Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: Hebrews 3:1-6
## Pastor Dennis Tuuri, Reformation Covenant Church

Today’s sermon text is found in Hebrews chapter 3, the first six verses. We move into the third section of Hebrews today and this is the opening of that somewhat long section. Hebrews 3:1-6. If you’re following along on the outline today in the bottom half of it I have the text formatted in kind of a double way which hopefully isn’t confusing, but you could have read along with that or read along with your own scriptures.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. You’ll have heard a common refrain so far in our songs of praise this morning: Faithfulness. The two songs we sang as the opening hymns of praise, “Come let us join with faithful songs” and “Come ye faithful, rise the anthem.” This is the section that we talked about last week, describing Jesus beginning with talking about Jesus as the faithful high priest.

So Hebrews 3:1-6:

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm to the end.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Make us faithful servants of him by your word. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen. Please be seated.

In Revelation 16 we see a battle described. In Revelation 16 we read in verse 12 that the great river Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. The word “east” there is more literally “the kings of the sun rising.” They have a way prepared for them. And then John sees three unclean spirits like frogs come up out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of evils—of devils rather—working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

This is one of the little snapshots I believe of evangelism given to us in the book of Revelation. What we see is an army of the sun rising and God preparing a way for them to come and meet the three-frog demon army that’s going to oppose them and this great battle—Armageddon, the battle of the assembly—will take place.

Years ago, I saw a connection between that text in Revelation and the culture wars in our particular time and place. We have the kings of the sun rising—the church of Jesus Christ engaged in cultural conflict with demonic forces. We could say that with three frog armies, people that hate the Lord Jesus Christ, hate Christian institutions and want to destroy it—a kingdom raised up against the kingdom of Jesus. And this is a picture of what’s going on in our day.

There are times like this, times in the world, when for whatever reason a particular place has become apostate, where the church of Jesus Christ needs to go forward as faithful soldiers of Jesus to press the claims of Jesus Christ against the forces of darkness, to be pioneers once more to transform the land in which we find ourselves, which has become faithless, and to call the land to its creator and redeemer, Jesus Christ.

And years ago when I thought about this imagery, I thought about two groups: homosexuals and homeschoolers. And these two groups can be thought of as the Marines—the forward flank of either army. Homeschoolers have in this nation, certainly in our state, for several decades now, sought to raise up a faithful generation, a generation more faithful than they have been to the covenant of God. And God has given us freedom. He’s dried up the water. He’s opened a way for the whole homeschooling community.

But at the same time, what we’ve seen raised up in increasing force in our lifetime—I mean, when I was a boy, the idea that homosexuality could form a political force in the nation was absolutely laughable. People did laugh at it. And yet here we are where the homosexual lobby has attacked the very image of God in marriage and is the forward flank, we could say, of those that oppose the work of Jesus Christ.

Now, it’s interesting to me. I’ve thought of these two armies, these two flanks of groups doing cultural battle. And we don’t war the way they war. We want to be careful we don’t use their weaponry. We’re the kings of the sun rising in his strength. And much of our labor is carried on in the small faithful task of raising up that generation who’ll be more faithful in applying the work of Jesus Christ and calling for a fuller orbed commitment to their families and their culture and their communities than we have been.

So we war differently, but we war nonetheless. Make no mistake about it.

And it’s interesting to me that in the providence of God this Wednesday, I’ve told you that I’ll be speaking at a homeschool rally. This is the big homeschool day. Every other year when the legislature meets, they have one day—apple pie day—and we go down and try to be as Christians, be respectful and properly respectful toward our legislators. Show them reverence. Show them our concern and care for them. Apple pies are given.

And also, we have a hearing on another homeschool bill—an attempt to remove state regulation of homeschoolers altogether in our state. Something that Jack Phelps was here today and the people up in Alaska achieved many years ago, and we battle for that same thing here. Difficult battle.

Well, so that’s the big day for us and the hearing is at 1:00 and big rally at noon down in Salem and I’ll be speaking at that and I’ll take the world history class down for a field trip stopping at where Jason Lee and his set up the first missionary encampment here at the Willamette Mission State Park and then moving on to Salem where Jason Lee went and formed the basis of government, education, and community in Oregon with Christian roots. We’ll be talking about that.

