back to index2019-06-16 Jesus Is Better Than Moses
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Hebrews chapter 3, I'm going to be reading from verse 1 through 6. 00:00:13.160 |
Therefore holy brethren, partakers of heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high 00:00:19.200 |
He was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in all his house. 00:00:24.320 |
For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder 00:00:32.160 |
For every house is built by someone, but builder of all things is God. 00:00:37.200 |
Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things 00:00:44.080 |
For Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast 00:00:49.680 |
our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. 00:00:58.840 |
Jesus father we thank you for the privilege that we have to come and worship you, to call 00:01:06.800 |
We pray that your living word will continue to guide and lead us. 00:01:10.720 |
Our thoughts, emotions, all of it Lord God may be surrendered to your will. 00:01:15.440 |
We pray father that as we search your word, that it would search us. 00:01:22.240 |
And we pray father that what you have anointed through these words would have its effect 00:01:31.240 |
As you guys know, many of you know today is the graduation day for many of our students 00:01:38.080 |
So a lot of the parents were actually here this morning in the first service and they 00:01:44.760 |
And so whenever there is a transition in life, it causes us to contemplate and think what 00:01:56.080 |
Am I going to get married in my 20s and my 30s? 00:01:58.680 |
And anytime there is a transition, it forces us to think because it's going to dictate 00:02:05.600 |
What the next stage of our life is going to look like. 00:02:10.920 |
And so I remember very distinctly the first time I thought about what kind of father I 00:02:21.320 |
Knowing that I was going to get married and the Lord willing at some point that we're 00:02:25.400 |
going to have kids, I invested in this video series from Hanna-Barbera. 00:02:34.280 |
But Hanna-Barbera came out with this video Bible series for children, cartoons. 00:02:40.080 |
I know some of you guys don't know what that is. 00:02:42.360 |
But it was made out of VHS and I thought it was fantastic. 00:02:45.960 |
It was like, you know, first time they made cartoon Bible pictures and all this stuff. 00:02:52.640 |
And so it cost us $700 and I think the video series may have about 20 videos. 00:03:03.360 |
Now you have to understand at that time my full time pay was under $1,000 before taxes. 00:03:13.920 |
In fact, Esther was very surprised that I spent that kind of money on that. 00:03:17.360 |
And the reason why I did that is because I wanted to be a good father. 00:03:22.100 |
And I thought if I had these video series that it would make it easier. 00:03:25.840 |
You know, I grew up watching Andy Griffith Show. 00:03:33.960 |
Basically, he was, in my view, the most ideal perfect father. 00:03:43.080 |
And so if you remember, if you know that show, basically the dad has always had the perfect 00:03:49.480 |
You know, when his son would go and get into trouble, he would come down and have a wise 00:03:53.140 |
conversation and his whole paradigm would shift. 00:03:56.040 |
And, you know, he never loses his temper, always goes fishing with him. 00:04:00.280 |
And so it's really that it was about the father who was a cop, but so much of it was about 00:04:07.760 |
And I remember growing up watching that thinking, that's the dad, kind of dad I would like to 00:04:15.520 |
You know, so I purchased these video series, even though it was way out of my budget. 00:04:19.800 |
And we got married and it took us five years to have our first kid. 00:04:25.760 |
And so by the time we had our first kid, we thought, yes, you know, like Jeremy's going 00:04:30.720 |
to be able to watch this and we're going to bond. 00:04:33.480 |
And then I didn't realize that it wasn't going to be until another three or four years later 00:04:39.160 |
So from the time that I bought it until the time the kids can watch it, VHS was no longer 00:04:48.160 |
And what seems so fantastic eight, nine years ago was so outdated. 00:04:55.560 |
You know, it was like they had DVD, you know, and internet and all these things came out. 00:05:01.320 |
So I probably didn't even open two thirds of it. 00:05:08.160 |
And I don't think our kids even knew what that was. 00:05:14.200 |
It was a huge chunk of the money that we had at that time, all because I just thought that 00:05:21.160 |
