Hebrews 3:1 (AMP) - Forerunner Commentary

Now let's go back to the New Testament again because we're going to begin to show the process as it unfolds in the New Testament for the New Covenant. In Hebrews 3:1, the pattern begins for the New Testament church.

Jesus Christ is the chief Apostle. He is the chief Ambassador. He is the chief representative of the Father. Jesus said, I only speak those things that I have heard from the Father. He faithfully delivered the message that was given Him by the Father to His disciples. So He was a faithful Apostle, as it says in verse 2, in carrying out the responsibility that He had with God.

So here begins the pattern. God revealed to His apostle Jesus Christ, who in turn revealed to His apostles, the twelve, and primarily Peter, as we will see. There is no doubt that Peter was preeminent among the twelve. He was, as Herbert Armstrong said, the first among equals. The scripture clearly reveals that by means of emphasizing him and his role in the events recorded. When God was using Moses, God emphasized Moses. When God was leading through Joshua, God emphasized Joshua. When God was leading through Elijah, God emphasized Elijah.

I said that he was first among equals. If you know any of the story of Elijah, he operated, as far as we know, three schools of the prophets. And in terms of being prophets, every one of them who came from the school of the prophets were prophets. But Elijah was the chief prophet. He was first among equals in terms of responsibility.

When He was leading through Samuel, He emphasized Samuel. When He was leading through David, He emphasized David. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel were all alive at the same time, but Jeremiah was the main prophet. He was first among equals.

They were great men within their own area, or in their own right, or in their own sphere of operations. Ezekiel was with the captives, Daniel was in the government of Babylon, and though they were equal to Jeremiah in terms of being prophets, it was Jeremiah that they looked to for any kind of leadership that they needed. He was first among equals.

It was Jeremiah who received the commission from God that's given there in Jeremiah 1, I think beginning in verse 10, where he was instructed to tear down. Then he was also instructed to build up. So he was the one that was first among equals during that time.

Now this pattern in no way means that Peter was the first pope in succession of all of the popes there in the Catholic church, because God does not pass the preeminence or the leadership in that manner. Succession is by appointment of the Father, and it is revealed primarily through the works of the one appointed. You shall know them by their fruits.

And you will find that the matter of unity - this is another pattern - always takes place if God raises the person up. He begins, for a period of time, to show the fruits that God is appointing him to an office. He is proving himself, and the people then begin to unite under him. They voluntarily, as it were, come under his authority. Isn't that what happened with Herbert Armstrong? It did. He used to say from time to time, Nobody forced you here. Nobody twisted your arm. You gave yourself. And that's the pattern that God follows.

He raises up the leader and then by His Spirit He brings the people to the leader. That is the way David became, as it were, king of Israel. He was ordained. He was anointed by Samuel, but by the fruits the people of Judah began to see that he was the man that God is using and they submitted to him. Then after seven years, Israel, the ten northern tribes, came with hat in hand and they said to David, Will you be our king too? They came to him. David did not have to go out and conquer them. They submitted. That's God's pattern.

He raises up the person and then He brings the people to him and they voluntarily submit to the leader. And I'm telling you now that's the way it's going to happen in the future when God brings the church together. We will see, … . . .

How can this be, seeing that we fall so far short? How can we possibly be holy? The beginning of that answer is right here in this book. Let us go to Hebrews 9.

Did you see? He entered the Most Holy Place. Drop down a little bit further, to verse 24.

Even inanimate objects can be made holy. You might remember all the way back in Exodus 3, around verse 5, that Moses was on holy ground; and so he was told to take off his sandals. You will find, scattered throughout the Bible, such things as holy place, holy censors, a holy convocation, a holy Sabbath, holy tithe, holy covenant, holy bread, and on and on it goes. I have not even begun to exhaust it.

Remember that the primary meaning of the word holy is to separate, to cut away. Things that are holy are things that are set away, apart - separated from the rest. What this generally means is that they have been consecrated, dedicated, or (as the biblical word is) sanctified. They are elevated from the commonplace unto the Lord. That is, unto His service.

