I am going to give you 5 true statements about a Bible character, and then I’ll ask you WHO I’m referring to.
When he was born – the people of Israel were under the control of a foreign nation. When he was a newborn, his life was in danger from a powerful King. He came to save his people. He went down to Egypt. And at one point in his life he fasted for 40 days and nights.
Who was I talking about? That’s right Jesus… AND Moses. All 5 of those statements applied to both Jesus and Moses! And that makes sense… because God had promised Moses: “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. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” Deuteronomy 18:18-19
Jesus was the prophet that God had promised. A prophet LIKE Moses. But there was a significant difference between the two men. While Jesus was like Moses, He was also GREATER than Moses.
That’s what our passage today is saying: “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.” Hebrews 3:3
All through the book of Hebrews we are repeatedly told that Jesus is better than anything else. Jesus offered a better hope (7:19); A better covenant (7:22; 8:6); A better resurrection (11:35); and a better sacrifice (9:22).
And He Himself was better than any angel; Better than any Old Testament Priest; and of course… He was better than Moses.
Now that last is quite a statement. To say Jesus was better than Moses would be hard for some Jewish believers to swallow, because Moses was a pillar in Jewish society. One man noted that “The Jews thought Moses was a far prophet and leader than anyone else And Moses had been protected by God from his birth through his death. And between those two dates Moses life, was filled with miracle upon miracle upon miracle. And while God spoke to the prophets in visions… God spoke to Moses face to face.
The Jews had great confidence in the Law of Moses. The Old Testament commandments and the rituals were their highest priorities. And for the Jews… Moses and the Law were one. In the New Testament (Luke 2:22, Acts 13:34, etc.) the commands of God were often referred to as the “Law of Moses.” Moses not only brought the Ten Commandments down from the Mountain, he also wrote the first 5 books of the Bible - which laid out all the laws that governed everything in Jewish life. Because of all this… some Jews believed Moses was even greater than the angels.
However, in Hebrews 3, the writer of Hebrews called the people to look to Jesus… not Moses because - while Moses was great - Jesus was far greater.” (Carl Allen)
Moses was great… but Jesus was GREATER? Think about it this way: Back in 1972, NASA launched a space probe called Pioneer 10. The satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and then beam all that data back to earth. It was a bold plan. At that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared that the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 not only reached Jupiter… it did a lot more than that! In November 1973, scientists used Jupiter’s immense gravity as a kind of slingshot and Pioneer 10 was hurled toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; At nearly three billion miles, Neptune; and at almost four billion miles, Pluto. By 1997, twenty-five years after it was launched, Pioneer 10 had traveled more than six billion miles from the sun and it continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. Someone called it “The Little Satellite That Could.” Perhaps the most remarkable fact was that those signals were sent from the space craft’s 8-watt transmitter. That’s roughly the power of your bedroom night light. (Steven Dow)
And Pioneer’s computing power? Your personal cellphone has one million times more power than Pioneer 10 did back when it was launched. My point is: Pioneer 10 accomplished a phenomenal task. It was the 1st of only 5 man-made space craft to ever leave our solar system. But as much as that “little Satellite that could” – did, today’s spacecraft are built far better and far more powerful. In the same way, Moses was good and he did mighty things for God. But Moses couldn’t even compare to the power and might of Jesus.
Now (as Christians) I think we’ve pretty well got that figured out. But this idea that Jesus was a prophet - AND a better prophet than Moses - I don’t believe we think about that very much. I mean, Jesus being a priest and king - we’ve got that pretty well down. But Jesus being a prophet? That doesn’t seem to be a popular topic. I mean, why should we CARE whether Jesus was a prophet or not?
Well… God cared! God told Moses He’d raise up a prophet like Moses; and since that prophet was Jesus - there’s got to be something to it. But what? Why is that important?
Well first, by definition: A prophet was someone who declared God’s will to His people. In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses said that “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.”
He WILL be a Prophet… so listen to Him. And that’s what God said when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Matthew 17:5
When Jesus spoke, He declared the will of God to us, because that’s what a prophet does. But Jesus was DIFFERENT than all other prophets. Throughout the Old Testament, prophets would say “Thus Saith The Lord” - this is what God says! But when Jesus spoke, He declared “I SAY UNTO YOU.” And that’s one of the things that amazed Jesus’ audiences.
