The Better Moses pt 1
Brad Pearce
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is, as always, an honor and privilege to bring the Word to this congregation.
This week, I and a group of men, had the opportunity to be a part of a discipleship summit being put on by the Central Kentucky Network of Baptists. It was all about strategizing to make disciples in our church. There were a lot of exciting ideas that were discussed, some we may introduce, others we may not, but the overall message I left with is that if we have been saved by Jesus Christ, we MUST become disciple makers. On Sunday nights I walked through the great commission passages for about a month and it is clear from the great commission, that we are called to be disciple makers.
This is going to lead right into where we pick up in Hebrews 3 in a few moments, but first let me read to you
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We spent all of last week’s sermon discussing how Jesus is too great of a Savior to be taken for granted. We talked about the incarnation, how God the Son became flesh and blood to save a people of flesh and blood. We talked about how He died a real death to pay the price of sins for all those whosoever believe in Him. We saw that He was tempted in ways we can’t even fathom and yet never for even a second did He give in to temptation. Christ is the great redeemer who saves people from their sins through what He did on the cross. When we repent from our sins and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, you are forever assured of your salvation. At the moment of faith you are positionally sanctified, that is seen as righteous before God, and you are being practically sanctified, that is going through the processes of becoming more like Jesus in your everyday life. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you are a new creation as we read here in 2 Corinthians. You have been born again. The old passed away and the new has come.
What a glorious transformation it is.
In nature, we see an illustration of this, albeit an imperfect one. It’s starting to warm up and things are starting to bloom. I know this is the case because my allergies are off the charts right now! Well according to the University of Kentucky entomology department, this is also about the time of year in which the Eastern Tent Caterpillar hatch and start amassing into the large, webby tents we’ve all seen in the trees. Now, I haven’t seen any just yet this year, but I can tell you as a kid, they were some of my favorite little bugs to play with. They were soft. They didn’t bite. I’d try to be careful but I couldn’t help but play with those little guys every time I saw one. Well did you know that in just four to six weeks, those little guys are full grown and then wander off to form a cocoon. After three weeks in that cocoon, they emerge, not as the soft, little caterpillar they once were, but as a fully formed Eastern Tent Moth! Now, I don’t think many of us would want to be considered a moth, but that’s not the point I want to make here. I want you to think to your self how ridiculous it would be if after that Eastern Tent Moth emerged from its cocoon, it went right back to slinking across the ground, walking everywhere it went. If we could communicate to the moth that was doing that we’d say, “Hey buddy! You got wings now! Why are you still slinking around on the ground!” It would be utterly ridiculous to see a new creature acting in the same manner, prior to its transformation. We’d think that the creature is either utterly confused about its nature or maybe even think that it had been injured to a degree that prevents it from behaving how it should.
I bring this up to say: Christian redeemed by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, You have been made a new creature! It would be utterly ridiculous to act the same you did before you were saved!
If you haven’t already, turn to Hebrews 3. What we are talking about directly coincides with verse 1. Remember that Jesus died on the cross to bring many sons to glory! If you repent and believe, you have been saved! You have been and are being sanctified. You are a new creature! Now identifying as a child of God, a joint heir with Jesus! You have a new and better calling on your life given to you by the better ands best Savior!
Look with me at the first part of Hebrews 3:1
Hebrews 3:1 (ESV)
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
I want to pause right here and focus on this first half of the verse for a little bit because it is drastically important to everything we do here at Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.
The text says, Therefore, remember that this is a conjunction. It is connecting what is about to be said with what have just previously been stated. So because Jesus is the faithful priest to make propitiation for sins and never fell to temptation, we are told to act upon that knowledge in the second half of verse 1.
But before we get there, the writer reminds us who He is talking to here. The Spirit writes, “Therefore, HOLY BROTHERS,”
I’ve talked about holiness quite a bit but only because the text demands it! Something is only considered Holy when it has been set apart! We think about the Holy Bible. It is a book set apart from all other books. It is the only text that is the Word of God. Holiness denotes that something is sacred.