Nothing created is holy of itself, and only God can consecrate or sanctify something else as holy, thus lifting it from the commonplace to something that is special. When He does that, that thing is changed. It is different from other things in its relationship to Him - and, of course, by extension in its relationship to men.

Let me get you to thinking about Hebrews 3:1 again - where we are called holy brethren. That does not have any particular reference to a quality of life. Rather, it is only (or, merely) indicating a state or condition. We have been sanctified by God. Our relationship with Him has changed. We have been lifted from the commonplace in terms of our relationship to Him. But, in that context, it has nothing to do with anything more than a state, or a relationship. (Just like a holy censor, a holy Sabbath, or holy bread, or anything else.)

But there is one thing that we have to add on to this. Things that are made holy - that is, consecrated or sanctified; lifted out of the commonplace - are also set apart unto purity. That is, they are to be treated in a special way. The holy vessels of the Tabernacle or the Temple were to be treated differently from other vessels that might have been made of the same materials. So they are also, then, set apart unto purity. Thus, they are to be used in a pure way. You will recall that the ark had to be carried in a certain way - indicating that it was to be treated with deference and respect because of its relationship to God.

You are holy brethren. Therefore, you are also then to reflect purity - as well as simple apartness. Purity is not excluded from the idea of the holy, but is contained within it. Whereas the holiness of God is absolute, the holiness that any angel has, or things have, or we have is either ceremonial, imputed by God, or is derived by a simple conformity to His will by means of His Spirit. (That is where we are.)

We are to gird up the loins of our mind. One Bible says, Prepare your mind for action. Be self-controlled, in order that you might be holy. Now, why?

So even inanimate things can be made holy - by the sanctification of God. But brethren, we are not inanimate! We have mind. We have will. We have attitude. We can make choices. And for us, holiness not only involves the sanctification of God, it also involves choices (attitudes) leading to right conduct of life.

Before conversion, we lived in ignorance and were consequently dominated by the satisfaction of our own desires. But when God calls us, we must cease living according to what is profane. (You shall not profane the name of your God.) Remember that holiness implies separation to God. And therefore we have to seek to produce the divine likeness of holiness in all of our behavior. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in.

Let us go along to another one, this one in Hebrews chapter 3. It is a similar metaphor. It also uses the metaphor of a house but there is a little bit of a twist on it.

Now, you could say, this is just like the other one there in I Corinthians 3. But it is a little bit different. God's house here, that he is talking about, is that the metaphor focuses not on the building materials like Paul did, but on the people who inhabit the house - a household, a family as it were. But it is not just the family. The idea of a household in that age was a lot different than ours. We think of mother, father, and two kids as the house. But this is much broader. The house is a family, yes; it is not only the current family but it is the whole dynasty, the whole line. The whole genealogy of the family is included in this as well as the members of the household that may not even be part of the family by blood.

Notice Moses. Moses was a servant in the house. He was not the son or even a son. In this particular analogy, he was a servant who, in those days, was a part of a household. So it is all, in whatever function that they have, who inhabit that house and have to work for the profit and the good - the efficiency - of the whole household.

So, in that day and age, it might have been a patriarch, a matriarch, sons and daughters, and all the maidservants and manservants. And it could have been a steward who was over the business aspects of the house. It could have been a teacher, a physician, various other employees, or slaves that were in the house. They were all part of the household. They all had their functions and they were all supposed to work for the benefit of the whole house. And Moses was faithful in what he did for the whole house, was he not? He did a great job guiding Israel through the wilderness and giving us the law and all the other things that he did. He was a faithful servant and his work (going back to Paul's other metaphor) stands today even though he was tested by fire.

So what we need to understand here is that we are individuals in this household. We are called sons and daughters. We are not servants necessarily, although we are. We may have different responsibilities in the body of Christ that make us servants. But we are really sons and daughters. But our inclusion in the Family, as he shows here in verse 6, is that we remain loyal. We remain faithful to the Heir, the Son who is the quintessence of faithfulness.

