Hebrews 3 - Jesus Is Better Than Moses

Welcome on back to the Book of Hebrews on Tabernacle Talk.

By way of review, Book of Hebrews written to a group of Jewish believers that were really questioning in the face of heavy persecution and rejection, should we just abandon all of this new Jesus stuff and His church?

Should we just go back to Judaism? The writer to these believers encourages them, hey, don't do what you have seen some other people do in abandoning everything that Jesus has done.

Instead, realize that Jesus was the point of everything that you were looking for and worshiping in Judaism, that Jesus is the final expression and Word of God. He is God Himself.

He is better than all of the angels that you look at in the Old Testament that people feared and they listened to them. So, listen to Jesus.

Then, as we saw in our last episode, Jesus is our brother, that he became a human and he knows what it's like to go through our struggles and temptations, that he suffered and died on our behalf so that we would have a relationship with God, so that

we could be glorified one day. All of this was done through Jesus becoming man and suffering in our place, so we can go through suffering just like he did. And that's where we find ourselves now in Hebrews 3.

And Lord Willem, we'll get through all of this particular chapter today. And the writer says this in chapter 3 and verse number 1.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle, that is, the messenger and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to the one who appointed him just as Moses was in all God's household.

For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. Now, every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. But Christ was faithful as a son over his household.

And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast or rejoice.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and here the writer is quoting from Psalm 95, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, tried me and saw my

works for forty years. Therefore, I was provoked to anger with that generation and said, they always go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways. So, I swore in my anger they will not enter my rest.

Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won't be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception.

For we have become participants in Christ, if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. As it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who heard and rebelled?

Wasn't it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn't it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? If not, to those who disobeyed. So we see they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Okay, one of the things that was mentioned that was very helpful, even in some of my understanding of the Book of Hebrews, I'm going to link it in the show notes, is the Bible Project video on the Book of Hebrews.

So as the writer is going through, he's highlighting like, hey, Jesus is amazing, Jesus is better, listen to Jesus, and then he gives some warnings throughout the book that he calls us to pay attention to.

And it's always like looking back at what happened in the Old Testament to say, hey, here were the people that loved and obeyed and followed God, and here were all the blessings that they experienced as a result.

And here's what happened when people said, ah, no, I'm not following God's way. I'm not following or obeying the Lord. Here is what happened to them.

And so he encourages them as it relates to Jesus, the God himself, the fullest expression of God. He says, if we reject him, we have no hope of salvation. If we reject Jesus, there is no life found outside of him.

And so everything bad that happened in the Old Testament, why should we expect to be in a better spot if we abandon Jesus and his church and try and just go back to our old way of life?

And one of the things that's highlighted is this is meant to be kind of uncomfortable statements that we'd go and we'd be like, oh man, like, should I be worried?

The point that the writer of the Bible Project video on Hebrews highlights for us is it's meant to make us uncomfortable. It's not meant to make us afraid.

It's meant to make us go, oh man, like, being rid of Jesus is a terrible, frightening thing with real consequences. And so I shouldn't pursue that. That's not a safe place to go.

People have, frankly, just argued for centuries over some of the minutia of the Book of Hebrews and have wondered because at times they're like, okay, well, it makes it seem like maybe people that really did know Jesus, like maybe they might not

really be saved or they might not end up truly being saved. And so do you have to earn your salvation or can you lose your salvation? And they've wondered through some of those things.

That's not really the point of what the writer here is intending for his audience. For his audience, he's saying, don't run away.

He's not giving like a, hey, if you left, you can't ever come back to Jesus, which is what some people over the years have tried to make it say. He's encouraging them, don't go because there's no life out there.

And the proof of your salvation is in the fact that you remain with Christ until the end.

And what's commonly known kind of in Baptist circles for the last 400 years as the perseverance of the saints or kind of the end result of it is our eternal security, that we know who is truly saved because of who remains until the end.

If you're watching the video portion of this, I was peeking around to see if I had one of our Statement of Faith cards in there. But our Statement of Faith highlights that pretty well.

I might also put just that small paragraph on the perseverance of the saints in the show notes as well. So let's dive into the passage and we'll look at a couple of these things that I'm talking about. These big picture items.

We'll actually look at some of the instances of it in Chapter 3. Okay, starting off, Therefore, holy brothers and sisters who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.

He says, you've got an amazing upward call with our high priest.

You've got a heavenly calling to follow, to be a part of this priesthood that Jesus is the high priest of and you're called to worship and follow and sacrifice yourself, that we are a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as Paul would say in

Romans Chapter 12, that we've got a heavenly calling. We are to consider, to think about, to follow, to ponder Jesus. He says, the apostle, the one who was sent from God to us and the high priest of our confession. What's our confession?

