Where Are You Looking to Find _________?

I want you take a moment and look at the Title Screen...

I really struggled trying to come up with a title that would encapsulate where the text is heading…one that would grab your attention...

Then the more I thought over what the Holy Spirit is communicating in this text, it dawned on me to have a title that is open ended....meaning you fill in the blank.

How would you choose to fill in that blank?…there are a number of words we could choose...

Single words like...

Security/Safety

Purpose

Contentment

Joy

Peace

Hope

Love

(isn’t there a song about looking for love in all the wrong places)

Or Phrases like...

...Help handling the turmoil in my life.

...Guidance with a potentially life changing decision...

…Courage to do what is right...

The list is endless isn’t it…sadly many believers look for those things in places where they will never be found....

Job

Relationships

Possessions

Pursuing a life of luxury

Intoxicating beverages

Mind altering drugs

With all that in mind, please turn to Hebrews 3:1-6.

As we walk through Hebrews, we notice the writer makes frequent use of Old Testament passages either by direct quotes or allusion.

God’s people were redeemed from the bondage of Egypt and set out through the wilderness wanderings towards Canaan…their Promised Land.

It was a place of “rest” that God planned for them…the writer will refer to this in Hebrews 4.

The writer of Hebrews constantly urges his readers by reminding them of the fact that there were some who started out on that journey through the wilderness that never made it to the Promised Land.

And he uses that to warn us, that none should fall short of heaven…Hebrews 4:11 “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.”

The pressure surrounding God’s people in the wilderness was such that they were constantly looking back to Egypt...

They often took their eyes off of God and what He did to bring them out of the bondage of Egypt…their hearts were distracted and they griped and complained often, they wanted to go back to Egypt and kept looking for answers apart from what God was providing for them.

As a result God grew angry with them…and they were prohibited from entering the Promised Land...

When we stop long enough to consider the journey of God’s people, we can see a pattern and a picture of the Christian life.

In a way, this world is a wilderness filled with pressures and difficulties, and we are seeking to navigate this world moving towards our promised land…heaven…where we will see Christ and will be made like him.

But so often in our life we are easily distracted and forget how Jesus rescued us from the bondage of sin…

We get discouraged or disillusioned, we gripe and complain about how hard life is, we lose our inner joy because of external pressures and difficulties…we are tempted to throw our hands in the air and give up...

The writer of Hebrews understood this…and he recognized the pressures his Jewish audience was under…

they had forsaken their culture by turning to Christ and no longer participating in the religious rituals of their heritage…Explain

As a result, they experienced persecution from all sides…the pressures are so great they are being tempted to return to Judaism...

They are having difficulty navigating life in the 1st century…and they were looking for answers...

Do they continue on in their faith knowing full-well they will be further ostracized by friends and family?

Do they forsake it all and go back to Judaism to avoid further persecution?

Is it okay to just mix the two together to avoid the problems and please everyone.

When you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one!

He exhorts them in Hebrews 2:1 “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”

The Jewish believers are being tempted to shrink back into Judaism and find their answers in the Old Covenant…their faith was weak and they wanted to hold on to rituals…to avoid the persecution…

He is trying to convince them there is a better way to navigate life this side of heaven by recognizing the superiority of Jesus over all things...

Hebrews 3 begins a new section in the overall argument of Hebrews that Jesus is the best solution and the only solution.

He began his argument in the first 2 chapters deep theological truths arguing for the superiority of Christ over the angels and the prophets.

In this chapter the argument shifts to the superiority of Christ over Moses.

Why now does the writer shift to Moses?

To all Jews, there is a direct link between Moses and the Old Covenant…and their view of Moses was he was the greatest (Explain)…

So continuing his exhortation from chapter 2 of the danger of drifting, the writer tells his audience the answer they need is to …

Main Point: Focus Your Attention On Christ!

Hebrews 3:1 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;”

Consider is a command, not a request…he doesn’t say “Can I get you to possibly consider Jesus for a moment”… no, it is a command, so not doing so results in us being disobedient to God...