He is showing us how to do it. He is showing us all along how to be faithful. And we have to copy the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and the faithfulness, the loyalty, and the dedication of Moses to remain a part of this Family. Because that was the problem the Hebrews were having: They were beginning to slip away. They were not doing their jobs in the Family, in the household. They were allowing themselves to drift.

Just a note of interest. You might want to jot down I Timothy 3:14-15; Galatians 6:10; and Colossians 3:18-4 verse 1. These are all part of the metaphor of the household and almost all of the references to a household as the church speak to the proper conduct of members of God's house. And the one in Colossians chapter 3 talks about husbands, wives, children, master, servants. They were all part of the household at the time and they all had their responsibilities and they all needed to conduct themselves properly to remain as members in good standing of the household.

That is us. When we went through that second sermon, I explained that in that context holy does not have any particular reference to quality of life, quality of character, or anything like that, but rather refers to a state or a position that we are in as a result of being sanctified by God for His use and glory. It is as though we have simply been separated from the crowd. That is all. Cut apart, and therefore sanctified.

We have to begin on this understanding that nothing created is holy unto itself. Only God can sanctify something else as holy, and He therefore, when He does this, lifts it from the commonplace to something special. He has already done that with us to some degree. Because we have been cut from the crowd as a result of His calling, we can be stated as being holy brethren. But at that point it still has nothing to do with what we are in our heart, in our mind; but we are holy because we have been separated by God for Him to use to some extent. And when He does this, the position is changed. It is made different from others in relationship to Him.

I think we can all recall Exodus 3. Here is where God confronted Moses, and He did it in the burning bush. What did He say to Moses? He said, Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. The only thing that made that ground holy was the presence of God, and the fact that He stipulated that it was holy, thus showing His authority to make anything, even inert dirt, holy.

Moses was being separated to be the one who was going to represent God in going to Israel, and so he was in the process of being separated away from others, and he was in process of becoming holy as well. But when God left that area was no longer holy. Think on that one a little while too. If God withdraws His Spirit, the person is no longer holy. It is the same principle. When God left, then Moses was able to put back his sandals onto his feet.

There is a principle that is shown again throughout God's Word, that when things are made holy, they are things set apart unto purity. They are to be used in a pure way. They are to reflect purity, as well as simple apartness. Purity is contained within the idea or concept of the holy, and whatsoever is holy is to be treated with deference, with purity, because of its relationship to God. Holy brethren, how are you treating each other?

We are to treat each other with the understanding that this other person has been separated to purity, and they are to be treated with kindness, with meekness, with humility, with forbearance, with deference. It's not because they may deserve it, but simply because they've been separated by God and are therefore considered by Him as holy. Whether that holiness is yet a reality in terms of what is in their heart and in their conduct does not matter at this point. We have no right to treat others who are part of God's church, part of His calling, in an unholy way as though they are common and profane.

Please turn with me over to Hebrews 3. In contrast to the ancient Israelites, we must be diligently confident and conscientiously hopeful with joy. Their servant leader Moses was faithful to his house, Israel, as a type of Christ over His own house, God's church, and its individual members. Here, there is a comparison between Jesus Christ and Moses, showing Jesus Christ to be the more faithful one, but Moses still having been faithful.

The faithful Moses was a type or forerunner of Jesus Christ. But the Israelites he led out of Egypt had inconsistent faith and hope, and they focused on physical things and their work of bondage because of their fearful and distracted mindset. They resisted hope. The physical challenges of life were more real to them than the spiritual realities of God's deliverance. Had they had real hope they would have been willing to suffer and endure and persevere to achieve the goal of their future reality.

We have a different future reality in that it is a spiritual reality. It is a reality of liberty which these days represent, and also of the Kingdom of God. Theirs was a physical liberty in the land they were to inherit at the end of the 40 years.

This confident message of hope means our life involves endurance and perseverance. Faith and hope are interconnected. Faith will diminish without hope because hope is a motivator.

