29 Apr Hebrews 04 – Faithful over God’s house

Hebrews 3:1-6

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, ² who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. ³ For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. ⁴ (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) ⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, ⁶ but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Every nation has its own national heroes, someone whom the whole nation adores. America has George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Australia has General Sir John Monash. If you don’t know them you can ask the Ozzies in our midst. If they don’t know then they are fakes Ozzies. China has Zhuge Liang and Yueh Fei. Japan has Sakomoto Ryoma and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Indonesia has, anyone want to take a guess? It’s not Jokowi and Ahok. It’s tempting but it is not the right answer for now. Maybe in few hundred years. Indonesia has Soekarno and Soeharto. All of these national heroes were great people. That is why they are the national heroes of their nations. They were amazing people in many ways. Some of them had major flaws and some had minor flaws. But through the study of history we know that all of them were flawed.

Israel have many national heroes. They have King David, the greatest king warrior in their history. They have Solomon, the wisest man ever lived. They have Gideon, the 300 before the 300. They have Joshua, the man who led them into the Promised Land. They have Abraham who received the promise from God and began the journey of becoming a nation. However, there is one hero that stood head and shoulder above all other heroes. They hold him in such a high reverence until today. His name is Moses. Moses is considered as the greatest man in Israel’s history. He is the greatest of all Hebrews. Few weeks ago, we spend a whole sermon talking about the beginning of Moses’ call to lead Israel out of Egypt. Even the beginning of Moses’ journey with God was amazing. But what he would do and accomplished is so much bigger. Let’s just name a few.

Moses was divinely chosen and prepared by God from his birth to lead Israel out of Egypt. Moses delivered Israel out of Egypt through inexplicable sign and wonders, the 10 plagues. I mean, if you were the Israelites and you witnessed the thing Moses did to Egyptians: the frogs, the boils, the hails, and especially summoning the angel of death to kill all the Egyptian’s firstborn son, you had to think Moses was extremely special. In fact, Exodus 11 tells us that even Pharaoh and all of Egypt thought that Moses was very great. If your enemies think you are great, then you must be really great. Don’t forget to add to it splitting the Red Sea into two. Moses was the lawgiver. The law is the greatest thing in all the world for the Jews. The law is the centre of Jewish life. And Moses was the one who gave them the law. Moses was the one who wrote the Pentateuch or what is commonly known as Torah. If you don’t know what it is, it is the first five books of the Bible. It is the Jews’ Holy Scriptures. Moses was not only the greatest but he was also the most humble person. Numbers 12:3 – Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. Some of you are thinking, “Wait, didn’t you say that the first five books in the Bible were written by Moses? So Moses wrote the book of Numbers and he called himself the humblest person on earth? How does that work?” Well, it is what it is. The humblest man on earth knew that he was the humblest. One more. This is really cool. Moses was buried by God himself. Can you imagine that? So at the end of his life, Moses went up the mountain to meet God and he died. Then God himself buried him and no one knew where God buried Moses until today. Moses was that great until God had to bury Moses himself. And maybe, God knew that if the Israelites were to take hold of Moses’ body, they would worship it. Moses was that great and therefore God hid his body.

As great as Moses was, the author of Hebrews points out that there was someone better than Moses. His argument is simply that Jesus is better than Moses. It is hard for us modern readers to understand the weight of this passage because most of us are not Jews. I showed you earlier that for the Jews, there is no greater hero than Moses. Moses is the top of the crop. If I can put it in today’s equivalent, it would be the combination of Jokowi and Ahok times 100. Moses is that big of a deal for the Jews. I don’t use facebook that often anymore. Anyone still active in facebook? There are few ancient people in this room. That’s okay we love you. But almost every time I open my facebook, I found articles about Jokowi or Ahok. People love to talk about them. Some of them loves to show how great Jokowi or Ahok is. And you will find intense argument between those who love them and those who hate them. Moses is on a whole different level. You would not find a single Jew who would talk bad about Moses on facebook. Every Jew adores Moses so much. Everytime there is a post about Moses, you would find a million thumbs up and zero thumbs down. That is why the Jews who hold to the Jewish religion hates Jewish Christian. For them for Jews to become Christians is to betray Moses and the law of God given to them by Moses. It is to betray the God of Moses. Therefore, many Jewish Christians were persecuted for their beliefs in Christ. They were persecuted both by Roman Government and their Jewish communities. So it caused some of the Jewish Christians to question whether it is worth it to follow Jesus. They were tempted to leave their faith in Jesus and return to Judaism. And to these people, the author of Hebrews is saying, “I want you to consider Jesus.” The word consider means to meditate and think clearly about something or someone. The author will show us that when we consider Jesus rightly, then we will see that as awesome as Moses was, Jesus is better.

