Hebrews 3:1-4:11: A second warning not to fall away.

Introduction

Did you watch Jeopardy this week?

The author of Hebrews has spent the first two chapters establishing two facts: Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus is human. Both have major implications. Sandwiched between the two is a warning not to ignore Jesus or turn away from him.

Now, following his argument that Jesus is in fact human, and qualified to be our High Priest, the author is going to again warn us of the implications of this.

The High Priesthood of Jesus is going to be a major theme in Hebrews - but like any good preacher, the author seems it is necessary to take a quick detour as part of this warning. The bridge of this passage (verses 1-6) will be comparing Jesus to Moses (and the Church to OT Israel).

From there, the author is going to do an exegetical breakdown (interpret) Psalm 95:7-11 as a way to warn and encourage us not to fall away from the faith.

Hebrews 3:1-6: Jesus is greater than Moses.

This passage begins with ‘therefore’, which means it’s an application of the previous section. Specifically, it’s connected to the author telling us that Jesus is worthy of being our High Priest.

The command is going to be ‘consider’ Jesus - ‘the apostle and high priest of our confession’. ‘Consider’ literally means to 'fix your thoughts’ or have an intense form of concentration on Jesus. This is something Peter told us to do in 1 Peter!

If we are being tempted to walk away, the best remedy return our attention to Jesus. Don’t look back at our old way of doing things, the more we look at them the more tempting they will be.

This verse also gives us insight into who the Church is:

We are family, “brothers and sisters’ (brothers or brethren in some older translations).

We are holy. ‘Holy’ means set apart, or different.

Tom Long says this: “Holiness is not so much a description of the church’s moral stature as it is a sign of how gracefully God puts the church to work in the world. The church is holy like the bread at the Lord’s Table is holy; though quite ordinary, it is nonetheless set apart for holy use and becomes the instrument of the extraordinary purposes of God.”

As family members we ‘share in the heavenly calling’. Our King, the Living Word who is enthroned in heaven, who calls us ‘brothers and sisters’ also calls us from there.

Our mission is from heaven - it’s what makes us set apart!

Jesus is called the apostle and high priest of our confession.

‘Apostle’ means ‘sent one’. Jesus sent the twelve disciples (so they were called the Apostles), just as God sent him.

An ‘apostle’ has more authority than angels (who are also messengers).

The same word is used to describe Moses being ‘sent’ to Pharoah - an important connection given that Jesus is about to be compared to Moses!

‘High priest’ - again, a significant title for a people who may be thinking of returning to the Old Covenant. If Moses was the ‘sent’ one, Aaron his brother became the High Priest. So Jesus is greater than both.

Gerald Griffin says, “He is God’s ultimate authoritative messenger before the people (apostle) and he is God’s ultimate representative of the people before God (priest).”

Remember who it was that you confessed at your baptism: Jesus is the Christ and the Lord!

Now the author is going to compare Jesus to Moses. But he’s going to do it respectfully.

If you ever want to convince someone not to go back to their old way of life, it’s probably not wise to insult whatever that old way is!

Jesus is was faithful and obeyed everything God ‘appointed’ him to do - just as Moses similarly did when appointed. Verse 2 here is actually alluding to Numbers 12:7 “Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.”

It’s simple: Moses was a great servant. He obeyed (mostly), and served God’s house (his people). But Jesus is greater because he is a Son. And no matter how great the servant, the son is always going to be greater.

More specifically, while Moses was a servant in the house, Jesus built the house. And who usually gets more honor and glory for a magnificent building? The building itself, or the builder?

Now both were ‘faithful’ in their respective duties, but Jesus deserves more glory because of his rank (that of sonship).

The term ‘servant’ (applied to Moses) again comes from Numbers 12:7 “Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.” And it carries the idea of someone ‘wanting to serve’. In fact it comes from the word ‘therapeuo’ from which we get ‘therapy’ or ‘healing’. So Moses willingly did his job and served God’s people - but this was to testify to things that were to come.

‘In the first century, a household [oikos] could be quite large and diverse, with several generations of adults, many children, and a number of servants – in short, not a modern “nuclear family” but a complex and varied community. The Preacher invites us to imagine the whole history of God’s people as one vast family, a spacious household embracing many generations – Abraham and Isaac, Deborah and Ruth, Jacob and Rachel – rolling forward to the present. Where do Moses and Jesus fit into this grand household of God? Moses was faithful in the house as a servant; Jesus, however, was faithful over the house as a Son, in charge of the house as the heir.’ (Long)

The final sentence of this passage serves as the second (and subtle) warning of all this: WE (the Church) are God’s house - his people.

This connects us to the Israel of the OT.

Being God’s people is contingent on two things: ‘holding fast our confidence’ - this is being able to go directly to God through Christ.

‘boasting in our hope’ that is our expectation of the future good. The NT repeatedly encourages us to boast about the hope we have in Christ and his eventual return.

If the first warning (Chapter 2:1-4) was ‘Don’t drift away’, this warning is ‘Don’t let go’.

3:7-19: Lessons from the past.

Having compared Jesus to Moses, the author is now going to use an illustration from Moses to punctuate his warning not to ‘let go’. The passage he is going to call to mind is Psalm 95:7-11.

This Psalm was written by David about 400 years after the events it’s reflecting on.

