Hebrews 3:1–6 (ESV): 

3 Therefore, 

Being the good Bible interpreters that you are, you know that when we see the word “therefore” at the beginning of a section, it points us back to the previous section. 

What he’s about to tell us is on the basis of what he’s already told us.  

What has he told us?  

A lot.  We won’t review everything right now, but basically, for two chapters he has established that Jesus is supreme and Jesus is sufficient. 

• He is supreme over all things, controlling all things, sustaining all things as God… and 

• He is sufficient as our Savior, to atone for our sins by dying on the cross and destroying the devil’s power over us and adopting us into God’s family.  

• And, as we talked about at length last time, He is able to help us in our temptation because He himself suffered under temptation and was victorious. 

Now, in light of that, he continues: 

holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, 

Why is he re-addressing them like this?  We already know who the letter is written to; we already know that it’s to a specific group of first-century Jewish-Christians.  Why does he feel the need, three chapters in, to state his audience again?  

Well, because he wants to call to mind their identity in Christ. 

There are three descriptions used here that apply to those who are in Christ: 

‘Holy’, ‘brothers (and sisters)’, and ‘you who share in a heavenly calling’. 

If you are in Christ today, this is your identity statement too. 

1. If you are in Christ, you are HOLY. 

holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,

Back in verse 11 of chapter 2, we are referred to as those who are sanctified.  Or those who have been made pure.  Same idea.  If you are in Christ, you have been made holy by having your sins washed away by Christ’s work on the cross. 

This means that you have a new status.  Holy is not just how you are; it is WHO you are. 

You may say, “well, I don’t feel very holy. I feel like I do unholy things all the time.” 

That may be.  But if you belong to Christ by faith, you are declared holy not because of your own righteousness but because of the righteousness of Christ that has been credited to you. 

And, God will use the rest of your earthly life to help you behave like who you have already been declared to be in Christ.  He will finish the work He started in you (Philippians 1:6).  

This is the most essential part of you because it has to do with your new nature, and how you now relate to God.   

Next… 

2. If you are in Christ, you are BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 

holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,

This part of your identity has to do with how you relate to others within the Church and with Christ Himself.  As an adopted child of God, you are now brothers and sisters with Christ the divine Son of God, and siblings with one another.  

• Remember, in chapter 2, we saw that Jesus Himself is not ashamed to call us His brothers (2:11).  You belong to a new family now.  

And third… 

3. If you are in Christ, you SHARE IN A HEAVENLY CALLING. 

holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,

Another way to say this is, you are being called heavenward.  

With a new identity and a new relationship with God and others comes a new life purpose AND a new destiny.     

Peter emphasizes our new purpose that flows from our new identity.

• 1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV): 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And if you remember from earlier in chapter 2, our destiny is future glory with Christ. 

• God’s program is to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). 

If those descriptors apply to you today… if you’ve been made holy by Christ, if you’ve been made part of God’s family, if you’ve been given a heavenly calling; a calling that is taking you heavenward… 

Then here is the imperative for you today: 

consider Jesus, 

Consider Jesus. Dwell on Jesus. Set your minds on Jesus.  

• It means to think about intently

• It’s the same verbiage that Jesus used when he was telling His disciples not to worry about their lives, and He said, “CONSIDER the birds… how God provides for them”. 

It’s a command to think carefully, in reverent submission, about Jesus. Who He is. What He’s done. 

Another word we might use is BEHOLD. Behold Jesus.  

The simplicity of this command is shocking, given the seriousness of the situation.

The original audience were tempted to abandon Jesus.  To turn away.  To go back. 

• These are Jewish converts to Christianity who have embraced Jesus as their long awaited Messiah, but who are now being pressured and tempted from every possible angle to abandon Christ. 

• The easy way out would be to give in to the pressure and revert back to living their old lives instead of living radically for Jesus. 

• You know the feeling. 

So what’s the recourse for such a serious problem? What do you tell someone who’s thinking of throwing in the towel? What do you do when YOU are thinking of giving up?  

Consider Jesus. Think about Jesus.  Dwell on Jesus.  

• Really?  Just… think intently about Jesus?  

• You’re not going to tell me to do anything? You’re not going to hand me the next self-help book, or tell me to get therapy, or tell me how to reform my habits?  

These guys were living in a pressure cooker.  They were under tremendous stress in the form of persecution, social exclusion, and even physical danger.  

Many in our community today are under tremendous pressure too.  Whether from the recent flooding, loss of jobs, loss of property… Or just from other life circumstances… The pressure is on.  

What the author of Hebrews prescribes for them is for us today too: CONSIDER JESUS. 

