Introduction

Good morning once again, please open your bibles with me to the book of Hebrews, Chapter 3. We are going to cover verses 1-6 this morning.  For those keeping count, this is our 9th week in Hebrews with a current pace of 4 weeks per chapter.  Those who are quick with math can calculate 4 weeks per chapter X 13 chapters means we are looking at 52 weeks through Hebrews.  Though this might seem daunting we are already 1/6th of the way there so basically almost done.  The way time has been flying by, I am praying that the Lord slows down our time through this book, not speeds us up.  Either way, we will continue the march and pray that God is faithful to open our hearts to receive his word. 

Looking at today’s passage, by way of introduction, this is one of those places where the chapter markers broke the flow of the text in an inconvenient way.  We should generally pay less attention to the chapter markers when reading and do our best to flow through the thoughts as opposed to breaking at the chapters.  Maybe that’s why Stephen always wants to start at the beginning of every book.  I’m just teasing but it’s actually a totally valid point.  We have to see these “books” for what they really are.  These are letters written to people and they follow one continuous thought and theme.  We do them a disservice when we chop them up into these small pieces.  

So we are going to “consider Jesus” this morning as our text tells us but we are going to do so in light of what we have read up to this point and specifically what we saw last week.  Our text begins with a “therefore” which is our immediate clue that what follows is going to be referencing what we previously said.  Remember the primary reason why the book of Hebrews was written.  To encourage Jewish Christians to persevere in the temptation to turn back to their old ways and old religion.  

Turning back to all that we left behind is a terrible idea because Christ is better than all that we left behind.  He is better than the prophets, better than the angels, and better than all the high priests.  He has called us into a better family and better relationships.  Even more he became like us so that he could save us, that is atone for our sins.  Christ is worth considering because in him, God took on flesh.  Christ is worth considering because as a result of his incarnation, not only did he reconcile us to God but proves to us that he is able to help us through every season and second of life.  Because he is able, we can preserve, we can fight sin.  Because he is able, we have received everlasting forgiveness and eternal life in him.  Keep those things on your mind as the context leading up to this morning and stand with me as we read verses 1-6 of chapter 3

3 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 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. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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. 

Moses As a Shadow of Christ

We need to begin this morning, in our consideration of Christ, by seeing him as the greater Moses.  We don’t often think of Moses as a foreshadowing of Christ but that is exactly what our text points us to this morning.  Moses is the only Old Testament figure who fulfilled a dual role while serving God and leading Israel.  Moses functioned as both a prophet and priest and in that way he points forward to Christ, of whom our text says is “THE apostle and high priest of our confession.” We need to look then at what Moses mediated.  

Moses mediated the law and the sacrificial system of the temporary (yearly) atonement of sins.  So when we say that Christ is a better Moses what we are saying is that the covenant that Christ mediated is far superior. This was encouragement for the Jewish Christians and certainly for us today not to fall back again to the law and the sacrificial system as means of justification because Christ has given us a much better way to be reconciled to God.  Why would we desire to be justified through a far inferior method and an ineffective one at that? Further, as Christ being the mediator of something better, we see that the old was to serve as a shadow of that something better.  Not that it was bad but that it was only the blueprint of the thing, not the thing itself.  Fair warning there will be plenty of building analogies from this point forward, don’t blame me, God used the analogies first. 

We see this in the words of Christ when he said that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  Christ’s purpose was not to tear everything down that Moses had built and start over but rather to actually begin building by way of the fulfillment of the blueprints that Moses gave.  The law and the sacrifice were fulfilled by Christ so that the actual building of the house could begin with Christ as the cornerstone. We know this because Christ himself says that Moses was always looking forward to him and the true prophet on whom God’s people would be built.  The words of Chris from John 5: 43-47

43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 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. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

So Jesus says that Moses wrote about him, looked forward to him.  I hope you are curious as to what Moses wrote about Jesus.  Deut. 18: 15-18

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

So from that we see that there should never be, nor was there ever any intent for there to be conflict between the law and the gospel or the old and the new.  Moses was faithful in the mediation of his covenant over the house of God and Christ came to fulfill that covenant and to continue the building project based upon his new covenant.  So the law isn’t bad, it has just been fulfilled and as such, we don’t need to return again to it or to Moses.  A greater prophet and priest has been raised up from among us and it is to him, Christ, that we shall listen.  