Belief in Jesus as Lord, that is the confession that we hold to and him alone as our salvation. Verse number 2, Jesus was faithful to the one who appointed him. He followed God.

He did everything God asked him to do, just as Moses was in all God's household. That God told Moses, hey, I want you to go into Egypt. I want you to preach against Pharaoh.

I want you to accomplish these ten plagues, and then I want you to lead the children of Israel out. Moses did all of those things.

We'd know even from reading the accounts that Moses was not perfect, but he was faithful to do what God had asked him to do. And verse number 3, Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house.

He says, you guys love Moses, as you should. He's kind of our one that we look back on, and the Exodus is like the quintessential identity of the Jewish people.

That it's like, hey, here's when we were birthed as a nation, when we went from just being like a family to being slaves to then God made us a nation through the Exodus, through the hand of Moses, and that Moses said, hey, there's going to come a

prophet like me. Everyone has to listen to him, otherwise, you will not be saved. You will be cut off from God's people if you don't listen to this prophet. So everyone looked for someone that was like Moses.

And so he says, Moses was great, Jesus was better. You know, a house is a wonderful thing, but you don't like congratulate the house on building itself.

You are grateful to the builder of the house, and you tell the builder, man, that's a beautiful house that you built. And so he says, Jesus was the one who motivated Moses to do all of these things. You can even look in the Book of Jude.

I don't know if, yeah, Jude 1 and verse number 5. I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe that Jesus was the one.

This was the testament of the New Testament writers, is that everything that the father did, Jesus was participating in, that just as the father gave these commandments to Moses through the hands of the angels, just as we learned about two episodes

ago. So Jesus was the one that was instructing Moses in everything that he was doing, and as well as the father. And so he was the builder of this house of God's people that Moses was a part of.

Verse number four, now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. Again, just restating, like God was the one that told Moses to do all of these things.

So right now, you've got people saying, okay, you don't need Jesus, let's just follow what Moses told us. And the writer's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus was the one who told Moses all of these things that then he told the people.

So don't just like be like, okay, I'll listen to Moses, but not Jesus. No, no, no, Jesus was the one who told Moses all of these things. It's part of the Trinity, part of the Godhead.

Verse number five, Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's household. That is, he was a doulas, so he was a slave in God's household and he did everything that God asked him to do.

He was great, he was a servant as a testimony to what would be said in the future. Verse number six, but Christ was faithful as a son over his household. He says like, Moses just worked there.

Everything belonged to Jesus, the firstborn, the son, the heir of all things. And he says, and we are that household that Christ is over. He says, if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.

There he's highlighting for us like, hey, the real Christians are not just the ones that like appear for a little time and then book it when it gets hard or book it when there's persecution or book it when there's like a temptation that's too strong

for them and they fall away and they never return to Jesus. He says, we know if we have really been saved, if we have really experienced Jesus, if our salvation, if our confession, if our repentance and belief, if it remains till the end.

And certainly there are times in our lives where we might wander from the Lord for a time. But all of those that are truly Christian will return to the Lord. That's how we know who is a real Christian is those that repent and believe in Jesus.

It's not like, hey, I think like 60 years ago, they might have prayed a prayer.

And as long as they did that, even if the rest of their life, they're an atheist and they have no belief in Jesus and they've, they're not living a life of repentance and faith. As long as they prayed something 60 years ago, they're good.

No, if we hold on to our confidence in the hope in Jesus, that is how we know who is a real Christian. Real saints persevere until the end.

Verse number seven, then he gives this warning from Psalm 95, where I believe it's David that wrote that particular Psalm, where he highlights God's statements against the people that Moses led out of Egypt.

He says, not even all of the people that traveled with Moses were like believers. They didn't remain in, if you will, in God's, they didn't remain in the faith. Like they abandoned, like yes, they left Egypt, but Egypt never really left them.

That wasn't true for Joshua and for Caleb and for their families, as they saw the promised land and they told people, hey, let's obey God, let's follow him. It's going to be a great thing.

So I'm going to read through here in the author of Hebrews quotation of Psalm 95.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me and saw my works for 40 years.

He says, they saw who I was, they saw what I did, and yet they hardened their hearts. They said, no, I'm not going to follow God. I'm not going to obey him.

I'm not going to listen to him. I'm not going to sacrifice to him. I'm not going to follow Moses.

And so I'm going to ignore what God has said and done. He says, therefore, I was provoked to anger with that generation and said, they always go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways.

So I swore in my anger, they will not enter my rest. That is, they are not going to enter into this promised land because they have not believed, even though they saw everything.

And they were in the company of those that experienced walking through the Red Sea and God eradicating Egypt's army.