• Life hack: In your moments of doubt… in your moments of fear… in your moments of intense pressure or temptation… When you are tempted to give in or go the way of the world instead of the way of Christ… consider Jesus.  

• Don’t think about your problem; think about Jesus. 

• If you’ve been raised with Christ… set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:1-2)

• This admonition is echoed in chapter 12:2 [look to Jesus]... who for the joy set before Him endure the cross… 

• 1 Peter 1:13 (ESV): 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

  • And Peter says this after acknowledging that the people he was writing to had experienced “various trials” (1 Peter 1:6). 

Let’s be honest: this can feel counterintuitive.  In the heat of the moment, when life is boiling over, the last thing we feel like doing is stepping back to think about Jesus.  Our impulse is to DO something.  Not to THINK something.  

Never underestimate the power of considering Jesus. 

Beholding Jesus is one of the most transformative things we can do. 

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV): 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

So…  in what ways is this Hebrews passage directing us to consider Jesus? 

In the following sentences we are encouraged to consider three things about Jesus: 

His identity. 

His faithfulness. 

His worthiness. 

First, we are told to consider the true identity of Jesus.

Consider Jesus… 

the apostle and high priest of our confession, 

• Consider that he is our apostle.

  • Here, ‘apostle’ simply means ‘one who was sent by God’, or ‘messenger’.  

  • Jesus is the one who was sent to us on mission from God the Father.  In chapter 1 we saw that He is God’s final revelation to human beings.

  • This is not just another prophet; this is God incarnate, who reveals absolute truth about God to us.     

• And consider that He is our High Priest.  

  • Just like the High Priests in the Old Testament would offer pleasing sacrifices on behalf of the people, Jesus has offered Himself on our behalf to atone for our sins and bring us to God.  

  • And now, as our High Priest, He makes peace between us and God. Without Jesus as our High Priest, there is no peaceful relationship with the Lord.  His atonement and His intercession for us is our only hope.  

• And consider that He is the apostle and high priest of our confession… 

  • We’re not just considering our confession (our doctrine, our beliefs); we’re considering the One behind those beliefs. 

  • Meaning, when we come to Jesus we aren’t just coming to some ideology or set of doctrines… we are coming to a person. 

  • Becoming a Christian is about coming to know Jesus, not just about shifting from one set of beliefs to another.

So, consider WHO He is.  

Next… Consider His faithfulness.   

Consider Jesus… 

2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 

In our moment of wavering faithfulness, we need to consider the One who was the perfect standard of faithfulness for all of humanity.

• When we consider the past faithfulness of Jesus, it reassures us that He will continue to be faithful! 

Jesus lived in perfect faithfulness to God the Father in every moment and in every category of His life. 

• As we saw last time, He handled temptation faithfully. 

• He was also perfectly faithful in all His relationships.  He never mistreated anyone. Never gossiped. Never broke promises. Never let a crude joke slip out of his mouth.    

• He was completely faithful in accomplishing God’s will.  He never faltered, even in the face of death.  

• Consider the fact that He didn’t just come to show us how to live faithfully; He came to live faithfully for us.  There’s nothing more comforting than that in our moments of wavering.  

Now, in the second part of this verse we see a comparison between Jesus’ faithfulness and that of Moses. 

Let’s talk about Moses for a minute, because he’s going to come up a lot in the following verses. And in order to track with what the author is saying, we need to understand why Moses is such an important reference point.  

It’s difficult for us, in our current context, to wrap our heads around just how iconic and revered Moses was to ancient Jews. To say that Moses was thought of as faithful is an understatement. Amid many famous Old Testament figures, Moses was in a class of his own. 

And since the author of Hebrews was writing to a group of Jewish Christians, it makes sense that he would appeal to their hero Moses as a standard of faithfulness. 

Kent Hughes provides a list of the various ways Moses was unique in Israel. I’ll summarize. 

• He was CHOSEN by God from his birth to be a deliverer of God’s people.  Remember the story? As a baby, his life was miraculously preserved when his mother put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile river to spare his life from Pharaoh’s edict to murder Hebrew babies.  And miraculously, he ended up being plucked from the river by Pharaoh’s own daughter, who found Moses’ own mother and paid her to nurse him!  He grows up in Pharaoh’s household, and then in the later stages of his life God encounters Him through the burning bush and commissions Him to go back to Egypt and advocate for God’s people to be freed from slavery. This man was undeniably CHOSEN by God.   

• He became a DELIVERER like no other for God’s people. Sending plagues on Egypt, turning the Nile to blood, parting the Red Sea, leading the people through the wilderness. 

• He was a PROPHET like no other.  God spoke to and through the other prophets by various means, but he spoke DIRECTLY to Moses, face to face. 