In Matthew 7:28-29 we’re told “the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for He taught them as one having authority...” Jesus had something to say. He was superior to every prophet who ever lived… including Moses, because He didn’t have to say “Thus Saith The Lord”… He was the LORD!
But PROPHETS had a message. What message (as a Prophet) did Jesus come to give us?
Well, there was the standard stuff that most prophets preached. Jesus preached repentance. Matthew 4:17 tells us that “Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Every prophet preached that people needed to repent/turn away from their sins because people often thought they were OK the way they were. And God had to repeatedly remind people… NO YOU’RE NOT! You’re not OK. You’ve all sinned and fall short of glory. No one stands before God based on their own righteousness. You need to repent; you need to change your life.
And Jesus preached judgment. “The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered
fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:47-50
There is going to come a day of judgment, and you’re going to want to be ready for that day. Those were the types of things every prophet said.
But (PAUSE) what prophet ever said “Come unto ME, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For MY yoke is easy, and MY burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
Did you catch that? "Come unto Me!" "I will give you rest!" "Take MY hoke upon you!" No prophet could ever have said anything like that. No wise man; No philosopher; No person of wealth and power... and definitely not Moses.
But Jesus could, because there was something about Jesus that changed people. Jesus hung out with drunkards, prostitutes and outcasts. And by the time Jesus was finished with them, they weren’t drunkards, prostitutes or outcasts anymore. The very presence of Jesus changed people. Jesus had promised: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
The very presence of Jesus cahnged people. Do you remember the time when Jesus had been invited to Simon the Pharisees house? Simon invited Jesus, but deliberately snubbed him - he didn't give Jesus a kiss of greeting, or washed His feet, or anoint His head with oil. These were common courtesies that Simon chose to ignore, perhaps with the intention of creating a scene if Jesus had shown anger in this. But then... a woman comes into the room. She's not been invited. She's not even the KIND of person you'd invite to this kind of gathering. She's a prostitute, a lady of the evening, a pavement princess. I doubt she wanted to do anything more than simply be in the presence of this prominent Rabbi. Jesus would have been the rock star of the age - an important person who everyone wanted to meet. But I doubt she came to be changed by Him... but she was. She was changed. She's standing near Jesus, and do you what she did first? She cried! She wept tears of shame and guilt, and her tears wet Jesus feet, and she began to wipe his feet dry with her hair. There was something about just being near Jesus that changed her.
Even just the story about Jesus has been known to change people’s lives. Back in 1979 there was a movie called “The Jesus Movie.” It was translated into numerous languages and used an evangelistic tool. I’ve even read that missionaries would set up a bed sheet for a screen and show the movie out in the fields at times. It was a movie about Jesus. It wasn’t the real Jesus. And yet, even that movie touched lives.
ILLUS: Johnny Olsen, Oslo, Norway was known as a neo-Nazi and one of Norway’s most notorious criminals; In the late 1990s he walked into the offices of a Norwegian newspaper confessed to bombing an anti-racism center in Oslo, in 1994. His lawyer said “It was the film that made him realize that he had to show his hand. It has been a long process, but the Jesus film made the difference.”
ILLUS: Then there was a man named James Anderson walked into a sheriff’s office in Palm Beach, FL and confessed to having robbed a bank in the city two years earlier. He had gotten away with $25,000, and police had no leads on the case at all. Anderson said he decided to come clean after seeing the movie.
There’s something about the very story of Jesus in a movie that changes lives. And, speaking of movies… have you ever seen the movie “Ben Hur.” The best known version stars Charleston Heston, and won 11 academy awards, but apparently there’ve been about 5 movies with that title.
The movies were based on a book by Lew Wallace. Apparently, he’d been on a train one time with a renowned agnostic named Ingersoll. Neither Wallace, nor Ingersoll believed in the Jesus of Bible, but on their train ride Ingersoll convinced Wallace to write a book about Christ without all the miraculous nonsense they both rejected. Ingersoll commented: Tear down the prevailing sentiment as to His divineness and paint Him as He was - a man among men.”
Wallace took the challenge and began researching the Gospels to create the plot. But what started out as a skeptic’s reworking of the Gospel story… turned out to be a reworking of the heart of the skeptic. By the time Wallace was done writing the book – Jesus had changed him. He discovered that Christ was more than just a man, He was God in the flesh.
You see, Jesus WAS a prophet… and His message was HIMSELF! Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in ME, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” And then He asked: “Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
Do you believe this?
INVITATION
