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FAITHFUL IN ALL THINGS. Hebrews 3:1-6. 7/02/2023. #9.
1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
1. Holy family
a. We are beyond being servants & disciples
a1. Writer calls us holy brethren (separated as part of the family of God)
a2. Partakers (metochoi, sharers, common partners, community) in the heavenly calling (appointed for a divine purpose)
b. Jesus not only provided a means of salvation, but a means of adoption into the heavenly family
c. Jesus is the means by which believers are adopted
a1. Apostle = one sent on a mission (apostolon)
b1. Jesus was sent by God (the Father) on mission to pay for sins of mankind
a2. Jesus then sent the Apostles to share the news of Jesus’s sacrifice that paid for man’s sins
a2. High Priest = one who makes intercession for believers (Rom. 8:34)
d. Jesus was appointed (poiesanti, having been made) by God for this task (task was made for Jesus)
a1. God assigned His Son to pay for sins
a2. Jesus faithfully fulfilled His assignment
2. Just like Moses, but greater
a. Moses was highly regarded as the Law giver
b. Moses was faithful to his task
a1. He led the people out of Egypt
a2. Moses obeyed God (except for the rock incident where he did not glorify God)
a3. Moses received the Law from God
c. Jesus was faithful to his task, but was worthy of far more glory than Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-22)
a1. Moses’s ministry prepared the people for the coming of Christ’s ministry
a2. Moses came as a servant of God, but Christ came as Lord of all
3. The home builder is greater than the home
a. Though Moses established the system of the Law given to him by God, the giver of the Law was far greater than the Law
b. The house has less honor than its builder
a1. God built the earth, universe, & all created things, so is greater than creation
a2. Jesus created all things, & therefore, is superior to all that is created
c. Moses was created by the Lord, so is inferior to Him
a1. The Jews highly regarded Moses, but the Lord is greater than Moses & thus superseded both Moses & the Law
a2. Since Christ is both the home builder & the home owner, he is greater than the home
d. Confidence in Moses is misplaced, for Moses can’t do anything for us
a1. The confidence of the Jews had to be transferred from Moses to Christ
a2. Since Christ fulfilled the Law, the Law has no binding impact on us
e. “If we hold fast to this confidence”
a1. This does not mean that we can lose our salvation if we do not hold fast to Christ
a2. I John 2:19 those who drift away from the faith never were in Christ to begin with, for they would have remained in it to end
f. Our hope, confidence, & joy are in Christ alone
Key verse: Deuteronomy 18:15-22
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ 17 “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.