FIX YOUR THOUGHTS ON JESUS
HEBREWS 3:1-6 OCTOBER 13, 2002
HEBREWS 3:1-6
1Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
It might seem strange to us that we need to be reminded of our Savior, to fix our thoughts on Jesus as our text tells us this morning. Yet we know in our busy day-to-day living, we may not fix our thoughts on Jesus too often during our daily life. We think about what we’re going to have for dinner or supper, we think about what’s going to be news on the television, we think about what we’re going to do next, we think about balancing the check book and all sorts of things in our day-to-day living. What appeals to us in our day-to-day living are those things that we can see and the things that we can feel and touch. Jesus, whom we can’t see, feel and touch, is sometimes distant from our thoughts. Even Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal"(2 CORINTHIANS 4:18). It is fitting that we sit back today and concentrate on those things, which we can’t see, that we fix our thoughts on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. We use as our theme what the writer of the Hebrews writes:
FIX YOUR THOUGHTS ON JESUS
I. Greater than Moses
II. God’s faithful Son
I. Greater than Moses
We’re reminded in the letter to the Hebrews that it was written because a group of people in the church were concentrating too much on the Old Testament. This group inside the church said, ‘we need to keep God’s laws. We need to see what He says, and follow them.’ They were not concerned that Jesus had kept all of the laws for them. The purpose of this letter was to focus their thoughts on Jesus who had died on the cross to save them from sin and eternal destruction.
Our text begins as he makes his appeal to them. Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. First of all, he was addressing that whole congregation as brothers, reminding them that they were brothers in the faith. They shared in the same heavenly calling. As we heard last week, Jesus came as the brother of mankind, so that they would be made partakers of the heavenly glory. The writer is saying to them, ‘Even though you may think that the Old Testament is going to save you, that God’s law is going to save you, remember we are brothers in the faith who share in the heavenly calling.’ The heavenly calling means fixing their thoughts on Jesus. He calls Jesus an apostle, a New Testament term which means ‘one who is sent’. He also refers to Him as the high priest…something connecting Jesus back with the Old Testament. The people were very familiar with the high priest who offered sacrifice after sacrifice, year after year; pointing out that the true sacrifice was yet to come. The writer here is saying, ‘Remember the sacrifices, remember the high priests? Now we have Jesus who is the true high priest!’
He makes another comparison for them. He compares Jesus and Moses because the people were putting their confidence in Moses. He says, ‘Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses. They revered Moses, they honored Moses. The fact is, when Moses died, God Himself buried Moses. He didn’t want the people to come and dig up his bones or body and worship Moses. Moses had led the people for over a generation. He led them to the Promised Land. Our writer states, ‘As much as you loved Moses, as much as you followed him and worshipped him, Jesus is greater!’ Then he tells them why. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. The writer says, ‘Stop to think about it…which is greater, the house or the builder?’ There are no houses unless someone builds it. The writer carries on that comparison and says, ‘For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.’ There they have it—they had put their trust in Moses and the laws of the Old Testament. The writer tells them that Jesus created everything, Moses didn’t create one thing. Jesus is the builder of all things.
In our sinful human nature, sometimes it is easy to use God’s law in the same way that these people did. They say, ‘Well, there it is in black and white and tells us what is right and wrong.’ It does, but we temper God’s law with God’s gospel. God’s law only leads us to the point of realizing that we cannot keep God’s law. We cannot save ourselves. The only way that you and I have salvation is through Christ and Christ alone. Jesus is greater than Moses; He is greater than anyone. He is greater than the law of God itself because He fulfilled that law. John the Baptist tried to point that out as he prepared the way for Jesus to come. In the gospel of John we read: "From the fullness of his (Jesus) grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"(JOHN 1:16,17). Yes, Moses was important. He gave the law, but even that law came from God. Jesus came as the fulfillment of that law for our sins.
The law, as we’re looking at it in Bible Study on Wednesday nights, (coming to the ninth commandment already) is used in three ways. It’s used as a curb, where mankind just runs up against it. It’s meant for the whole world as a curb to stop the rash outbreak of sin. It’s used as a mirror for the whole world again, to reflect back ones sinfulness. For you and I as believers, it is used as a guideline to give us direction. A guideline that would direct us, not inward, but outward to seek Christ—to look to Him for our salvation. When we look to Jesus for our salvation, what does He say? He doesn’t burden us anymore with the burden of the law because He is the fulfillment of it. He says, ‘"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls"(MATTHEW 11:29). The law can’t give us rest for our souls, only Christ can. That’s where Jesus is greater than Moses—the fulfillment of the law.
It’s important for us to remember too that He is the builder of all things. Last week, I had a conversation with one of the area clergy. He said he wasn’t that concerned about too many doctrinal things like evolution and creation. Who could figure that out? Maybe God created a little bit, but he certainly thought that there was a lot more evolution than creation. It sounds strange to our ears to hear such a thing yet that is the attitude of the people of the world today. Even those who might be called the leaders of the church promote some of these false notions. Consider that we have to keep our ears open, our eyes, hearts and minds open for all the opinions of everyone. But the Lord says what? The Lord says He is the builder of all things. Starting at the very first verse of the first book of the Bible, it says, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’ Throughout the rest of the scriptures, over and over again, God created all things. The psalm writer says, ‘"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth"(PSALM 33:6). He spoke and it was. The things that you and I see, the things that sometimes become so important to us, were made out of something that was unseen—by God’s powerful Word.
