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SERMON TOPIC: Hebrews 3

Speaker: Gavin Paynter

Language: ENGLISH

Date: 20 February 2011

Topic Groups: HEBREWS, NEW COVENANT, BOOK STUDY

Sermon synopsis: Jesus is greater than Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant. Just as those who rebelled against Moses and had unbelief never entered God's rest, so those who rebel against Jesus and the New and greater Covenant will not enter God's eternal rest. We are exhorted to encourage one another daily through fellowship so that we will not be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
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In Hebrews 1 we saw that Jesus is not just a prophet - but greater than the prophets.

JESUS GREATER THAN

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We then saw that Jesus, the Son of God, is not an angel - but greater than the angels.

JESUS GREATER THAN

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Today we will see that Jesus is greater than Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant (Testament).

JESUS GREATER THAN

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HEBREWS 3

THEREFORE, HOLY BROTHERS, WHO SHARE IN THE HEAVENLY CALLING, FIX YOUR THOUGHTS ON JESUS, THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST WHOM WE CONFESS.

HE WAS FAITHFUL TO THE ONE WHO APPOINTED HIM, JUST AS MOSES WAS FAITHFUL IN ALL GOD’S HOUSE.

JESUS HAS BEEN FOUND WORTHY OF GREATER HONOR THAN MOSES, JUST AS THE BUILDER OF A HOUSE HAS GREATER HONOR THAN THE HOUSE ITSELF.

FOR EVERY HOUSE IS BUILT BY SOMEONE, BUT GOD IS THE BUILDER OF EVERYTHING.

MOSES WAS FAITHFUL AS A SERVANT IN ALL GOD’S HOUSE, TESTIFYING TO WHAT WOULD BE SAID IN THE FUTURE.

BUT 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.

SO, AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS: “TODAY, IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,

DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS YOU DID IN THE REBELLION, DURING THE TIME OF TESTING IN THE DESERT,

WHERE YOUR FATHERS TESTED AND TRIED ME AND FOR FORTY YEARS SAW WHAT I DID.

THAT IS WHY I WAS ANGRY WITH THAT GENERATION, AND I SAID, ‘THEIR HEARTS ARE ALWAYS GOING ASTRAY, AND THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN MY WAYS.’

SO I DECLARED ON OATH IN MY ANGER, ‘THEY SHALL NEVER ENTER MY REST.’”

SEE TO IT, BROTHERS, THAT NONE OF YOU HAS A SINFUL, UNBELIEVING HEART THAT TURNS AWAY FROM THE LIVING GOD.

BUT ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER DAILY, AS LONG AS IT IS CALLED TODAY, SO THAT NONE OF YOU MAY BE HARDENED BY SIN’S DECEITFULNESS.

WE HAVE COME TO SHARE IN CHRIST IF WE HOLD FIRMLY TILL THE END THE CONFIDENCE WE HAD AT FIRST.

AS HAS JUST BEEN SAID: “TODAY, IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS YOU DID IN THE REBELLION.”

WHO WERE THEY WHO HEARD AND REBELLED? WERE THEY NOT ALL THOSE MOSES LED OUT OF EGYPT?

AND WITH WHOM WAS HE ANGRY FOR FORTY YEARS? WAS IT NOT WITH THOSE WHO SINNED, WHOSE BODIES FELL IN THE DESERT?

AND TO WHOM DID GOD SWEAR THAT THEY WOULD NEVER ENTER HIS REST IF NOT TO THOSE WHO DISOBEYED?

SO WE SEE THAT THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO ENTER, BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF.

Was a judge

Ex 18:13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.

Was an intercessor

Ex 32:31-32 So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin - but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

Saw God face to face

Ex 33:11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

IMPORTANCE OF MOSES

Performed miraculous signs

Deut 34:10-12 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt - to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

IMPORTANCE OF MOSES

Fed the Israelites with manna (bread from heaven).

Ex 16:14-15 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.”

IMPORTANCE OF MOSES

Delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt:

Ex 3:10 “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Led the Israelites to the Promised Land – a land flowing with “milk and honey”.

IMPORTANCE OF MOSES

Was the mediator of God’s Covenant:

Gal 3:19 ... The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.

Despite all this, he was humble:

Num 12:3 Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.

IMPORTANCE OF MOSES

GREATER

THAN MOSES

Moses foretold the coming of a future prophet (known as the Messiah) who must be obeyed by all.

Deut 18:17-19 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.”

This is why Philip told Nathanael, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote - Jesus of Nazareth ...” (John 1:45)

Jesus also said to the Jews, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” (John 5:46)

THE MESSIAH

Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant, was a great man - but Jesus is greater than Moses.

Heb 3:1 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

If Moses were the house; Jesus is likened to the builder of the house. The creator or designer is always greater than the actual creation.