But it’s interesting to me that I didn’t find out until this last week that Wednesday is a big day for the other group too, because at 4:00 on Wednesday, Senate Bill 1000 will be heard. And Senate Bill 1000 is the bill that attempts to create civil unions and give civil rights protection to homosexuals. So we’re going to have it. We’re going to have Revelation 16 sort of playing out in some little symbolic way Wednesday—the homeschoolers and the homosexuals, the homers and the homos, kings of the sun rising and the three frog demon army.

I don’t, you know, I don’t mean to, you know, unfairly. I mean, homosexuals are today are like a lot like, you know, young gals who give their children up for abortion. They’ve been fooled, tricked, deceived by the culture. But still, they’re in rebellion to Christ. They need to be told that.

They need to be told that our basis for opposing SB 1000 is not just because it’s going to cost the state money or it might psychologically change homes and families and it’s a risky social experiment which might work but probably won’t. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We have—we’re the army that is from the king of the sun rising, Jesus Christ, coming from the east bringing light into darkness. So we go into that.

What’s it got to do with Hebrews 3:1-6? Well, it’s got a lot to do with it. As it turns out, Hebrews 3:1-6 begins the third section of this book. And we saw the introduction to it on your outlines. I’ll give you the outline again.

So we’re in the third section. And I repeat here the link to this third section—under Roman numeral 2 in your outline. Remember, at the end of that second section, we had this verse: “that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.” That’s the introduction to the third section.

And like most of these introductions, he then goes after the subject matter—the compassion or mercy of Jesus and the faithfulness of Jesus as his high priest—and he goes about in reverse order. So he ends the introduction with faithfulness and he begins then in chapter 3 talking about the faithfulness of the king of the sun rising, Jesus Christ, his faithfulness. And then he’ll move after then a section where he quotes from Psalm 95, which we’ll deal with next week. He then moves into the last half of this section, which is the idea that Jesus is compassionate as well.

So here in section three, Jesus is the high priest and he is explicitly designated as faithful and compassionate. Now, matching this section of Hebrews the way the book is structured—and I’ve put it in bold text for you, Roman numeral 5, chapter 11 verse 1-214—we should live with faith and endurance. And those of you that know Hebrews at all probably know that chapter 11 is that great chapter with the hall of faith.

So we go back to that same topic that section three opens up with: the faithfulness of Jesus. And we’ll have a long description of the faithfulness of our ancestors who lived in the old covenant before Jesus came as a call for us to be faithful. And then there’ll be an exhortation there and then we’ll see that we’re also supposed to endure.

We’re to have faith like these men had faith and we’re to endure. The compassion of Jesus Christ is a model for us to be compassionate. We’ll talk about that in a few weeks. But it’s also the basis, it seems, the way the book is structured, for our endurance.

When we go down to faithfully fulfill our calling for Jesus this Wednesday to talk about his crown rights, we can endure the tribulations and trials and persecutions because we remember that Jesus is not just a commander who just tells us to salute and that’s it and is cold and uncaring. No, he’s the compassionate commander. He’s the compassionate high priest. And that fuels, you see, our endurance.

And so that’s the way the text sort of works in the big outline structure. Now, in a smaller structure, I’ve given you here then kind of a detailed structure of this third section. Jesus is going to be described as a better high priest. He begins with Moses, but we’ll talk about that in a minute. Moses was a priest. We’ll see that. But so Jesus is being described now as high priest, the source of faithfulness, rest, and compassion.

So faithfulness and compassion—the source of that for us. And in the middle of that, the warning section of Psalm 95. We’ll talk about next week. The encouragement to be diligent to enter the Sabbath rest of Jesus. There remains a Sabbath keeping for the people of God, the text will tell us. And we’re supposed to be diligent to enter that rest.

So he’s the source of compassion, the source of rest, and the source of faithfulness. The third day of creation is the beginning of plants. The third festival in Leviticus 23 is first fruits. The whole thing hasn’t come up. A single sheaf is waved. Just like Jesus raised up, the first single sheaf, right? Firstborn of the dead. Jesus is our first fruits going into heaven. But he’s going to bring many more sons to glory.

