Hebrews 3 (Part 1) :1-6 • Holding Fast Our Confidence

open your bibles to hebrews chapter three as we're going to continue our study here on sunday morning of the book of hebrews and the the argument that is being made in this book which is very very very important for us to see to recognize hebrews chapter 3 we're going to be looking at the first three verses excuse me the first six verses of the chapter and then we're going to open in prayer so follow along with me as i read verses one through six it says therefore holy brothers you who share in the heavenly calling consider jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession who was faithful to him who appointed him just as moses also was faithful in all god's house for jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than moses as much more glory as the builder of the house has more honor than the house itself for every house is built by someone but the builder of all things is god now moses was faithful in all god's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later but christ is faithful over god's house as a son and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope let's stop there let's pray heavenly father open our hearts to the ministry of your word this morning lord every time we delve into the word we need your help we need your insight we need lord just that work of the spirit to illuminate our hearts we need to be able to grasp these things and then lord we need the the strength and the courage to embrace walk them out and just put them into practice in our lives so teach us today and then guide us lord as we walk these out we ask in jesus name amen whenever we get into the book of hebrews i have to remind myself when i'm doing my own study and i feel like i need to remind you every time we start talking about this letter that it was written to jewish christians who because of the persecutions they were enduring were being tempted to back away from their faith in christ specifically and to revert to their roots of judaism and to go back under the mosaic law and the author is writing this letter to systematically reveal the importance of of of jesus christ in the whole equation of salvation and and i and that sounds like an incredible simplification and it kind of is but you know you'll remember that he began back in chapter one by making the point that jesus is god he talked about the fact that that he is one with the eternal god creator of all things and uh you know that's obviously huge he went on to prove then in chapter one and and chapter two how jesus is superior to any angel and now in this section that we're looking at here in chapter 3 the writer is going to go on and make an argument that may not sound necessary to you and i but he's going to talk about how jesus is greater than moses and and once again as as gentiles we may not consider this necessarily a an argument that's all that big of a deal to us but you got to know again he's writing to a jewish audience and to the jews moses was the man i mean he was the national hero that many people believed was greater than the angels and and that was just a belief on their point or their part it wasn't true but that's how high they elevated this man so the author is going to talk about jesus as it relates to moses but first i want to bring out in this first verse the different ways that he speaks of the people to whom he is writing this is very important for us to see i want you to notice that he begins by saying therefore holy brothers you who share in a heavenly calling now that alone as he's just addressing them it tells you so much about the fact uh that that these people are something special holy brothers what does it mean to be holy well holy is the greek word haggios and it essentially means well it can be translated saints i don't know if you knew that but you're a saint at least as far as god is concerned and but it essentially means and the idea behind it is set apart for god so when the bible refers to you as holy in that sense it's saying that you are set apart for god and that means that your life is his we and that's the opposite of what we hear in the world today isn't it everybody wants to say it's my life it's my body i can do what i want with my life and my body if i put something in it that you don't like it's no big deal because it's my body and it's my life i can do what i want with it i can go where i want and so on and so on well you know as christians we can't do that we can't say it's my life it's his life as a hagios as a holy one who is set apart for god our life belongs to the lord your body belongs to the lord the bible says that you've been bought with a price it means you can't just put anything into your body that you want because it belongs to him he has the last word on all of those things and you are to live for his purpose and not your own now that's different from the world let me tell you where the whole theme of living in this fallen world is to to please yourself you just need to do what makes you happy that's a worldly thought as christians we're to do what makes the lord happy we're to please him to live lives that are pleasing unto the lord that's what it means to be a hagios to be holy un to the lord but you know holiness has kind of a dual meaning because it it is it is also something that we're called to in terms of how we live our lives from the standpoint of our conduct let me show you how this is expressed in peter's first letter up on the screen from first peter chapter one it says as he who called you is holy you also be holy look at this in all your conduct all right that means what you do since it is written you shall be holy for i am holy now there's a lot of people a lot of christians who read a verse like this and it really messes with their mind and they're kind of like what did he just say to me that i am supposed to be holy as he is holy i mean good grief how in the world can i be holy like god god is god i'm an idiot i'm a i'm a fallen idiot and i i mess up all the time and he's saying be holy as i am holy does he not know me does he think there's more to me than there really is and we we read verses like that we kind of tilt goodness gracious but you see when we apply the verse that way we're missing the point we're missing actually what he's saying to us when we say god is holy we are saying that he is fundamentally different from anything that we know or can know i like to use the word other when i'm referring to god i like to say god is other you see you and i know what life is like we know what the world is like we know what people are