Three things that we can see in this passage. The glory of Moses and the glory of Jesus; the faithfulness of Moses and the faithfulness of Christ; consider Jesus.

The glory of Moses and the glory of Jesus

Hebrews 3:1-4 – Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, ² who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. ³ For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. ⁴ (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)

The first thing that the author of Hebrews want his reader to do is to compare the glory of Moses and the glory of Christ. But before he goes there, he makes sure that his reader is well aware that he has no intention to badmouth Moses. To badmouth someone is something that we do to make ourselves or our heroes look better. Correct? That’s why you find intense political argument between different parties. And most of the time it consists of speaking bad about the other person or the other party. In order to make our party or our heroes look better, we find the weakness of the other person and draw people’s attention to it. Yes? But the author of Hebrews is different. He has such a high regard for Moses. He says in verse 2 that Jesus was faithful to God the Father just as Moses was also faithful in all God’s house. With another word, he has no intention to make Moses less of a man than he was. He acknowledges the fact that Moses was a faithful man. But there is someone who is even better than Moses. Someone who is as faithful as Moses but worthy of more glory. He is saying, “Moses was awesome! But Jesus is better!”

Why is Jesus worthy of more glory than Moses? The author’s argument is that as awesome as Moses was, Moses was only part of God’s house while Jesus is the builder of the house. The phrase God’s house is best understood as the nation of Israel rather than the temple. Moses certainly played a big part in establishing Israel as a nation. He took them out of Egypt and he gave them the law. Yet Moses himself is an Israelite. He is part of the nation of Israel. He is part of God’s house. But Jesus is different. He is the one who build the house. He is the one who created the nation of Israel. Jesus is the one who made Moses. Now, who is worthy of more glory? The house or the builder of the house?

Let me give you an illustration. In my KM, there is this one person, who shall remain unnamed, who is a chef with a melancholic personality. So one day Henry decided to cook Kobe steak for KM. (And all KM9 members say AMEN.) He is feeling happy for some reason. Maybe he finally get a girlfriend, or new job or maybe he just love our KM so much that he decided to cook for us. He imported Kobe beef all the way from Japan. He knew exactly how I like my steak – medium rare. So Henry cook this steak to perfection. He seasoned the steak just right and you can see juice flowing out of the meat as you cut part of the steak. As I eat the steak, I can taste the actual flavour of the meat and enjoy it to the last bite. Now, what is my respond after I eat this steak? Who receives more glory? The Kobe beef or Henry? Of course the Kobe meat contributes a lot to the taste of the steak. So I am thankful to all those lazy cows who were treated like kings before they were butchered. But I don’t go, “Wow Mr.cow, I am so glad that you spend all of your life bumming around and getting massage everyday so that I might eat you today.” No I would not do that. As much as the cow worthy to receives glory, there is someone in front of me who is worthy of more glory. The man who cook this Kobe beef to perfection. Henry is worthy of more glory than the Kobe beef. No one looks at the painting of Mona Lisa and only admire the beauty of Mona Lisa. No they don’t. They gives more glory to Leonardo da Vinci who painted Mona Lisa. Are you with me?

In the same way, the builder of the house receives more glory than the house. As great as Moses was, Moses was only part of the house. But Jesus is the builder of the house. Jesus made Moses. Let me put it another way. If Moses is worthy of glory as part of God’s house, how much more worthy of glory Jesus is as the builder of the house?