It is a word that means to fix your attention with continuous regard and observation…it communicates the idea of meditation…if we were to read it in the Greek, we would say “put your minds down on this one thing”

It means to apply your mind diligently in such a way that you learn the significance of something

It is a command to seriously and continuously think on the significance of Jesus.

We must discipline our minds to think on the significance of Jesus to our faith…

Why should we focus on Jesus…four reasons.

Focus on Jesus Because of Your Relationship to Him (1a)

Hebrews 3:1 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;”

By using the word therefore, the writer connects what he says next to what he said before…the context of Hebrews 3 comes from Hebrews 2:1 to pay closer attention...

To avoid drifting away it is imperative you look to Jesus…to look intently and think about Him with more intensity than you ever did before...

You are holy because of Him.

Lets focus for a moment on the fact he calls them holy brothers (and sisters)

Using the term brothers implies that familial relationship…link to Christ.

Scripture clearly refers to God’s people as holy people...(1 Cor 3:17; Eph 2:21; 1 Pet 2:5, 9).

It is a word that indicates we are set apart…we are sanctified and cleansed by the blood of Christ...

In the context of Hebrews it takes on a far richer significance.

Holiness was an important feature of the Levitical system.

Worshiping God rightly under the old covenant required holiness in every aspect of life.

This is why Leviticus contains such detailed instructions about sacrifices and purifications.

Holiness could only come through sacrifice, meaning it could not come by human hands...

So when the writer designates these people as a holy brotherhood, he makes a Christological claim.

He is not congratulating them for achieving the status of holiness;

He is declaring they are positionally holy on the basis of the priestly sacrifice Christ offered on their behalf.

Their position with YAHWEH, as a result of their life in Christ, is they are completely HOLY!

Eliminating the need to return to rituals to make us holy...

That applies to all of us…we cannot make ourselves holy…we can only be holy because of Christ.

You are a partaker of the heavenly calling because of Him.

The “heavenly calling” shared by believers refers to God’s purposes in our salvation and our glorification.

God did not save us just so we could go to heaven…he saved us to partner with Him in His kingdom agenda on earth.

He calls us and makes us what we are.

We do not transform ourselves into something and then become God’s people; God transforms us into his people…we don’t make ourselves fit to fulfill God’s agenda…only God does.

Now, once you have been set apart from sin to God, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and stamped with the designation of being holy…and with that designation comes great responsibility… your heavenly calling...

God says “Be holy, for I am holy”… we are to live out in practice what we are in position…

you and I live in between the realm of the “already…but not yet”(EXPLAIN)…we have already been declared holy positionally…nothing can change that position we have with God…but we have not yet experienced the reality of practical holiness where we are completely without sin in every way.

So while we wait for the “not yet” to become reality…we are to faithfully live in this worldly kingdom as citizens of a heavenly kingdom who partake in the holiness that comes with it!

You now share the same message!

Confession — one word that means to say the same thing...

We all need to be on the same page regarding Jesus…He is the center of our confession of faith in the gospel, both in creed and public testimony.

The writer will use this term Heb 4:14 and Heb 10:23.

In all three uses in Hebrews there is a sense of urgency.

If we truly understood the superiority of Jesus, we would not be so quick to look somewhere else for answers...

All of us share the same message that salvation comes only through Christ…Jesus is the only one that can bridge the chasm between humanity and God...

Focus on Jesus Because He is Greater In His Office (1b)

He is the Apostle

This is the only time Jesus is described in this fashion in the NT...

Apostle simply means “sent one.” …it also carries a deeper meaning of ambassador…with the authority to act on behalf of the one who sent them.

Now what are the characteristics of an apostle or an ambassador?

He has all the right, power and authority of the king in the country who sends Him.

and so did Jesus.

He came clothed with the power of God. He came with all of God’s grace, all of God’s love, all of God’s mercy, all of God’s justice, and all of God’s power.

An ambassador has to speak with the voice of the one who sent Him.

And so Jesus came and said, I speak only what I hear the Father say.”

So Jesus was the perfect sent one from God.

He came with all of God’s power and with God’s voice He spoke.

As the apostle, He represents God to all humanity.

Using the term apostle here relates also in a comparison to Moses as one sent by God to deliver Israel.