The reason why I say that is because there are periods of life, especially as Father's 00:05:26.000 |
I don't know any father who becomes a father thinking that I'm going to be a bad dad. 00:05:36.560 |
You know, when you get married, you start thinking, what kind of husband do I want to 00:05:46.320 |
You realize that you're not raising perfect kids. 00:05:49.720 |
And in that context, you struggle and wrestle. 00:05:51.680 |
And then life kind of has a way of repeating itself. 00:05:55.640 |
When these transitional periods of life comes, we automatically contemplate and think what 00:06:02.280 |
we value, who we want to be, what are we going to invest in. 00:06:06.200 |
Out of all the things that we contemplate and think about, there is no greater question 00:06:16.040 |
Now when I ask that question, I'm not asking about a theological question. 00:06:25.360 |
If you asked me that question before I became a Christian, I would have told you because 00:06:32.840 |
of what I knew, because of being raised in a church, I would have told you that Jesus 00:06:44.480 |
That Jesus is the truth and the way and the life. 00:06:53.000 |
If you asked me in 1982 what I believed about God, it was all Orthodox. 00:07:00.920 |
I don't remember a single day missing church, ever. 00:07:11.360 |
I went to all the VBS, Sunday school teachings. 00:07:15.060 |
So if you asked me in 1982, "Who is Jesus to you?" 00:07:21.000 |
I would have been able to give you an Orthodox, a Biblical answer to who Jesus is. 00:07:36.800 |
Jesus asked this very question to His disciples. 00:07:45.360 |
But Jesus was not concerned about what they were thinking. 00:07:50.800 |
And when He asked that question, He wasn't asking for only a theological answer. 00:08:00.840 |
In Matthew 16, 16, Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 00:08:15.300 |
If we've been raised in a church, if you've been a Christian for a while, we know how 00:08:28.680 |
You know, I mean, again, if you've been a Christian for any period of time, even your 00:08:32.600 |
children, because they were raised in the church, even at the age of 10, ask them, "Who 00:08:43.980 |
And so because of what He did, what's going to happen? 00:08:51.080 |
But that's not what this text is asking us to consider. 00:08:56.080 |
The author of Hebrews is talking to a group of people who are beginning to drift away 00:09:01.200 |
from the things of God and have taken their eyes off of Christ. 00:09:05.280 |
And so in chapter 3, verse 1, he says, "Holy brethren, particulars of the heavenly calling, 00:09:14.880 |
When he's asking to consider Jesus, it's the same question. 00:09:22.820 |
The word "consider," "kata no'eo," the word "kata" is an intensifying word. 00:09:30.560 |
So literally, it means to think carefully, intensely, to observe carefully, to contemplate, 00:09:37.600 |
to meditate, to ultimately marvel at, to take some time to consider deeply who is Jesus 00:09:51.140 |
The text that we're looking at this morning is going to give us about four different reasons 00:10:01.280 |
The number one reason—now I'm not going to spend too much time on this because the 00:10:05.560 |
author has been spending the whole chapter and chapter 2 talking about this—he says, 00:10:10.400 |
first one, we need to consider carefully who Jesus is because Jesus is the apostle and 00:10:17.680 |
He starts the first verse by saying, "Therefore, holy brethren," meaning, in conclusion to 00:10:23.480 |
everything that he's been saying in chapter 2, "Therefore." 00:10:27.160 |
And so at the end of chapter 2, he says, "For since he himself was tempted in that which 00:10:31.720 |
he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." 00:10:35.520 |
An apostle literally means a messenger, someone who was sent from God. 00:10:39.920 |
A high priest was an individual who mediated between the sinner and the holy God. 00:10:45.680 |
So he's been spending the whole chapter and chapter 2 discussing how Jesus is an apostle, 00:10:54.840 |
Now, that alone should cause us to think carefully. 00:11:00.600 |
If Jesus is the only way to get to God, and he is a sympathetic high priest, we should 00:11:06.880 |
He already mentioned that in chapter 2, so I'm not going to spend too much time on that. 00:11:11.640 |
But the second part of why we need to carefully consider and meditate about Christ is also 00:11:19.320 |
We need to carefully consider Christ because our calling is a heavenly calling in verse 00:11:24.960 |
"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus." 00:11:29.160 |
Again, the reason why he emphasizes to them about this holy calling, this heavenly calling, 00:11:37.920 |