The faithfulness of Moses and the faithfulness of Christ

Hebrews 3:5-6 – ⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, ⁶ but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

This is very interesting. The author of Hebrews is contrasting the faithfulness of Moses and the faithfulness of Christ. Let’s talk about the faithfulness of Moses first. Once again, the author of Hebrews refuse to downplay the important of Moses. His goal is not make his readers think less of Moses but to realise that there is someone better than Moses. The author of Hebrews says that Moses was faithful in all God’s house. But he was not the only one who say that. God says the same thing about Moses in Numbers chapter 12. God declares Moses was faithful in his house.

Let me tell you what happened in Numbers chapter 12. Moses had a brother named Aaron and a sister named Miriam. And if you remember the sermon from few weeks ago, Moses got married while he was in the wilderness. He married a Cushite woman by the name of Zipporah. At first everything was okay. But eventually, the fact that Moses married a non-Israelite did not go well with his brother and sister. So both Aaron and Miriam began to undermine Moses’ leadership. They began to question Moses’ role as a prophet. “Moses is not the only prophet. We are prophets as well. God not only speak to Moses but he also speaks to us.” The LORD heard it and he was angry. So he gets Moses, Aaron and Miriam together.

Numbers 12:5-7 – ⁵ And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 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. That’s the statement. Did you get that? Moses is faithful in all God’s house, which is in this context, the people of Israel. Moses’ faithfulness to deal with the Israelites had been tested several times. When the Israelites blamed Moses because Pharaoh making life harder for them as slaves, Moses remained faithful. When the Israelites accused Moses of trying to get them killed before the Red Sea, Moses remained faithful. When the Israelites complained about food, Moses remained faithful. When Israelites complained about having no water to drink, Moses remained faithful. When Israelites created and worshipped the golden calf, Moses remained faithful. In fact, when his own brother and sister opposed him, Moses did not try to defend himself. God defended Moses. Moses was faithful in all his dealing with the Israelites. Moses had a special relationship with God. If there is any prophet in Israel, God will communicate with them through visions and dreams. But Moses is different. Numbers 12:8-9 – 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?” ⁹ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. Mouth to mouth is an idiom for face to face. It will be weird to speak mouth to mouth. I don’t think it is possible. These verses describes the special relationship that Moses had with God that no one else has. Only with Moses God would communicate face to face. Moses had the special privilege that no other prophet had.

Here is the clincher. Hebrews 3:5 – “Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant.” So yes Moses was faithful. Moses was great and awesome. Moses had special privilege that no one else had. But he did all of that as a servant. Now this word servant is different from many words servant that you find in the New Testament. Almost every time the word servant is used in the New Testament, it comes from the Greek word, doulos, which means slave. But the word servant in this verse is different. It is not doulos but therapoen, which mean a servant who hold authority of the one who appointed him. Or you can think of it as the head servant. So Moses did carry a special authority and privilege. He had a special position as a servant. But that position is only to point to something that were to be spoken later. What does it mean? Listen to what Moses says. Deuteronomy 18:15 – ¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.” I don’t think Moses can be any clearer. He is saying that God will raise another prophet like Moses but better than Moses. Why better? Because it is to him the Israelites must listen. Who is Moses talking about?

This is how the author of Hebrews puts it. Moses is faithful IN all of God’s house as a SERVANT but Christ is faithful OVER God’s house as a SON. According to the author of Hebrews, Moses was referring to Jesus. And Jesus himself says the same thing. He says to the Pharisees that Moses is speaking about him. Notice the two contrast here. First one, Moses is faithful IN God’s house. With another word, Moses is part of God’s house. He is within the house. But Jesus is different. Jesus is faithful OVER God’s house. Which mean, Jesus is above God’s house. He has authority over God’s house. The second contrast, Moses was faithful over God’s house as a SERVANT while Christ was faithful over God’s house as a SON. The second contrast is between servant and son. A servant, no matter how awesome he is, is still a servant. He is doing someone else’s bidding. A son, is the heir of the house. He is the owner. He is the boss. So which one is greater? A servant in the house or a son over the house? Which one is greater? Moses or Jesus? What the author is trying to say is, “Don’t neglect Jesus for Moses. If Moses is faithful in God’s house as a servant, Jesus is faithful over God’s house as a son. Moses is looking after the house while Jesus owns the house. Jesus is better. Hold fast to him. Don’t let him go. Trust him. He is faithful.”

