"Christ is > Moses"
Notes
Transcript
Hook:
Hook:
Recap:
Recap:
What we have covered so far...
The author is unknown but the Divine Author is not.
Called Hebrews because of this letters content.
We are starting to wrap up the first section of our series called “The Greater Revelation.”
We have already covered that Christ is greater than the prophets and angels in chapter one.
In chapter two we are told not to ignore this great salvation that God has given us, through His Son Jesus Christ.
A couple weeks ago we covered the glorious truth that because Christ was made lower than the angels for a season, that when he was elevated above the angels so were those who believe in Him.
A couple weeks ago we tackled the glorious truth that Jesus could aid us when we face the trials and temptations of this life, because he went through it all, being made our high priest. If you think that Jesus couldn’t relate to you… you are so very wrong.
He has suffered so much more that you or I. He is the perfect sympathizer.
Introduction:
Introduction:
With little doubt Moses would be considered one of the greatest men to have ever lived. After all he is the great emancipator of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery and their leader 2nd to God. His greatest feat, hands down, was that he was the great law- giver, not just for Israel only but for the whole world. In fact the bible tells us that Moses was: Numbers 12:3
3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
Our founding fathers sought freedom and based a lot of our legal system upon the ten commandments and other laws that was given by Moses.
No matter how great Moses is, there is still One who is superior to him. There is a Person whom all mankind should look and base their lives and governments upon: That Person is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is superior to all men, Contributions to society or even if they were great men or women. No person come close to being as great as Jesus Christ.
v 1) Focusing our thoughts on Jesus
v 1) Focusing our thoughts on Jesus
Our chapter starts with therefore we are to be thinking about what happened in the previous chapter. Specifically, the train of thought that our author was just discussing.
It would be good for us to go back and reread verse 17-18 of chapter 2:
17 Therefore 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. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Our author expounded on some very important truths of Christ. It was important to God to have His Son be made like man so that He could be a merciful and faithful high priest.
This was so that He could sympathize and feel for us. He would go through all the trials and temptations that we would go through as well, experiencing life as we would. Why? there is a really long answer, but the short answer is... because He loves you.
Now with that concept in our minds we are to go into verse 1. There is a word in this passage that needs to be examined closely, and that is the word “consider.”
It is the greek word “katanoeo (Ka-ta-no-a-o)” : which means to focus on, to fix one’s thoughts, mind, attention and eyes upon. So what this means is that are to zero in on Christ and to allow Him to be the center of attention of our thoughts right now, as we go through the authors point.
It is probably important to mention that this exhortation is written to believers. Because he mentions confession at the end of verse 1.
Why should we fix our attention upon Jesus?
It is because of who we are in Christ:
[Holiness]The first part of the verse implies that we are holy (hagioi), and holy means to be set apart or separated. We as believers are separated and set apart for Christ. It implies as turning away from the unclean things of the world and from religiosity and have turned to Christ.
Family we are set apart and adopted into the family of God to be a brother or sister to Christ.
[Heavenly calling] As Christians we are partakers of the heavenly calling. heavenly elsewhere describes God’s perfect order:
5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
and it also describes the future life with God. We have been called to spiritual blessings in the heavenlies now and to a heavenly inheritance in the future.
Another reason we should fix our attention upon Jesus is because of who He is.
Jesus is the apostle and High Priest of our confession.
Apostle in the sense that He was sent. We confess that Jesus Christ is the sent one of our faith. We confess that He is the One whom God sent from heaven to earth...
To be the great representative of God, the One who shows us exactly what God is like.
He is the great messenger of God, the One who tells us the truth about God, ourselves, and the world.
He also has all authority and power of God, the One who has control over all things, even the trails and circumstances of our lives.
Not only was Jesus the apostle of our confession but He is the High Priest of our confession.
Jesus Christ is the great High Priest who stands between God and man. Bearing the name of God before mankind, and He carries the names of mankind before God.
With that being said there are two requirements that must be met.
1 Christ must know man and He must know God.
2 Christ must also be able to represent God before man and man before God.
Scripture leaves no question whatsoever about Christ fulfilling these requirements. Christ is the great High Priest.
Jesus is the great bridge-builder between God and man, the greatest High Priest who can represent God to men and men to God. The glorious message of the gospel is that men can know God and be brought before God. It is all possible because Jesus Christ stands with God and man as High Priest.
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
v 2) Jesus: Faithful to God
v 2) Jesus: Faithful to God
God appointed Moses as the first great leader over the house of God. In the eyes of the Jews Moses has always been looked upon as one of the greatest leaders ever.
After all Moses:
was the great freedom leader who led the Jews out of slavery from Egypt.
Was the law-giver to whom God gave the ten commandments and the rest of the law that governed Israel.
Was the great nation builder who structured the Jews into a nation.
Was the great friend of God in their eyes. They said that he was the man whom God had a radical encounter with God.
