Christ Above All: The Cornerstone of Our Confidence

Hebrews 3:1–6 ESV

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Merry Christmas brothers and sisters. Now, we celebrated the beginning of Christmas last Wednesday, but as the famous Christmas carol goes, there are 12 days of Christmas. Unlike Advent, which is a season of anticipation in the days leading up to Christmas, Christmas itself is a special season of celebration that marks the fulfillment of that anticipation. Now I know all the children here understand the turn from anticipation to celeration very well. You’ve been looking at presents carefully wrapped under the Christmas tree for weeks, wondering what mom and dad got for you, and in all that waiting you’ve had to continue going to school, doing your homework, and helping out around the house. But when Christmas came, you finally got to see what was waiting for you, hidden under all that wrapping paper, and now that you have your gifts, its the time to enjoy what you have.

Even as an adult its fun to open something you brought for yourself, but as you get older you and hopefully wiser, you realize how quickly the celebration fades and how all the gifts you eagerly waited for become just another fixture in your house or object taking up space in your closet. Barring all the ways Christmas has been taken over by retailers, gifts and gift-giving can be a wonderful element in our celebration of Christmas, but it vital to remind ourselves that they are sign posts pointing us to the true gift creation recieved when God took on flesh and dwelt among us 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. The jolt of excitement that comes with opening a Christmas gift will fade because that experience is just a shadow of the excitement and joy that God has for all of us here when we follow through on the exhortation of the author of Hebrews to, “consider Jesus”

As we continue our Christmas celebration and look toward the new year, we are approaching the potential of a new year differently. I know many among us had a difficult year and don’t know what to expect for 2025 - You may be asking yourself, will I find a job, will things with my family improve, will I get better from this ailment? Still others among us may be excited for what’s ahead: There is a new president in the White House more friendly to Christians and we are likely going to have a new Prime Minister in Canada as well. The future is uncertain to us, but as we consider Jesus - who he is, what he’s done for us, and how we must respond to him, we can be confident with an unshakable hope and joy that our future is secure in him.

For those taking notes, there are three points for us to consider: First is Christ: The Apostle and High Priest; Second, is Christ: Our Builder and Lord; and Third is Christ: The Faithful Son.

1. Christ: The Apostle and High Priest - Hebrews 3:1-2

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession. Nowhere else in scripture is Jesus explictly called our High Priest or an Apostle. In John’s gospel, Jesus offers a High Priestly prayer on behalf of his people and Jesus as a priest in the order of Melchezidek is prophecied in Psalm 110:4. There are allusions to Jesus as a priest in 1 Peter 2, where Peter writes that through Jesus we are being built into a spiritual priesthood, and in Revelation 1, where John writes that Jesus made us a priesthood through his atoning blood, but it is only in Hebrews that Jesus is called our High Priest.

Likewise, nowhere else in scripture is Jesus called an Apostle. When we think of an apostle, we usually think of Jesus’s disciples plus Paul, who Jesus met on the road to Damascus. In this history of the Church, we even have a concept called apostolicity which refers to the genuine quality of something by virtue of its connection to the apostles of Christ, so its hard to imagine Jesus as an apostle when the idea often assumes being under Christ’s authority, but the word simply means “someone being sent.” The twelve apostles were sent by Christ, but the idea in view in Hebrews is that Christ was sent by God to fulfill a High Priestly role.

Much of the letter to the Hebrews specifically deals with the meaning of Christ’s High Priestly ministry so, as much as I’d like, we don’t have the time to plumb the depths of this profound truth, but we are directed in this passage to consider something specific about what Jesus has done for us as an Apostle and High Priest.

Just before the exhortation to consider Jesus, the author of Hebrews says something about us. He says, “therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling.” We have to ask: How is it that we have become holy? How is it that we have become brothers, and how is it that we share in a heavenly calling? We can at times take these incredible declarations forgranted, but we do so at our own peril because it prevents us from truly considering Christ, enjoying him, and understanding what it means to be in right relationship with him and the Father.

We are called holy brothers because Jesus was sent by the Father, to secure and cleanse God’s people by offering himself as an atoning and propitiary sacrifice on our behalf. Hebrews 2:17 tells us, “he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” I will pause here to highlight that Jesus’ sacrifice was specifically to make propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is not a word we hear often but it means, “to turn away anger by providing an offering.” There are some who will bristle against the idea that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross appeased the wrath of God, but that is exactly what is being communicated here, and it was this kind of sacrifice that allowed our sins to be forgiven. And the author makes it clear, that it was necessary that Jesus would offer this kind of sacrifice as one who is like us in every respect because it establishes his power to save us in every respect.

