own glory? Moses led the people of God, but he did not create them. In the same way, beloved, you did not build this house—God built it and put you in it! Lest we become conceited when we look outside this house and say of those outside of the faith, “Shame on them—if only they had the good sense to come in out of the cold!”—remember, you used to be out there too until you were brought in! You do not belong to the household of faith because you were smarter or more righteous or had a better upbringing or stronger moral center—this house was built without your help, and your presence here is an honor that you did not earn! Your only boast is not in what you have done to gain entry into this house, but in what Christ has done through the Cross!

Being at home in the household of faith means holding fast to Christ, its Builder—all of your confidence is in Christ, all of your boasting is in Christ, and

III. All of your HOPE is in Christ (Hebrews 3:5-6)

Verses 5-6 of our text continue to teach about Moses’ relationship to the household of faith:

Hebrews 3:5–6 (LSB)

Now MOSES WAS FAITHFUL IN ALL HIS HOUSE AS A SERVANT, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope.

The word servant here is not the usual word used for “servant” or “slave” in the New Testament—the Greek word here is therapwn, which has the root meaning of “treat” or “care for” (it’s where we get our English word therapy). Moses was a “caretaker” in the household of faith—he managed it, looked after it, did what he could to keep it in order. And part of Moses’ faithfulness in the house was to be a testimony to what Christ would accomplish with His sacrifice. The Jewish believers needed to be reminded about the superiority of Christ as the Lord of the house that Moses served:

He is more WORTHY than Moses (cp. Hebrews 10:1)

This is another theme that we will see throughout Hebrews—the Law of Moses was a shadow of things to come:

Hebrews 10:1 (LSB)

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things...

Moses’ worth was not in his own work, but only as he faithfully pointed ahead to Christ. Moses was the caretaker of Christ’s house, and once Christ the Son was revealed, Moses could step back into the background. Like Denethor, Steward of Gondor, whose chair sat off of to the side of the Throne of Gondor; once Aragorn returned to his rightful throne, the Steward’s time was over. Moses was a faithful steward because, for instance, he commanded that a lamb be sacrificed on the altar and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat of the Ark to atone for the sins of the people. That act was a preview of what Christ would do on the Cross—Moses was a worthy steward because he foreshadowed Christ by offering a lamb to be slain for the sins of the people; Christ is worthy because He was the Lamb slain!

Revelation 5:12 (LSB)

...“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”

Christ is more worthy than Moses—belonging to the household of faith means that all of your hope is in Christ, and not in yourself--

You cannot RELY on your own WORTH

One of the most insidious lies that has infected our society today is the lie of “self-worth”. We are constantly told to value ourselves, cherish ourselves, esteem ourselves, look in the mirror and say, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” Self-respect, self-worth, self-esteem is considered to be the highest personal virtue in society—it doesn’t matter how wretched or miserable or rebellious or self-deceived a person is, what really matters is that they have “high self-worth”. (Tragically, this lie has worked its way through a shocking amount of American evangelical teaching and preaching and worship. If you doubt me, turn on a Christian radio station and listen to their music—every last song they play is all about how worth it we are: How God will empower you or show you how wonderful you are or make all your dreams come true…) In this atmosphere (in the world and all too often in the church), the very worst thing you can do is tell someone that what they are doing is a sin, or is destructive, or is earning the wrath of God against them—because to do that, you are causing them to question their self-worth! And that is the “unforgiveable sin” of our day.

But I say to you—by the authority of the unbreakable Word of God—that anyone who stands before the Throne of God on the Day of Judgment relying on their own self-worth to justify them will go to Hell for eternity. Beloved, there is no way to belong in the household of faith while still clinging to your own self-worth. The only hope that you have on that Day is to cling to the worthiness of Jesus Christ on your behalf!

Do you remember the hymn we sang earlier in our worship this morning? It expresses this truth beautifully:

Two wonders here that I confess / My worth and my unworthiness. My value fixed; my ransom paid - at the Cross!

Beloved, there is only one way to be sure that you belong in the household of faith—all of your hope is in the worthiness of Christ on that Cross! The writer of Hebrews warned his Jewish audience that there was no way to go back to the familiar old comforts of works-based righteousness of Moses—Moses wasn’t even promoting works-based righteousness, he was foreshadowing the work of Christ!

The last sentence of our text this morning is a warning that the writer of Hebrews will return to over and over again in this book--

Hebrews 3:6 (LSB)

but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope.

We are the household of faith if we hold fast. We must pay close attention to what we have heard, we must not drift away from Christ, we must not neglect so great salvation.

What are you holding fast to this morning? Where is your confidence in your salvation? Does it lie in your own self-discipline, your own good spiritual habits of prayer and Bible reading and church attendance? Does it lie in the fact that you used to cuss and drink and party but you quit doing that and started going to church instead?

Or are all those things the sign of a person desperately clinging to Christ? You discipline yourself because you hate the sin that you used to love and so you bridle yourself and put up guardrails on your behavior because you hate the sins that you are prone to? You read the Bible and pray because you are so hungry for Christ and His Word every day that you couldn’t skip morning devotions if you wanted to? You come to worship no matter what the circumstances because being in the congregation of God’s people praising Him is better to you than life?

What are you holding fast to this morning? What is your boast? Is it in the fact that you heard the Good News of salvation in Christ and thought that sounded like a great thing and so you decided to accept the terms of the Gospel because you have always been an upright and moral person and so it just made sense?

Or do you boast in the fact that Christ reached down and saved you even though you were a wicked, depraved and miserable individual, full of rebellion and hatred and scorn, and that you deserved nothing but damnation but received mercy instead? That your depravity and utter lostness is a delight to you because it enables you to magnify the greatness of your Savior?

What are you holding fast to this morning? Where is your hope? Are you hoping that when you stand before the Ancient of Days at the Last Judgment that He will look on you and see how worthy you are of His favor? That He will see how hard you worked to hold on to your faith no matter what, that you never let anyone discourage you and never let go of your Christian convictions and always tried to stay faithful to Him?

Or—at the end of the day—are you trusting not in how hard you held on to Christ, but how firmly He has held you? Because when it all comes down to it, your hope, your confidence, your boast, Christian, is not your ability to hold fast to Him, but His ability to hold fast to you. That is what you boast in, that is your confidence, that is your hope—that you are held fast by your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________