like but god is other god is not like you or me god is other we know what the world is like the world is finite the world is corruptable the world is diminishing god is other he's other than anything we know right he is fundamentally different fundamentally other and so we say god is holy okay so what god is saying to you and i is be fundamentally different from the world in which you live be other you say well what's the world like well that's easy we know what the world is like we know how we acted before we came to christ we know how we still act from time to time that is probably not pleasing to the lord but god says be other than the world you know there are some scriptures that are given to us that give a pretty powerful description of how the world lives how the world operates and one of them is in paul's second letter to timothy let me put this up on the screen because this is really insightful he writes to timothy and he says in the last days there's going to come some incredible times of difficulty and he goes on to be he goes on to describe people and you know this is really a very accurate description of the world that you and i live in right now he begins to say people will be lovers of self lovers of money proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy heartless unappeasable slanderous and on and on you know but you could you could actually insert the command to be holy which is to be different after every single one of those things you see that's how the world lives and you're to be other so you could kind of read it like this for people will be lovers of self but you be different you be lovers of god and lovers of others you know he says people will be lovers of money but you be different don't love wealth because you can't love wealth and love god at the same time we've been told that he goes on to say people in this world are proud but you be other you be different people in this world are arrogant not you you be different people in this world are abusive you be other you be different you see you could just go and do that after each and every one of those things and when you and i are other we are being holy by its basic definition of being other now obviously the only way you and i can be holy in an unholy world is to do it in the power of the holy spirit but we've been given that power we've received that power from god to be other and so god can now say as i am other you be other you see he's not telling you to achieve this standard of perfection that is his he knows you can't do that he's just telling you to be other he's telling you to be different in your home in your family and your business in your workplace be different you know how those other people like to gossip and argue and back bite not you you be different you know how people like to use vulgar and obscene language you be different right just be other be holy for i am holy that's what the lord is telling us to do because that is holiness the other word that the author uses here for the recipients of this letter is very simply the word brothers he calls them holy brothers and there's really nothing tremendously special about this word because it could be used to describe any brother anywhere but in christian circles of course it means belonging to the family of god if i call you brother if i call you sister that means we're family members and you are my brothers and sisters if you're in christ we are family members and that's what that word is meant to to communicate and the reason that that's important for you and i to see is going to come at the end of these six verses and i'm going to call your attention back to the fact that the writer of hebrews is addressing christians because whenever he says holy brothers you know for sure he's saying for those of you who are set apart who are other indifferent and are brethren in other words part of the family this message is for you this is very important for you to see because when we get to the end of these six verses i'm gonna i'm gonna call your attention back to that the last thing the author says about his audience is in verse one is that they share in a heavenly calling did you catch that that's a really important phrase particularly for people who've been raised in jewish households and who were raised under judaism or the law of moses to say to those people now you share in a heavenly calling because you see that is different from judaism judaism doesn't have a heavenly calling they have an earthly calling we've mentioned many times over the years that the mosaic covenant is a physical material covenant our covenant with god is a spiritual covenant what that means is the promises that went along with the mosaic covenant were not spiritual promises they were physical what god said to the nation of israel through moses was keep the law and here's what's going to happen i'm going to bless you in the land your enemies aren't going to be able to stand against you your crops are going to be fantastic your kids are going to be healthy your your community is going to be strong over and and this is your land and nobody will take it from you that's what he told them but it was all physical it was all material that's not our covenant god came and made a new covenant in fact he made the new covenant with israel too they just rejected it but the new covenant through jesus christ that he inaugurated at the last supper is a spiritual covenant with spiritual blessings you ever noticed we weren't given land we were never given the kind of promises that israel was given those were given to israel not the church it's different that's why paul wrote this when he wrote to the ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in christ with every physical blessing it doesn't say that does it it says every spiritual blessing and where are your spiritual blessings where are they did you leave them at home are they in your car no it says that they're in the heavenly places aren't they your blessings your your your wonderful promises that you've received through the covenant of jesus christ are hidden for you in heavenly places and you better be glad that you're they're there because they can't go away they can't be stolen they can't get old and crusty and rotten and broken they're they're they're they're just they're they can't be taken away you know the the land that israel got could be taken away and often was yours can't that's a that's a it's a much better deal let me tell you right now so this is an important thing to say to the believers when he says to them in essence that that you are uh recipients of these heavenly