Jesus Christ, Greater Than Moses
Hebrews 3:1-6
Coming tonight to the 3rd Chapter of Hebrews, we shall consider verses 1 through 6 in our study. Hebrews Chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. Now while you're turning to that, I'd like you to be able to turn and listen for a moment, because I want to give you a brief review so that you can put yourself back into the perspective of the book of Hebrews. So we said to you in our introductory messages, we do not know who is the author of the book of Hebrews. Some say it to be the apostle Paul. Our personal conviction is that it does not indicate Paul in authorship. That only God knows who the author is. But behind that author, whoever he may be, we know is the Holy Spirit. And so simply refer, as we study the book of Hebrews, to the author of this book, being the Holy Spirit.
Now the book of Hebrews was written to a community of Jews who had been evangelized by the first apostles and prophets. And as a result of this community being evangelized somewhere outside of the Jerusalem area, as a result of them being evangelized by the apostles and prophets, some of them had believed. And a little congregation of believing Jews had arisen in that community. Now there were not only those who were converted who really gave themselves to Jesus Christ of those Jews, but there were some who were intellectually convinced, but who had never made the step of faith. They believed, but they never committed themselves to that faith.
There was in addition to those two groups another group who had not been convinced who had heard the gospel, but made absolutely no response at all. It is then to these three groups that the letter of Hebrews is written. Now we've said again and again that if you don't understand this, then you have a terrible time interpreting the book.
For the various passages are directed to those various readers. There are certain passages then, first of all, directed to Hebrew believers. True Christians who have received Christ. They have come out of Judaism, at least in the sense of faith. They have been born again. They have become followers of Jesus Christ and as a result of that, they have been unsynagogued, ostracized, thrown out of the Jewish culture and persecuted relentlessly.
Because of this persecution, their faith was very weak and they tended to hold on to the rituals of Judaism. So they were true believers, but hanging on to some of the rituals, some of the trappings of Judaism. And this indicated to us in many passages in this particular letter. We won't even take the time to go over them. We'll expedite it a little bit, but there are many in Chapter 10 and other places as well, where they had moved into faith and Christ, but were hanging on to ritual from the old covenant.
And Paul must have had something like that in mind when he wrote to the Galatians and said "standfast in the liberty where with Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage," which was the law of the Judaistic old covenant. And so in the new covenant there was freedom to be in Christ and to experience all that He had, but they had not begun to experience that. They were still trapped by their legalism. They were in the classic sense of Romans 14, a whole lot of weaker brothers.
So the Holy Spirit writes the letter then to strengthen their faith and to show them they can drop the rituals. They can drop the forms of Judaism and they can take totally Christ as absolutely sufficient. They need nothing from the old, they have the new. The secondly, the group of Hebrew non-Christians who are intellectually convinced several passages in the book deal with them. And they are warned that since they know so much they better act upon it, lest they fall away and never be renewed again to repentance. Those who know the truth and willfully reject the truth are severely warned, particularly in Chapter 10. "That they shall have much sorer punishment who willfully trodden under foot the Son of God." Count it as blood an unworthy thing or an unholy thing.
Then the third group are the Hebrew non-Christians. They are unconvinced period. They don't believe it all and to them the gospel is presented several times in the book of Hebrews. So then there are three in view and in each context you must know to whom He writes or you will find yourself terribly confused about the character of Christianity.
In every text in the book of Hebrews, no matter who is addressed, the theme is always the absolute supremacy of Christ. If He's talking to believers who are still hanging on to Judaism, He says you don't need it, Christ is sufficient. If He's talking to unbelievers who are convinced, He is saying come on put your faith in Him, rest in Christ. He's sufficient. If He's talking to unconvinced, unbelieving Jews He is saying the same thing. Christ is superior, He is supreme, He is sufficient. And so the message of Christ is the same, though the form may be the distinction in determining to whom He speaks.
So the theme we could say in a nutshell of the book of Hebrews is the perfect Christ, supreme, superior, sufficient. We need nothing in addition to Jesus Christ. This then, becomes the pattern of the book and what the letter of Hebrews is designed to do. Now if, in fact, the Holy Spirit is to show that Christ is better than anybody else, and if He is to show that the new covenant provided by Christ is better than the old economy, the Old Testament Judaistic patterns, if the new is better than the old then the Holy Spirit must prove that the character of the new, that is Jesus Christ the key character, is better than all of those connected with the old, must He not?
If this is a better covenant, it must have a better mediator. And so He begins to do that in the first part of Chapter 1, He says that Jesus Christ is better than everybody and everything. In Chapter 2 then, He says that Jesus Christ is better than angels. In Chapter 3, He says Jesus is better than Moses. In Chapter 4, Jesus is better than Joshua. And then Jesus is better than Aaron. Then Jesus is better than the old covenant. And Jesus is better than the Old Testament sacrifices, etc., etc. The whole point is to show that Jesus is superior, supreme, and sufficient, you need nothing else. That's the key.