There are a lot of things that may be considered holy on a cultural level. Even days. The word Holiday comes from holy days, days that have been set apart for a particular purpose. Objects can be considered holy to some degree. The football that Tom Brady threw for his final touchdown pass sold for over $500,000. The buyer wanted to enshrine the ball in a museum or something. Mere hours later, Tom Brady announced that he was no longer retiring. He’s coming back and so in all likelihood this ball would not be from the final touchdown pass of Brady’s career. That guy would be left with a half-a-million-dollar paper weight! I thought that was the end of the story, but as I was looking it up this week, I saw that the auction house, buyer, and seller all agreed to cancel the sale. The object was no longer considered set apart.
But true holiness is not derived from fun activities or human achievement. RC Sproul describe the source of holiness as this: “What makes something sacred—what makes something holy—is the touch of God upon it. When the One who is Himself other and different touches that which is ordinary, it becomes extraordinary. When He touches you, you become uncommon. The difference between the profane and the holy is the difference between the common and the uncommon, between the earthly and the heavenly.”
God is Holy and thus truly holiness imbued upon something comes from the Holy One! With this understanding of truly holiness, my question this morning is two-fold! First, have you been touched by God to see His saving grace? And Secondly, if you have, do you realize that this makes you Holy!?
The writer calls the recipients here HOLY BROTHERS. When you join the family of God through repentant faith in Jesus Christ, you become HOLY. So then, if you have been given a new and holy nature, do not go back to the profane! The Christian life is a life set apart from the sinful world. We exist IN the world, we do not exist OF the world. Church, we are called to pursue righteousness and live holy, set apart lives not to earn our salvation on the merit of our works, but rather because we have received salvation, we have been transformed into new creatures with the ability to go forward in life with the power of the Holy Spirit!
We live Holy, set apart lives, that are on mission as we see in the next clause of verse one: “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a HEAVENLY CALLING.”
Where does the calling in the holy Christian’s life come from? Heaven! This is saying that in our new lives as new creatures we are given a new calling! Well what is that calling?
I believe that the best way to explain this calling is with the Great “C’s”. The Great command and the great commission.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The heavenly calling that all the holy brethren have been given is to love the Lord with everything they have and that love is made manifest through obedience to go out and make disciples!
All Christians are set apart, called, and sent to serve God in everything they do. The particulars are going to look different in all of our lives. Not all of us are called to international missions. Not all of us are called to be pastors. But all of us are called to be disciples who make disciples!
So go back to the beginning of verse one now and read the whole thing:
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
The Spirit is teaching all the holy ones called by God, how to press on in their calling: Consider Jesus. Consider Jesus. That has been the point of this whole series we have been going through: You cannot take the gospel for granted when you consider Jesus. You are reminded that your are a part of a holy people when you consider Jesus. You see the model for obedience coming from the provider of justification when you consider Jesus. May we be a people that considers Jesus.
So you say, Okay Brad, I’ll think about Jesus, but what should I be thinking about Him? Well, everything we have addressed thus far through our look at the book of Hebrews would be fitting, but right here, the Spirit draws our attention to two positions of Jesus, He says consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
We looked at high priest a bit last week. That position signifies that Jesus made the sacrifice for our sins. But what does it mean to consider Jesus as an apostle? Well, an apostle is a commissioned messenger. Jesus is the ultimate apostle in that He preached the message of salvation as commissioned by God the Father. Jesus is the perfect model of obedience and faithfulness while simultaneously being the provider of salvation! Consider these things! And this flows right into verse 2:
who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.
Jesus was faithful and obedient in fulfilling the the purpose for which He was sent. He preached the good news, He fulfilled Scripture, He died on the cross. Every t was crossed and every i dotted for Jesus to be the Messiah. This is not to say that there was ever a doubt that Jesus would be faithful, at least not from God the Father. It is the sin in man that looks to Jesus and doubts if He truly is the Savior He is cracked up to be.