Now the question is, who is God’s house? For Moses, it is the people of Israel. But in the New Testament, the house of God is no longer Israel but it is a picture of the people of God. People who trust in Christ as their Lord and Saviour. You are part of God’s house. I am part of God’s house. Together with all of God’s people we are called the house of God. Do you know why someone build a house? To sell it for a better price. That’s true. But that’s not the main reason someone build a house. The main reason someone build a house is to live in it. Oh, this is a glorious truth. Christ is building his house and he is faithful over his house so that he might live in it. Can you imagine it? Jesus, the Son of God, lives in you. He is empowering you to do his will. He is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is living inside every believers. He will not fail his work. He is faithful. He will complete what he started. He is committed into making you and me like him. He is building the house and he is faithful over the house. Nothing can stop him. Nothing can hinder him. Christ’s faithfulness over his house supersede Moses’s faithfulness in God’s house. You think Moses is faithful? Christ is even more faithful over you and me. That is why Paul boldly declares in Colossians, “Christ in you, the hope of glory!”

But that’s not where the verse ended. It would be great if it did. But it does not. Straight after telling his reader that we are God’s house, he continues, “If…” Now, suddenly there is a condition. Christ is faithful over you and me. He will not fail. Yes and amen. However, that faithfulness comes with a condition. Hebrews 3:6 – “If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” There is a condition in the unconditionally of Jesus’ faithfulness over us. The author of the book of Hebrews does this several times throughout his letter. More than any other book, the book of Hebrews speaks about the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice. Christ died once and for all for all of our sin. He completed the work of salvation perfectly. Christ loves you completely and he will not fail to finish his good works in you. He is faithful over God’s house. But then you find these “ifs” throughout the book. So is God’s faithfulness unconditional or conditional? This is something that the author of Hebrews would not let slide. So, let’s chat. Or if you prefer, it’s time for some curhat.

I am a happy joyful Calvinist. I don’t usually refer to myself as a Calvinist because of many negative connotations that often come with the label Calvinist. I am a Calvinist not because I hold on to the doctrine of John Calvin but I am a Calvinist because I believe the doctrine of Calvinist is no other than the Gospel. So I don’t have any problem to tell you that I am a Calvinist. A happy joyful Calvinist. I stress out the words happy and joyful because there are many cranky Calvinists out there. They act more like a theological police rather than a gospel-saturated loving Christian. If you do not know what Calvinist is, don’t worry. It does not affect your salvation. The summary of the belief of Calvinism is often summarised the acronym TULIP. I want to talk about the last letter, P, which is often abused.

Calvinist believes that if you trust the gospel, then you will persevere to the end. This is the P of the acronym. Perseverance of the saint. The idea is that since you cannot earn your salvation, you also cannot lose your salvation. I say big fat AMEN to that. However, the slogan for Calvinism that is extremely popular is this, “once saved always saved.” And there is element of truth in it. There is nothing you can do to lose your salvation. That’s the perseverance of the saints. But it does not mean that it does not matter how you live your life, you can do whatever you want, you can be in active rebellion against God, it does not affect your salvation because once saved always saved. Back when I was still in Bible College in Dallas, one of my friend used this argument against me. We entered the Bible College at the same time but by the third year, he was living a life of party and drunkenness. When I confronted him on this issue, he simply told me, “Once saved always saved.” But this is a distortion of what Calvinist believes. Calvinism holds to the understanding that if God has won your affection by his unconditional choosing of you, if you have experience the sweetness of his amazing grace, then you will hold fast to your faith to the end. It does not mean that you will never stumble but when you do stumble, the grace of God will grip your heart and bring you back to him. The proof that you have experienced the grace of God is that you will hold fast to your faith. Test and trials will come. You will stumble here and there. But you will continue to raise above your circumstance and walk in faith. You know you are God’s house, you know you are people of God, if you hold fast your confidence and your boasting in your hope, which is Jesus himself. It is not the profession of faith that saved but the possession of faith. And you know you possess faith when you continue to grow in your affection for Christ. You cannot live in sin and active rebellion against God and claimed that once saved always saved because you raised your hand during an altar call many years ago. That’s not how it works. Yes, you cannot lose your salvation but the proof that you received salvation is that you will persevere in your faith to the end. If you do not hold fast to your faith, then it is not that you lose your salvation but you never have it in the first place. Are we clear on that? And all these “ifs” in the book of Hebrews are means of grace to help us stay on course and hold fast to our faith. Which lead me to my third point. How do we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope?