is because the Jews that he is writing to were beginning to go drift back to their old 00:11:44.780 |
And the reason why they were drifting back to their old life was because their new life 00:11:53.120 |
At the very beginning when they converted, the author says later on that you joyfully 00:11:58.740 |
participated with those who were having their possessions being taken. 00:12:02.760 |
You prayed for those and visited those who were put into prison because of their faith. 00:12:08.340 |
Even in the midst of persecution, there was a great excitement. 00:12:10.980 |
But by the time this letter is written, it's about 30 or 40 years removed from when they 00:12:17.080 |
We have second, third generation Christians who are in this church. 00:12:28.640 |
It's one thing to experience trial, but it's another thing when the trial is constant. 00:12:36.640 |
The reason why they were drifting back to their old life was because as a Jew, it was 00:12:44.880 |
So they weren't outright denying Christ, they were just making some compromises so that 00:12:49.600 |
their Christian life would be a little bit more easier. 00:12:57.460 |
Maybe if they didn't say that Jesus Christ is Lord and he meant everything. 00:13:04.220 |
And the whole reason why this letter is being written is because they're drifting back to 00:13:11.840 |
The author is reminding them that Christ didn't come to make this life easier. 00:13:19.040 |
Christ didn't come to fix our financial problems. 00:13:21.160 |
He didn't come because we have family issues. 00:13:26.560 |
In Philippians 3.14, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God 00:13:37.840 |
Now you have to, we have to realize if our mankind's whole pursuit of life is to get 00:13:47.560 |
ahead, to seek happiness, new adventures, going to prison means death. 00:13:53.940 |
You may not physically die, but there's no opportunity to move ahead in prison. 00:13:59.160 |
There's no opportunity to seek joy in prison. 00:14:01.680 |
There's no opportunity to have family, have children, retirement. 00:14:04.800 |
So to be in prison, whether it was then or now, means death. 00:14:11.560 |
He's sitting in prison and he hasn't given up. 00:14:14.680 |
He said I am pressing on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 00:14:20.720 |
The reason why he's able to say that is because his goal was not this life. 00:14:26.120 |
Philippians 3.1-2, "Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the 00:14:32.120 |
things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 00:14:36.380 |
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." 00:14:41.440 |
If your baptism meant anything to you, if you truly have been crucified and resurrected 00:14:48.520 |
to new life, he said the natural thing to do is to set our mind on the things where 00:14:57.160 |
I think the problem that we have is we try so hard to bring Christ to our circumstance, 00:15:03.200 |
make him fit into our life, and then we meet all kinds of frustration when he doesn't help. 00:15:08.820 |
When the calling to begin with is to call us out of this life, later on, we're not there 00:15:14.120 |
yet, but later on he's going to say, "As Christ went outside the gate, he calls us also to 00:15:26.080 |
C.S. Lewis, in his book, "Mere Christianity," says this about this subject. 00:15:30.960 |
"If you read history, you will find that Christians who did most for the present world were just 00:15:39.740 |
The apostles themselves who set on foot the conversion of Roman Empire, the great men 00:15:44.080 |
who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade 00:15:47.960 |
all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. 00:15:53.920 |
It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have 00:16:01.240 |
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. 00:16:08.680 |
You know, the greatest thing that I learned, the greatest help that I have received being 00:16:13.240 |
a Christian was that nothing in this world really matters. 00:16:19.240 |
This rat race, a wanting to have a certain kind of reputation, wanting to build something 00:16:24.440 |
for the future, having a comfortable home for our children, all of these things, none 00:16:28.240 |
of these things are sinful, but in the end it doesn't matter. 00:16:31.800 |
That whether you live a life with a lot of money in a bank account or whether you live 00:16:35.000 |
a difficult life with very little in the bank account, whether you live a long life or a 00:16:41.460 |