It is pretty clear that Moses had been appointed by God to do some great things, and despite his reluctance to being used by God he was faithful in his call and ministry.
6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
It is no surprise that Moses, in the eyes of the Jews the greatest. Moses was superior to all other men, for he had been used so greatly by God and had been so faithful to God.
But, there is another person who has also been appointed by God and who has been faithful to God: Jesus Christ. Moses was faithful, and he stands as one of the most faithful men. But Jesus was far more faithful.
After all He stands as the perfect and supreme Apostle and High Priest.
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
v 3-4) Jesus: Builder of the House
v 3-4) Jesus: Builder of the House
What is the house built by Christ?
The house of the world or universe
The house of God’s people
As the text implies every house has to have a builder. A house doesn’t appear out of nowhere. The same is true of the universe and believers. The foundation of the universe and our world along with believers didn’t just happen, it was laid by someone.
Verse 4 tells us:
God built the house of the universe and the house of the believer. But note the point: Verse 3 declares that Jesus built the house. The author is declaring that Jesus is God- to be God the Son- to be as much God as the Father- to possess the very nature of God, the power, knowledge, and wisdom to plan and crate the world.
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
10 And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”
What the author is showing us is that Moses is truly great. But Christ is greater; far superior, proved more worthy of glory than Moses.
Moses was only man-a resident in the universe- only one of believer in the house of God. A faithful believer at that. But Jesus made the house, laid the foundation of the universe and for the people of God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
v 5-6) Jesus: Son over God’s house
v 5-6) Jesus: Son over God’s house
Jesus is the Son over God’s house; Moses was only a servant in God’s house. It is clear that Moses was faithful to the Lord. And the Lord called Moses to be His servant, to proclaim those things which were to come sometime in the future.
Those things were pertaining to Christ and the great promise of God concerning heaven and God’s care for man.
God used Moses to predict and show in symbols and types what the Savior of the world was to be like and what he was to do when He came into the world.
When God gave Moses the messages to deliver to the world, Moses had a difficult task, for he did not always understand the message nor the symbol.
God did not explain everything, for it was not time for mankind to grasp the full meaning. Moses listened and obeyed anyways. You see the point becomes quite clear. Moses is still only a servant in the house of God. He is a special and highly esteemed servant at that.
Here lies the key difference between Moses and Jesus. Moses was a servant, Christ was not a servant in the same way. He was the Son of God, and is placed over God’s house.
“Now Moses was only part of God’s universe. He was a created man and he worked in a created universe. He was part of the house, involved in the house. But Jesus is the creator of the house, and the creator of the house is bound to stand above the house itself. Moses did not create the law; he only mediated it. Moses did not create the house; he only served in it. Moses did not speak of himself; all that he ever said was only a pointer to the greater things that Jesus Christ would some day say. Moses, in short, was the servant; but Jesus was the Son. Moses knew a little about God; Jesus was God. Therein lies the greatness of Jesus and the secret of His unique superiority” (The Letter to the Hebrews, p. 25)- William Barclay
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
v 6) Hold fast!
v 6) Hold fast!
How are we too become a member of God’s house? This is the reason that the author brings up Moses to begin with, he issues us a challenge: to “hold fast… until the end.” A good picture of this is that of a ship holding its course despite the storms and turbulences of life. If the ship fails to hold fast, hold its course, it would never reach port.
So what is it that we as believers need to hold fast too?
Holding fast to our confidence in the hope of salvation, and also our joy in that hope.
Our confidence in the hope of salvation. That is why the author stressed in chapter 2 not to neglect our great salvation. Hold fast with complete confidence, that if you placed your hope in Jesus Christ that He will be faithful to the end.
Our joy in the hope of salvation. Family we have been given the hope of living forever and all the other promises of God are great that joy should always fill our hearts. We should walk in the hoy of the Lord regardless of circumstances.
Application:
Application:
So how do we apply this passage of scripture to our lives?
Let’s go back to the first verse of this chapter, the opening exhoration:
Hebrews 3:1 (ESV)
1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
We are to fix your attention upon Jesus. Some of you might be checking your watches to see if i’m going to end on time or your mind is wandering. Perhaps you are working through some problems or distracted by x, y, or z.
Hey I get it… I’m not all that… but Jesus is, and He deserves our attention. He is worthy of the focus of our lives. Giving Jesus the precedent, the focal point of our lives.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Communion:
Communion:
We get an opportunity this morning to partake of communion together. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 11:28
28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
We need to examine ourselves. Listen Family we are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But the one we serve is. He is kind and loving, full of grace and mercy. But let us not ignore or take advantage of His gifts.
Let us examine ourselves to see if we are living in His perfect will, giving Him the attention and respect that He rightfully deserves. So let us examine our hearts as we come forward to get the elements.
[pause]
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Pray for the bread
Pray for the cup
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.