Jesus is Superior to Moses

Today‟s Text: Hebrews 3

Introduction

This chapter begins with the word “therefore”. As you know, this word tells us that what has preceded it
is being summed up or built upon. In this particular case, we note that the preceding verses contain the
description of Christ‟s rescue of mankind, and then ends with the encouraging note that since Jesus
shared personally in our temptations He is more than qualified to assist us in resisting sin:
THEREFORE…

Points of Interest

3:1 …fix your thoughts on Jesus. Jesus, the one who is superior to the angels, the one who
created the universe, the one who became a man to rescue all of us from sin, who is superior to the
prophets and who can help those who are being tempted: Fix your thoughts on Him, and not on the
things of this world.

3:2-3 Moses and Jesus were both faithful. Jesus was faithful to the one who appointed Him;
Moses was faithful in all God‟s house. Jesus‟ faithfulness was directly to God, who declared Himself
“well pleased” with Him (Matt. 3:17) Jesus received greater honor than Moses, partly because Jesus
rescued Moses from his sin, just as He rescues the rest of us from ours. When Moses left this world, he
was not invited to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven: Jesus was, and He remains there to this
day.

3:4 This is an interesting verse. Following on the thought of verse 3 relating the relative honor
of the house itself versus it‟s builder. Moses served in the house, and you might even say that he made
up the house (by extension to the Nation of Israel) but Jesus designed and built the house. Note the
second part of this verse: “God is the builder of everything”. In the Greek, there is no definite article
preceding “God”. Thus, this is not to name God, but rather to carry His essence. This thought will be
elaborated on further in verse 5.

3:5-6 Moses was a servant in God‟s house, in fact he was the greatest of the servants of God.
Jesus is over God‟s house. Moses, therefore was a servant of Jesus. We are His house. “We” can
refer either to Israel or to the redeemed. Some commentators will choose to assert that the author refers
only to Israel here. While that is dubious at best, it is an assertion that could be made if the book ended
here… but it doesn‟t. In fact, the book of Hebrews in toto blows such an assertion out of the water, but
we‟ll leave that for later episodes… Finally, note the conditionality of this verse. “We are His house, if we
hold on…” We must remain in Christ with courage in tough times; we cannot abandon Him when the
going is tough and claim to be His house.

3:7-11 These verse quote Psalm 95:7-11, and are used to amplify the warning of verse 6. You
will note that there are 2 parts of Psalm 95. The first is an invitation to worship (1-7a) and the second is
a warning against disobedience (7b-11). Here we have a minor part of the invitation, and the entire
warning. This passage reminds us of the disobedience of the children of Israel in the Wilderness when in
spite of their deliverance from Egypt almost immediately began to grumble and complain. The result of
course was that God led them through the Wilderness for 40 years until all but two (who remained
faithful) had died off before being allowed to enter God‟s rest: the land of Canaan. In this passage, a
parallel has been drawn between “rest” “Canaan” and remaining true to Christ.

3:12-15 The warning is expanded upon in this section. “See to it” is a command that is indicative of
our personal responsibility to remain faithful to our Lord. We are simply not to allow ourselves to be led astray: at our peril. We are further instructed to encourage one another daily; compare this to sharing in
Christ. The message is that being a Christian is not a solitary thing; it involves being in relationship and
accountability with other Christians. In former times, it was common for the church to intervene in the
lives of its members to lead them away from sin and unbelief. Of course in our highly sophisticated age,
we all mind our own business and hold our tongues when we see our brothers and sisters entering into
error. I can assure you from personal experience that if we “butt in” and attempt to encourage others to
turn away from their sins, you will be dropped from their Christmas card list… but if we do not, then we
have sinned. We must encourage one another daily because the stakes are too high, and the enemy too
cunning.

3:16-19 This final paragraph is the conclusion of this warning, and highlights the conditional nature
of Biblical covenant. Israel was led out of Egypt, and God promised to them the land of Canaan. While
God kept His promise regarding the land, those individuals who had sinned and turned away from God
were lost in the desert because God swore that they should not enter His rest. The same is true today:
God has promised that those who are in Christ shall inherit eternal life through Christ. However, if we
individually turn away we will die in the spiritual desert.