Hebrews told us last week in chapter 2. And so Jesus is the beginning, the first fruits. But then as on the fifth day, birds and fish representing the nations of the world teem and flock. So Jesus will bring many sons to glory. He’s the source of things for us. And specifically in Hebrews, he is the source of faithfulness. He’s going to call us to be faithful. He’s going to be the source of entering into rest. He’s going to be the source of compassion for one another as faithful priests, but also because of his compassion and because of his suffering, the source of our endurance.

So that’s what this section is all about. It’s laid out in a four-fold pattern here. Jesus is faithful and worthy of our faith. We’ll talk about that today, first six verses. We should give him our faith and enter into his rest. That’s the next major section. In this third section of Hebrews, this middle section, this rest, I’ve got verse 7 on the printed outline at the bottom of the page in brackets because verse 6, as we’ll see when we get back to it in more detail, is a hinged text reminding us that we are this house of God if we are confident and maintain our confession.

So it’s a hinge to that exhortation: give—he’s faithful and we should give him our faith and enter into his rest by doing that. We should seek mercy through him and then Jesus is merciful and compassionate. So that’s the way this section will work and we’ll take three Sundays to get through it.

In connecting that to the next section—the way we did with sections 2 and 6 in 11 through 12:14—we have that great chapter in 11 where our ancestors are faithful and they endured hardships. Right? That’s what it’s all about in that hall of faith there. And then like our ancestors, in chapter 12, verse one, the first half of it, like our ancestors, we should run with endurance this race.

So we should have endurance like they had endurance. And we do this by looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So we endure like they did as faithful men, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the text says. So faith and endurance is the big motto here in today’s text. He’s going to say, “Consider, think about, focus your attention on Jesus.”

And here in the matching section, same thing: “You know, endure looking to Jesus, thinking about, considering him the author and finisher of our faith.” So we’re to be faithful for Jesus Christ. He entered into joy. He endured unto joy. And we as sons in the rest of that sixth section should also endure unto chastening. So if it’s necessary to be chastened, that’s okay. Jesus Christ endured to the death for the joy and glory that was set before him. And we should in like fashion do that.

All right. So that’s the big picture of where all this is in the sermon that we find in Hebrews.

Let’s look now at the specific text. We’ll just go through the verses and talk a little bit about particular points I want to emphasize. And I guess I should apologize for this kind of double structure that I give you here. I hope it isn’t confusing, but I do think that there’s a structure that kind of helps to look at the center. There’s a beginning and an end. That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

You look at the text there in the first section. “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” That’s describing us. And at the very end of the text, “whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence, the rejoicing of our hope firm to the end.” So the author of this sermon begins with a direct address to them—first time in the sermon—and he addresses them specifically. And then he exhorts them specifically at the end.

So there’s a beginning and end to this little section within the larger section and then we’re to consider the apostle and high priest of our confession moving in verse one. And matching that down below, Jesus Christ is the son over his own house. So it begins and ends with us and moving in it focuses us on Jesus, considering him the apostle and high priest. And then he is the son over the house.

So when I have this structure that it has these successive sections of bookends that help us to kind of think about the text a little bit and meditate upon the flow of the text. But there’s another structure to it that we don’t want to miss. And that’s where I put this four-fold outline in there with Roman numerals.

Number one: You know, this section begins with a comparison of Jesus and Moses. Now, it’s very important to understand this. That at this point, frequently we start to go wrong with this entire sermon of Hebrews. And if we go wrong here, it’s going to lead us into some serious mistakes as we get into the center of the book.

We think about, you know, Jesus is better than the angels and he’s better than the prophets and now he’s better than Moses. And so we think that the Mosaic economy was bad and the New Testament economy is good. So all we’re going to be told about is how insufficient and bad that was and how good this is. We look at it with all discontinuity—that’s what we think of it as.

But that’s not the point at all in here. That’s not the point at all. The text begins not with a contrast. It’s going to get to that, but it begins and has its primary emphasis on continuity between the Mosaic economy and Jesus. It begins by comparing Jesus to Moses. Okay?

And it’s not that Jesus is a faithful priest and Moses was unfaithful. There it is—I’ll match it up here in the C sections. Moses was faithful to him—excuse me. It talks about Jesus, “who was faithful to him who appointed him.” But then moving in from 2, “as Moses also was faithful in his house.” And then matching that in verse 5, “Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant.”