It doesn't matter because everything is temporary. 00:16:46.240 |
Understanding that our call is an upward call in God, that no matter what you experience 00:16:51.400 |
here, ultimately He's going to pluck us out of that to save us for eternity. 00:16:55.720 |
And that lesson, the greatest thing that I've gained from following Christ is that none 00:17:05.280 |
So it doesn't destroy your life when things don't go the way that you planned, when you 00:17:10.360 |
didn't make a lot of money, when you weren't successful in the eyes of the world. 00:17:15.120 |
None of that is sinful, but it just doesn't matter. 00:17:19.240 |
That's what He's reminding these Christians who are drifting back because they were having 00:17:24.640 |
Why is everybody else having an easy life, a comfortable life? 00:17:27.920 |
They're able to have business and not feel guilty. 00:17:32.560 |
And that's why they're drifting back and they're reminding them, don't forget your initial 00:17:47.760 |
The third reason why we need to consider Christ carefully is that Jesus is better than Moses 00:18:06.040 |
And so for us, when we hear that Jesus is greater than Moses, of course he is. 00:18:16.920 |
You have to understand who Moses is or was to the Israelites. 00:18:23.120 |
Remember the transfiguration when Jesus takes the three disciples up to the mountains and 00:18:42.360 |
Moses was there in Jesus' glory standing and talking to Jesus. 00:18:48.960 |
He was not just an ordinary man who just happened to be a great leader. 00:18:53.320 |
Moses was the one that God used to deliver Israel from Egypt. 00:18:58.600 |
He was basically Abraham Lincoln and then some. 00:19:03.360 |
God demonstrated his power to confront the Egyptian gods through Moses. 00:19:10.200 |
He was the leader who stood between Israelites and God pleading that God would be merciful 00:19:16.280 |
for the nation of Israel because God was so angry with their stiff-necked sin. 00:19:21.840 |
It was his prayer that preserved the nation of Israel. 00:19:25.880 |
The law of God that the Pharisees were so proud of. 00:19:32.500 |
God revealed it to Moses and dictated and then he brought it to the people. 00:19:36.960 |
The tabernacle, the temple, all of these things that the Israelites treasured so much. 00:19:46.160 |
Everything that the Israelites valued was given through this man. 00:19:53.280 |
In fact, they esteemed him so highly, many of the Jewish rabbis actually said that Moses 00:20:02.560 |
Now we can see why people would think that because again at the transfiguration, it wasn't 00:20:08.840 |
It was Moses and Elijah, the greatest prophet. 00:20:13.280 |
But of all the things that they knew about Moses, the greatest thing about Moses was 00:20:20.160 |
that Moses had this intimate relationship with God that no other human being had. 00:20:25.520 |
It's expressed in Numbers chapter 12, 6 through 8. 00:20:30.120 |
If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make myself known to him in a vision. 00:20:43.480 |
With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly and not in dark sayings. 00:20:50.600 |
In other words, Moses is closer to God than any other human being. 00:20:56.480 |
And that's the reason why they thought that Moses was greater. 00:20:59.960 |
Some of them thought he was greater than the angels. 00:21:02.660 |
So when they hear that Jesus is like Moses, they needed some convincing. 00:21:11.400 |
How can you say, "If Moses is the greatest human being that we know and Jesus is like 00:21:32.040 |
"Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things 00:21:39.280 |
But Christ was faithful as a son over his house whose house we are. 00:21:42.880 |
If we hold fast our confidence in the boast of our hope firm until the end." 00:21:48.760 |
There's two things that we need to clarify here. 00:21:52.800 |
One, the word for servant that describes Moses is not doulos. 00:21:58.280 |
I know our college students, you know, you have your serving team called doulos. 00:22:10.160 |
Majority of the New Testament, when you hear the word servant, it's doulos, majority of 00:22:16.280 |
The word that is used here is not doulos, it's therapon. 00:22:19.800 |
And the word therapon also translated servant is only used in this text. 00:22:25.120 |
The reason why is that the word for servant here is unlike the word bond servant. 00:22:30.240 |
Bond servant is somebody who is obligated because of his position in life. 00:22:34.040 |
He may be an indentured servant or he may have been born a slave, but he's obligated 00:22:43.960 |
The way the commentators describe this word, therapon, is not a subservient role. 00:22:51.960 |