HOUSE VS BUILDER

However Moses is likened to a servant in God’s house with Jesus being contrasted as the son over God’s house. A son is greater than a servant because he is an heir.

Heb 3:6 But 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.

SERVANT VS SON

Moses was also a faithful servant of God and a prophet:

Heb 3:5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future.

Robert L. Deffinbaugh writes of this passage:

I love the story Bible teacher Ray Stedman told about visiting a ranch in Montana. At first, Ray knew only the son of one of the ranch hands. When he visited, they were restricted from the main house, and they rode the old ‘nags’ when they went horseback riding. Then, Ray says, he became friends with the owner’s son. Now it was a whole new experience. They had free run of the ranch and could go wherever they pleased. When they rode horses, they rode the best horses. That’s the difference between a servant and a son. 1

1 SOURCE: www.bible.org/ seriespage/ greater-moses-hebrews-31-6 Lesson 7 in the series, Near to the Heart of God – A Study of the Book of Hebrews, prepared by Robert L. Deffinbaugh on August 24, 2008.

SERVANT VS SON

Jesus was on the mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah who were representative of the Old Covenant. (Moses represented the Law and Elijah the Prophets.)

Yet in the presence of these two great men, God affirms to the apostles that Jesus is his Son and is the one that should be listened to by saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” (Luke 9:35)

Moses was a judge of Israel. But Jesus has been appointed as judge of all men by the Father.

John 5:27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

Acts 10:42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.

Rom 2:16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Acts 17:31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

GREATER THAN MOSES

John 5:22-23 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

2 Tim 4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead...

Moses was an intercessor for the Israelites. But Jesus intercedes to the Father on our behalf:

1 John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Heb 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

GREATER THAN MOSES

Moses saw God face to face. But Jesus is the visible expression of the Father. No-one has seen the Father – it is the Son who manifests God in bodily form.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

Col 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form

Moses performed miraculous signs but Jesus performed more miracles than anyone else in history. Peter said: “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” (Acts 2:22)

Even his enemies grudgingly admitted his miraculous powers, with the chief priests and Pharisees saying “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs.” (John 11:47)

Moses fed the Israelites with manna (bread from heaven). But Jesus was the living bread from heaven:

John 6:30 So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

GREATER THAN MOSES

34 “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. .. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

GREATER THAN MOSES

Moses delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt but Jesus delivers us from slavery to sin:

Rom 6:6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin

John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

GREATER THAN MOSES

Moses led the Israelites to the Promised Land but Jesus has led us into the kingdom of God with an inheritance in heaven.

1 Pet 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

GREATER THAN MOSES

Moses was the mediator of God’s Old Covenant. Jesus is the mediator of the New and better Covenant.

John 1:16-17 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Heb 7:22 … Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Heb 8:6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

GREATER THAN MOSES

Despite everything, Moses was humble. Jesus, although God in nature, humbled himself to become a man and to experience death.

Matt 11:29 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.

Phil 2:5-8 … Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God… he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!

GREATER THAN MOSES

This comparison by the author of Hebrews between Moses and Jesus is to make a point. What is that point?

Well, the recipients of the letter were Jewish Christians who were being tempted to stop fellowshipping or to revert to the Old Covenant because of the intense persecution they were facing.

The author reminds them that those who followed Moses were punished because they hardened their hearts and rebelled:

Heb 3:15-16 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

UNBELIEF

And because of their unbelief God swore that they would not enter the rest of the land of promise:

Heb 3:10-11 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Heb 3:17-19 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

UNBELIEF

We have just been shown that Jesus is greater than Moses. So unbelief in Jesus and rejection of the New Covenant will have greater consequences. So we are warned by the Holy Spirit against rebellion, hardening our hearts and unbelief:

Heb 3:7-9 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.”

Heb 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

UNBELIEF

Those who rebelled against Moses and who hardened their hearts through unbelief were punished by God and didn’t enter the land of rest.

Because Jesus is greater than Moses, those who reject Jesus will have a greater punishment - They will not enter God’s eternal rest in heaven and have eternal life.

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

UNBELIEF

The author quotes Psalm 95:

Ps 95:7-11 … Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”

UNBELIEF

The psalmist refers to the times at Meribah and Massah. These are the places where the people complained for water and Moses provided water from the rock. The people had left Egyptian slavery, crossed the Red Sea, but were now complaining about the water situation. 1

1 www.westpalmbeachchurchofchrist.com/ articles/ hebrews/ hebrews_3_7-18.html

UNBELIEF

You will notice that Meribah and Massah mean “rebellion” and “testing,” which can be seen in the Hebrews quotation. Worship God today and do not harden your heart is the call of the psalmist. Don’t forget what happened to those who heard the voice of the Lord but did harden their hearts. They saw the works of God for forty years. But notice the condemnation: “they always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.” For forty years the works of God had been seen yet the people went away from the Lord in hearts. They did not know the Lord though they had seen what God had done. The parallel is striking. This is not written to unbelievers in the world. This is being written to Christians as a warning. You have been delivered from slavery of sin as the Israelites had been delivered from Egyptian slavery. 1