In stark contrast to Moses, the Israelites in the world today believe that the word hope means something that is uncertain, which is the opposite of what true hope is. But for us, the church, it refers to what is sure and certain, but for which we wait. The apostle Paul calls this one hope in Ephesians 4:4 because it embraces a unifying set of beliefs among us, the elect of God, the saints.

Another way of thinking about our hope is to say that when Jesus Christ returns, we are going to be with Him. People from all races, nations, and economic backgrounds will be together with Jesus, our Savior, our King; and the many things that divide us now will be forgotten then.

It is vitally important that we remember our privileges as members of God's church. And it is our privilege that we are called children of God. To bear the name of the Family of God is something to keep our feet on the right path that set us climbing toward perfection.

Nevertheless, we are not merely called children of God. We are the children of God. And it is by the gift of God that a person becomes a child of God. By nature we are the creature of God, but it is by grace that we become children of God.

Please turn over to I John 3. While all humans are children of God in the sense that we owe our lives to Him, we become His sanctified children in the intimate and loving sense only by an act of God's initiating grace and the response of our own hearts. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.

Paul addresses the New Testament Christians as holy brethren. Without looking any further at that point, using the Old Covenant understanding of holiness, we are a little different from those who literally were under the Old Covenant. That is set apart, the way Israel was set apart, but not necessarily holy in conduct as we should be, assuming that we have God's Spirit.

We do have God's Spirit. What does that give us? Because God has given us His Spirit we have gone through the process that we read of there in Acts 10 and 11. It is contained primarily within Romans 1-6. We have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and because we are justified by His blood, God has then given us His Spirit and we are holy in the truest sense of the word.

We are holy not merely because we are set apart but we are holy because we are partakers of the Holy Spirit, and we are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is one more thing that has to be added and it is right here in this chapter. Verse 2, referring to Jesus Christ and Moses, what is the thing that makes them truly holy in the special way that God intends? They were faithfully keeping the commands of God, they followed through in their life, faithful to Him as Moses was also faithful in all his house.

We are talking about real true New Covenant holiness. We have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, we have received the Spirit of God, and we follow through like Moses did, like Jesus did. We obey God, being faithful to His commandments, and what is happening to us? Our character is becoming truly holy in the way the Israelite's never could.

This is why we have to be especially careful in reading in the Old Testament, making sure that the context is showing people whether they are being faithful to God because they have the Spirit of God, or are simply set apart. If they are set apart, they belong to God, but they are not holy as we should be from the inside out.

What Paul has written this for, in Hebrews 3, is that we must follow the example of Jesus Christ, and Moses, and be faithful. The holiness that was imparted to them through the receiving of the Holy Spirit of God, was then faithfully followed through as they pursued holiness just like Hebrews 12 and I Peter 1 says we should.

Christ and Moses' holiness was not merely an assigned holiness by being elect of God which separated them from others, but holiness in the conduct of all their affairs. We are going to carry this forward. Remember what began this section of this sermon was Deuteronomy 29:1-4, in which God makes it very clear that the Israelites had the Spirit of God withheld from them by God.

It is important that the New Testament describes Jesus as faithful. He is called a merciful and faithful High Priest. He fulfills that role, finally and ultimately, in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people, as Hebrews 2:17 tells us. Jesus Christ is faithful in Moses' role. He surpasses and fulfills the faithfulness and loyalty of Moses in building and ruling the house of God - the household of God, the church of God.

The children of Israel continually tested God's faithfulness and loyalty, and always God was faithful to His covenant; and He was loyal to those who were loyal to Him. But they suffered from a human trait that comes out of rebellion, and that human trait is unbelief. Unbelief is faithlessness, and part of faith is loyalty. Therefore, disloyalty equates to unbelief.

Regarding Hebrews 3:6, the servant owns nothing, is heir to nothing, has no authority and no right to control anything; and he is himself wholly at the will of another. A son, however, is the heir of all, has a prospective right to all, and is looked up to by all with respect. The idea here is not merely that Christ is a Son. It is that, as a Son, He is placed over the whole arrangement of the household and is One to whom all is entrusted - as if it were His own.

