Sep. 01, 2024

“LIVE BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT”

“CHRIST IS SUPERIOR TO MOSES”

HEBREWS 3:1-6

Next to Abraham, Moses was undoubtedly the man most greatly revered by the Jewish people. We will see the Scripture today teaches that Jesus Christ is Superior to Moses.

1.  Christ Is Superior In His Person.

Hebrews 3:1-2 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.”

vs.1 “Therefore” is like a swinging door which goes back and forth both ways. The warning is “look both ways.”

The word translated “partakers” means partner as in Luke 5:7.

Luke 5:7 “So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.”

True Christians not only share a heavenly calling, but they also share in Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.”

Through the Holy Spirit, we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.

Ephesians 5:30 “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.” 

True believers are also “partakers of the Holy Spirit.”

Hebrews 6:4 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 8:9 “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”

Hebrews 12:8 “But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”

It was not Moses who did all of this for the people addressed in this epistle, it was Jesus Christ!

“Consider” Christ vs.1 this conveys the fact of faithful attention, giving of time, and perceiving thoroughly with the mind, to understand fully.

“Consider Christ” the:

“Apostle” vs.1- One sent by God:

John 3:17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

John 3:34 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.”

John 5:36 “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

John 5:38 “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”

John 6:29 “Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

John 6:57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”

John 7:29 “But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

John 8:42 “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.”

John 10:36 “do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?”

John 11:42 “And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Jesus was sent by God to save sinners.

“The High Priest” vs.1- one who represents people to God.

The Lord Jesus understands how you feel today. Consider this, give serious thought to it, and careful attention to it. 

vs.2 The Lord Jesus “…was faithful to Him who appointed Him…”

vs.2 “…as Moses also was faithful in all His house.” Whose house are we talking about here? The word house occurs seven times in the next few verses.

2.   He Is Superior In His Ministry

Hebrews 3:3-6 “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.”

The word “house” is used again.

Moses was a servant in the house, vs.5, while Christ is a Son over the house vs.6. Moses was a member of the household, but Jesus built the house!

Christ is superior to Moses in that He is creator and Moses is creature. Christ is the Son of God and Moses is the servant of God.

vs.6 “If”

If we are children of God and if we are partakers of the heavenly calling, we will be faithful and we will hold fast. This is proof that we are of God’s house:

1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”

The proof that you are a child of God is that you hold to the faith.

The word “confidence” vs.6- literally means freedom of speech, openness.

Hebrews 4:16 “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 have this boldness because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 10:19 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

He is the faithful High Priest who provides all the grace we need for each demand of life. As the Great Shepherd of the sheep:

Hebrews 13:19-20 “But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. 20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.”