Hebrews 3-4
Notes
Transcript
Hebrews 3-4
Hebrews 3-4
Good morning Church! We are biting off a big chunk this morning, but I think it will make more sense if we do... rather than break it up over a couple of weeks. So, a couple of things about the book of Hebrews first. It was written to actual Hebrews. Again Hebrews that had come to know Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior. Persecution was causing them to consider a return to the ways of old. The former things. Approaching God through an earthy priest, sacrificing animals as a covering for sin, and honoring God through the law rather than by the acceptance of grace.
I’ll remind you as well, that since it was written first, and primarily, to a people that lived in a different time and a different place, we said approximately 35 years after the Crucifixion of Christ, the language was different as well as some of the thinking. What I mean by that is that in our western culture, when we want to make an argument, or even a linear type of outline, we might start with an introduction, a stated thesis, the context, points of affirmation to build and support your position, perhaps some points of contention that you defend, and then the additional facts or evidence pointing to a forgone conclusion.
In this more eastern type of thinking or establishment of an argument, a premise is stated, say the foundation of your argument, In this case we said it could be Jesus is better…and then that is discussed in several different ways, it is compared to several different things, and then stated and restated. I don’t have a good way to explain it, so I’ll share with you how I picture it in my head.
Do you guys remember the death machines at the playground? Not death machines, but the wheels of vomit and injury? The flat metal disks, they are round, and they have bars that come up from the outside perimeter that run to the middle that are designed to give a kid confidence that they will be able to hang on and not be violently thrown from this wheel of pain. Do you guys know what I’m talking about?
Everyone gets on it, and then if you’re little... one kid runs in a circle while he is pushing it and then jumps on so you can all spin. If you’re a little older, one of the kids stepfather’s who hates him might stand in one spot throwing all his strength behind spinning that thing as fast as he can. Or maybe wraps a long rope around the outside once everyone is on, ties it to the back of his motorcycle and then takes off?
Actually, that example is distracting. Scratch that from the surface of your mind and think nice calm, marry-go-round. And you don’t even have to worry about riding a horse, you’re seated on one of the benches so you don’t even have to hang on. But as you look out you see your mom and your dad, go around a little further and there are the bumper cars (oh, I want to go on those next), oh look cotton candy, oh Hi Mom, I’m back. It is confusing to our thinking, but that is what their arguments remind me of.
Start with that Jesus is God, because Jesus is God, He is better than everyone else and everything else. So in chapter one and two we saw Jesus is better than men, even the best of men the prophets, lets go around and look at something else, better than the angels, oh, don’t forget He also took on humanity, He’s better than Moses, He is better than Joshua, and now lets go back. So the method is different, but the conclusion is the same, Jesus is better and let me show you all the ways.
Now, I don’t usually ever encourage you to use this as a study bible, because it’s not, it’s not even a proper translation of the bible, it is a paraphrase, but I really like the way Eugene Peterson expresses the beginning of this chapter in the Message. He says in the opening of chapter 3...
1 So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe,
2 faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful,
Take a good hard look at Jesus! That is an accurate description of what the book of Hebrews is all about. If you want to experience freedom, I mean truly being set free from the shackles of sin, the destruction of addiction, the pain of isolation, the shame of causing harm to others, then take a good hard look at Jesus. If you want to find purpose and meaning in life, fulfillment not just in what you do, but in who you are, then take a good hard look at Jesus.
If you want to experience peace, satisfaction, and rest. If you want to experience joy everlasting, even in the midst of turmoil and trials, take a good hard look at Jesus. IF you want to know more about the One that created you, the One of who’s image you bear, if you want to know the heart of God, take a good hard look at Jesus.
We have such a tendency to take our eyes off of Jesus. Just like Peter, as his boat was being tossed around in an angry sea, he looked out and saw Jesus coming toward him and he stepped out of the boat and he began to walk on the water as well, until, he saw that the wind was boisterous, until he began to once again focus on his circumstance instead of considering Jesus, focusing on Jesus, and fear caused him to sink and the same thing can happen to us.
Lets pray...
Father in Heaven, thank you for Jesus, thank you for fully revealing Yourself to us in Him. Give us understanding of your Word this morning, and points of application along the way. In Jesus name, amen.
Chapter three starts with another therefore, so because of all that has been written in chapters 1 and 2. Heb 3:1
1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,
The chapter begins with a pretty incredible description of who we are in light of what Jesus has done....Holy brethren, and partakers of the heavenly calling. And then we have our command in this chapter the imperative verb here commands…the reader, the hearer... to consider.
This word translated in our bibles as consider, is in the Greek... give careful consideration, consider closely, be concerned about, understand completely, notice and discover through direct observation. In other words…take a good, hard, look at Jesus and the author of Hebrews here refers to Jesus as the Apostle and High Priest.