We are part of God the Father and Jesus Christ's Family. That is where we belong. We belong to the Family over which Christ is placed, under God the Father. Jesus Christ is the consummation of God's determined loyalty to His gracious covenant-relationship with His people. Christ is faithful and loyal to the Father, and the Father to Him. We have the wonderful opportunity to be part of this faithful and loyal Family. The training grounds for it is here and now - in our own households, and in the household of God.

Loyalty means enduring commitment to a person over a long period of time - often with the implication of the commitment persisting in the face of obstacles. We certainly see the obstacles in members of God's church - in sickness, from principalities, from others, and from our own human nature. Loyalty means enduring commitment to a person over a long period of time - often with the implication of the commitment persisting in the face of obstacles that threaten the lasting commitment.

Let me ask you this question, and let it ring in your ears as I let it ring in mind: How loyal are you? (How loyal am I?)

Now in both of those references, I Corinthians 3:17 and also this one in Hebrews 3:1 (and it is not limited to this, by the way), we are clearly designated as holy. We must be cautious because holy can be applied to us simply by virtue of our calling. In such a case, it indicates position or a state rather than the quality of our being in the image of God. In other words, in a sense there is no quality associated with it at all.

For example, people commonly term certain subjects or objects as holy, such as holy water. Dip the little jar in the Jordan River, come home with it, put a cap on it, and people can call it holy water. Or in Catholic churches they have holy water. It is plain old tap water, in many cases, but it is sitting in a place and its use is for holy uses. So it is called holy water.

There are holy places, like a cathedral or a person who may appear to be quite devout. But, we can take a knock at that one, because temple prostitutes were anciently designated as holy woman. Was there any kind of purity there? Of course not.

So just because something is designated as holy, in one sense it does not mean very much. Those designations simply mean something set apart for a religious purpose. This is without a doubt the lowest level of usage for the term holy.

What about a holy man? In the Christian religions, this usually equates with a person being considered a saint. Now does this include an Indian performing his tricks in a market place or alongside the street? You have seen pictures of them. Maybe you have actually seen them. What about the Dalai Lama, who is considered by millions as a holy man? Are these people truly holy as God is holy, and as God expects us to be, because He is holy?

I think we can begin to see that holiness as God means it includes something more than merely being designated as set apart. It identifies a quality or a set of qualities in one's whole being that is God-like. It can only be truly found in one who has the spirit of God. That is absolutely essential.

We are going to go back to the Old Testament again to Exodus 3:2-6.

He starts making a comparison between Jesus and Moses. Remember, these are Hebrews. Do not forget this. The Hebrews really revered Moses as the lawgiver, as the prophet above all prophets.

Paul is saying that Christ and Moses are on different levels. Moses was a mere servant, whereas Christ was the Son. Understand this. One of the main themes of Hebrews is that everything with Christ is better in every way than the way it was before.

Moses was a servant in the house. Christ is the Son, and we are the house. Very interesting. It is an analogous metaphor as the body. We are Christ's body. Just keep this in the back of your mind. He says we are Christ's house.

What he is saying is that we have been given an opportunity to be in a place, in a level, in a position even above Moses. He is saying, Look, you Hebrews. Look how much you revered Moses and what he did. Because of what Christ did when He was here, and because He is now our faithful High Priest, we have an opportunity to be even greater than Moses was.

What he is doing is piling on proof of their obligation to do things like Christ did. He said what we need is to be faithful, and to be good stewards like Moses was. Remember it says here that Moses was faithful as a servant. We need to be faithful like Christ. So we need to be faithful. We need to be enduring all the way to the end. This is what it is going to take.

He is really making it tough on them. He is saying, You don't have any excuse because you have been put in a place of great honor, great potential, and if you want to be like God, then you have got to do things like Christ, because He is the pattern we are supposed to follow. He is really turning the screws on them.

The rest of chapter 3 and the first part of chapter 4 he is telling them, You guys had better make careful that you don't miss out on the Kingdom of God. You need to be faithful. This is a very strong admonition for them to put their heart into things.