It is also appropriate to also note once again that we don’t just see the law and Moses as shadows to be fulfilled by Christ. In fact, the whole of the Old Testament from the law, to the prophets, to the Psalms all lead us to and foreshadow Christ.  Remember when Christ is on the road to Emmaus and he walks with the two men there who are questioning things about Jesus.  It says in verse 27 of Luke 24 that Jesus, ”beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” So Jesus essentially opens their eyes by showing them that everything, all the Scriptures, are fulfilled in him.  

Brian Borgman, the same Brian Borgman, who wrote the book that Stephen has been doing an extensive book review on, says that passages like ours today in Hebrews, along with the words of Christ recorded in Luke, do much more for us than just explaining Old Testament passages.  This is the word of God and the word himself, establishing a Christological Hermeneutic.  Simply put, we are to see everything in light of Christ, pointing to Christ, and fulfilled in Christ as part of the historical redemptive plan of God.  

The House of God

There are many reasons why that is important and one of those, as it pertains to our text this morning, is that the same idea of fulfillment and expansion of the old to the new applies also to the people of God.  Just as we see with law and the fact that Christ came not to abolish or separate but fulfill and expand so too we see this with Israel.  The house of God, as our text says. There is not a conflict between Israel (the nation) and the Gentiles but rather Christ expands his house to include not just a nation but all nations.  As Dr. Phillips says, “old covenant Israel is the bud of which the new covenant church is the flower.” 

So scripture doesn’t teach that there is a separation from the nation of Israel and everyone else in terms of the “house of God” but rather that there is unity or a grafting together of all people under the new covenant of Christ.  I have great love and respect for some of our dispensational brothers like John MacArthur but I don’t see God’s house the way he sees it.  Scripture seems quite clear that Israel under the old covenant, while a nation, consisted of those who looked forward in faith to Christ and Israel now is all those who look backward at the finished work of Christ and forward in faith to his second coming and the final consummation of his promise.  It’s always been the same tree or the same house, centered around Christ by faith.  

  Again, scripture from the old to the new demonstrates that God’s plan was always to build a unified house, consisting of redeemed people by faith, in whom he would dwell.  2 Corinthians 6, with reference to Leviticus and Exodus. 

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: 4-5

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 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

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

So the house of God, that is the people of God, that is the church, is a vital or perhaps the vital part of God’s work. God is not dwelling in a temple anymore, behind a curtain.  He is dwelling in you, in his people, his living house and the gathering of his people or the building of his house is the most important and precious work that there is.  The church is the most important collection of people in your life because they are the collective dwelling place of our holy God.  This is a longer quote from a commentary I read but I think it’s important enough to share and it will lead into our further consideration of Christ. 

There is therefore no greater privilege than membership in the church. There is no greater calling than the Christian’s calling to offer his gifts and talents, time and money to the work of the church. A Christian who gives all his energy to his job, uses her talents only for personal gain, who spends his money all on himself, neglecting the work of the church which will last forever, is simply a fool. Such a person does not realize that the church is the body, the temple, the bride of the exalted Jesus Christ, who even now reigns on high and soon will come to rule on earth forever. In the end it is what Christ is doing through the church that will matter most, will most shine in glory, and will have been most worth the offering of our lives. Therefore a Christian who is not involved in a ministry of the church, who does not pray regularly for the church’s work, who is taking from but never giving to the church, should ask himself if he really understands what this life is about and if he is living for the things of eternity.

Consider Christ

If I am being honest, as much as I agree with those words, they coupled with verse 6 of our text have the potential to lead us to despair.  “And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. “ Noone in this room appreciates church membership to the degree that we should.  Noone alive today fully grasps the gift of being a part of God’s house and in that respect do we even really understand what life is about? Further, our text tells us that we are his house, IF indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.  Is salvation conditional upon our confidence and our hope? Are we only God’s house if we use 100% of our energy, time, money and talents for his purpose? Are we only saved if all our free time is spent serving the church? I hope not because if so, I feel pretty confident, no one here is getting to glory.  

