You Only Think Its The Best

Whatever you had before, Jesus is better

My first, full-time private sector job was with IBM.

Yes, I was but a lowly mail clerk, but I worked for IBM.

I worked at their General Systems Headquarters off Mt. Paran Road in Marietta

When IBM introduced the first commercially viable personal computer.

I’ve been a PC man ever since.

I’ve loved my PC’s.

My first was a Radio Shack portable - it weighted over 5 pounds.

My latest is a Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360.

It’s not 3/4 an inch thick.

It weighs less than 3 pounds.

It has an 11th gen i7 processor with 16g of Ram and a 500 gig SSD.

As far as I was concerned, it was the best computer money could buy.

But guys, I’ve gone to the dark side.

I have an Apple phone.

Now I’ve purchased an iPad and a MacBook Air.

If nothing else, everything just looks better on the Apple.

The learning curve is pretty steep for me

But the ease of use functionality is amazing.

I hang my head in shame as I say, “I only thought I had the best.”

The writer of the book of Hebrews is really making the same kind of case.

He says, “I know times are tough

“I know things aren’t turning out like you thought they would

“I know that the way things were weren’t all that bad

“And it meant a lot to you.

“You think it was the best

“But guys, you only think it’s the best.”

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 3.

While you are looking, let me speak to the kids.

Guys, there is a thing called discipline and it is a hard thing.

Very simply, discipline means making yourself do something that is good for you

Even if that thing you have to do is hard.

Lots and lots of people will tell you they know the best way you should live.

The Bible says to us today two words, “consider Jesus.”

That takes discipline.

When people offer you things that sound wonderful

Make sure you consider Jesus before you say yes.

Because anything you have that’s not Jesus is not the best.

The three words on your worship guide today are Jesus, Moses and Holy.

Everyone has your Bibles open to Hebrews.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Hebrews 3:1-11

Hebrews 3:1–11 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. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Your Holy Spirit is in us and among us

Please Father, cause us to hear Him.

Give our minds rest so we can see our brother Jesus

And we can lift Him high.

In Jesus’ name - Amen

Words are important

And in this first verse, almost every word is explosive.

Hebrews 3:1 “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,”

Ok, so we know the word therefore is telling us that what he’s about to say is built on what he’s said up to this point.

So what has he said?

You know the two words that have blown me away are “exact imprint.”

Jesus is the “exact imprint of [the Father’s] nature.”

How Jesus acts, God acts - exactly.

He says that Jesus is better than the angels and the message they delivered.

The angels gave the 10 commandments and all of the laws of Moses.

They told how to make sacrifice and have sins temporarily atoned for.

Their message was good - but they only thought it was the best.

He talks about people - about us

And about how incredibly special humanity is

And how we try to do it right

But Jesus did it right

Every single thing, Jesus did it correctly.

What the writer says even reminds us that one day we’ll reign with Jesus over all of creation.

Because of all of that, he starts a new argument by calling us “Holy Brothers.”

Every single word, right?

“Holy” - I imagine most of us know that holy means set-apart

But he is calling us ‘holy.’

When is the last time you’ve considered yourself holy?

Yes, we know ‘theoretically,’ ‘philosophically’ that we are holy,

But he’s addressing holy brothers.

On one of the editions of the Briefing this week, Al Mohler talked about young people today and what they want.

He spoke of watching young families on the Southern Seminary Campus where he’s the president.

He said young people are looking for a purpose larger than what they’ve been sold.

They are looking for something more than the commercials and the professors offer.

This is where this message resonates.

Christian young people - you have been physically set apart from the rest of the world to do the work of Christ our King.

Every thing you do happens in the context of being set apart.

Nothing you do is disposable.

You operate in a different universe than anyone else.

But keep it in perspective - you aren’t called out alone.

“Holy brothers.”

Brothers is the generic masculine literary term that we could render brothers and sisters.

Our purpose is not in being set apart as individuals

Our purpose is in being set apart as a family.

And while he is talking about the church universal

He’s talking to a body of people who are a part of that church universal.

He’s talking to a local church.

He is recognizing us as holy brothers and sisters.

I cannot stress strongly enough the necessity of being an active, participating part of this body of Christ.

And if you can’t do it here, go somewhere you can.

Fall in love with each other.

Look for the best in each other.

Quit nit-picking the faults you see in everyone.

Because, bless God, somebody is nit-picking your faults too.

Go someplace where you can give and receive grace.

Fall in love with each other.

Hurt when others hurt

Rejoice when others rejoice.

Commit yourself to sharing your life with this body of believers

Because FBC-G has been set apart as a family of God to do God-sized things in Jones County.

We share in a ‘heavenly calling.”

You can’t get a much bigger purpose that than.

Remember what you’ve prayed, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

How does God’s will happen on this earth?

His church follows Him and does what Jesus does.

That’s who the writer is addressing.

He’s addressing the local church - and that’s us - holy - set apart

2 Timothy 2:21 ESV

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So how are we cleansed?

“Consider Jesus.”

Of all the things in the world, Consider Jesus.

Who is He?

He’s the apostle.

Words matter - what does apostle mean?

Apostle means one who is sent.

What was Jesus sent to do?

Reference my favorite words so far, Jesus is the “exact imprint of [the Father’s] nature”

Jesus’ is here to show us God

Remember, he’s the final revelation of God.

Keep in mind that’s one reason every religion after Jesus that has new revelation is corrupt.

Jesus is the final word.

He’s the final word and He’s the final high priest.

What is a high priest?

He’s the one who shows God us.