Now he is going to use a term to relate Jesus to Aaron...

He is the High Priest

The writer brings this up again reflecting back on verse 17 and will continue to develop this ministry of Jesus throughout the letter.

As the high priest, He represents all humanity to God.

Because he was perfectly human and perfectly divine, he knows both man and God.

He is able to speak to men for God and to intercede to God for men.

He is the one person through whom man comes to God and God to man.

The separate functions of both brothers is met fully in the one person of Jesus.

In His work, Jesus is greater than both Aaron and Moses.

Focus on Jesus, Because He is Greater In His Work (2-4).

It is really remarkable here how the Holy Spirit handles this touchy subject..

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the writer could have pointed out all the faults of Moses to prove his point of how Jesus is better…he could have said Jesus is better so deal with it.

His argument does not contrast the faults and failures of Moses with the successes and achievements of the Lord.

he doesn’t do that…bashing Moses would not have been a good idea if you’re trying to sway a Jewish reader...

Instead, he brings out the similarities between Jesus and Moses.

He is Faithful like Moses was faithful.

Hebrews 3:2 “He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.”

Numbers 12:7 ““...with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;”

Numbers 12:7 is in the context of Aaron and Miriam questioning Moses’ leadership and God rebuked them...

It is impossible to think about the old covenant and Judaism without considering Moses.

God used Moses to liberate his people in the exodus.

God used Moses to deliver the law to Israel.

The old covenant is essentially the legacy of Moses’s ministry to the people of Israel.

Moses remained faithful to God in spite of strong opposition and disappointment from the Israelites.

Some Israelites grumbled, wanting to return to Egypt rather than follow Moses (Num 11:4–6).

Others challenged Moses’ unique authority (Num 12:1–2).

He compares the faithfulness of Moses and his achievement of faithfully discharging his office as a servant in the house of God to the faithfulness of Jesus in discharging his office.

Jesus was faithful to do all that God called him to do.

John 6:38 ““For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

John 8:29 ““And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.””

John 17:4 ““I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”

Now you’ll notice that it says he was faithful in all his house.

house...means household, and Moses is seen as a faithful steward in God’s household.

What is God’s household?

The Old Testament identifies a house of David and a house of Israel.

Who then is God’s household? Believers. The Old Testament believers, Israel.

Now it says in verse 2 that Christ also was faithful to His house.

What is Christ’s household?

Ephesians 2:19 (NASB95)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

It’s the church. We’re the new household. And Jesus is the one who cares for us.

1 Peter 2:4 “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,”

As Moses was faithful to an earthly household, Jesus was faithful to a heavenly household.

He is the Builder and worthy of more honor than Moses.

Hebrews 3:3–4 “For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”

If Moses is worthy of glory as a servant, how much more worthy is Christ—the One who built the house?

At a glance, the logic of verse 4 can be difficult to understand. Fundamentally, however, the author makes a simple point.

The “house” had to be built by someone.

Every house needs an architect to design it…and then needs a contractor to build it...

Jesus functioned not only as the architect of God’s house—but the one that builds it…remember Jesus says “I will build my church”

Moses is a piece of the house that Jesus built…Moses’ work was temporary…Jesus working is eternal…Moses was the faithful messenger, Jesus is the Message.

Therefore, Christ is greater than Moses simply because he created Moses…since God created, Jesus is God.

Jesus is Greater in His Person (5-6)

Hebrews 3:5–6 “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 firm until the end.”

Moses was the Servant

Doulos is the typical word translated “servant” in the New Testament.

While “servant” is certainly an acceptable translation, it may not capture everything that the word doulos conveys.

Most often translated as “slave.” …

I know in our culture today many want to steer away from that rendering due to the negative connotations it produces.

Nevertheless, “slave” does capture the lowly stature of a doulos.

However, the word translated “servant” in this passage does not come from doulos.

It comes from a Greek word which means the individual held a position of nobility under the authority of the one who appointed him.

Verse 5 highlights Moses’s place of rank and honor.

In fact, Hebrews 3:5 echoes God’s own words concerning Moses in Numbers 12:7 ““Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;”

He was a faithful servant and an able man in God’s household.