You guys know that an Apostle is one that is send out or sent forth. We have compared it to being more than a messenger, what we might think of today as an ambassador. If ambassador is sent out, they are sent out with the full power and authority of their sending country. When they speak, they are speaking for their country. In this case, when Jesus came He was the authority, the grace, the love, the mercy, of God and High Priest of our confession. Again, written as they would have understood that, the priest was the one that not just represented God, but represented them to God.
William Barclay tells us that
The Latin word here for a priest is pontifex, which means a bridge-builder. The priest is the person who builds a bridge between men and women and God. Jesus is the perfect high priest because he is perfectly human and perfectly God; he can represent us to God and God to us. He is the one person through whom we come to God and God comes to us. Amen!
Verse 2…Heb 3:2
2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.
Moses was faithful to his people, steadfast in his purpose, but Jesus was perfect. Jesus remains perfect. In verse 3 we read. Heb 3:3-6
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.
We have to understand that this passage would have been a bigger deal to them than it is today to us. In their eyes Moses was the best human to have ever walked the planet. He spoke to God, met with God, received the 10 commandments that had been etched in stone by the finger of God. The first 5 books of your bible, the Torah, will forever be known by the Jews as the law of Moses.
There is some debate about the body of Moses, if you check out Deuteronomy 34 you will see that when He died, God himself buried Him and know one knows where his body was buried. There is a passage in Jude 1:9 that talks about Micheal and Satan disputing over his body. Many people think that God hid his bones, so that the people wouldn’t be temped to worship them. That is how highly they regarded Moses. But all along, at his best, Moses was Just a servant, while the Christ is the Son., if
Now verse 6 is a struggle for some, if this shakes you, look out for chapter 6! But verse 4 says he who built all things is God, verse six Christ as a Son over His own house who’e house we are. Jesus built the house, so Jesus must be God, we are cool with that. We are the house of the Lord, 1 Peter chapter 2 supports that when it calls us living stones, we’re all cool with that, but check out the rest of the language here…who’s house we are “IF” we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. It doesn’t give us any comfort that after 6 months, or a year, then we’re vested. It says if we hold fast to the end.
To emphasis this, the author begins to quote Psalm 95 , and for those of you that continue to debate about who wrote Hebrews we get our answer right here in verse 7. Heb 3:7
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
It’s the Holy Spirit! OK, that is settled, but the author is trying to remind the reader that the ancient Israelis began well, but didn’t finish strong, because they didn’t continue in their faith.
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.
Rather than trust God, they tested God and tried God. See when the people were finally set free from the bondage in Egypt, free to go into the promised land, I think about a 10 day journey. Rather than trust God, kept there eyes focused on God, they kept looking at their circumstances. They kept wanting God to prove himself. I don’t know how much more it should have taken after Moses turned a river to blood or parted the red sea.
But miracles seem similar to chicken wings, having one just makes you hungry for more. Miracles alone don’t seem to build faith. In the last chapter we were instructed to take earnest heed to the things we have heard.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
They were more concerned about the actions of God, than with God himself. Verse 10 Heb 3:10-11
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
You guys know the story from the book of Numbers. Moses sent spies into the promised land to see if it really was all that God promised it was. All twelve came back saying the same thing. It is an incredible land that flows with milk and honey, the fruit was so large that they carried a single cluster of grapes on a pole between two men…but 10 out of the 12 also said yeah but…the people are huge, the cities are huge and well fortified, we are going to get our butts kicked.
Only two, Joshua and Caleb, said, lets trust God and take it! So God was angry and said that shall not enter His rest. Now the author of Hebrews says from this example Heb 3:12
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
but rather than that, look at verse 13…Heb 3:13
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
When is today? Now right? In a practice sense, every day that we live is today. I mean tomorrow today will be yesterday, but when we are in tomorrow it will be today. So if we are awake and alive it is today. If it is today we are to exhort one another to not depart from the living God, to not go the way of apostacy, to not continue to drift lest we be hardened and deceived through the deceitfulness of sin.
Notice there is another “if” in verse 14, written to these guys who had become Christians, Jesus was now their Savior, but they were looking back. Verse 14 says. Heb 3:14-15
14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Now he goes back again to the same example…the people that had believed when they were in Egypt…
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Those that had previously believed, those that had followed Moses to the border of the land could not enter because of unbelief. Sadly, this lesson is still being taught today. We see so many people today that recognize their need for salvation. They may make a profession of faith, they may have at one time believed. But then the storm clouds appear, a trial comes, a boyfriend or girlfriend doesn’t believe. If you ask them about their faith, they are good at pointing back.
They can tell you about their conversion, but not about their walk. They can tell you about what they once were, with no evidence that who they once were, is who they are today. Most of you know that for the majority of my life I served in law enforcement. I served in different states, I served at the city level, the county level, the state level and the federal level. There was a time, when . Well, people wouldn’t just try to drop my name if they got pulled over, but a certain relative of mine once got pulled over and was asked if they knew me. They gladly confessed and were sent on their way with a warning.