1 Ibid

UNBELIEF

You have been baptized and become part of Christ just as the Israelites were “baptized” in the Red Sea (1 Cor 10:1). Do not now harden your heart after all that you have experienced. You have seen the mighty works of God. Do not turn back. 1

Watch out for an evil, unbelieving heart. Now I believe all of us would say that we do not have an unbelieving heart, so we are in the clear. But let us back up for a moment and examine what he means. The reference is to those in Psalm 95 who put God to the test. They did not believe that God would provide for them and they, therefore, complained about water. They did not put their full trust in God concerning their lives. They did not believe God would provide. 1

1 Ibid

UNBELIEF

Heb 3:14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

We need to finish the race. We need to be able to say like Paul at the end of his life: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (1 Tim 4:7-8)

There would be no warning not to fall away if there were no possibility of it (as some teach). The author here indicates that he understands the fallibility of humans and their need to be encouraged and rebuked if necessary.

UNBELIEF

Not entering God’s rest is the consequence of unbelief:

Heb 3:11 “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Only unbelief can rob you of the rest God promised:

Since no man is excluded from calling upon God the gate of salvation is open to all. There is nothing else to hinder us from entering, but our own unbelief. (John Calvin)

UNBELIEF

Unbelief is the opposite of faith. In fact it is negative faith – it is believing that God will not do what he has promised to do.

In all unbelief there are these two things: a good opinion of one’s self, and a bad opinion of God. (Horatius Bonar)

In effect, unbelief calls God a liar.

Unbelief is not a misfortune to be pitied; it is a sin to be deplored. Its sinfulness lies in the fact that it contradicts the word of the one true God and thus attributes falsehood to Him. (John Stott)

UNBELIEF

ENCOURAGEMENT & FELLOWSHIP

Heb 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Sin (in this context the sin of unbelief) can harden your heart. If your heart becomes hardened you become less responsive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the calling of God to repentance.

To combat unbelief and hardness of heart, we are told to “encourage one another daily”.

ENCOURAGEMENT

Encouragement is linked later to fellowship:

Heb 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Encouragement needs to be frequent: “encourage one another daily”. This shows the importance of fellowship as Christians - both informal and formal.

Fellowship comes from the Greek word, Koinonia, which means “to share in common.” Christian fellowship is more than attending Church - it is “assimilating” into the body of believers, becoming “one” in worshipping, loving, caring and sharing. 1

1 Dr. Dale A. Robbins (www.victorious.org/ felwship.htm)

FELLOWSHIP

Some say you can be a Christian without fellowship, but the Bible teaches that:

Fellowship was the practice of the apostolic church:

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Fellowship is something that is a natural result of being exposed to God’s Word:

1 John 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.

FELLOWSHIP

Fellowship allows for mutual encouragement (not just one way receiving):

Rom 1:11-12 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

1 Thess 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation. (Charles Spurgeon)

FELLOWSHIP

Fellowship is something that happens automatically when we “walk in the light”:

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

We are the body of Christ. If a part of the body is separated from the rest of the body, it will die. When we are united as a body (in fellowship) the blood can flow through the entire body and the result is that “the blood of Jesus… purifies us from all sin.”

FELLOWSHIP

Remove a live coal from the rest of the live coals in the fire and see what happens.

It doesn’t die immediately but within time it will grow cold and die.

FELLOWSHIP

The tree doesn’t die – but in time the branch will.

FELLOWSHIP

Break a budding branch off a tree and see what happens.

Fellowship is something that should be a source of joy:

FELLOWSHIP

Psalm 122:1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”

Fellowship is even required of a persecuted church. If fellowship is unnecessary or unimportant, then why do persecuted Christians risk their very lives to meet together. In fact this verse was written to a persecuted church:

Heb 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…

FELLOWSHIP

Some say they don’t fellowship because although they love God, other Christians irritate them, or have offended them in the past. John calls this type of person a liar:

1 John 4:19-21 We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Imagine someone telling us that they would like to be our friends, but when they visit we must please keep our children out of the way because they despise them.

FELLOWSHIP

Fellowship allows us to be accountable and have discipline when necessary:

1 Cor 5:2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?

And the writer of Hebrews tells us why fellowship is so important. Fellowship prevents hardness of heart through unbelief:

Heb 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

FELLOWSHIP

We are told to react to God today:

Heb 3:15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

Heb 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

If God is speaking to you today, don’t procrastinate:

Procrastination is putting off for tomorrow what should be done today.

Procrastination is not only the thief of time, but the thief of souls.

TODAY

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