SERMON MANUSCRIPT
Writing to a group of tried, tempted, and tired believers, the author of Hebrews reminds them of the absolute, immeasurable, and unrivalled supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the climactic and cumulative self-disclosure of Almighty God to humanity, “the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature” (1:3). To look anywhere other than the Son is to settle for deficiency.
Not only has Jesus provided ultimate revelation, but he’s offered final purification, the washing away of sinner’s sins. Then he “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3), far above even the holy angels because of his unique position, future reception, eternal dominion, and victorious exaltation. To cling to anything other than the Son is to settle for instability.
Paradoxically, the supremacy of the Son is most clearly seen in his temporary humiliation, that through incarnation and suffering he accomplished God’s perfect plan, identified with sinners, died for sinners, pardoned sinners, and now represents sinners. To follow anyone other than the Son is to plod after an imposter.
Here’s the bottom line: Jesus is the greatest. There’s none like him. He’s as unique as he is awesome, approachable and powerful, our brother and our King, our payment and our Priest. Jesus is the greatest. And with that said clearly, the author of Hebrews now turns to address his readers in chapter 3.
Three peoples are presented in this paragraph—Moses, Jesus, and us. The first two are held up as examples to be studied and copied by the third. Moses was faithful in God’s house. Eclipsing him, Jesus was faithful over God’s house. And, considering him, we are to be faithful as God’s house. Moses, Jesus, and us—a celebration of and invitation to faithfulness.
MOSES: Faithful in God’s House
Let’s look at these people one at a time, starting with Moses, a man appreciated by Christians and revered by Jews. And for good reason! In verse two, the author says that this famed leader of Israel “was [faithful] in all his house.”
To be faithful means to be trustworthy; to be dependable. A faithful teacher carries out her assigned role without compromise. A faithful builder completes all projects with quality and punctuality. Faithful people do what they’re supposed to do in the way they are supposed to do it. They are responsible stewards of what has been entrusted to them. Moses was faithful in his house.
Now, what house are we talking about? It seems the author is referring to God’s house, the place set apart by God for the people of God to rightly interact with God, offer worship to God, and receive forgiveness from God. It’s the building but also the goings-on in the building.
The word “house” is often used this way in Scripture. For example, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” (Ps 122:1). The psalmist isn’t excited to merely step into the structure of the Temple but to participate in the worship that happens there.
Or consider Jesus’s words: “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Matt 21:13). God’s house is the building where God’s people uniquely meet him, communicate with him, and learn from him.
For Moses, God’s house would have been the Tabernacle, the portable temple Israel carried with them in the wilderness. And, if we look at the context of Hebrews, the author just celebrated Jesus as High Priest. [2:17; 3:1] Priests operate in God’s house.
Add to that, when the author says “Moses was [faithful] in all his house,” he’s referencing Numbers 12. Listen to its context: [Num 12:1–7]. Moses is being vindicated with the tent—or, God’s house—as the backdrop. Or consider [Ex 40:1–2, 12–17].
Moses was shown a vision of God’s house, given instructions to build God’s house, oversaw the construction and consecration of God’s house, and identified and managed the priests of God’s house. Certainly, he was faithful in all God’s house.
Moses and Miriam, Abraham and Abigail, Deborah and David, Priscilla and Peter, John and Joanna. Scripture is full of faithful men and women who took what God gave them—situations, instructions, revelations, trials, and skills—and used them for his glory.
And people like that aren’t confined to the inspired pages, either. Look around! Our world is replete with faithful brothers and sisters, individuals who model, not perfection, but maturity and wisdom, godliness and faithfulness.
It’s been said that “Children often close their ears to advice and open their eyes to example.” In my experience, that’s just as true of adults! But, praise God, for the many godly examples around us. Find them. Look to them. Follow their lead.
JESUS: Faithful Over God’s House
The audience of Hebrews was used to looking to people like Moses, a man faithful in God’s house. But, as verse 5 of our text suggests, Moses’s faithfulness, as great as it was, was anticipatory. [3:5] Moses’s prophecy anticipated better prophecy. His leadership anticipated better leadership. His house anticipated a better house.
In fact, the house of the Lord that Moses oversaw was only ever a crude facsimile of a heavenly house he was shown. [Ex 25:8–9, 40; 26:30; Num 8:4] This remains the understanding of God’s people as we cross into the New Testament. [Acts 7:44] Notice that it’s called “the tabernacle of testimony” and, in Hebrews 3, “for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.”
Moses was great but something—and Someone—greater was coming and, lo, he came. Yes, Moses was a man faithful in God’s house but Jesus is a man faithful over God’s house. Moses may have bump, set, but Jesus comes in with the spike. He’s the telos, the Alpha and the Omega, the perfection. Jesus is just greater, even compared to Moses.