It is revolutionary, then, that the author of Hebrews would call us holy brothers because prior to Christ’s sacrifice we were the exact opposite: vile enemies of God. As HOLY BROTHERS, then, we are called to a heavenly calling, and this is to contrast with earthly concerns. I know many of in this congregation have fears about the future - many legimitate concerns about how you will put food on the table or fears about your health, but I want you to consider Jesus and your heavenly calling as a holy brother or sister. In the flesh, we are not concerned about our sin and the ways in which it seperates us from God, which is why we are warned in Hebrews 2:1, “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” The danger is always that the cares and concerns of the world will stop us from considering Jesus and that we will drift away and never return to our heavenly calling.

In my life as a Christian, I have seen people turn from Christ for a variety of reasons. I’ve seen people who have served in ministry leave the faith and I’ve seen people depart to lead lives I wouldn’t think possible, but every story of someone departing from faith always has one thing in common, and it is that the concerns of this life take precedence over everything - that is always the slow cancer of the soul that leads to death. The only curative is a continual realigment of our priorities and recognition that if we don’t have Christ, we have nothing. Christ has given you peace with God. Christ has called you his brother. Christ has won for you eternal glory. Christ loves you. As you face the uncertainties of the New Year and are filled with worries, I would ask you to consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:31 “ do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?… but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.’”

2. Christ: Our Builder and Lord - Hebrews 3:3-4

This brings us to the second point to consider about Jesus. That he is Our Builder and Lord. The author of Hebrews wants the confidence in our heavenly calling to be made stronger so that our hope will be more secure, so he compares Moses’s faithfulness over God’s household to Jesus’s faithfulness.

Since hope looks to the future, and the future is not known to us, we need reassurances from the past to build our confidence. I work in sales so this is particularly true for me when I’m trying to convince someone to buy a product. In my line of work, people don’t want to be the guinea pig and they are afraid of getting burned by a lofty promise that doesn’t deliver so they want to know if anyone else has found success using the product I’m talking about. Very often, I point them to someone similar to themselves and I tell a story about how I helped them address a challenge and the better my examples resonates, the more confident they feel to work with me.

In a similar way, the author of Hebrews points to Moses as an example of faithfulness that supports his point about why we need to consider the superiority of Jesus. The author of Hebrews in verse 3 quotes Numbers 12:7, where God says that Moses was faithful over all his household. To a Hebrew audience, a reference to Moses was about as strong as it could get. In one commentary that I read, it was mentioned that in the rabbinic tradition of Second Temple Judaism, Moses was unique among all humans that existed and was elevated even beyond angels, so when the author speaks of Jesus as being higher than the angels in chapter 1, he may also be addressing this rabbinic tradition, saying that Jesus is even higher than Moses. That is an aside to the main point here that there is a direct comparison being made between Jesus’ faithfulness and Moses’. As we consider Jesus, we have to consider two points about his superiority to Moses and why our hope in Christ is more surely footed than anything else. First, Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses because Jesus is the builder of God’s house and secondly, that Jesus is the Lord over all.

Consider that Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses - as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. In other words, the author is saying, “Jesus is to the people of God as a builder is to a house. Moses is to the people of God as one of the people of God is to God’s household. Therefore, Jesus is Moses’ builder. In short, Jesus made Moses. Let that sink in for a moment. CONSIDER it. This is the Apostle and High Priest of your confession. He is the one who became like you in every way, who made peace between you and God through his sacrifice. Here we see that the degree of glory seperating him from the highest example is similar to what seperates bricks from the intelligent mind of an architect and builder. If you have any fears that your sins are greater than Christ’s sacrifice or what you’re facing going into the new year is too overwhelming, consider this about Christ: He made you for the expressed purpose of bringing you into God’s house, he made every detail about what you’re facing, and in the context of what you’re facing, he is able to help you in whatever you’re facing because he himself has faced it as your High Priest. This is the Jesus we are considering.

If there is any doubt, verse 4 makes it crystal clear, “every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God”. The conclusion here is that Jesus is God. Jesus is Lord over all. It was necessary and fitting, as the author says, that Jesus would be fully man and die for us as our High Priestly sacrifice, but this Jesus we are considering is fully God. We aren’t just trusting in a super-competant man. We are considering the God-man, Jesus Christ, who created all things, sustains all things, and is himself the purpose of all things.

As we go into a year rife with monumental political changes, there is a temptation to lose sight of this vision of Jesus. I know that many Christians are excited for more conservative governments on both sides of the border, but we cannot lose sight that the priorities of Christ are of far greater importance than the priorities of our government, and what motivates us as Christians remains unchanged by the changing of governments. Whether Trudeau is in office or Poilievre, we still have a church in need, and a church filled with potential. Whether the carbon tax is axed or not, we still have brothers and sister that need comfort in their affliction; whether the government tackles woke policies or not, we still have untapped gifts in our church that need to be exercised. I am not naieve and think that these policies are unimportant or that they aren’t relevant for the building of the kingdom of God (they certainly have their place), but consider Christ and the church he loves. Will 2025 be a time for us to relax and trust in the mechanations of a political process, or will it be a time for us to cling all the more tightly to Christ and perhaps to use whatever advantages we gain to strengthen our grip on him?