So you see, it’s not that Moses was unfaithful. If we do that, then we get to all this stuff about the temple and the sacrificial system and we want to just jettison it all. But that’s not what’s going on. There’s continuity that’s being stressed.

Now, there’s, you know, a contrast as we move through this text, but it’s very important we understand this. We’re not New Testament Christians who are somehow separate. You know, we are the ones who are true Jews, the epistles tell us, right? So we’re not some big break with the Old Testament. And in some respects, this is what a lot of people in some of the controversial movements in Reformed theology today are trying to assert—that there’s a whole Bible approach to this stuff and that there is much continuity.

Moses indeed showed us what Jesus would accomplish. As faithfully, and then the rest of this middle section about Jesus’s priesthood and all the details of the sacrificial system of the old being compared to Jesus, it’s to show us that he was being pictured in all of that. So there’s not radical discontinuity. There’s a comparison.

Now, he does in the second section talk about the superiority of Jesus to Moses. Jesus is worthy of more honor, more glory. Okay? So there is that—there’s more glory, more faithful is Jesus than Moses. He is the one who is counted worthy of more glory. And then we’re told the reason for this superiority. And the big reason is that God has created all things. And the God who creates all things is like the creator of the house. He has more glory than the creation.

So it’s not a matter of contrasting discontinuity between the creation and the creator—just the reverse. It’s because God created all things that he is worthy of more glory. But it’s not because the creation is bad. It’s just the reverse. He made it good. And so in the same way Jesus has more glory than Moses.

Moses is compared to the house, you know. So this contrast is then based in the fact that Moses was faithful, but Moses was not the son. He wasn’t the creator. It wasn’t his house, right? He was a servant in the house. Jesus is the owner of the house. Jesus is the creator of all things. God uses Christ to create the world. So because of that, he gets more glory. He’s the creator, not the creation. Moses was a faithful servant. What he did was good and proper, wonderful.

God raised him up and we want to see ourselves in continuity with that. We want to look to the Old Testament and to Moses to figure out what sort of civil laws we should frame. What do we do when we go on to Salem? What do we tell them? Well, we don’t look to the Old Testament. We throw out much of the material. We want to look to Proverbs to understand what wisdom is. We want to look at the worship patterns in the Old Testament to understand what our worship should be like. That’s what this book is about. It’s saying, “Oh, if you understand worship, then we’re not something totally new and different.”

Jesus has more glory than Moses because he’s the creator. But he puts into effect all that system showed us and we rehearse that—not looking forward to the coming of Jesus, but looking back at what Jesus accomplished 2,000 years ago. So there’s comparison and then there’s a contrast, but the contrast isn’t over faithfulness or not. The contrast is over the creator and the creation.

And Moses is described as the house itself and he’s a servant. Right? Remember we talked about the angels—they’re tutors governing God’s people until Jesus, the first fruits, comes and now mankind assumes authority over the angels, Paul says. And so in the same way, the servants maintain the house. Picture what’s going to happen when the greater owner of the house, the son, arrives.

And so it’s a servant versus son. And now the son has come and he’s worthy of more glory. And then there’s a relevance of this text, you know, that’s the good news that this greater glory has come and that Jesus is the source of faithfulness. He is the faithful high priest. And then there’s some implications for us.

So that’s kind of why I’ve given you both this bookend structure that helps us to see the beginning and end with us. And then in the moving end—we are faithful as we meditate upon Jesus Christ and who he is as we look to him. And then we see his faithfulness, and then we see his comparison primarily to Moses with some degree of discontinuity because of his more honor. He is the one who built the house and therefore he has more glory than Moses.

Now let’s go back over these texts with a little bit more detail and I want to point out some things.

Verse one: “Therefore,” so we have a new section beginning. All this is being told on the basis of what he’s just talked about. “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.”

Why are they holy? Well, if you were here last week, if you heard the sermons of the last section, we’re holy because the one who has consecrated us is Jesus Christ. So he’s made this argument that provides the basis for our understanding that we’re a group of people who are set apart in a very real sense because Jesus is the one who consecrates us. Priestly language again—we’re holy but we’re holy brothers not just with each other but with Jesus. Remember we just made that point in chapter 2 as well.

Jesus is our brother. “Partakers of the heavenly calling. So we’re partakers of this. He brings many sons to glory,” the heavenly calling.