And the illustration that they give is like a physician who serves his patient. 00:22:58.560 |
The physician is not the subservient role, but by serving, he is actually greater. 00:23:04.800 |
Moses is a servant of Israel, not because he is under them, but because he is over them. 00:23:12.720 |
So this is not to undermine Moses' dignity, he's actually elevating Moses, saying, "Moses 00:23:21.120 |
served you, and he was a great man who was deserving of great honor. 00:23:30.440 |
But Jesus comes as the Son, as great as Moses is." 00:23:39.480 |
The Bible clearly says, "A sinful man who gets that close to God shall surely die." 00:23:45.040 |
Every instance that we see holy men in the presence of God's glory, they bow down in 00:23:49.840 |
terror, and yet God describes him as somebody that God speaks to mouth to mouth, face to 00:24:02.600 |
But despite the honor that he deserves, he says, "He came to serve as a servant, yet 00:24:14.120 |
You notice here he says, "He was a house of servant for a testimony of those things 00:24:20.120 |
In other words, everything that Moses did, everything that God used him to do, was for 00:24:26.840 |
To set up for the testimony of what was to come. 00:24:33.920 |
Everything that Moses did, as great as he is, as deserving of veneration as Moses deserved, 00:24:42.880 |
all of that served as a testimony of the coming of the Son. 00:24:47.920 |
He served, but Jesus comes and he serves as the Son. 00:24:54.960 |
The love that Christ has for us is so much deeper, so much greater than any other human 00:25:05.560 |
For the last 10 years, we lived in a rented house in Irvine. 00:25:09.720 |
Now, we got in 10 years ago and it was fair to undervalue. 00:25:18.160 |
Our rent was pretty cheap compared to what other people pay. 00:25:21.000 |
We were there for 10 years and the owner never raised rent. 00:25:24.560 |
Part of the reason why he never raised rent was because I never called him. 00:25:28.520 |
He said the previous tenant called him for everything. 00:25:31.240 |
He said door hinge or a little leak and he actually asked me, "Do you know how to fix 00:25:36.840 |
That was his number one question when he asked me. 00:25:41.240 |
Unless it was really bad, I never called him. 00:25:43.160 |
The garage door was constantly broken and all it needed was for me to yank something 00:25:47.520 |
or tweak something and I would fix it and so he wouldn't have to come. 00:25:51.720 |
They liked us so they kept the rent that way for 10 years. 00:25:56.840 |
Living in that house, I would have to fix a little hinge here or the door or the light 00:26:07.080 |
But after 10 years, the gap between what the house was worth and where it was almost $1,000 00:26:13.560 |
The owner said, "We're going to raise rent and we're going to eventually get it up to 00:26:17.000 |
the market value," and it didn't make sense for us to live and rent anymore. 00:26:21.240 |
We ended up purchasing the house behind us, literally behind us. 00:26:26.140 |
It was the house that we looked for 10 years, looking into that neighbor and saying, "Oh, 00:26:36.200 |
Even my son, Zachary, jumped over the fence or the wall when he was in high school and 00:26:42.200 |
he got yelled at by the old guy that lived in that house. 00:26:48.840 |
Some of you guys were there helping us out and we literally knocked down part of the 00:26:52.640 |
fence and moved the stuff through the fence and we were there. 00:26:55.480 |
It's kind of weird because now we're at this house and we look into our old house that 00:26:59.880 |
we were there for 10 years and they never closed their blinds. 00:27:04.980 |
Our neighbors, so when I'm in second floor, I look down and I can see all the way through 00:27:08.320 |
the front door and they never closed their blinds. 00:27:12.560 |
I could see, but every time I go there, we have 10 years of experience, 10 years of life. 00:27:18.920 |
My youngest went in there as literally a one-year-old and he came out as an 11-year-old, so we spent 00:27:25.720 |
But now in our new house, I've become an old man. 00:27:30.280 |
Like I'm walking around the house and I tried to take care of their old house, but it wasn't 00:27:34.200 |
our house, so I just fixed little things here and there. 00:27:37.040 |
But now I catch myself in my new house doing gardening. 00:27:42.120 |
When I go to Home Depot, before I would look for tools. 00:27:48.920 |
In fact, right after the first service, I had a conversation with one of our brothers 00:27:55.520 |