And even though they saw the manna come down from heaven and even though they saw the quail, even though they saw the bronze snake that was lifted up and everyone that looked at that bronze snake, they were healed from their snake bites.

And they saw God provide victory after victory with the Amalekites and the Moabites and all those that attacked Israel. He says, they saw all of these things and yet they did not love and follow me in their heart.

And so they are not going to enter the Promised Land. So then the author of Hebrews applies it to these persecuted Jewish Christians in the first century.

He says, watch out brothers and sisters so that there won't be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. He says, this could be some of you. You have seen Jesus' mighty works.

You've seen some of these signs and miracles and wonders that were talked about in Chapter 1. He says, you've seen God do amazing things through the apostles. You have heard about Jesus' sacrifice.

You have seen those that have the Holy Spirit that did works of healing people and speaking in tongues and all these things.

But he says, you too might turn away from God with an evil, unbelieving heart, that you can be in the middle of saved people, but you yourself are not saved. So watch out, like look out and turn to Jesus.

He says, encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception.

I have to tell you, there is, as a pastor, one of the burdens of my heart is that Christians rely very often on programs and big things to be able to say like, hey, we're doing so much and we're seeing God work because we've got 76 different things

that we're doing over the next two weeks. And the truth is, we need relationship with one another. We need to spend time with one another.

And there are certainly ways that we can do that within the confines of a church building, but I want to encourage you, like do so in your life interpersonally.

Here, the writer encourages these people going through persecution, encourage each other daily so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception. Sin will want to trick you into thinking you don't need one another.

Sin will trick you into thinking, okay, I can do these sins because I'm not going to see anyone for a couple of days, and so I'll have some time to repent of my sin, and then I can get back with everyone and be like, oh man, God's so good, so

thankful for grace. But he tells them interact with each other consistently so that sin won't trick you into thinking that you can live your life apart from the body of Christ.

Verse 14, for we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.

He says, we know if we're really like partaking in Christ, if we are really part of Christ's body, if it sticks with us, not just as we learned about in the Book of Mark, not just the seeds that sprout up quick and then when the sun comes, it dies

away and not the seeds that it gets planted and some stuff comes, but then the weeds, they come up and choke it, not the seeds that just land on stony ground and birds take it away. Those aren't real. Those aren't Christians. Those aren't believers.

The ones that have abandoned the body of Christ, the ones that have abandoned the faith, those are not true Christians yet. Now, does that mean that they can't ever become Christians?

No, but that tells us who needs the gospel and who needs the gospel for like the very first time in real salvation and repentance and faith.

It is those that are not part of Christ's body and even those that are currently within Christ's body, they might need the gospel even as we've read. And as the writer here highlights verses 16 through 19, who heard and rebelled?

Wasn't it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? He says, just being a Jew and just being here in the local Christian assembly, in the church, that does not mean you're saved. Verse number 17, with whom was God angry for 40 years?

Wasn't it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? He says, even though you're right now in church, that doesn't mean that you really know Christ.

So watch out for yourself and interact with one another daily so that you would be encouraged to follow, to repent, and to believe in Jesus and to continue in what he has. Verse number 18, to whom did he swear that he would not enter his rest?

If not to those who disobeyed. That is even just saying like, hey, I will mentally assent to Christ, but I will not follow him. I will not repent.

I will not obey him. That invites damnation to our souls. He says, it's not just enough to be like, yeah, God exists, or Jesus really did die for sin.

It must, that faith must be accompanied by repentance, by how we live. And then that's how we see in verse number 19. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

That belief and repentance, faith and works, they go together in the life of the Christian. That if you work and you don't have faith, you are not saved. If you have faith, so called, but it does not result in works, it's not a real faith.

And you are not, you ought to question from 1st John and James and many other places, you ought to question, am I really saved if I say I have faith and I have no works, nothing that I am like following Jesus in in my life.

But when faith and works are together, man, what a wonderful truth that that is, that I have a belief that's real enough to act. Okay, so what do we learn today? Jesus is, he is better than Moses, he is the one that set apart all of these things.

And if there was judgment on those that didn't listen to Moses, then certainly there is judgment if we don't listen to and obey and follow Jesus. So let us follow him.

Let's love other believers, spend time with them intentionally, like join with your local church, absolutely. But also intentionally, like pick time for yourself. Small groups don't have to be organized by the church.

It can be you and a friend. It can be you and a couple other, you know, couples or friends or whatever from church.

Like get together, talk about the Lord, pray over difficulties and sins and things, so that sin won't trick you and deceive you in your life. Thanks for tuning in. Tomorrow, we'll be looking at Hebrews chapter 4.

And it's a great portion of scripture. Really looking forward to going through it with you.