And the theme is so beautifully stated right here in the first verse of Chapter 3 which we're going to look at. Because it says right in the middle of the verse consider the apostle and the high priest of our profession Jesus. The best manuscripts leave out the word Christ. Consider Jesus. That's the theme of Hebrews in two words. Consider Jesus. That's what it's all about. It is strategic for all men, in all ages to consider Jesus. And particularly consider Jesus here in Chapter 3 as He compares to Moses. As He compares to Moses.
Now we have already seen that Jesus is better than the prophets, Chapter 1. We already have seen that Jesus is better than the angels, Chapter 2. And now we shall see that Jesus is better than the one who brought the first covenant, Moses, the greatest of all.
Now we're going to look at the first six verses because they are the doctrine on which the exhortation of verse 7 and following is built. And we have to understand the premise or we won't understand the exhortation. Now in order to understand this passage, we've got to back up a little bit and find out what the Jews thought about Moses. If Jesus is better than Moses, we must know a little bit about what Moses was. Why is so important to prove Jesus better than Moses? The answer is because the Jews so highly esteemed Moses. He was esteemed above any other Jew who ever lived. He had a place that was utterly and absolutely unique in the mind of a Jew. He was the man to whom God spoke mouth to mouth.
He was a man who saw the glory of God. Do you remember back in Exodus 33 and 34? He was the man who had the glory of God transferred directly to his face. He came down out of that mountain, the Bible says he knew not the skin of His face shown. He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt. He was God's man. But beyond that, the greatest thing in the mind of a Jew was the law. And Moses was the one who gave the law. And Moses and the law were synonymous. And you see the Jew and the law were the two things that went together. Paul says in Romans Chapter 2, that "the Jew makes his boast in the law." You see.
The Old Testament commandments and rituals were the Jews' priority. And Moses had brought not only the Ten Commandments, but He had penned the enter Pentateuch which lays out all the Levitical laws and all the laws that governed everything they did. And so Moses was the great law giver. And let's face it, the law was number one on the Jewish hit parade every week, of every year. That was the most important thing in their life.
And some Jews even believed that Moses was greater than angels. And it's true that to the prophets God spoke in visions, but to Moses, He spoke mouth to mouth. He spoke to him in a burning bush. He spoke to him out of heaven. He spoke to him on Sinai and wrote the commandments with the finger of fire. God spoke directly to Moses and transferred His glory to him. And Moses stood far above any other man who ever lived in the mind of the Jewish people.
And certainly his history was remarkable. A hand of God preserved Him as a baby, and the hand of God dug his grave at the finish. And between these two points of his life, there is nothing but miracle after miracle after miracle. And during the most memorable times of Israel's history, it was Moses through whom God worked. It was Moses who led the children of Israel out of Egypt. It was Moses who led them through the wilderness. It was Moses who instructed them from the mouth of God. It was Moses, Moses, Moses.
The whole Levitical system, the whole Levitical economy was initiated through Moses. It was Moses who gave the plans for the tabernacle. The ark of the covenant and everything that went with it. And so to the Jew Moses is the great Mosha, there is none like him. And as great as Moses was, my friends, the Holy Spirit in this section calls on us to gaze on Jesus who is far greater than Moses. And that's the consideration right here for His Jewish readers.
Do you think Moses is great? Consider Jesus. Now in order for the Holy Spirit to present evidence to support the superiority, the supremacy, and the sufficiency of Christ, He selects a threefold presentation. And this will be our outline. He says that Jesus is superior in His office, superior in His work, and superior in His person. Superior in His office, He is the apostle and high priest, superior in His work, He is the builder of the house, superior in His person, He is the Son. And we'll see how these unfold.
First of all, the Holy Spirit says Jesus is superior to Moses in His office. Verse 1, "Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession or confession, Jesus." Consider Jesus. And that's what I'd like you to do tonight, whether you're a Christian or not. I'd like you to consider Jesus. And certainly this is the meaning of all our preaching and all of our teaching.
All right, let's look at verse 1 and then I'll break it down. First word, wherefore. What does this mean? It takes us which direction? Back. Wherefore means in this verse he's building on something that has come to pass before this. Wherefore on the basis of what I have just said, it points back, on the basis of what I have just said consider Jesus. What have you just said? You've just said that we see Jesus, verse 9, made lower than the angels. You've said that He's the salvation captain. You've said that He's a sanctifier. You said that He calls us brother. You've said that He destroyed Satan and death. You've said that He could deliver us out of bondage. You said this. You said this. You said this. On the basis of what you've said about Him, you ought to consider Him, right? Because of what I've said about Jesus, wherefore holy brethren consider Him. Consider Him.
He has just told them what kind of an apostle He is. He has just told them what kind of a high priest He is. He's a faithful high priest in verse 17. He's a faithful apostle or sent one as He comes from God to accomplish salvation. Now you've seen what kind of an apostle He is, a sent one from God. You've seen what kind of a high priest He is, consider Jesus.
What an apostle. What a high priest, powerful, sympathetic, merciful, faithful, saving, reconciling, helping. All of that's in verses 14 to 18. On the basis of who He is, consider Him. Consider Him. He's a perfect high priest. There is nothing missing at all. And you see here, He's urging the Hebrews to focus on the absolute sufficiency of Jesus.