I walk around the house pulling weed, picking up trash, and I'm trying to take care of the 00:28:02.200 |
house and I'm thinking, "Wow, now I understand why older people like gardening. 00:28:09.760 |
I think if I ever took a sabbatical, that's what I would do. 00:28:12.240 |
I would spend all my time just planting stuff and watering. 00:28:19.560 |
The reason why I do that, the difference is that was my rented house. 00:28:23.160 |
Even though I did my best to take care of it, it wasn't my house. 00:28:26.080 |
I'm not going to invest money into a house that doesn't belong to me. 00:28:33.800 |
So every part of it, if something happens, I try to make it better. 00:28:38.200 |
I say all of that is because that's exactly what the author is saying. 00:28:41.520 |
He came, Moses came and he did a great job and God used him greatly, but all of that 00:28:48.560 |
was to prepare for the son to come because he's the owner. 00:29:01.940 |
We belong to him and he cares for us because we are his. 00:29:09.640 |
That's why he says we need to contemplate and think carefully. 00:29:15.240 |
Consider that this God did not spare his only, even his own son, that he came to us, the 00:29:24.720 |
Should we not consider carefully who he is and what he is saying? 00:29:30.200 |
Thirdly, he says he is greater because he is the creator. 00:29:36.200 |
Hebrews chapter 3, 3 and 4, "For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by 00:29:42.040 |
just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 00:29:45.360 |
For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." 00:29:49.640 |
He's not only the son of God, he says he built the house himself. 00:29:54.000 |
John 1, 3, "All things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into 00:30:02.360 |
And Romans chapter 125 summarizes the rebellion of mankind. 00:30:05.720 |
It says, "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the 00:30:09.920 |
creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. 00:30:14.080 |
Our natural tendency is to give our confidence and our weight to the things that are created 00:30:23.120 |
Because you and I have been raised in the church, or a lot of us have been raised in 00:30:25.640 |
the church, or maybe some of us have been Christians, but we've been Christians for 00:30:31.880 |
So the fact that you and I confess that Jesus Christ is God, it just doesn't have the same 00:30:43.720 |
Last night and this morning I was reading an article, and the article was stating that 00:30:48.080 |
the government is acknowledging that there might be aliens. 00:30:54.920 |
Yeah, there was some picture that they took and they can't explain it, and Donald Trump, 00:30:59.560 |
the president, basically came out and said, "Yeah, I was shown the documents. 00:31:07.840 |
Now the idea of an alien outside of us, in and of itself, that's not a Republican, that's 00:31:14.960 |
not a Democrat issue, it's just people are just intrigued and interested. 00:31:18.400 |
I'm sure all of you guys are going to go home and look that up. 00:31:24.920 |
But people have been for decades and decades and decades have been asking that. 00:31:28.960 |
They've been spending billions and billions of dollars trying to figure out, is there 00:31:35.280 |
So much time contemplating and thinking and examining and studying just to see. 00:31:42.120 |
And if there is, could we make contact with this being? 00:31:52.640 |
And yet, we have become so desensitized with this truth of who Jesus is that we don't spend 00:32:02.180 |
any time other than Sunday and other than when we started the Bible that Jesus Christ 00:32:14.560 |
I can argue with an atheist and tell you why He must be God. 00:32:22.280 |
If He did nothing, if He never was incarnate, if He never came and gave His life, if He 00:32:28.600 |
never was a high priest, if all we knew was that Jesus Christ is God, that fact alone 00:32:36.960 |
would cause mankind to give everything that we have, everything that we have, to make 00:32:49.960 |
If we make contact with an alien, with all the money and time and energy poured in, the 00:33:14.920 |
Because not only did Jesus say He was God, not only did He prove that He was God, He 00:33:23.560 |
In John chapter 5, verse 18, it says, "For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking 00:33:28.880 |
all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling 00:33:33.520 |
God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." 00:33:39.640 |
Jesus was not simply saying that I came to represent God. 00:33:44.620 |
In that same text, Jesus says He is equal with God. 00:33:53.020 |