But what did it mean for Moses to be a faithful servant?

The writer clarifies that by faithfully discharging his ministry, Moses testified “to what would be said in the future.”

In other words, Moses’s life and ministry pointed to the superiority of Christ.

Moses’s ministry existed to testify about things to come....Listen to Deut 18:15.

Deuteronomy 18:15 ““The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.”

As the author of Hebrews will later show, the priesthood, sacrifices, and entire old covenant system serve the same purpose.

The entire Old Testament is one large arrow pointing to the coming Messiah.

Whether through typological patterns, promises, or prophecies, Moses faithfully discharged his service in the household of God by pointing to one greater than himself, Jesus Christ.

Christ fulfilled all that Moses said in ways beyond Moses’s own understanding.

Christ then is superior to Moses, just as Moses himself would affirm.

Jesus is the Heir

Hebrews 3:6 draws an explicit contrast between Jesus and Moses.

Moses was a faithful servant, but still just a servant.

Jesus, however, is the Son.

Jesus is not just a servant in the household; he is the One who inherits the house and functions as its Lord.

Moses was a servant IN the household, Jesus is the Savior OF the household, and the Sovereign OVER the household.

When the author says, “we are that household,” he also affirms the deity of Christ.

Verse 5 calls it “God’s household.”

“His” in verse 6, however, refers to Christ.

Thus, the writer of Hebrews affirms the divine sonship of Christ. He is both the eternal Creator (3:4) and Redeemer (3:5–6) of God’s people.

There is a lot on our plate here this morning, so let’s look at the last part of verse 6 for our Life Lesson.

Life Lesson: Continuance in your faith proves you belong to “the house”.

The final phrase of 3:6 has created trouble for some Christians because it seems to suggest that our salvation is conditioned on our efforts.

He is going to use this same terminology in verse 14...

Hebrews, perhaps more than any other New Testament book, affirms the sufficiency of Christ and his work for our salvation.

Nevertheless, warnings against failing to persevere in the faith appear throughout the book.

The test of genuineness of your faith is your continuance in the faith when the pressures of life are on you...

The question “is not one of the retention of salvation based upon a persistence of faith, but of the possession of salvation as evidenced by a continuation of faith.”

In other words, the ground of our salvation is the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ; the evidence of our salvation is that we continue along the journey of faith.

The profession that we are in his house, that we are sharing in Christ, will be proved genuine by our patient perseverance and endurance to the end.

This doesn’t mean that the Christian who stumbles and falls and “backslides” is not a genuine believer…that we espouse “spiritual perfection”...

The Christian journey ebbs and flows...we go forward and then sometimes we go backwards, there is no perfection this side of heaven…but there is an awareness of that process...

Practical sanctification is progressive...somehow or another, in the process of growing we don’t stay away from God, we cry out to Him for help, we go to His Word, we come back to church, we pray,...

We see God pick us up by his grace and mercy and we keep on keeping on…we see God continue to work the work He promised to do.

The faith we have is given to us by God and is a persevering faith that never fails…by faith we confidently and continually trust in Christ and that His righteousness is our righteousness.

We only boast in Him for He is our unfailing hope.

The person who proclaims Christ and then falls and goes into oblivion never showing a progression in their faith would have reason to doubt the authenticity of their faith.

You can study Luke 8 and the parable of the Sower to see Jesus’ words regarding the kind of heart one possesses and the results of the seed of the Word being planted upon those hearts..

Continuance in the faith is a long journey in the same direction…it is not perfection, it is not getting it right every day, all day…

It’s the scraped knees, the bloodied nose, the discouragements, the doubts that are handled with the truth of who Jesus is and that keeps moving forward in spite of all of them...

There comes a time in your life where you acknowledge that you are on the wrong road, and that Christ has come in order that you might be placed on the right road, and that in your own heart, in your own words, as an expression of your own convictions, that you would repent of your sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask him to make you all that he desires for you to be, and to make you such that by your very continuance you will reveal the reality of today.

Where is your attention focused?

Let it be focused on Christ…let us pay such attention to our Savior we do not drift away!