6/30/19
Tom Lowe
Lesson #9 [2C1]: BOTH WERE FAITHFUL (HEBREWS 3:1-2)
Introduction:
At least some of the first readers of the Book of Hebrews were believers who came to Christ out of a background of Judaism. They were steeped in Old Testament understanding. When they heard the Gospel, they believed in Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
Now, however, their confession of Christ had begun to prove costly. They encountered hostility and suffered hardships because of their faith. Therefore, some of them had stopped gathering with other believers for worship in fear of being identified and targeted as Christians. They showed signs of retreating from their confession of Christ.
Next to Abraham, Moses was undoubtedly the man most revered by the Jewish people. To go back to the Law meant to go back to Moses, and the recipients of this letter to the Hebrews were sorely tempted to do just that. It was important that the writer convince his readers that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses, for the entire system of Jewish religion came through Moses. One of the things we will learn in this chapter is that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses in at least three respects.
Scripture: Hebrews 3:1-2 (NIV)
(Heb.3:1) Therefore{1] holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
Therefore{1], holy{2] brothers and sisters,
The twofold description of the readers makes it clear that they were saved people. The words “Holy brothers and sisters” could only be applied to people in the family of God, set apart by the grace of God. It is also clear from the words, “who share in the heavenly calling”{3] that the writer was referring to people in the Church, the body of Christ. No unconverted Jew or Gentile could ever claim that blessing!
“Therefore{1], holy brothers and sisters.” The word “brothers” means those who were Hebrews like Paul was. Paul after the flesh was a Hebrew. He called the Hebrews his brothers after the flesh. They are called
Holy brothers in this verse, not because of the things they did, but because the word holy means “separated”?they were separated unto God. They belonged to Him.
who share in the heavenly calling,
The nation Israel had an earthly calling. All the promises of the Old Testament given to Israel had to do with this earth. He promised them rain from heaven; He promised them fertility of the soil and bountiful crops. These are physical blessings. He promised them spiritual blessings as well. Today the idea that anything physical cannot be used in a spiritual way is wrong. It is spiritual to give; that is one of the ministries a priest performs. He offers up spiritual sacrifices. Giving is one of them, and the praise of our lips is another.
The “brothers and sisters” who share in the “heavenly calling” previously had an earthly calling, but now they have come up to date and they belong to the “now” generation of those of Israel who have turned to Christ. The writer to the Hebrews will be making it very clear that they have moved into a different age. In the past, they offered animal sacrifices according to the Mosaic system, and it was right for them to do so. But now it is wrong because the sacrificial system has all been fulfilled in Christ and they have a heavenly calling. The earthly calling hasn’t disappeared, but it has been changed for the heavenly calling?so that they are partakers of the heavenly calling.
When witnessing to a Jew we tend to give the impression that he will have to cease being a Jew. I don’t know why we do this. A man can still be a Jew and be a Christian. If we are German, English or French, we are still that when we become a child of God. Nobody asks us to give up our nationality. And a Jew is still a Jew after he has come to Christ. He has moved along with the revelation of God, and he is now a partaker of the heavenly calling. This is important to see. The Epistle to the Hebrews becomes almost meaningless if you don’t consider to whom it was written?and also when it was written.
True Christians not only share in a “heavenly calling,” but they also share in Jesus Christ (Heb. 3:14). Through the Holy Spirit, we are “members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph 5:30). True believers also “share in the Holy Spirit” (Heb. 6:4). “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9). “Because we are God’s children, we are also partakers of God’s loving chastening” (Heb. 12:8). If a person is not chastened, that is a sign that they are not one of God’s children.
Because these people were “holy brothers and sisters,” and partakers of a heavenly calling, they were able to give a “confession” of their faith in Jesus Christ. The word simply means, “to say the same thing.” All true Christians say the same thing when it comes to their experience of salvation. Twice in this Epistle, the writer exhorted the readers to hold fast to this confession (Heb. 4:14; 10:23). It was the same confession that they were “strangers and pilgrims” on the earth that characterized men and women of faith in the ages past (Heb. 11:13).
fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest{5}.
It was not Moses who did all of this for the people addressed in this epistle; it was Jesus Christ! The writer did not exhort them to consider Moses, but to consider Christ?“fix your thoughts on Jesus.” The word he used means, “to consider carefully, to understand fully.” This was no quick glance at Jesus Christ! It was a critical consideration of who He is and what He has done.
“Fix your thoughts on Jesus” or consider Him. The Greek word translated by our English word consider conveys the fact of faithful attention, giving time, and perceiving thoroughly with the mind. It is a very significant word, and we need to recognize that it means we are to give careful, and serious and prolonged thought to this One.
“Consider the Apostle.” What does the writer mean? The Lord Jesus Christ was an apostle in the very basic meaning of the word. I don’t think we need to read anything into this word. After all, what is an apostle? An apostle is one who is sent. Jesus was sent from God to this earth.{4] “Consider the Apostle,” because he was sent from God to this world. He is a messenger; He is God’s messenger. He is the revelation of God. Consider Him. He comes from God as an apostle but notice also?