Who better to represent God to humans than God? Who better to represent humans to God than a human? Jesus alone is both these things. Michael Krueger

You thought you had the best but look now.

Last big words of this sentence - “our confession.”

We’ve infused the word confession with the idea of a list of beliefs or doctrines.

Those make up our confession, but they are not our confession.

Our confession is simple, “I will follow no one but Jesus.

“There is no one else to follow but Jesus.”

“Jesus is our Lord and King.

Hebrews 3:1 “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,”

And with that jam packed sentence, he transitions to tell us that Jesus is better than Moses.

You thought Moses was the best

The word faithful means reliable.

You can count on him to do what he was sent to do.

Jesus was sent to be the final authority on God for us and to be our final authority to God about us.

He was reliable.

We can count on Him to do it right every time.

And then the writer basically says, “Just like Moses was.”

Why does he bring up Moses?

Because Moses was the man - everybody thought the world of Moses.

He’s the one who listened to God and led the people of God out of slavery in Egypt.

But the comparison is this - Moses was a part of the house leading the house.

Jesus is the owner of the house.

Here’s his argument.

I’ve visited in some really nice houses in my day.

I walked into one recently that just walking into it made you feel at home.

You’ve done that right?

So when you do that, do you just walk around and say, “Nice house, nice house” to the house?

That would be dumb.

No, you tell the owner of the house how nice the house is.

That’s the whole argument.

Moses was a part of the house.

Jesus owns the house

Moses was great - not taking anything away from our man Moses

But Jesus is the best.

Now look at verse 5.

Hebrews 3:5 “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,”

OK, so Moses was reliable in all of God’s house as a servant

His work testified of things to be spoken later - namely Jesus, right.

But look at this one word

Servant

If we were talking about Deacons serving here, we’d use the word diakonos.

This is not that word.

This word is therapon.

You can hear one of our words in it.

Therapon - therapeutic

The word therapeutic means “relating to the healing of disease.”

Now follow me here.

Moses served by leading the nation of Israel - the very beginning of the church - out of Egypt.

How was that healing?

Well, they were no longer slaves.

They were healed from their bondage.

Listen to Yahweh speak: Exodus 3:7-8

Exodus 3:7–8 ESV

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them...

I’ve come to make them suffer no more.

If Jesus is better than Moses - then Jesus is the better servant, right?

How is Jesus better?

Moses’ healing lasted for a season.

Jesus’ healing is forever.

Listen to me,

There are people who will tell you all of these things Jesus will give you on this earth

But Jesus’ greatest gift is our deliverance from sin.

No matter your addiction - Jesus will heal you.

If you are addicted to alcohol, drugs, porn, food

Jesus will heal you.

If you are addicted to memories

Of abuse, or failure or shame, or money

No matter - Jesus will heal you.

How does He do it?

He’s doing it right now

He’s reminding you that in God’s eyes, you are a holy, set apart, special, chosen people.

That your citizenship is not in this corrupt and broken land.

You’ve been set apart and made different and released from bondage

You’ve been healed so you can become the very thing God created you to be.

Look at verse 6 Hebrews 3:6 “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.”

See the phrase, “boasting in our hope.”

Let me ask you, when you are freed from what is crushing you and holding you down, don’t you have a right to boast in how you got free?

Jesus is that hope - He has released us - He has healed us - He has set us free

For many of us, we simply have not realized just how free Jesus has made us.

Keep considering Jesus until you see how healed you are.

Don’t stop considering Jesus.

The mountains of your life look high and steep and cold

But I’m telling you - our brother Jesus knows the way to the promised land

We’ve got to follow Him.

So the big question: Can we lose our faith?

Look at the end of verse 6 again, Hebrews 3:6 “... And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”

So, here’s the “IF” again.

He’s going to hit this IF even harder later on and it can confuse us.

If we hold fast

So is he saying that if we don’t, we can lose our salvation?

He answers that with verses 7 - 11.

They come from Psalm 95 - strangely enough, verses 7 - 11.

They talk about the Israelites that Moses led out of Egypt.

These people saw the power of God up close and personal.

Red Sea opened.

Poisoned water made drinkable.

Magic food - remember what the word “Manna” means?

“What is it?” It was a miracle.

Protection from their enemies.

Yet, when they got to what is now the Jordanian side of the Jordan river, they refused to enter the promised land.

All through the trek from Egypt to here, they said they believed.

They did what they were told and followed the rules as best they could.

But when the time came that their faith was tested

They found out they had no faith.

That’s what scares me.

We’ve preached and taught that all you’ve got to do is say Jesus is Lord and say a prayer and your ticket to heaven is punched.

In Exodus 4, Moses and Aaron go to the leaders of Israel in captivity and the tell them all that Yahweh had said to them

Then we hear this Exodus 4:31

Exodus 4:31 ESV

And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

They said the right word, they did the right things

But when their faith was challenged, they found they never had faith.

The writer is not saying that the one who guts it all out through thick and thin will then be saved.

The writer is saying that the evidence that someone belongs to the Lord is that they gut it out through thick and thin

Because their eyes are on Jesus

You never stop considering him.

You know that He has delivered you and He’ll keep delivering you.

You know that everything you had ever done that you thought was best was only second best.

You only thought those things were best.

Now, you consider Jesus always

Let me invite you right now to consider Jesus.

Everything He did, He did to free you from your sin.

To be free, you have to follow Him.

Confess to Him that you’ve been living on second best.

That you need a new path and only He can deliver you

That only He can heal you.

You need Him to be your Savior.

If you will do that and mean it with all of your heart,

You will be saved.

And then you can be all that God created you to be.

Let us pray.