  • Numbers 12:6–8 (ESV): 6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”  

• He gave the LAW summarized in the TEN COMMANDMENTS.  The Law is called the Law of Moses.

• He was Israel’s greatest HISTORIAN.  He authored the Penateuch––the first five books of the Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy). 

• He was a man of great CHARACTER.  Numbers 12:3 says, he was “very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth”.  Guess that’s what forty years tending sheep will do for your sense of pride.  

• Moses was so highly esteemed that when he died, the Lord Himself buried him in an undisclosed location (Deuteronomy 34:5-6) probably so that people wouldn’t be tempted to worship his very bones.  

In other words, Moses was THE GREAT APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST of Old Testament Biblical history.  

Except, as great as he was, he was only a placeholder.  A foreshadow.  A type… For the One who would come as the true and greater Apostle and Prophet.

Which brings us to the third thing we must consider about Jesus, which is His supreme worthiness… 

Consider the worthiness of Jesus…

3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—

Now, for reasons previously stated, that is in itself a staggering statement––enough to make a first century Hebrew man or woman’s jaw drop.  

But then he elaborates… 

as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 

We understand this example. 

• When you see a magnificent building, who gets the glory for its design? The builder. 

• When you hear a breathtaking piece of music, who gets the praise for its melody? The songwriter. 

• When you look at the splendor of the created world… the waves, the mountains, the stars, the whales jumping out of the ocean.. Who gets the glory for its design? The Creator. 

Here, the author’s point is that Jesus is as much more worthy of glory and honor than Moses, as the Creator or Architect is more deserving of honor than the thing they built. 

He elaborates… 

4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 

What’s the implication? Jesus is God, the true Builder of all things, and therefore worthy of superior honor.

Remember what we read back in chapter 1? 

• 1:2-3 He created the world… [and He] upholds the universe by the word of His power 

5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 

Moses was faithful as one who served God.  This passage is in no way meant to denigrate Moses. He was a great servant. In fact, the word used here for servant is unique in the New Testament and refers to someone who is far above a common slave.  One of the unique ways he served was in his prophetic ministry: he testified to the coming Messiah and the things Jesus would say.  The “things that were to be spoken later”.  Moses got that right. 

He was an honored servant… but, still a servant nonetheless. 

6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. 

There’s the difference. 

The difference between Moses and Christ is as great as the difference between servant and son. 

They have a completely different status.  

We talked a few weeks ago about Jesus’ statement, “before Abraham was, I AM.”  A similar idea is being conveyed here.  Jesus is not just a part of God’s creation… He is not just a member of God’s family… He is not just a part of God’s ‘house’... He is the Creator… He transcends creation.  He is God. He is the Architect.  

And we are his house, 

Let’s pause here to take that in: God’s house means God’s people.    

We are His house. That’s right. The house that Jesus builds is US.  

• If you thought the church building was God’s house, you are mistaken.  This is just a facility.  We’re very blessed to have and steward this facility, but that’s all it is: a facility to be used in service of God’s true house which is you and I.  

• By the way, that’s why we have no qualms at all letting a hundred jr high and high school kids tear up the grass and get rooms muddy if it means we can share the gospel with them all week and hopefully see them built up in their knowledge of Christ. 

So Christ is 100% faithful over us.  To build us up. To take care of us. To maintain us. 

• 1 Peter 2:4–5 (ESV): 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But wait… there’s a disclaimer… 

if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

That’s the punchline. 

Why do we consider Christ again and again, and keep forcing our minds to be mesmerized by His splendor? Because we want to endure in this faith until the end.  

Let’s be clear: This is not to say that we earn our salvation, and this is not saying we have to keep our salvation. 

• The Bible is clear that salvation is a gift of God, that’s not earned by works, and can never be lost.  

But here we see that we do prove our salvation.  The way that we prove it is by holding fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

• D.A. Carson: Hebrews virtually defines true believers as those who hold firmly to the end the confidence they had at first.

And you know what? I agree with that.  The reality is, we don’t know, from our human vantage point, who is a true believer and who is a pretender (a sheep or a goat). But we can look into our own lives and see whether we are bearing the fruit of salvation, and whether we are enduring in the faith.  

If we are not, it’s a good reason to heed the warning, and consider Jesus all over again.  

In other words… 

Whatever it is you are facing… whether it’s discouragement, doubt, or difficult circumstances… the answer is to consider Jesus. 

• Who He is

• His faithfulness 

• His worthiness 

Here’s an idea.  This week, take some time to re-read this section (if you want, you can even go back over the sermon notes which are available through the link tree), and simply spend some time considering Jesus.