Hebrews 3

Really if you look at where we’ve been and where we are going you see sort of a parallel structure

Most of is about how Jesus is greater than the angels as a mediator of the new covenant

Follows up in with an exhortation to not neglect the salvation and not drift away from that based on that; if transgressions of old covenant received a just recompense…how much worse punishment will the man be who neglects salvation brought by Lord

Has teaching section and then exhortation section

Same here…teaching section in Chapter 3:1-6 and then exhortation

Writing to people who are in danger of leaving Lord….he teaches what he teaches to show why it is so important for them to stay with the Lord; to stay with the gospel and not drift back into Judiasm.

Consider Jesus…almost the theme statement of the book

A great exhortation…we don’t do that enough

But he is considering Jesus in a particular situation

He is an Apostle and High Priest

I didn’t think Jesus was an apostle…apostle means what?

One who’s sent

Jesus was sent by God

To say He was an apostle and high priest is really the two halves of the relationship

He was sent by God to mediate to man

He’s a high priest in that he comes from man to mediate to God

Apostle goes from God to man

High priest goes from man up to God

In vs 2-6, he compares Jesus to who?

Moses

How is he like Moses?

Faithful

Not like Moses in what ways?

He was the son of a servant….Moses was a servant…Jesus was a son; obviously a son has a higher position

Another contrast between Jesus and Moses here

Jesus was the builder of the house; Moses was part of the house

The builder is greater than the house

Moses was part of the system; Jesus was the one who made the system

Chapter 1:1-3: Jesus is greater than the prophets as the spokesman of the law

Chapter 1:4-14: Jesus was greater than the angels as the mediators of the law

Chapter 3:1-6: Jesus was greater than Moses as the giver of the law

Leads into another practical application

vs. 6: If we stick it out until the end….he is worried that they won’t

Everything in this letter depends on sticking it out; preserve

What’s he doing in this section primarily?

Quoting from? Mediator vs intercessor...

What does is to draw an application for that day from the events of the wilderness wandering that Moses was associated with and basically he draws the application in that the people he was writing to shouldn’t harden their hearts like the generation under Moses that didn’t get to enter into the rest because of unbelief.

Writer of is using that event to teach his generation the importance of not hardening their heart; not going astray so they don’t miss out on their rest

Writer of Hebrews picks up to tell the people of his day the importance of not hardening their hearts and losing out on their rest

Notice tense of the verb in vs. 7

Says….present tense

What does that tell you? He is quoting but he says “Says”….what would we say? “Said”

That was a long time ago even from Hebrew writer’s standpoint.

The fact that he says the Holy Spirit “says” proves what?

God’s word is a living document and His word still has application

When we read today what was written 2000 years ago, he’s still saying it to us

He is able to bring down the application to his day

The “today” of was the today of the author; but it is also the “today” of the writer of Hebrews and we are going another step….the today applies to us, as well

You have four eras:

Era of event under Moses

Application Under Psalms

Application Under Hebrews

Application Today

If you are using a text as an exhortation to somebody, do you just cite it and go on to something else?

No…what do you do?

You elaborate

And if you elaborate, you go back and say remember what it says and you cite it again, etc. That’s what he does throughout this

vs. 13: Today

vs. 15: cites a verse of it

4:3

4:5

4:7

This is really an exposition of which was an exposition of the event of their not getting to enter that rest because of unbelief

Illustrates the problem with that wilderness generation…it was a tragedy

What was their problem?

They were not believing; they did not really trust in the Lord

Contrast with vs. 1-6

What was the quality that Jesus and Moses had in common?

They were faithful

But the wilderness generation was unbelieving, unfaithful

Was this a superficial thing with the wilderness generation?

No, it was an unbelieving heart

Unbelief and hardening and an unwillingness to do what God says, that is a heart issue

So often we misdiagnose problems

You have to want to love God…the problem here wasn’t a technique thing; they didn’t trust the Lord that they could go into the land and take it…we have to look at the heart and not some symptom of some specific situation in which we think somebody didn’t make the right choice

vs. 12: Living God

a powerful thing to think about; you don’t want to fall away from the living God; if you see Him that way, it will cause you to trust Him more

If they go back into Judaism they are falling away from the living God

What’s the antidote in vs. 13?

Encourage one another

How much?

Daily

The thing we can do is try to help build each other up; reach out to each other so that nobody gets hardened by the deceitfulness of sin

If you don’t encourage each other daily, then as people keep falling into sin they become more hardened and become less sensitive and then they become deceived and think it is okay

We have to encourage each other and we can’t wait to do it because of the danger of becoming hardened and unreachable….must encourage each other daily to keep sin out of our lives

vs. 14: if somebody is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and they don’t hold fast until the end then they are like the generation that lost out on the promised land….we have to stay; hold firm and keep going; if we don’t we miss out, even though we’ve had a good start

Starts with 3 or four questions here…questions were about what?

Israelites

What had happened with them?

God had delivered them; they had seen God’s redeeming power; His outstretched arm and hand; Red Sea part; plagues; guided to the wilderness

After they had seen all that, they sinned and fell in the wilderness…that’s a real shocking thing…when they didn’t believe God, God swore that they wouldn’t enter the rest…God’s oath barred their entrance into the promised land because of their unbelief

Powerful passage for us. because we’ve been saved; we’ve come into the Lord; danger is that we will fall in the wilderness like they did

Should this analogy bother us any? Worry us any?

It is so frightening to imagine 600,000 leaving Egypt and 2 entering the promised land…a total defection from the Lord because of this evil, unbelieving heart

Trying to make us stop and question, do you understand this is a serious problem…the danger here---percentage is very low of those that entered Canaan

Track record of God’s people in the wilderness is not very good

We are in the wilderness, too….

He is saying this to try to wake us up; make us realize there is great danger