promises and it sets the new covenant apart from the old now let's read the rest of verse 1 as he tells them what to do in light of who they are and their calling and so forth he says consider jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession into verse two who was faithful to him who appointed him stop there for just a moment what the author is telling these people to do is to focus on jesus and then he begins to define jesus for them the apostle and high priest of their confession now high priest we looked at last week and we talked about what a high priest is we talked about the fact that under the old covenant the high priest was a picture of what jesus came to fulfill because what does the high priest do he represents the people to god right he takes the needs of the people the issues of the people and he represents them to god that's what a high priest does and by the way the author of hebrews is going to have a lot more to say about high priests in the coming chapters but we want to look also at this title of apostle we know that paul was an apostle and peter was an apostle but he says jesus is the apostle of our confession the word apostle means one sent forth with authority and jesus being sent forth from the father is our apostle showing us the way uh to be saved and the reason that the author is highlighting these aspects these titles for jesus high priest author or apostle rather is he's going to compare jesus to moses as he kind of goes on in this and you we have to remember these these things were very important to a jewish audience he goes on there in verse two i'm reading the last part of verse two look with me in your bible just as moses also was faithful in all god's house for jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than moses as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself and then he goes on to say parenthetically for every house is built by someone but the builder of all things is god he's he's saying moses was was a good guy and he was worthy of honor because he was a faithful man he was faithful in the ministry that god had gave him and he's worthy of honor in the house of the lord because of that but then he goes on to say but jesus is worthy of more honor than moses in the same way that a builder is more worthy of honor than the house that he has built because jesus built the house because he's he's god and that's what he he actually went on to say the builder of all things is god so he's the builder but interestingly enough even though as god jesus built the house he's worthy of greater honor because there's more to it than that look at verse 5 but moses excuse me now moses was faithful in all god's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later but christ is faithful over god's house as a son and this is the key point that the author is making this is very important again to a jewish audience because they were raised with the idea of the difference between a son and a servant they knew very well between those two positions a servant is there to serve a son he's there to inherit he receives all that is the father's okay so they understand that the servant is never going to do that he's never going to inherit but the son inherits because he has a very special relationship to the father so you see for a jew this is kind of the grand slam of the argument that he's making here related to jesus and moses moses was faithful as a servant jesus is the son in the house of god which he also built so we keep talking about this house of god what is the house of god is this the house of god people say that all the time and it really bugs me let's go into the house of god this is not the house of god this is a building and it's a pretty modest one at that what is the house of god look at the very end of verse six in your bible what does it say the very end of verse six and we are his house we we're his house it's a house that's under construction did you notice that what peter said he says we are we're well let me show you this first peter chapter 2 as you come to him a living stone rejected by man but in the sight of god chosen and precious you yourselves like living stones notice the present tense are being built up as a spiritual house it's it's not done yet and we like to say that to people you know we're kind of under construction as christians you know it's kind of our way of saying don't judge us too harshly because we're still being built but we are being built and we're being built into a spiritual house so don't think of yourself as having doors and windows and a roof and walls and ceilings you're not that kind of a house you are a house a spiritual dwelling in which god dwells we the church are being built into a dwelling place where god will dwell and i know that that is a little weird to wrap your brain around but that's what the word is saying here now we know that each of us individually is a temple of the holy spirit the bible says that paul wrote do you not know that you are a temple of the holy spirit because the spirit lives in you as a believer but together your stones coming together to be built into that place where where god dwells now let's deal with this last statement that the writer makes here in verse six and you'll notice it contains a word that makes a lot of people uncomfortable and it's the word if right let's look at it here the very last sentence or i'll start with and we are his house and then we have that word if indeed we hold fast our confidence and are boasting in our hope okay we are his house if if you guys remember your grammar if always introduces a conditional clause in a sentence you know my parents used to do it all the time i was the last of four kids the youngest of four kids and we'd be all packed into our car and my parents would have business whatever some place and and and of course we're all at each other you know and they'd say if you if you guys are good maybe we'll swing by dairy queen on the way home and we knew when my parents said that and they introduced that with the word if we knew that they were conditioning the promise of going to dairy queen on our behavior and that meant we had to do something or we had to perform a certain way in order to get what we wanted which was of course a stop at dairy queen if you guys are good we'll stop at dairy queen on the way home we rarely ever went to dairy queen we did because we were very rarely good very rarely but it and you know we understood that it was a conditional statement all right the writer of hebrews has just made for you and i a conditional statement he says and we are the house