Jesus Christ is the epitome of loyalty and faithfulness. It is important that the New Testament describes Jesus as faithful. He is called a merciful high priest and He fulfills the role finally and ultimately in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people, as Hebrews 2: 17 tells us. Jesus Christ is faithful in Moses role. He surpasses and fulfills the faithfulness and loyalty of Moses in building and ruling the Household of God and the Church of God. Here in Hebrews 3:1-13 we will read.

We are in danger of being depersonalized, of having our hearts hardened - that is what depersonalization is.

Unbelief is faithlessness, and part of faith is loyalty therefore disloyalty equates to unbelief, to faithlessness. Of course it is loyalty to God and Jesus Christ first, and then to our brethren, as long we are following God and doing what He says in His inspired holy written word.

The servant owns nothing, is heir to nothing, has no authority and no right to control anything and is Himself holy at the will of another. A son, however, is the heir of all, has a perspective right to all and is looked up to by all with respect - that is if he is a good son, or righteous son.

The idea is not merely that Christ is a son; it is that as a son, He is placed over the whole arrangements of the household and is one to whom all is entrusted as if it were His own. We are part of God the Father and Jesus Christ's family. It is where we belong. We belong to the family over which Christ has been placed as the Firstborn Son.

Jesus Christ is the consummation of God's determined loyalty to His gracious covenant relationship with His people, and Christ is faithful and loyal to the Father and the Father to Him, and we have the wonderful opportunity to be part of this faithful and loyal family. The training ground for it is here and now, in our own households, and in the household of God.

Paul starts out by referring to us as holy brethren. Out of all of the earth, we have been selected to be holy. He is reminding us of who we are and to whom we belong. We do not belong to the world; we belong to God the Father and Jesus Christ. We are called with a heavenly calling; and because of that, we should consider the High Priest of our profession and the path that we are called to follow. Christ is both our High Priest and our Apostle. Then, as an example to us and all of mankind, we are to notice that He is faithful to His Father who appointed Him. Because of this, He was counted worthy of more glory than Moses.

He goes on to say that every house has a builder. The term house not only means a place where a family lives, but it means the family itself. We, who are called today, are the house that is being built in Jesus Christ. We, out of the entire world, have been selected to build a Family that has never existed before, the Family of God.

Just so that we will have the confidence, He tells us in verse 4 that the One who built His house, or Family, is Jesus Christ, under the direction of the Father. He is the One who is building it with each one of us. He tells us, past and present, that Moses was faithful in all His house, as a servant, but that Jesus Christ as a Son is over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm to the end. We can just read over the word confidence and not give it much thought. The confidence to which we are to hold fast is the liberty of access to God the Father. Of all the people in the world, we have access to God the Father. We must not drift away.

The Israelites only had physical houses, but we have a spiritual house that can give us far greater stability, if we allow it. Now, we could go to Matthew 7 and plug in the parable of the two builders and apply the houses there to our lives, and that does fit. But there is another way to apply the house symbolism, which we will see in Hebrews 3, if you would turn there:

As with so many things, the symbol of the house points us back to Christ as well. He has built and is building a spiritual house, and we are that house, as long as we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. We are that house because we are in Him. Jesus promised that the gates of the grave would not prevail against the church - this house. The individual members die physically, but this house has continued for some 2,000 years. It has a sure foundation.

This does not mean that this house is always tranquil inside, because it consists of still-imperfect people, and the carnality that remains tends to cause friction. But in the long view, the house is far more stable than anything that spiritual Egypt can offer because it is founded on and upheld by the Son of God. The spiritual house is a shelter from the storms that rage outside. So, part of our duty is not to bring corruption, symbolized by leaven, into either our own homes or into this spiritual house, but to prioritize feeding on the Bread of Life and helping other members of the household do the same.

