SS Hebrews 3

Therefore

Consider Jesus

Why compare to Moses?

Greatest OT prophet

“Faithful”

Desire to go back to old covenant

If you Jesus is superior to your hero, his covenant is superior

Apostle & High priest

Apostle = one sent to represent God before men, to speak on their behalf

High priest = represents men before God and offers sacrifice for their sins

Moses was only OT figure to fulfill both

According to verse 5, what was moses actually doing during his ministry?

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,”

Ministry was a servant apart of Christs ultimate work

This is Jesus whole ministry

Pharisees accuse him of violating law of moses

John 5:45–46 “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”

What other parts of Moses ministry point forward to Christ?

Tabernacle - God dwelling with man

Year of Jubilee - slaves released and land returned -> great day of deliverance

Sacrificial system - Blood of bulls and goats -> Blood of Christ

Bronze serpent

Manna

Exodus

Priesthood

What about “God’s House”

When you hear “Gods house” what comes to mind?

We see Jesus is the builder of the house.The argumentation is the builder gets more glory than the house does the house owes is very existence to the builder.

According to the text, what is God’s house

But what is this house?

some believe it is the tabernacle or tent of meeting

Others point to the covenant people of God

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.”

Dispensationalism error*

Why do you build a house

To live in it!

2 Corinthians 6:16 “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

1 Peter 2:5 “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 2:19–22 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Every time household of God is mentioned of believers, it is always in the context of the community of believers

Church is important!

The corporate community of saints is the household of God

Rugged individualism

Church membership

Warning against unbelief 7-12

High view of scripture in hebrews

OT quotes all over

“As the holy spirit says”

Observations of the OT quote

“today, if you hear his voice”

When was Ps 95 written?

Ps 95 was written 1000 years before hebrews

When was israels wilderness rebellion

400 years before ps 95

Why can hebrews still call it “today”

Yet the author finds it appropriate to quote that as though today is today.

God’s word is living and active

Context of Ps 95

Might not be as apparent to us as it is to the original hearers

Verses 7-11 of Ps 95 point us back to the revolts agains Moses during Israels sojurn in the desert.

This is a recollection of the Exodus.

God delivers Israel our of bondage

Pharoah pursues them

God makes safe passage through the red sea

What do we remember about Israels attitude in the wilderness after the exodus?

About 30 seconds after they cross the sea on dry ground the people begin to complain and grumble against God and Moses

Exodus 16:2–3 “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.””

We are stunned by this looking back now and laugh. But the reality is, we are no different then them.

We complain

We forget

We whine

The people do not trust in God by faith to provide, but instead grumble against him, even after he rains down manna from heaven

Chapter 17 the people revolt again against moses and demand water. Moses says they are ready to stone him. So God tells moses to strike a rock and water will come out.

He does that and water comes out and then Ex 17 7 says

Exodus 17:7 “And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?””

What is israel really questioning when they ask “is the lord among us or not”

Gods faithfulness

Goodness

Presence

While our quote in Hebrews doesn’t mention Massah or Meribah, Ps 95 does, and it says:

Psalm 95:8–9 “do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah (quarreling) , as on the day at Massah (Testing) in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”

Heb just tells us it was a day of testing

Now that’s not the only other reference we see.

In numbers, god sends scouts to spy out the promised land.

The spies return and say

paraphrase “the land flows with milk and honey but their cities are fortified and their men are strong”

Joshua and Caleb plead with them sayign

Don’t fear them, God is with us. Don’t rebel against God

But we see in Numbers 14 the people do rebel

they refuse to trust god

They refuse to enter the promise land

They set out to stone Joshua and Caleb

Then God speaks and says

Numbers 14:11–12 “And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.””

Moses intercedes and pleads with God

Numbers 14:19 “Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.””

God spares them but they are punished

He tells them that they won’t get to enter the promised land. That their children will enter the land but they will wander for 40 years until they die.

Now we see in Hebrews, this quote from ps 95 about that event

Hebrews 3:11 “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ””

The psalmist, and by extension hebrews, attributes that to a hardened heart (v 8)

We are, have been, or will go through various trials in our walks that will test our faith.

A.W Pink says this about testing: Testings reveal the state of our hearts—a crisis neither makes nor mars a man, but it does manifest him. While all is smooth sailing we appear to be getting along nicely. But are we? Are our minds stayed upon the Lord, or are we, instead, complacently resting in His temporal mercies? When the storm breaks, it is not so much that we fail under it, as that our habitual lack of leaning upon God, of daily walking in dependency upon Him, is made evident.

Application

Grumbling/complaining

lack of trust

lack of gratitude

lack of knowledge of God

The writer wants his people to persevere

3 lessons

A good beginning does not ensure a good ending

Hebrews 3:16 “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?”

They had left. they had walked in faith.

They had witnesses great moves of god

red sea

manna

water from the rock

Yet they turned away when things got hard

Sometimes we can think emotionalism will make us persevere. We wish we had the fire we had at one point

What are some signs of a heart becoming hard?

How dreadful it is to become hard hearted toward God

Hebrews 3:15 “As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.””

A hardened heart is an unbelieving heart vs 12

The reality of God’s wrath against sin

“provoked”

“wrath”

God’s wrath is not unwarranted, it’s not uncontrolled, it’s not erratic.

God’s wrath is

Remedy

“take care”(watch out) & “exhort one another”

What do we see the text give us as a remedy against a hardened heart?

We are running this race together and we need each other

Community is vital

We need to continue to exhort each other to look to christ

Would you have expected any of the israelites who crossed the red sea to have not made it to the promised land?

What kept them from entering God’s rest

Unbelief