Consider Jesus

Hebrews 3:1-2 – Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, ² who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 

This is a complex sentence but this is absolutely stunning. Stay with me. Don’t lose focus. The sentence starts with the word, therefore. If you are with us the last time we did Hebrews, then you remember that it speaks about Jesus being our champion and our brother. He is saying that, “Because we have a champion who won the battle for us and made a way for us, and because we have a brother who are just like us, experienced what we experienced and suffered when tempted, here is what you must do in a response to it.” First, know that you share in a heavenly calling. What does it mean? It means that you received a call from heaven, from God himself. You did not initiate anything. It is God who calls you from Heaven. But that’s not the end of the story. You received a calling from heaven but the calling also leads you to heaven. The heavenly calling is not only something you received in the past but it is also gives you destination for the future. With another word, you received a call from God which will lead you to God. It is not a calling that leave you in abstract. It is a calling that gives you a destination. And this is true of every believers.

So here is some fact that is true about every one of us who are Christians. There was a time where we walked in rebellion against God. There was a time where we pursued our sinful desires and neglected God. But then something happened. We heard the sovereign call of God. The God of the universe called us out of darkness, called out our names and opened our blind eyes to see his beauty. God established an eternal new relationship with us. We received calling from heaven. But this calling from heaven also leads us to heaven. We know where we are going. We know our ultimate destination. Our destination is God himself. We will be where God is. We are destined to live forever and ever with God in all his glory and joy. We are destined for eternal glory with God.

Second, how did we receive this heavenly calling? Through Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. The word apostle means the one who is send. Jesus is the apostle because God send him to us. Jesus is God’s final word to us. Jesus came to deliver to us God’s word. But Jesus is not only apostle. He is also the high priest of our confession. Which mean, Jesus not only come to bring us God’s word but he also come to bring us to God. That’s the role of high priest. The role of high priest is to make a way for God to be with his people. He does so by offering sacrifice. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice that makes a way for us to be with God. That is why the author of the Hebrews command us to consider Jesus. Think about Jesus. Ponder on Jesus. Meditate on Jesus. Jesus not only come to bring us God’s word but he also make a way for us to be with God. The only reason we share in a heavenly calling is because of Jesus. Jesus as the apostle delivered God’s word that called us out of darkness and Jesus as a high priest made a way for us to reach our ultimate destination. It’s like a long distance dating relationship. You first get to know him or her through words. But that’s not enough. If all you do is communicate with each other through words, you might get to know him or her better but that’s not enough. Those of you who are in long distance relationship can relate to this. Would you be happy just to talk to each other every day and never meet? Of course no. To be in a relationship, you also need a way to be with the other person. And that’s what Jesus did. Jesus not only deliver you God’s word but he also made a way to God. John Piper says that “Jesus is the Word and the Way.” So how do you hold fast to your confession of faith? Consider Jesus!

Let me tell you what happen when you consider Jesus as the apostle and the high priest of your confession. It will change the way you live today. It has to. It must. If considering Jesus does not change the way you live today, then you have not consider him enough. Just think about it. What do you see when you consider Jesus? Two things. First, you see your past. You see how unworthy you are to received heavenly calling. But you did. Heaven calls you and you cannot run away from it. You did nothing to deserve it. It is a surprise call that change the trajectory of your life. Second, you see your future. You see your final destination. You see eternal glory. You see the fullness of joy. You see all the promises of God for you. You see God. Now, if you see these things, it changes your present. Knowing where you are from and where you are going should affect where you are right now.