Drop the rest of the stuff. You don't need it. You've got a new high priest and a new sent one from God. Drop all the trappings, focus on Jesus. He's all you need. Oh what an important message this is. And here He is speaking directly to the believing Christian Jews who were looking at Jesus out of one eye, but glancing back all the time. And He is saying consider Jesus. You don't need to look anywhere else.
Now most of us haven't come out of Judaism. How many of you here tonight have come out of Judaism. Put your hand up. How many of you are Jewish believers. Have any hands? Several, maybe five, six, seven. I don't know. God bless you, twice blessed. But must of us can't relate to coming out of Judaism and we don't understand the temptation to hang on to the old things. I was sharing with one our staff members about this yesterday. And he said, you know, John, I have a real problem. He said, I have a guy whose a new Christian, but he's a Jewish believer and he won't quit going to the synagogue. And he doesn't seek the fellowship of believers here. He seeks the synagogue for fellowship.
This still happens today. It's very difficult to make that break. But we...although we don't relate to Judaism, I think we do find ourselves very often lured into believing that our works and our religious trappings are what it's all about, you know. That God expects more than just our faith and our love. He expects us to do certain little things to please Him. And while we accept God's free grace, complete in Christ, we kind of hang on to an artificial kind of legalism, rather than live the positive Christ-controlled, spirit energized life.
So the statements of Christ's sufficiency certainly shatter all legalistic efforts whether Judaistic or any other kind. All right, "Wherefore holy brethren," and that's the next thing we want to look at, holy brethren. A fantastic statement, holy brethren. Now we studied the word brethren this morning and how that as believers we are brothers with Christ, because we're identified with Him. But I want you to pick out a thought here. Many people in studying the book of Hebrews have said that He has to be writing to Christians all the time because He uses the word brethren.
Just because He uses the word brethren doesn't mean He's talking to Christians at all. In Acts 2:29, in Acts 13:38, the Jews are referred to brethren. They are referred to as brethren, but when He says holy brethren, then we know whom He's speaking about. And here He's speaking to believers. This is not a reference to Jews in total, but to believers. Believers in the sense of those who are true brothers in Chapter 2, verse 11, who are sanctified in Christ for which cause He's not ashamed to call them brothers.
So then this passage is written to Christians, to holy Jews, holy brothers in Christ. Now they're holy not because of their practice, but because of their position. They are the real thing. They are soul brothers, sanctified, set apart, and made holy in Christ. Let me illustrate that from Hebrews 10, verse 10. "By which will we are sanctified," that means made holy, "we are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
When you received Christ, you were made holy. Verse 14, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are made holy." Verse 17, "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." Why? Because there's no more sin positionally. So we're holy. We're set apart, pure positionally. All Christians are holy in the sense of position before God. Now we've covered that many, many messages.
All right, so this section then is written to holy brothers who know and love Jesus Christ, the true church believers. Just to add emphasis to that, He calls them also partakers of the heavenly calling. Now we know this must be believers there don't we? Partakers of the heavenly calling. If you read carefully through the book of Hebrews, you find out that just about everything about us is heavenly. We have a heavenly home, we have a heavenly Jerusalem, we have a heavenly calling and so forth and so on. We're living in the heavenlys Paul says in Ephesians.
And you see here He is...oh this is terrific statement, He is making a distinction between the superiority of Christianity to Judaism. Judaism, my friends, was an earthly calling with an earthly inheritance, wasn't it? Circumcision the eighth day and you'll inherit the land if you're good. Christianity is a spiritual and heavenly calling with a spiritual and heavenly inheritance, superior.
And Paul says in Philippians Chapter 3, really two verses there, I think verse 14 first of all. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our home is heaven. Our place is in heaven. And we live right now in the heavenlys spiritually. Ephesians 1, "God has blessed us with all spiritual blessing," where, "in the heavenlys in Christ Jesus."
And so we see then that as true believers we are brothers of Jesus by position, we are holy by position, we are partakers of a heavenly kind of existence where only strangers and pilgrims here, right? We dangle our feet in the world, but we don't really belong here. Now it's an interesting thing that this is a powerful point to say to these Jews, why don't you drop the earthly end of man? You're citizens in the heavenlys, now why don't you let go of the earthly things?
I mean, why would anybody want to hang on to the earthly ritual when they have the heavenly reality. And we talked about this several weeks ago and we said that's why we don't believe there should be any ritual in the church. That's why we don't have people walking around simulating things up here and going through all kinds of holy mogus and lighting candles and doing strange things and walking around and waiving things and going through all kinds of forms. We don't need the ritual because the reality is here. Do you see?
If we want to worship Jesus Christ, Jesus said, "You worship the Father in spirit and in," what, "in truth." Not in ritual. There is no place in Christianity for ritual, because the reality is here. That's the whole point. And so He is saying you who are partakers of a heavenly calling, what are you doing hanging on to the earthly trappings, you see? You don'