But in chapter 5, verse 22, it says, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He 00:34:08.000 |
In fact, in John chapter 5, verse 23, He says, "So that all will honor the Son, even as they 00:34:14.480 |
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." 00:34:19.000 |
If you've ever read the Bible, whenever holy men confront powerful men or powerful angels, 00:34:29.160 |
And what is the response of these archangels and of these men of God? 00:34:48.340 |
And they're afraid to be worshipped because they know what's going to come if they step 00:34:53.340 |
in those shoes of worship rather than to be a worshipper. 00:34:56.160 |
And yet Jesus is standing here and saying, "If you do not worship me, you do not worship 00:35:02.980 |
If Jesus was not God, He deserved more than stoning. 00:35:13.260 |
Yet Jesus says very clearly out of His own mouth, "I do things that even the Father does 00:35:18.360 |
And if you do not worship me, you do not worship the Father." 00:35:24.120 |
That fact alone should cause us to contemplate, to consider, to carefully think and meditate 00:35:35.400 |
Because no matter what stage you are in life, whether you are a graduating senior and you're 00:35:41.480 |
about to get a new job or you're about to get married or you're going to have a child 00:35:47.760 |
or starting a new business, wherever you are in life, this question of, "Who is Jesus to 00:35:59.800 |
Because for a believer, it changes the way that we pursue life, business, how we raise 00:36:07.160 |
our children, who we marry, what kind of job we get. 00:36:15.920 |
That's why He's saying contemplate and think carefully. 00:36:19.960 |
But fourth and finally, we need to contemplate carefully about who Jesus is because Jesus 00:36:28.440 |
Hebrews 3.6, "Christ was faithful as a son over His house, whose house we are, if we 00:36:33.920 |
hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." 00:36:40.320 |
When He says, "If," you can read that and say, "Well, if you don't persevere, you're 00:36:50.960 |
Because He started chapter 3 by saying, "Holy brothers who participate in the heavenly calling." 00:36:58.600 |
So clearly He's talking to Christians and yet in verse 6, He says, "Only if you hold 00:37:07.080 |
So is He saying you can lose your salvation or is He saying that who He was referring 00:37:12.020 |
to in verse 1 is different than He was referring to in verse 6? 00:37:16.920 |
We have to be careful and bad doctrine always comes from superficial reading of the scripture. 00:37:23.600 |
Look what He says, "If you hold fast," to what? 00:37:36.760 |
If you hold fast your faith and boast of our hope firm until the end. 00:37:45.280 |
Salvation is not by, justification is not by works, and then not by, is by faith, and 00:37:50.880 |
then we move to sanctification, it's by works. 00:37:54.240 |
Justification, sanctification, glorification is all because of faith. 00:38:00.400 |
So what He means by here is, if you believe that Christ was justified and you believe 00:38:06.640 |
that and it is that faith that you continue to hold on to and it's that faith that causes 00:38:18.520 |
So the author hasn't changed anything, all he is saying is, if your confidence is true 00:38:26.240 |
and real, if all that we hope in Christ hinges upon this faith, everything, our eternity, 00:38:35.000 |
our relationship with Christ, if it all hinges upon this faith, shouldn't we carefully contemplate 00:38:52.240 |
Or is it something that you just learn to answer? 00:38:58.000 |
You know how to give the answer, because you went to Sunday school, you were a Sunday school 00:39:01.800 |
teacher, you were raised in the church, you were campus ministry, you may have even discipled 00:39:06.960 |
other people, you may have even led praise for years. 00:39:10.740 |
But is this an answer that we give because we know how to give it? 00:39:27.760 |
But as we get older, we naturally think that we outgrow that. 00:39:35.480 |
The only difference between peer pressure when we're young and peer pressure when we're older 00:39:39.680 |
is that the peer pressure come from different groups. 00:39:46.200 |
I remember back in high school when punk rock was beginning to take off, and the punk rockers 00:39:52.920 |
We don't believe in any system, we're just in rebellion. 00:39:55.360 |
But what was always interesting to me is they all rebelled the exact same way. 00:39:59.960 |
They all had the spiked hair, they all had the anarchist tattoo and the leather jacket 00:40:08.000 |
If you're an anarchist, you should be very, very different, right? 00:40:16.920 |