3. Christ: The Faithful Son - Hebrews 3:5-6

This leads us to our final point; it is another comparison to Moses. While Moses was a faithful servant. Christ is the Faithful Son. Verse 5 and 6 serve to complete the contrast between Moses, the most trusted man to have ever lived, and Jesus, the one we are exhorted to consider. “Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”

When you read the pentateuch, you see the love that Moses had for the people of God, but I cannot think of a more resonant connection between Moses and Jesus than Exodus 33 when Moses intercedes on behalf of Israel after they turned from the Lord and worshipped the golden calf in the wilderness. Moses tells God that Israel had sinned greatly and he interceded for them and offered to make atonement by putting his own life and soul on the line. Moses was a servant and was spared the full weight of providing atonement for God’s people, but he faithfully testified to the way in which Jesus would offer the once and for all atonement that God’s people needed by dying on the cross.

The difference between a Son and a servant is that the Son owns the household and provides for it while the servant works in the house and is provided for. Consider Jesus the faithful Son who went further than Moses by offering himself completely as a sacrifice for you and me. None of us will have to bear the burden of the Son. We do not own the household of God. We belong to it and are provided for by the faithfulness of Jesus because he desired to have a people for his own possession. One of my favorite verses in all of scripture comes from Hebrews 12:2, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” What an incredible thought to consider, that in the darkest day in history, as Jesus faced down the jeering voices of people he came to save and looked up at Golgatha with the full awareness that he was about to be forsaken, he saw past it all and looked to a future of joy. It was the hope of future glory and the hope of a future with his people that sustained our Lord to carry his cross, and it is the same hope, but on the other side of that relationship, that the author of Hebrews exhorts us to boast in. Even more so, it is the boasting in that hope and our confidence that proves that we are in fact members of Christ’s household.

I don’t want to cause anyone in a difficult season or any new believer to doubt the genuineness of their salvation, but I would be doing a great disservice if I glossed over this glaring warning to all of us that we find in verse 6 and which is repeated multiple times through the letter. Are you holding fast your confidence and are you boasting in your hope? The author here tells us that we are Christ’s house IF we do, which implies that we aren’t Christ’s house IF we don’t. It is easy to get sucked into the humdrum of life and go into autopilot mode, forgetting that we’ve been called to a heavenly calling, but we are warned here that there are definitive markers of genuine faith that we should take stock of. I have to clarify here that this is not speaking about how to be saved or remain saved, but rather is proof of a real faith.

First is Holding fast our confidence. What does that look like? well, When difficulties arise, do you turn to God or do you distract yourself with comforts. Trials in life are the surest way for this deficency in our faith to be exposed. But I can tell you from personal experience that it is a good thing to have this exposed because it challenges you to consider where your hope truly lies. When I struggled with health issues for a period of 2 years and was wracked by many fears, I turned to my phone for comfort. I spent hours doomscrolling, keeping myself entertained so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the reality of my situation. Some of you may be turning to alcohol or pornography to ease the sing of a trial, but it is Jesus alone who save you from the heavy load you feel trapped under. Jesus tells us in Matt 11:29-30, “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and by burden is light.” Endurance is often presented as grit, something you just have to bear, but one of the great blessings of being in the household of God - and it happens to be a marker of real faith - is turning to Christ.

The second marker is boasting in our hope. What does that look like? Hope is a future desire grounded in some form of promise, either that we tell ourselves or that someone has made to us. The first question to ask yourself is, whose promise are you trusting? Is it something your boss said, something a doctor said,something you’re promising yoursef, or is it the promise God has made and established through Jesus? There’s nothing wrong about getting excited about something nice in the future, like a vacation or good test result from your doctor, but is that what’s sustaining your soul and helping you bear through difficulty? If so, you need to consider who Jesus really is, because what he’s offering is not just an order of manitude better than what you’re currently hoping in, it’s entirely different and entirely better, and you can experience the joy and contentment of resting in his promise the day you start hoping in him and boasting in that hope when difficulties arise.

Conclusion

As we face the uncertainty and potential of a new year, is Christ the consolation of your heart? Genunintely ask yourself, what are you hoping in right now? Is it your hard work to carry you through a difficult year? Is it a change in government? Is it shrewd investing? Is it your distinction as a good parent? There so many worldly considerations and false idols that we turn to when difficulties arise, but there is only Jesus and he alone will carry you through to the end and into eternal glory. Consider Jesus and the heavenly calling that you share with your brothers and sisters here. My hope and prayer as we go into 2025 is that we as a church would consider with greater specificity what it means to be a faithful Church in our city. We are church with many needs, but even more so, a church with unmobilized potential.