Now, within the imagery of the house or dwelling, there is an intriguing contrast with Tabernacles. Please turn back to Leviticus 23:

Paul, in the book of Hebrews, writes frequently of the priesthood. In fact, he uses the term high priest about 19 times in Hebrews. In Hebrews 3:1, Paul asks us to consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Paul is saying that Christ is our High Priest, He is the High Priest of our faith. I only know of one occasion in the Old Testament when a priest tore his robes, and that was Ezra, in the case I mentioned before that is recorded in Ezra 9:3-5. But, remember, he was not a high priest. I know of no examples at all where a high priest has torn his garments.

Except one. Turn please to Mark 14. Here Caiaphas, which Matthew 26:3 indicates to be the name of the high priest at the time, violated God's command, His injunction, against the tearing of his clothes.

He knew the law, he knew that of course for any legal thing they needed to have 3 or 4 witnesses. He denied that; he disavowed that. And he tore his clothes. Shortly afterward, the veil in the Temple was itself torn, top to bottom, as God dissolved that old priesthood, at least for the time, with its cadre of unqualified priests, unknowledgeable priests, unfaithful priests, disobedient priests, unrepentant priests, despairing priests. In their place, God accepted Christ as the qualified High Priest of our confession. He did not lose hope, and neither should we, priests in training. Notice Paul's comments concerning hope recorded:

There is another little reminder. If Christ was faithful, why cannot we be faithful? He was faithful in His sufferings.

Christ is greater, better, superior to Moses! Whoever the author was, he handled this very delicately - very nicely. He could have caused offense by seemingly putting Moses down. Moses was held in very high regard by the Hebrew people, but here was One greater than Moses. And yet he was able to put it across in such a way that he showed that Moses, indeed, was faithful; but he was faithful as a servant within the house of which Jesus Christ is the Builder.

But notice the word confidence in verse 6. In Hebrews 4:16, the exact same word is translated boldness! These people were not rejoicing. And they were not bold any longer. Their apathy had them just sort of lying there, taking life in. They were observers, but they were not doers. They were neglecting what had been given to them. And so here is an exhortation: Be bold in overcoming and growing. Be confident in doing those things. And rejoice in the greatness of the message that we have been given.

Like I said, you cannot receive a greater message than the one that you have been given. It just is not possible to hear any news that is any greater than what God is preparing for His children.

The New Testament describes Jesus as faithful and He is called a merciful and faithful High Priest. He fulfills that role finally and ultimately in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people, according to Hebrews 2:17. Now Jesus Christ is faithful in Moses' role. He surpasses and fulfills the faithfulness and loyalty of Moses in building and ruling the house of God, the household of God, the church of God.

The servant owns nothing, is heir to nothing, has no authority, and no right to control anything, and is himself wholly at the will of another. A son, however, is the heir of all, has a prospective right to all, and is looked up to by all with respect. But the idea here is not merely the Christ as a Son, it is that as a son, He is placed over the whole arrangements of the household and is one to whom all is entrusted as if it were His own.

We belong to the Family of God the Father and Jesus Christ. And Christ is the consummation of God's determined loyalty to His gracious covenant relationship with His people. He is loyal to the Father and the Father to Him. We have the wonderful opportunity to be part of this faithful and loyal Family. The training ground for it is here and now in our own households and in the household of God.

That is how much difference there is between Moses and Jesus Christ. Moses was simply a servant, and he served in the house that was built by another. Jesus Christ built the house. And He is the Son of the Owner. He has the power, and the glory, and He gets the greater of everything, because He is the Son, and not just a servant.

So, because He is greater, He is more worthy of honor, and of attention. So when we have something that Moses said, versus something that Jesus Christ said, they are not going to disagree, but what Jesus Christ said is the governor for what Moses said.

Do you understand what I mean here? What Jesus said is the bedrock on which everything else sits. He is the chief cornerstone, as you will recall. The prophets and the apostles hang together on Him. He is like the keystone of an arch. The arch will fall without the keystone being in place. And it is the keystone that everything is balanced off of.

So, when there is something in the Old Testament that we do not understand, if we find what Jesus said on that subject, that should be the baseline of our understanding. Then, we go back to the Old Testament and see how that fits in with what Jesus said. Jesus is the key. He is the One who is the most important.

