Superior to Moses
Notes
Transcript
First exhortation
We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,
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.
God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Encouragement
For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Today we will see the second exhortation.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.
For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
prayer
Why Moses?
Why Moses?
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,
who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.
For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
holy
brothers
partakers of a heavenly calling
fix your thoughts
apostle
high priest
much like Moses’ role, who in this regard was a type of the one to come...
sent by God
interceded for the people
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.
Moses was faithful
22 references to Moses faithfulness in Ex 35-40, building of the tabernacle
At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out.
Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward,
he said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.
builder vs member
For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
Jesus is God
“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.
servant - not doulos (slave), therapon (servant, attendant, faithful friend to a superior who looks after his affairs)
bearing witness of what would be spoken...
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
Son vs servant
we are his house
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
confidence - boldness to take a stand and speak
4x in hebrews
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
and hope 5x in hebrews
The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary 3. Christ Is the Son over the House, but Moses Was Only a Servant in the House (3:5, 6)
“The doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints has as its corollary the salutary teaching that the saints are the people who persevere to the end.
if indeed we hold firmly...
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
this is a reference to Numbers 14, when the Israelites rebelled and did not go into the land because they did not believe God’s promise to give them the land
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
Sin hardens the heart
problem is unbelief
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Unbelief is the issue...
What about me?
What about me?
Consider Moses who was called faithful
Consider Moses who was called faithful
how did he begin?
send someone else
was he perfect?
Actually, he could not enter the promised land because of his own sin...
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
But he was faithful...
Though I am not perfect… would God call me faithful?
Do I trust in Christ? Am I holding firmly to my confidence and hope?
Fix your thoughts on Jesus!!
Is there fruit in my life? What fruit is it?
Am I encouraging others as I ought?