And then we’re told very explicitly here that we’re to consider then. So he’s telling us who we are and to get us to the place of faithfulness, which is where he’s going in the application. He wants us to meditate, to consider, to think about something. What is it?

“Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus.”

Now Christ is not in best manuscripts. It probably shouldn’t be there in the best of manuscripts. It’s just Jesus. And I’ll talk about that in a little bit as well, the significance of that.

But we’re to consider—think upon the apostle and high priest. Now, it says “the apostle and…the high priest.” So by doing that, it links the two together. Jesus is the apostle—odd term, not normally used about him. In the Old Testament, the angels were apostles of God. It says in the Septuagint, they were ones who were sent by God. Jesus is the ultimate apostle. He’s the son of God. You see, God sends him to us and he sends him to us to be our high priest in representing us to God.

So son of God, son of man, apostle, high priest—linked together—not to be thought of as two separate offices really, but one calling. Jesus is sent to be our high priest to consecrate us. And to be the priest, the argument will go on to say, who is both faithful and merciful and therefore is the source of faithfulness and mercy to us.

“That’s what it says next. Jesus was faithful to him who appointed him.”

So the text focuses us on considering Jesus. And the language is funny here, right? It doesn’t say “consider Jesus who was the apostle.” It says “Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession Jesus.” So it draws attention to the name and then to his faithfulness. “Who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house.”

Now there’s a couple of things we should recognize here before we move on. We normally think of Moses as a prophet but we know that the introduction to this section said he’s going to talk about Jesus’s high priesthood. Well, Moses is actually referred to as a high priest as well—in Psalm 99 as a priest rather, as well.

In Psalm 99:6, we read, “Moses and Aaron among his priests and Samuel among them that called upon his name. They called upon the Lord and he answered them.” So Moses is being addressed here not as a prophet. Moses is being addressed as a priest, you see. And so we’re in a section dealing with priesthood. That’s going on. We’re to think about Moses as a priest. This was not a new thought for the people that were receiving this sermon. That’s what they thought about. The Jews thought of Moses as a priest because of his access, because of him building the tabernacle, receiving the instructions, his Levitical background in Exodus 2, his ministry of the word and the privileged visions of God he received in Exodus 33 and Numbers 12, his service at the altar in Exodus 24—all associated Moses with priestly functions.

And so Moses was looked upon as a priest. And the author doesn’t hesitate to actually categorize Moses as a high priest. So there’s a sense in which, you know, what he’s doing is he’s talking to people who are being tempted to apostasize from the faith, to leave the worship of the church, to go back to Judaic worship, to go back to Moses as the high priest instead of Jesus as the high priest. You see, so that’s kind of the flow of the argument here. Is Moses in his priestly calling.

And then there’s some references here that we should look at. Turn to Numbers 12 if you would in your scriptures, verses 1 to 9. Maybe here, but certainly in verse 5 of this text, there’s a reference to the faithfulness of Moses over his house. And it’s talked about in Numbers 12.

Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman. So we got racism here in the holy family, family of priests. He had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it.

“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who are on the face of the earth.” That’s very significant. The most humble of men.

“And then suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, come out you three to the tabernacle of meeting. So the three came out. Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. Then he said, ‘Hear now my words. If there’s a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream.’ Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. So you see, it’s not a contrast to some what faithful guy in the Old Testament. This reference back to Numbers 12 is alluded to throughout these six verses. The faithfulness of Moses is in distinction from prophets really. It’s kind of addressing Moses as a priest.

“I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings. And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then are you not afraid to speak against Moses, my servant?”

You see, it’s very important that the guys that receive this sermon, they know their Old Testament. They want to go back to Moses. And he says to them, you know, wait a minute. Moses was faithful, but now we have one who is more faithful.

And just like Aaron and Miriam were on the verge of judgment for rejecting the mediation of Moses, you are going to be judged like them for rejecting the great high priest to come, son of God and son of man, that Moses clearly pointed to. You’re going to get judged.

So the text reminds them of the faithfulness of Moses. Now there’s two meanings to this word. One: Moses was the guy God chose. He was faithful because he was the appointed representative and that’s what’s being pointed being made. But secondly, Moses was faithful. He did what he was supposed to do. He was trustworthy. He was the friend of God. And so that faithfulness of Moses is being described here.