of god but then he introduces that conditional clause if we hold fast our confidence i like i like the word confidence it's another word for faith people will ask me from time to time what exactly does it mean to have faith in god i tell him you have confidence you have confidence in god you have confidence what does it mean to have faith in the cross it means to be confident i am confident that what jesus did on the cross was enough to save me from my sin are you sometimes i'll ask people you know i'll say so tell me how confident are you in your salvation and what they think i'm asking is how confident are they in themselves and they always write back and go well and then they start telling me about their life you know i've been i've had a hard lie i haven't lived i haven't lived the perfect life and i have to say stop i'm not asking you if you're confident in yourself i would never do that i'm not confident in myself why would i ask you if you're confident in yourself i'm asking you if you're confident in him are you confident that jesus christ died for you on the cross and that work is finished and completed and there's nothing else that remains are you confident in that oh okay you see we just have this natural gravitational pull to apply everything to ourselves it's all about me isn't it isn't it all about me you're asking me about my salvation it's about me it's about my salvation no it's the salvation he did for you on the cross that he bought you on the cross are you confident in what he did yeah i'm confident in what jesus did i'm not confident me you know because you know people people will always start off talking to me they'll just say things like you know i just i'm so wretched and i go i know you're not surprising me when you say things like that of course you're wretched so am i right let's get our eyes off ourselves and let's get him on to jesus so you see faith confidence that's the condition well we always knew that good grief we always knew faith is the condition it's not a work we're not saved by works right you can't get saved by being good enough but there is a condition to your salvation and the condition is faith you believe you you trust you have confidence i mean good grief let's look at the most popular passage probably in the world for god so loved the world that he gave his only son that everybody saved no matter what they think believe or do no it doesn't say that it says he gave his only son that whoever believes and that's another way of saying whoever has confidence in that finished work of jesus on the cross what that person isn't going to perish but that person now has eternal life why because they met the condition by faith i believe i believe jesus died for me do you believe jesus died for you do you believe are you confident in his death for you on the cross amen praise the lord that's wonderful see it's a conditional issue right i got to have faith so let's go back here and look at what the writer of hebrews is saying here in the end of verse 6 when he says we are the house of god we are that house if we continue in our confidence the confidence that we had at first okay don't be uncomfortable with that christians don't want to introduce a conditional clause when it comes to salvation they get very upset with me when i do it because they don't want to think about it they don't want to think about conditional clauses but they're all through the bible why did i make such a big deal at the beginning of this message to tell you that he was writing to holy brothers because he introduced a conditional clause to believers he was writing to believers this letter is written to christians who have put their faith in jesus christ and he says continue in it you are the house of god if you continue in that confidence if you continue in that faith you see faith is the key it is what our our relationship with jesus and our salvation is predicated upon we put our faith in the finished work of jesus on the cross and it's a wonderful thing again it's not a work it's not something that you do that you earn or or by your goodness you don't put your faith in jesus by your goodness in fact we recognize our badness and that's really what motivates us to put our faith in him but but but he is the one in whom our faith ultimately rests it's in his work his accomplishment and so forth and and i i bring this up because this this letter to the hebrews is filled with these kinds of conditional clauses it's filled with warnings warnings written to christians well pastor paul are you saying we can lose our salvation no i'm not even entering that argument i don't even want to get into that discussion all i'm telling you is what the bible says it's written to believers and it's full of warnings don't let go don't let go of your confidence keep it on jesus whatever you do can i just tell you satan's number one goal is to try to get you to get your eyes off jesus and onto yourself he can nail you if he does that because you're fallible you're corruptable you're imperfect and so if he can get you to focus on this this fallible corruptable finite being such as yourself you're just gonna fall apart you've got to learn to get your eyes off yourself to refuse to look at yourself and i'm telling you right now that goes against every fiber of your being because we love to think about ourselves we think about ourselves all day long and we don't even think about the fact that we're thinking about ourselves it's just a knee-jerk reaction it's all about me and satan knows that he knows that gravitational pull in us to be drawn into self and so he's going to get you to think and that's why he accuses you know he's called the accuser of the brethren he accuses you to yourself i can't believe what you just did i can't believe what you thought i can't believe what you thought and you call yourself a christian pretty soon we're just like that's it i'm done unpardonable sin here i come and we're just and we're ready to throw in the towel don't let the enemy do that to you don't let satan do that it's not about you this is a shocker this is one thing that is not about you it's about him it's all about jesus that's what the letter of hebrews says over and over and over again it's all about jesus you can't let go of this guys because it's all about him you let go of him and you're done for it's all about jesus and we just rest in him you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 7,398

Rating: 4.8578682 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: gW4Yc88galY

Length: 32min 58sec (1978 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020