The peer pressure that they were submitting to were just a different set. 00:40:26.560 |
In fact, there's a psychological term for that. 00:40:32.640 |
If you took any psychology, that's what they call it. 00:40:35.120 |
That term came out of a study in 1970, May 4th. 00:40:40.000 |
There was a protest against the Vietnam War, against the government, that we shouldn't 00:40:45.480 |
A small group of students gathered together and they began to protest. 00:40:49.400 |
The protest started growing and it became violent. 00:40:52.720 |
The state troopers came in and in order to calm the crowd, it got out of hand and they 00:40:59.880 |
Four students got killed and many others got injured. 00:41:03.280 |
After everything was said and done, people came in to interview and see what caused this. 00:41:10.160 |
They began to interview the students of why this happened and why did it escalate and 00:41:15.120 |
why did the state troopers ended up shooting. 00:41:17.920 |
The interesting thing was, the majority of the students had no idea why they were out 00:41:22.800 |
The majority of the students could not articulate why they were there. 00:41:26.280 |
They began to ask them, "Then why were you there?" 00:41:29.280 |
This small group of students who gathered together began to grow to hundreds and even 00:41:34.600 |
thousands and that's why the state troopers were called. 00:41:36.880 |
They said, "What happened was, there was a small group of students who came out protesting 00:41:42.400 |
and it just happened that all the big classes were finishing their class right at that time. 00:41:48.640 |
As they were walking out, they saw the crowd and they just came to look. 00:41:55.600 |
They began to chant and the group started to grow to hundreds. 00:41:58.640 |
The word began to spread through campus and there's something going on over there. 00:42:03.520 |
So they started attracting all the students to this area and then that attracted the attention 00:42:08.080 |
of the police because they were beginning to get concerned with the size of the crowd. 00:42:12.080 |
And once the police came, the rock started to be thrown and in defense, it irritated 00:42:22.240 |
Patriotism is just a fancy word for peer pressure. 00:42:34.160 |
If a student can be pressured without even knowing what they're doing to even risk their 00:42:42.520 |
lives protesting something that they don't even understand, it's very, very easy to be 00:42:51.340 |
at church all your life just doing what other people do. 00:42:58.880 |
That's why majority of the people's spirituality goes up and down based upon which church they're 00:43:07.140 |
Their holiness changes based upon what the church requires. 00:43:12.020 |
And if our holiness, if our passion for God goes up and down based upon the kind of friends 00:43:16.360 |
that you put around you, isn't that just peer pressure? 00:43:22.540 |
Maybe it's not, but there's a good chance that it could be. 00:43:27.340 |
If all your life, your faith goes up and down, up and down based upon who is around you. 00:43:35.900 |
This is why we need to contemplate, think carefully, meditate about who Jesus is. 00:43:50.120 |
Not your friends, not your pastor, not your circle, not your parents. 00:43:56.280 |
Before you answer that question too quickly, everybody says, "Well, Jesus means this to 00:44:04.840 |
We can say that, but if you want to know what kind of relationship two people have, you 00:44:22.420 |
It's like, "Well, he is, but we haven't talked for 15 years." 00:44:26.180 |
That's strange because what you say, what you do don't match. 00:44:32.900 |
If that's the most important question in life, are we confident that this faith, this confidence 00:44:42.780 |
I'm going to give you a preview of next week before I finish. 00:44:53.260 |
Considering all of this, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear 00:44:57.300 |
his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in 00:45:06.540 |
Our salvation is not by works, it's not by good intentions, it's not by being smart, 00:45:13.580 |
but by having confidence in Christ and who he is and what he has done. 00:45:19.180 |
So again, as the author of Hebrews is challenging us and encouraging us, and I hope and pray 00:45:26.260 |
because the whole book of Hebrews is about Jesus. 00:45:30.660 |
The whole book of Hebrews is about considering and contemplating Christ. 00:45:35.140 |
So I hope at some point you don't just say, "Enough. 00:45:45.660 |
I hope that doesn't happen because all the other questions will naturally be answered