Let me illustrate it for you. Let’s say that one day you received a surprised call from Commonwealth Bank that tells you that you just won $10 million. You can’t believe your luck. And no this is not a prank call. This is a legit call from the bank that tell you to pick up your $10 million dollars. Not some scam emails from someone in Africa. You are excited. You jump with joy and gladness. So you grab your wallet and your ID and make your way to the bank. The closest CBA to your house is 15 minutes’ drive. So you used Taxi to get there. Along the way, your Taxi get caught in a really bad traffic. Apparently there is a very bad accident that caused a massive traffic jam. So you decided to walk the rest of the way. You quickly pull out your wallet and pay the cost of the ride. But while doing so, you accidentally drop $10 in the taxi. As you make your way to the bank, you checked your wallet and you realize a $10 note is missing. What would you do? Will any of you think, “Oh no, that’s my lunch money. I can get 2 piece feed at KFC with it. I have to get it back no matter what the cost”? I don’t think so. You won’t get upset at the fact you lost $10. Why? Because $10 million dollars is waiting for you. In fact, you know what you will do? If you see a homeless person along the way, you will take out every single dollars from your wallet and give it to the homeless. Because you are about to receive $10 million dollars. Do you see what happen? Receiving a call from CBA changes your life. In the same way, those of us who share in a heavenly calling receives so much more than $10 million dollars. Heavenly calling not only called you in the past and guaranteed your future destination, it also changes you in the present. There are things that used to be important to you that become less and less important. There are value that you hold that contradict the gospel that you gradually begin to let go. There are things you love that you know you should not that slowly lose its hold on you. The way you live your present life changes because you have something so much better ahead of you. Heavenly calling changes your present life.

As wonderful as this promise is, there is more. There is one other thing that you see as you consider Jesus. The third thing that you see is the faithfulness of Jesus. Moses was faithful in all of God’s house. Jesus was faithful to his Father who appointed him as the apostle and high priest of our confession. Jesus was mocked. Jesus was misunderstood. Jesus was betrayed. Jesus suffered injustice. Jesus was tempted. Jesus was beaten. Jesus was spitted upon. Jesus was crucified. Jesus was faithful to his Father every step of the way. He was faithful to the point of death, even death at the cross. Jesus gave up his life in his faithfulness to the Father. This is amazing. But it gets even better. The same Jesus who was faithful to his Father to the point of death at the cross is faithful over you and me, the house of God. This is the whole point of comparison between Jesus and Moses. Moses was faithful and awesome. But Jesus is better. If Moses was faithful in all of God’s house as a servant, how much more is Jesus’ faithfulness over you and me today as a Son? That’s the point the author of the Hebrew is trying to make. Jesus will not fail us. He is faithful to the end. He gave up his life for us. He won’t give up half way. He will make sure you and I reach our destination. Because we are God’s house. He will make sure the house is ready. No storms will be able to destroy the house. The confession and the boasting of our hope is that Christ is faithful over God’s house. Trials and temptations will come. Life will gets harder. Christian’s life is difficult. You will feel like giving up. You will be discouraged. But here is what you do. Consider Jesus. He is faithful over God’s house.

Discussions

1. What makes Moses the greatest hero in Israel’s history?
2. Explain why Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses.
3. How does Jesus’ faithfulness supersede Moses’ faithfulness?
4. What does it mean for Jesus to be the apostle and high priest of our confession? What are some ways this applies to our lives?
5. The author of Hebrews urges us to consider Jesus. The world urges us to consider anything else. What are some of the most prominent things the world urges you to consider instead of Christ? What are some helpful ways you can learn to consider Jesus more frequently and rightly in your current context?
6. How should “Heavenly calling” changes our present?
7. What does holding on to our confidence and boasting in our hope look like from day to day? How does the author use the conditional “if” to encourage us and solidify our hope in Christ and in his work for our salvation?