He is, as verse 1 announces, “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” As Hebrews has already made clear, the Son was sent to humanity from God and represents humanity before God. These realities were also true of Moses but imperfectly and incompletely so.
And, yes, Moses was faithful, but not in the same way Jesus was faithful. In fact, they’re not even in the same category. [3:3–4]
As we’ve undergone some building projects here at the chapel—the expansion of this sanctuary and the renovations of the restrooms—it’s been appropriate, along the way, to express gratitude and admiration to the people involved in those efforts. It’s obviously not appropriate, and, frankly, it’d be weird, if we all started thanking the building itself. “Thank you, drywall!” “You’re amazing, soap dispenser!” “Way to flush, new toilet!” The materials are doing what they’re supposed to do but we turn our appreciation to those who put them there.
Moses was a fixture in the house God built. He can be appreciated for his right function but the glory goes to the builder, God the Son.
The author makes his point in verses [3:5–6a]. Moses was a faithful servant. Jesus, a faithful Son. Moses served in God’s house, an earthly copy of the heavenly reality. Jesus reigns over God’s house, the place of highest worship, in the centre of which he now sits as High Priest. He built it. He owns it. He governs it. He grants access to it.
As great a blessing as godly examples are in our lives, they’re only great in as much as they reflect and point us to the greatest example, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul knew this, which is why he told the Corinthians to “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). “Don’t admire me because I’m brave or hardworking. If you’re going to follow me, do it because I’m walking in the dust kicked up by our Lord’s feet.” As disciples of Jesus Christ we are to “walk as he walked,” “follow in his steps,” “suffer like he suffered,” “put on Christ … our new self,” and “be conformed to the image of God’s Son.”
Moses was faithful. So are the godly examples we have in our lives. But they’re all effective only because they point us to the Faithful One, Jesus Christ. They do, in a sense, what this passage is doing: they challenge us to get our house in order.
US: Faithful As God’s House
Moses was faithful in God’s house. Even greater, Jesus was faithful over God’s house. The question is, will we be faithful as God’s house.
[3:5–6] “Whose house we are,” the “we” here clearly speaking of believers, those he refers to, in verse 1, as “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.” These are sharers of the invitation to live in the New Covenant realities of liberation, forgiveness, and usefulness, that which is celebrated throughout Hebrews. “Don’t go back to the Old Covenant from which you’ve been freed, brothers and sisters, the one with human priests incomplete revelation! We have a new calling; one that culminates in the future participation in Messiah’s kingdom.”
And “we,” believers, are “God’s house.” Let’s stay consistent with what that word means in this passage: we are God’s Temple, the place where the work and worship of God is uniquely seen, experienced, and propagated in this world. Peter says that believers are “being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices” (1 Pet 2:4–5).
As Christians, we have priestly responsibilities in God’s New Covenant house, a reality the author of Hebrews will highlight later in this letter. [12:28; 13:15–16] It’s the believers who faithfully carry out these tasks who are being “the house of God.”
That’s why the author can give the qualification: “whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” This is exactly what the original readers were struggling to do: to cling to Christ’s supremacy, his power, his work, and his promises.
They weren’t in danger of drifting from salvation—they’re “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling” with whom the author identifies. They are in danger of drifting from faithfulness to their assignment as priests of God’s house over which Christ is High Priest. No holding, no house. A lack of clinging with endurance means a lack of priestly faithfulness.
I think we can agree that not all believers are faithful. Not all Christians represent Christ well. It’s true that some people who claim to be Christians are not true Christians. It’s also true that some Christians don’t always act like Christians. I can’t tell the difference and neither can you. God can and we trust him to sort it out.
But what we can say with confidence—indeed, what we must say with confidence—is whether or not those people are saved has nothing to do with how they perform in this life and everything to do with whether or not they have understood and believed that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for their sins, rose from the dead, and offers everlasting life to all who trust him for it.
If the readers of Hebrews do not hold fast their confession, do not hope firm until the end, they will not faithfully represent God as the house they are, they will not showcase his grace and power the way they could, they will not reap the blessing of faithful service to and worship of the Almighty.
As a remedy, the author says, “consider Jesus!” Isn’t that how he starts in verse 1? Avoid unfaithfulness and look at Christ. He’s so great! Study him, pursue him, be amazed by him, confess him. If you do that, if you fiercely seize onto Jesus, you will faithfully serve Jesus. You will be God’s house, the place of his unique presence and work.
Moses was faithful in God’s house, bringing glory to God and allowing access to God for humanity through the earthly tent.
Better yet, Jesus was faithful over God’s house, bringing himself glory and opening access to God through the heavenly dwelling.
Following his example, we are to be faithful as God’s house, bringing glory to our God and encouraging access to him for the people around us through his representative house. The author of Hebrews is calling for Christians to get their spiritual house in order, to be faithful to the call we’ve received.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