There’s another text that describes that we can—that is probably alluded to here as well. And 1st Samuel 2, verses 34 and 36. This is, you know, the context of this is the judgment upon Hophni and Phinehas in verse 34 of 1st Samuel 2.

“This shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons on Hophni and Phinehas. In one day they shall die, both of them. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house. He will walk before my anointed forever. It shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him.”

So once again, the faithfulness of the high priest nature of Jesus, the illusion in the Old Testament first to Moses being faithful, is a passage of judgment. And the other illusion in 1 Samuel is another passage of judgment. “I’m going to raise up somebody more faithful and he’s going to be the one you’re going to have to deal with.”

So implied in what this text says is the warning, you know, not to turn their backs upon the one who is the greater Moses and the great high priest who is going to be faithful over the household of God.

Another reference is in 1 Chronicles 17. And here we’re reading about David and how he’s going to die.

“But God will set up your seat after you, who will be of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father. He shall be my son.”

So the faithful builder of the house, prophesied to David, again in the context of judgment. You’re not the guy. But eventually the greater David will come and he will build my house.

So all that is alluded to. All those messages are brought into this with their accompanying warning against those who would go back to something that while perfectly good, Moses’ faithfulness was itself pointing forward to the greater high priest and the more faithful Jesus to come.

So Jesus is the apostle high priest. “Moses also was faithful in all his house for this one is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, but Jesus is more glorious because he has in as much as he built the house has more honor than the house.”

So that’s the line of argumentation and the implied warning to it as well. God’s creation of all things, Jesus’s creation of the world, which ultimately is the house of God.

Now, you know, it’s useful to think here. What would they think? We have the word “house” used six times here, right? And if we know the Old Testament, it’s “your house and my house. My house, if you want your house and not my house, I’m going to judge you.” Remember, we saw that in Daniel, the house of the gods of Nebuchadnezzar and then the house of God, the vessels, the men and stuff brought in. We’re going to war against the house. You know, God wars against the house of Dagon. So it’s a matter of whose house.

But how are you going to understand that as you’re getting this sermon? Well, you’re gonna understand it about the tabernacle. Moses built the tabernacle and the temple. That’s the house of God. That’s the dwelling place of God.

So we have here an obvious connection between the church of Jesus Christ described as the dwelling place of God in terminology that’s like the temple. Just like in first Peter 2 where lively stones are built into a spiritual house for God. We are the temple of God.

I read a recent article where one of the points made by a man opposing covenant renewal worship was “well, yeah, the church is never referred to as the temple. Individuals are but not the church corporately.” How wrong could you be? How can you read what we just read and not see that the church is being addressed as the house and first Peter—the living stones comprising this spiritual house?

And that’s what this is setting up—the rest of this middle section with all these details showing the connections between the Old Testament system administered faithfully by Moses and would have pictured Jesus Christ. So there’s not discontinuity being stressed again. There’s basic continuity.

“Moses indeed again in verse five is faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterwards.”

So again, the Mosaic system and specifically the tabernacle and the worship system is a prefigurement. It is a testimony of those things that would be spoken afterwards by Jesus. It’s a testimony of what Jesus would accomplish and do.

“And then Christ as a son over his own house. So servant versus son.”

And then the relevance to the Hebrews is talked about here in verse in the next verse where we’re told now “whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence until the end.”

So we come then to the application. And it’s important here, and it’s, it’s tough to describe this, but the assertion is in this concluding admonition to us—the segue to the whole long section of exhortation—the assertion is that we’re this house that we’re the house—like Moses was part of the house—that we’re the house we’re Jesus’s house. And so we’re those holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, meditating upon Jesus.

And now we’re that house.

It’s not as if you hear all of this today in this sermon and you say, “Well, that’s interesting.” And now I tell you, well, you might be his house, you might not be his house. That’s not what it says. “Whose house you are” is what it says.

And now we have an if clause, a condition here. “If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”

But maybe probably a better way to translate that would be to say this: “whose house we are supposing as we should do that we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” It’s not neutral news. You know, later after the warnings, these horrible things will happen. But we have much better expectations of you brothers, the author of the sermon to the Hebrews says.

So what you hear in this message, in this sermon, in this section of the sermon is the gospel. And the gospel is that you now are this house that Jesus Christ has built and you are these holy brothers consecrated by him as living stones. You comprise the temple, the house of Jesus Christ. You are partakers of this heavenly calling. God is bringing you into being sons of glory. You are this wonderful house.