But today, there is a whole new generation out there. And it doesn’t matter at all who you were at one time. As Christians our testimony should never be here is who I used to be in Christ. Or these are the ways I used to serve Him. If we are looking back at a time when we once believed, then we are just like those in this example lost in the wilderness. Of all those that were wandering, only two had faith, and only two, Caleb and Jacob entered into His rest, the promised land.
If we are wandering and looking back, we are missing out on the rest that He has for us today.
Chapter 4
1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
Notice this is to us. The whole idea here of using the word today, back in chapter 3 makes it apply to us, because today is today. So today a promise remains of entering His rest, but I see too many Christians doing what this verse says, coming up short. They want Salvation, but not Sanctification. They want assurance of Salvation and forgiveness, but want to know nothing of sacrifice or service. They want to know what is the bare minimum. What do I have to give up, what can I no longer do. Rather than growing in their desire to Know Him. To sit at His feet. To carry His yoke, to learn from Him, to walk with Him.
And they fall short of His rest. Listen why, and he goes back to his example in verse 2
2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
See they knew stuff, but they didn’t know Him, because they didn’t trust Him. They didn’t mix their hearing with faith. We can hear stuff and we can read stuff, but it does not profit us, if we don’t find application through faith. If we stop at hearing and don’t start doing. Now he gives several examples here and a bunch of cross references.
This can be confusing if we don’t understand something up front. The author is using the word rest in this section really in three different and distinct ways. First he is using it in the same way that we might say the peace of God. Secondly, He is using it in the sense of it was used in chapter three, the children of Israel entering into the promised land, the promised land was God’s rest for them. No more wilderness wanderings…well for Caleb and Jacob at least. Thirdly, rest in the sense for God resting after the six days of resting following the creation events in the book of Genesis.
So, lets pick through it. In the first couple verse we find that God’s rest still remains, if we don’t enter into that rest, it is because we come up short, like those that didn’t enter into the land. Perhaps we have heard the gospel, but have not believed in faith. In verse 3 the meaning of rest is changed to God’s rest after the completion of creation and that rest continues on for all of eternity. Verse 3 says.
3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
Notice again in verse 6 it remains…here is the proof text again notice the reference to today.
7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
So the writer is saying, there’s actually a couple of things going on here, probably deeper than we want to get into with our time remaining. Most important Today if you will hear His voice, don’t harden your heart because that rest is still available. The rest didn’t go away when Joshua entered into the rest of God in the land. Joshua in the Hebrew Yahshua is the same word for Jesus. So if the rest was satisfied in that day, with Joshua, He would not have spoken of another day. Another Yahshua, Jesus.
So the rest is no longer in a day, the seventh day the Sabbath, it is not in a place, the rest is not in the promised land it is in Yahshua, Jesus, our rest, our sabbath rest. He goes on and tells us to stop playing games. To stop coming up short from our own distractions and doing our own thing. But to do His thing. Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is better than Joshua. His rest is available today, if you will hear His voice.
Look at the rest of it with me…because it gives us the how.
9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
Our works, our striving will do nothing for us. We need to cease from our own works and place our faith in His. When we understand that Jesus’ way is better, we can rest in that. Our salvation is in that. Our works then become acts of gratitude, thanks, and praise, rather than. Duty, obligation, and earning. One way gives us rest, the other causes us to come up short. Verse 11
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
That sounds a little like a contradiction. Be diligent sounds like work. Work hard to be at rest. Be diligent to enter that rest, do what it takes. These chapters tell us what it takes. I came across a great quote this week from Corrie Ten Boom, if you don’t know who she is, look her up and read her story, but this is a great quote.
“Look at others, and be distressed. Look at yourself, and be depressed. Look to God, and you’ll be blessed!”
Faith is an active, aggressive, intentional thing. We can’t earn these things, faith is a gift. But we must be diligent about these things diligent to enter the rest of Jesus. Verse 12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The word for sword here is the word for dagger. It is for up close and personal battle. It can be used to cut and to heal. It gets right to our motives as it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. The bible is living and powerful. It is a truth teller, a revealer to both us and to others. Verse 13 adds to this.
13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
You are not hiding anything from God. He knows your strengths and He knows where you are weak. He even knows the thoughts of your heart. Listen to what we have in Jesus. Why Jesus is better than any other approach to God.
14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Some people struggle with this. They doubt this. How could God have been tempted. How could Jesus have struggled? If Jesus was fully man, then He was fully man. He was angry, yet did not sin. He had a libido, yet never sinned. It is because he was tempted as we are, that He can sympathize with us, that He can relate to us, that He can get us. And unlike us, He never caved, never gave into it. So, not only do I believe this, but I think because He never succumbed to temptation, then He experienced temptation in a greater way than any of us sinners in this room.
C.S. Lewis wrote, and it’s too long of a quote to put on a slide, but it is from Mere Christianity…he writes.
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.
The chapter ends with another invitation...
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We don’t have to fear rejection from God. Through Jesus our High priest, we can come boldly, and receive mercy, find grace, and enter into rest in Jesus.
Grace and Peace