Even Jesus’ cousin and gospel forerunner seemed to doubt if Jesus was the one they were waiting for. We wont turn there now, but in Matthew 11 John the Baptist is in prison. He is about to be executed. He sends a messenger to Jesus and has the messenger ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
That question was birthed from John the Baptist being a fallen creature, marred by sin, not seeing Jesus for who He really is, that is, the faithful one. Christ was always faithful to God the Father. Obedient. There was never an eternal doubt that this would be the case.
In our verse here in Hebrews, the Spirit says that Jesus was faithful to God as Moses was faithful to God’s house.
Now at this point, as reader’s of the Word, we should be asking ourselves, why bring up Moses here? We’re talking about Jesus, what does Moses have to do with it? If you only look at verse 2, here, you may also think that the writer is equating Moses and Jesus.
So let’s briefly talk about why Moses would be included here. Remember that the original recipients of this letter were Hebrews. They were very familiar with what we call the Old Testament. And to them Moses was the Superstar. He was used by God to get the people out of Egypt. He wrote the first five books of the Bible! He received the commandments at Mt. Sinai. He was with His people through their wandering in the wilderness. He died at the ripe of 120 at the top of Mt Nebo, looking over the promised land that would soon be entered by his people.
Moses was considered a hero by the Hebrews. So when the writer compares Jesus and Moses and says that they were both faithful, He is saying, “Hey people! I know you know a lot about this Moses guy. I know you hold him in high esteem. He was a really faithful guy, but wait till you really understand this other guy Jesus!”
It’s a bit hard to try to put this in modern terms, because I don’t think there is a current equivalent for Moses. Its somewhat similar to how we might think of a Charles Spurgeon. Now obviously God didn’t use Charles Spurgeon to part the Red Sea and deliver a people out of slavery. But God did use Charles Spurgeon to share the gospel and contend for the faith. Just about every week as I am preparing for this sermon I reference a Spurgeon commentary if I have it available. When my wife and I were in England we loved visiting churches. And when we were in the city of Bath we went to Widcombe Baptist Church. We had a very pleasant service. I won’t go into it now, but I adored English church. But after the service was over, we were talking with some of the members and they told me that many many years ago, Charles Spurgeon had come through and preached a revival at this church, right at the same pulpit that still stood before the congregation. I thought that was the coolest thing. I think I was visibly exuding my excitement, so the guy I was talking to says, Do you want to go up there? You can take a picture! And I did! My wife and I did a lot of cool things in England, but that is one of my favorite moments.
But what we will see for the rest of our time together this morning is that Moses, and Charles Spurgeon for that matter, was a faithful person and that is well and good and can even be celebrated:
But Don’t mistake the good for the GREAT:
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.
We can say that Jesus and Moses were both faithful, but the Spirit in writing this verse wants the Hebrews of that day and us today to see that Jesus is BETTER, Jesus is GREATER, Jesus is WORTHY of MORE glory than Moses.
We mustn’t mistake the heroes of THE faith for the object of OUR faith.
Faithful men and women used by God are a good encouragement to us, they can be models, they can be our teachers, but they are never worthy of the glory Christ receives. In fact as we study and learn from heroes of the faith, they ought to be pointing us back to giving God all the more glory.
I love the analogy given in the back half here of verse 3. “as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.”
What does this mean? It means the house is cool and good, but the house wouldn’t exist without the builder! Those nails and screws don’t place themselves in the studs of the wall, the cement doesn’t pour itself into the foundation. The builder is more worthy of honor because the house owes its existence to the builder. And in this analogy, Christ is the builder, and Moses is simply a stone in the house! Spurgeon notes, “[Moses] was only a stone in the house with the Lord Jesus Christ had built. Let us think of our Lord as the Architect and Builder of His own Church, and let our hearts count Him worthy of more glory than Moses; let us give Him glory in the highest.”