“Consider the Apostle and High-Priest.” His priestly function will be the subject of this epistle. (The writer just mentions it at this point, but when he comes back to it, that is all he is going to talk about. We will have to wait until we get to Chapter 5 to see that.) A High Priest is going in the opposite direction from an apostle. An apostle, like a prophet, came from God to man with a message; he spoke for God to man. However, a high priest was traveling on the wrong side of the road, like they do in Europe, and going in the wrong direction. He was going from man to God; he represented man before God. The office of the priest was sacred. No man could intrude into any of its functions.
Now Jesus is our High Priest. Who is He? He is Jesus?the emphasis is on His humanity. Again, let me remind you that there is a man in the glory today, and He represents us up there. Dear reader, I am very happy that He is up there because we are told that He is an advocate for us; He defends us, He is on our side.
The Lord Jesus Christ understands how you feel today. Dear reader, we need to consider this?give serious thought to it and our careful attention. We have an Apostle who came from God, and He is our High Priest who has gone back into His presence and He is there for you and for me today.
That Christ is superior to Moses in His person is an obvious fact. Moses was a mere man, called to be a prophet and leader, while Jesus Christ is the Son of God sent by the Father into the world. The title apostle means “one sent with a commission.” Moses was called and commissioned by God. But Jesus Christ was sent as God’s “last word” to sinful man. (see John 3:17, 34; 5:36, 38; 6:29, 57; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36; 11:42; 17:3; and note also 13:3).
Jesus Christ is not only the Apostle, but He is also the High Priest. Moses was a prophet who on occasion served as a priest (see Ps. 99:6), but he was never a high priest. That title belonged to his brother Aaron. In fact, Jesus Christ has the title “great High Priest” (Heb. 4:14).
This is a very wonderful verse, as you can see!
(Heb.3:2) He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house.
Now the writer is going to show how Christ is superior to Moses. You see, having shown the superiority of Christ over the prophets who spoke for God in the Old Testament, and having shown His superiority over the angels, now he must show He is superior to Moses because Moses is very important to the Hebrews.
He was faithful to the one who appointed him,
The Lord Jesus “was faithful to the one who appointed Him.” He was faithful as He came down to this earth to represent God to man, and He is faithful as He represents us to God.
just as Moses was faithful in all God's house.
And “Moses was faithful in all God’s house{6].” Whose house are we talking about here? It is very important to determine whose house this is. Is it Moses’ house? I don’t think so. It is God’s house. Moses was faithful in God's house. He was called to do a certain thing, and he did it. He was found faithful. The words “faithful in all God's house” are words borrowed from Num. 12
Moses is only a servant in God’s “house,” Jesus is God’s own Son, not in the house but over it. In addition, the Son ranks with the founder of the house in the sense that Jesus establishes (builds) a new “house” of God, namely the Christian community, which must cling to its hope in order to remain in God’s house. Moses established the high priesthood of the house of Aaron; but Jesus by His incarnation and resurrection to the right hand of God, became a high priest of the same family (v. 11), as all humanity.
It is true that Moses made some mistakes?in fact, he recorded them. He wrote the Pentateuch, but the mistakes are not in what he wrote, because God told him what to write. The mistakes were in his actions. He had a temper, and one time when God told him to speak to the rock, he hit it instead. It was the wrong thing to do because that rock pictured Christ and Christ’s work for us. Many years earlier God had instructed Moses to smite the Rock (See Ex. 17:6), and once smitten it doesn’t need to be smitten again. Christ was smitten once for us; it was not necessary for Him to be smitten again. But Moses lost his temper. He did not know the implication of what he was doing when he smote the rock the second time. Although he made some mistakes, now that his life is past, it is wonderful indeed to note that the thing God remembers is his faithfulness. Faithfulness is the thing for which the Lord Jesus will commend His own?“. . . well done, thy good and faithful servant . . .” (Mat. 25:21). Regardless of who we are or what work the Lord has given us to do, we are to be faithful.
Special notes and Scripture
[1} The word “therefore” looks back at what has come before it and forward to what comes after it. Its synonyms are: so, consequently, then, as a result, thus, for that reason, hence.
[2} They are “holy” because they have been consecrated by Jesus’ sacrificial death (see 2:11), and they share in a heavenly calling to follow Him into heaven.
[3} The phrase “Heavenly calling” spoken of here is not the mere report of the Gospel, but that which is accompanied by the power of the Spirit, the One who makes it operative. It is heavenly because it comes from heaven, is excellent and worthy of heaven, and is a call to a heavenly life and to heavenly bliss.
[4} God sent His Son into the world and thus made Him an Ambassador to us, an authorized messenger to reveal to us the whole will of God for our salvation. Moses was sent by God, to establish the dispensation, which lasted from his day until Christ (Ex. 3:10, 12, 14, 15). And Christ was sent by God to set up the Gospel dispensation.
[5} The Hebrew word which we render “priest” signifies one who conducts a business, or negotiation as with a sovereign, an intercessor. Both the Greek and Latin words, which we render priest, means one who ministers in sacred things. Our English word priest has very much the same signification. In scripture, the office of priest always carries with it the two ideas of offering sacrifices and making intercession.
[6} God’s house is His family (Eph. 3:15), the whole company of people redeemed by Christ.