That event: when the Israelites were in the desert after having been brought out of Egypt by God. Were they thankful and faithful? Hardly. Instead they questioned Him! Ultimately they were punished by wandering for 40 years and that generation didn’t get to enter the promised land or ‘God’s rest’.

Notice the author lists the Holy Spirit as the speaker of this psalm. Previously when quoting Scripture he said, “God said...”, and he also put the words of prophecy into the mouth of Jesus. Here he ‘completes the Trinity’ by implying that the Spirit is also God and speaks through the Scriptures.

Like a good preacher, the author is going to break down the Psalm and discuss how each section is relevant to us. First: don’t be like them!

The Psalmist says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts in the rebellion.’ Hebrews tell us that ‘today’ applies to the Church right now.

New Covenant believers aren’t that different from Old Covenant believers. We still have to follow God and not give up our faith in him!

The Israelites had ‘evil, unbelieving hearts’ that led them to fall away. Church we cannot be this way!

He says, ‘leading you to fall way from the Living God.’ Here the author is implying that to fall way from Jesus is to fall away from God himself.

The author of Hebrews encourages us to ‘exhort’ one another every day so that none of us are tempted to go back to our old way of life - and specifically that ‘none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’. Becoming numb to sin is usually a precursor to falling away altogether.

Again, verse 14 tells us what we must do in order to maintain our share in Christ: hold our original confidence firm to the end. In Revelation this is called ‘overcoming’. Christ’s victory is already assured, and therefore so is ours. So if we just hold onto Him, we win!

Now in case we become so arrogant as to say, “I will never fall away from Jesus. (Especially after everything I’ve seen).” The author of Hebrews reminds us of those original Israelites in the desert.

Who heard and rebelled? It was the same people who had seen the ten plagues, watched Moses part the Red Sea, and God’s presence was literally with them in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night!

My story of about atheists.

Despite everything those people had seen, they still disobeyed God, they still rebelled against Him. And they ultimately never saw the ‘promised rest’ (promised land), that God had promised to them.

Just because God had promised them something, didn’t mean they were just free to ignore and disobey! And ultimately they did.

Keen readers will remember that not even Moses was able to enter Canaan because of his own disobedience.

It was their ‘unbelief’ that kept them from God’s promise. But don’t miss the connection between ‘disobedience’ and ‘unbelief’. Both go hand in hand, just as ‘obedience’ and ‘faith’ go hand in hand. Our faith requires action!

4:1-11: What this means for us.

What’s the therefore there for? This is going to be a warning based off what we know about the OT people who fell away.

The people of old did not attain God’s rest (entering the promised land), but that rest, according to Psalm 95 (the author is still working on it!) is still available to us.

Our rest is not some physical land any longer. Our rest is both our place in Christ now, and more importantly our future living in Christ’s heavenly kingdom after the resurrection.

But if the people of old didn’t enter their rest, that means we should be ‘fearful’ of missing out on our own. But he says, ‘let us fear lest any of you’, so our fear shouldn’t just be for ourselves, but also our brothers and sisters!

The people of old heard a ‘good news’ (Gospel) just like we did. Their good news: You will enter this land God is giving you. Yet, that message ultimately meant nothing, because they didn’t trust (faith) God to follow through!

Through Christ we have been given an even better Gospel - redemption, and a place in God’s rest. But that message means nothing to us if we don’t actually trust the Lord to get us there!

Vs 3 tells us that as believers we already actively ‘entering that rest’ of which we hope, unlike those in the past who didn’t.

The author briefly illuminates on this idea of ‘rest’ tying it back to Genesis when God ‘rested’ from his works. The ‘rest’ God invites us to is participating in his finished work of creation - and ultimately it will be his finished work of the New Creation for us now.

Now the chronology of Psalm 95 is important for the continuation of his argument:

David wrote that Psalm nearly 400 years after the events take place. Yet, he says ‘today’.

A Jewish believer might say, ‘The people failed to enter the promised land initially, but ultimately Joshua led the people in.”

‘Fair enough’ the author says. But if Joshua had truly given the people ‘rest’, why did David later on talk about another ‘today’?

Therefore, ‘today’ refers to right now for the Church. The time period after the cross.

There is also an interesting word play with ‘Joshua’, which in Greek is the same as ‘Jesus’. It’s almost like the author is saying, “The ‘Jesus’ of the Old Testament could not give the people their intended rest. But now the Lord Jesus can give us that intended rest.’

This rest, which is still future, is one in which, like God, we will rest from our earthly labors.

The author ends this passage with another warning (these 11 verses have been ‘warning’ ‘promise’ ‘warning’.)

‘Let us strive to enter that rest’ - someone once said this is the ‘must be present to win’ clause of our faith. Our faith requires obedience!

The word of God (the author has specifically used Psalm 95), is living and active. It stands over us to encourage…and condemn. It stands in judgement over us.

That is why it is sharper than any ‘double-edged sword’. The word for ‘sword’ usually refers to a smaller dagger like object, drawing to mind a surgical tool (particularly used in circumcision).

Before God’s word, we are utterly exposed - like a patient before the doctor’s knife. But that also means it can cut out the parts of us that need removed!

All-in-all this passage shows the importance of obeying the word of God. We will not be able to plead ignorance if we find ourselves at risk of missing out on God’s rest!