The point here is not to say that we should not think highly of Moses or other heroes of the faith, but rather that we should think MORE HIGHLY of the Jesus they are all pointing us towards! Why should we think higher of Jesus? Because He is the builder of His Church and He IS God the Son:
(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)
This very subtle verse quickly infuses some rich trinitarian theology into the midst of our teaching. You want a great reason to give more glory to Jesus than any hero of the faith? Well it’s because Jesus is God! Christ is the builder of all things. In chapter 1 we are shown how he is the hand of creation. John 1:3 says apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. Jesus is to be understood, praised, and honored as being the great Master-builder. Christ said in Matthew, “Upon this rock I will build my church.” We can think of the house being built in verse 3 and expanded upon in verse 3 as the community of all believers and every single one of them were only included in the house because of what Christ has done! As I shared in a sermon on my first Sunday as the pastor of this congregation: The person of Christ working in perfect harmony with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are the Source, Initiator, Implementer and Guarantor of all salvation.” God builds the church, God collects His people, and we best all praise the Lord for the grace He has given to include us in His glorious purpose!
The writer in our section of Hebrews is continuing to exalt the glory of Christ!
Then in verse 5 our attention is once again drawn to Moses.
Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,
We are reminded Moses was good, Moses was faithful in tending to God’s people. But his ultimate purpose was to point to what would be spoken later. Christ would come in and declare even more clearly the truth that had been revealed through Moses. In fact, everything Moses did was pointing to Christ! That is why we must look for Christ as we study the Old Testament, all of it is pointing to Him!
But some Hebrew people of the day thought of Jesus as basically a second Moses. The next verse shows that Jesus was greater than just some second iteration of Moses.
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.
Moses was a servant, Christ is a son. Moses served the house, Christ inherits the house, it belongs to Him.
And do not pass by the last sentence in verse 6. The house belongs to Christ, and WE ARE HIS HOUSE. Spurgeon notes, “Do we realize that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in the midst of us? How clean we ought to be, how holy, how heavenly! How we should seek to rise above earth, and keep ourselves reserved for the Crucified! In this house, no rival should be permitted ever to dwell; but the great Lord should have every chamber of it entirely to himself. Oh, that he may take his rest within our hearts as his holy habitation; and may there be nothing in our church life that shall grieve the Son of God, and cause him even for a moment to be withdrawn from us.”
It is a glorious truth that Christ lives in the hearts of the believer. Such a fact should motivate us to serve the master of the house.
We know we are part of this house by how we hold fast in confidence of the Lord and boasting only in the hope of Jesus.
But notice the word IF. We are his house IF we hold fast?
What does this mean?
This is referring to the doctrine of preservation. This is not saying that we will never have doubts or fall into sin as we are being sanctified in this life. This is talking about real lasting faith in Jesus Christ as the only hope for salvation. Spurgeon noted, “He whom God has chosen holds on and holds out even to the end, while temporary professors make only a fair show in the flesh, but, by-and-by, their faith vanishes away.”
It is my great fear that many self-identified “Christians” in America are just that, self-identified. They made some profession of faith at a time but never had real conviction of the Holy Spirit. They were emotionally drawn by the right music being plaid under the invitation. But as they press on in life they have no real confidence or hope in Jesus.
Church, we are not capable of being the Holy Spirit nor judging the position of one’s spirit before God. Be we are called in Scripture to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Jesus told us that not everyone who says to Him Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.
So I ask you today, do you REALLY believe in the name of the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord? That’s all it takes to be made right with God. It is that simple. But it is not easy. Understanding Jesus in His proper place is understanding that His commands and desires for your life are more important and more beneficial than your own.
I can tell you this, through our Scripture, we have seen the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ. There really is no one better. I am resolved to worship Him and honor Him in everything I do.
Would you join me in this? Are you willing to repent of your sins believe in Jesus and submit to Him as Lord?
If so would you make that known by responding during this hymn of response. Come forward as this house of the Lord supports you in exalting the name of Jesus in all you do.
Let’s pray.