Praise be to God, we are saved purely on faith which is a gift from him and true faith always perseveres.  Saving faith will never fully lose its confidence or cease its boasting in hope.  So we hold fast, we have confidence, we persevere, we hope not to save but because we are saved.  It is for this reason that we must see Christ in everything or more specifically his gospel in everything because otherwise, we would despair or we would be forced back to the law.  We consider Christ, who he is, and what he has done so that when the commands come we are not discouraged or turned off by them, we embrace them as a joyful expression of gratitude.  

I would not be helping you out at all if I stood up here and said you guys are all a bunch of wicked sinners who don’t appreciate God’s house or his people, you are selfish and greedy and unless you get your mess together I am not even sure you are saved.  I suppose Jonathan Edwards would argue there are times when that may be warranted but certainly our text this morning has something different.  “Holy Brothers” it says, that in and of itself is an indicative.  Because of Christ we are called holy.  Because of Christ we have a heavenly calling.  Because Christ fulfilled the law of Moses, you don’t have to fear your lack of perfection. Because Christ sacrificed himself there are no more sacrifices to be made.  

We can be assured this morning that God has planned to dwell in you and to make you a part of his house since the days of Moses and even before the world began.  We know this to be true and we cling to this because the builder of all things is God.  So won’t you consider Christ this morning?  Won’t you rest in the reality that he has fulfilled every word of the old and secured every promise in the new.  Won’t you echo the words of Psalm 16:11 today?

  You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

When you consider Christ and all that he has done for you, out of an overflow of love and gratitude will you give yourself to him?  Will you hold fast to your confidence in him because he has done everything for you?  Will you boast in your hope because he has promised everything to you?  Will you love his church and serve his people because he is dwelling in us and building us into a holy temple to praise him and serve him for ages and ages to come.  

I am not sidestepping those previous commands, right? They are still there but our motivation is not obligation or fear, it is love and gratitude.  Those are far better motivators, not to mention Christ centered and gospel centered motivators.  

Conclusion

Our more specific application this morning as we close.  First, the text frees us from the law and from legalism.  I think I have made this point clear enough so I won’t belabor it here except to say again that in Christ we have been freed from the law because he fulfilled the law and all its demands. He has also freed us from legalism, that is the gaining of righteousness through personal law keeping.  We don’t have to be holy or even good to be saved. Thanks again be to God because no one is good, no not one.  But because of his grace to save us we can echo David and delight in the law.  We can aspire to and fight for holiness and goodness not to be saved but because we are saved and the difference there is no less than the difference between night and day.  

Secondly, the text does call us to consider our bodies as the dwelling place of God.  This is where the imperatives or the commands come back in to say how do we live knowing that the holy God of the universe is living in you.  Your God, your helper and your friend is with you always and shares in all your joys, and weeps with all your sorrows.  That also means you are making him a present witness to all your sins.  Not in the weird, “you better be good for goodness sake” because he is watching you when you are sleeping and awake.  But rather in the understanding that our holy God loves you so much that he sent his son to the cross for you and now has made his home in you so that he will keep you until the day when you see him face to face.  Let his love motivate you to joy and gratitude and to honor his choosing you as his house, his place of dwelling.  

Finally, the text calls us to not let our sin discourage us but to keep fighting.  I know I have used this reference before but Sinclair Ferguson said in a lecture on prayer that often the enemy attacks us by heaping condemnation on us.  “Look at all the wrongs you have done”, “Consider all your faults and failings, how could God possibly still love you.” The answer is that the gospel calls us to consider Christ.  He is the great apostle commissioned by the Father to save us, and he did.  He is the greatest high priest who by his own blood brought reconciliation between us and the father.  He is the one through whom everything was created and built, including you.  

Yes, your sins are great but the love of Christ was greater.  

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5: 8-11

Won’t you consider Christ this morning?  When you do, the only response is confidence and hope and by the grace of God I hope you leave with both this morning. Amen. 

Bibliography

Phillips, Richard D. 2006. Hebrews. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016)