Turn with me to Hebrews 3. The church is both God's home on earth and our home as members of His household.

We see there a qualification of each one of us, even each household, has to be part of that household of God.

Jesus is contrasted with Moses as a Son over God's house. Moses was no more than a member - of the house. He was essentially one with all others. Christ has an innate superiority. He is the Son and as such is over the household.

The spiritual or symbolic sense of household shows us united by God's election and salvation through Jesus Christ, therefore, we are included in God's household of faith mentioned in Galatians 6:10.

The spiritual household is first of all a relational image, a large and extended family including various associates and household servants known affectionately as brothers and sisters, or in general brethren.

But closely related is the architectural imagery of the church as pillar and foundation of the truth. In contrast to the pagan temples and even the stone Temple in Jerusalem, we are a spiritual house, built by Jesus Christ with living stones. In this house of God is the pillar of the truth.

Are you beginning to see something emerge? Jesus Christ is chief apostle and High Priest, but He is also a pastor. You see, a man can pastor at any rank, a local elder can pastor a church. It has happened on many occasions that we have had local elders pastoring churches; preaching elder, pastor, evangelist. Right now, we have got three evangelists who are pastoring churches. They have evangelist rank, but they are doing no job that is any different than what I am doing here.

Pastor is at both one and the same time an office or responsibility that can be held by any rank, but it is also designated by Paul as a rank. So it is both rank and office at one and the same time. As a rank it is below apostle and evangelist, but it is above local elder and preaching elder. So it is right in the middle there.

Now let us add some more confusion. Incidentally, Mr. Armstrong's title is what? He is Pastor General. So what he is telling you is that his responsibility is as pastor of the entire flock worldwide; whereas my personal responsibility is to Columbia and Augusta. Whereas mine is limited here, his goes worldwide as Pastor General.

What we see in the book of Luke is the pattern Man, as He should be, and He is in contrast with man in general as he is. Luke does this without directly stating it by showing Christ in two of His offices.

First of all, Christ is seen as the Apostle/Messenger, the One bearing a message from God to man. The second office He is seen in is as Priest/Mediator. There are a number of scriptures we can give you to mark down.

If you go back to the beginning of the chapter, he is talking about Christ qualifying as High Priest.

He is shown, not merely bearing a message from God, but bearing it with infinite concern and priestly compassion necessary for a mediator for those receiving the message. This is in the book of Luke.

As a Man, He is also God's prophet and He has feelings - feelings that are similar to and not just for those that He is bearing the message to. His feelings are just like ours. In doing this, He then shows us our responsibilities and duties as sons of men.

There is no higher, greater responsibility ever given to anybody, at any time, than what we have received. Nothing greater can be given to a person than what we have been given. It's our responsibility to take what has been given and run with it. But we are to run with it along the course God shows in His word and we are to live by faith as we do it. This is not easy. Jesus said that the way is difficult. We can see right from this book of Hebrews that from the beginning of the Bible to the end, those who have gone before us had many, many trials. Paul said to Timothy, through much tribulation shall we all enter the Kingdom of God.

The only way to successfully negotiate it is to do as God instructs, and to do this we absolutely need to know that He is with us the entire way and that His word carries the greatest authority in the universe, because we're going to have to choose to use our faith to use it. That's what the book of Hebrews is about.

It is the term holy brethren. This establishes that Hebrews was not written to the Hebrew world in general, but specifically to Hebrew Christians. They are the only ones that fit that holy brethren. The epistle further shows that the Hebrew Christians were not going through a bloody persecution. However, if written in the mid 60s, which many researchers think, one was not very far off, at least in Jerusalem, because in 70 AD the Temple was destroyed and the Romans pretty much ended Jewish culture as it was then.

The Hebrews' problems were in enduring the ever-present influence of the world in a culture that was rapidly deteriorating morally and spiritually. It is helpful to remember the cultural thing, that when the book of Hebrews was written, the Temple and its affairs were still operating, as well as all the religious parties. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were still functioning in community life.

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