That’s why the Lord says to fix our thoughts on Jesus. Jesus greater than Moses and
II. God’s faithful Son
The point that this faithful writer was trying to get across was for the people to see was that Jesus is God’s faithful Son. They worshipped Moses. They were never going to forget about Moses. They had to put Moses in the background so Jesus could be more important than Moses. The only way they could do that was to see that Jesus was more important. He (Jesus) was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. The people recognized the faithfulness of Moses, yet what happened? Moses had his shortcomings, he got angry, struck the rock to get water without the Lord’s command. Even though Moses had given his whole life to the Lord and led the people to the Promised Land, Moses never got to go into the Promised Land because of his disobedience. The writer tells the Hebrews that Jesus was faithful. He goes on, ‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future.’ This reminded the people Moses looked ahead and told what would come. Then he gives them the difference about Jesus being God’s faithful Son. Moses was a faithful servant in all God’s house, but Christ is the Son over God’s house. With that little difference, these people began to understand as the Word of God worked in their hearts. Moses was in God’s house, working in God’s house as a faithful servant. Christ, when He came, was a Son over God’s house because He was the builder of all things. Moses was confined to the laws and regulations of temple worship. Jesus came and cleansed the temple and those who had changed the worship of the day. He was God’s faithful Son. To tie it all together, when the writer comes to the end of these verses, he says, ‘And we are his house.’ Moses was long dead and gone. He had less impact on their life in the sense that he was not living anymore. Now the writer says, ‘We are God’s house.’ God’s Son was still alive and well in them by faith. The writer gives them this condition—‘We are God’s house if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.’ As those people looked back to the Old Testament, they gave up that hope; they gave up their courage. They could no longer boast that they were saved. The writer here says, ‘Hold on to that hope. Hold on to that courage. Boast about the fact that Christ is your Savior. Then you are God’s house.’
On a Sunday morning, and on other special days, you and I gather in what you and I affectionately call God’s house, His church. It is God’s house because God’s Word is preached here. God’s sacraments are used here. We too, are God’s house because of faith, God’s house because scripture describes us as living stones. From Ephesians we read: "You are God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone"(EPHESIANS 2:19B, 20) God’s house, not founded on Moses and the law, but God’s house which has the cornerstone as Christ and then built on that cornerstone. God’s house also than built around the apostles and the prophets, Moses and the law, all the other prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, etc. It starts as members of God’s house who look to Christ as the cornerstone.
Jesus is God’s faithful Son, He is our Savior. The encouragement that we have then is that our faith is with us. Our faith in us is strong to defend us against those who would detract from God’s house. In 1 Corinthians we read what the Apostle Paul says. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain"(1 CORINTHIANS 15:58). We know that sometimes our labor in the world is in vain and some of the projects that we do come crashing down, some of the plans we set up don’t last very long. What encouragement do we have then as believers in this world? The Lord says ‘give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because labor there is not in vain.’ We know how much we fully throw ourselves into the work of this world. The Lord wants us to fix our thoughts on Jesus again and think about what we can do for His kingdom and His Word rather than just the world.
You and I are members of God’s house. You and I are the living stones that He builds up. You and I are to fix our thoughts on Jesus, whom we can’t see, but who is alive in us. He says that is our confidence. That is something we have to boast about. He says we’re to hold on to that hope and the courage we have. We come to the word ‘boast’ and we usually associate bad things with that word. (At least I do.) Yet Scripture talks that Christians can boast. They can boast about their knowledge of salvation. The prophet Jeremiah says, ‘But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight"(JEREMIAH 9:24). Jeremiah says, ‘Sure, we can boast that we know the Lord!’ If we can’t boast that we know the Lord, then we need to get out our Bibles and read it even more diligently, to study the Word for ourselves. We can boast that we know the Lord because He is kind, He is just, and He shows us righteousness. We can have all of this if we fix our eyes on Jesus, not on all of the things that we can see, feel and touch, but on Jesus whom we can’t see.
The Word says fix your thoughts on Jesus that your faith may be built up, that you may build up others. Fix your thoughts on Jesus who is greater than Moses, greater than anything in this world. Fix your thoughts on Jesus who is God’s faithful Son who paid the price of God’s law. He tells us how we do that. Later in the book of Hebrews, the same writer says, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. He says grab hold of that faith that He has given you, don’t give up. As the end of our text says, ‘Hold on to that courage and hope.’ Hold on unswervingly to your faith. He tells us how we can do that…’And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds"(HEBREWS 10:23,24). He says hold on to that faith and encourage one another as you fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Savior of mankind and our Savior. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