And as a result of that, you have implicitly then the need to be faithful. You are this house supposing that we hold fast the confidence is boldness here. Later on, the same word is used a couple of times. We have boldness to approach the throne of God. We have boldness to come before him in time of need. You see, but it’s also a boldness and a courage that means that our testimony for Jesus in the midst of an urban culture that is not with us in the faith that we have boldness in the context of that culture to speak forth the truths of Christ’s word.

Our confession of Jesus as the apostle and high priest at the beginning of this text is what we are to be bold to make statements of and live our lives in reference to. And it is that which distinguishes us as the house of Christ.

We are this house supposing that if we do this stuff we suppose we will. But you see there’s a response required. Faithfulness. Boldness to hold the confession. Boldness to be faithful in professing Jesus Christ.

Wednesday as we go forward to talk about why we think homeschooling should be legal and why homosexuality should not be encouraged or condoned by the civil state. Boldness to speak the name of Jesus. Boldness to live our lives in our workplace as faithful stewards of Jesus Christ. Not just boldness, but a rejoicing of this hope firm to the end.

So we have this call upon us.

Now, this call was already implied. You probably didn’t notice it, but when I read from 1 Samuel 2, when God said he would raise up a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind, God then says, “I will build him a faithful house.” A sure house is how the King James has it translated, but it’s this word “faithful.”

So Jesus Christ is the faithful builder of the house. But the house that’s built is a faithful, sure house. And so again, the idea is that Jesus is the forerunner, the faithful one who calls us to live lives of faithfulness.

Hebrews 3—we’ll say later in verse 14—”we have become partakers of Christ assuming that we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end.” So the idea here—we’ll get to it in more explicit terms in the fifth section of the book where we have the long list of faithfulness. We’re specifically admonished to be faithful. But that’s what’s behind this already here.

Jesus, the faithful one over the house, has created or is bringing to pass a faithful house, you and I. And we are only members of that house, brothers and sisters. It’s not as if it’s a house that’s partly faithful and partly not. It is a sure house that he’s built. And so there’s great blessing, but there’s a required response to this wonderful news that Jesus has come.

And the response is a required faithfulness, sureness on our part, a faithfulness to have confidence and boldness in making our confession of faith. So it’s required.

God only builds a faithful, sure house. And we must do that.

The message is simple today because the requirement is simple. And really the requirement, we’re told in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, of a steward. So we’ve been given a stewardship responsibility as being this house of Christ. And the requirement of a steward that’s listed for us in 1 Corinthians 4:

“It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful.”

Faithful. So not only is Jesus our faithful high priest, and the end result of that is that we are then called to live lives of conformity and faithfulness to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Now, I mentioned that the word order earlier: “Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus.” And it’s an unusual word order. And by doing it that way in the Greek, it really sort of shouts out Jesus. Okay?

And this is to reinforce the point that Elder W. made several months back. To hold fast our confession, to be bold in what we do this week means using the name Jesus. That’s what was talked about at the beginning of the text. Okay? And very specifically, Jesus is talked about.

Now, you know, the next verse will talk about the Holy Spirit giving us scripture—the Holy Spirit. And he’s talked about a few times in this book, but over and over again in this book, the name that comes ringing through as basic to our faithfulness as the sure house of God is Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.

We read in Hebrews 2:9, “we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels.” We talked about that before. Hebrews 6:20 where “the forerunner is entered for us. Jesus,” same sort of word order—”the forerunner, even Jesus, you see, having become high priest forever.”

Hebrews 7:22, “by so much more Jesus has become surety of our better covenant.”

Hebrews 10:19, “therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter into the holiness by the blood of Jesus,” see the name stressed again.

Hebrews 12:2, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” in the matching section to the one here.

And then in Hebrews 12:24, “we come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.”

And finally in Hebrews 13:20, “may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead equip you for every good work.”

Faithfulness, always faithful is what this text calls us to be. And that faithfulness means naming the name Jesus in our profession and what we go about doing in our lives. No, it means a lot more than that. It means that surely, but it means living lives of faithfulness.

I was thinking of Steve Sykes a couple weeks ago when it came out that President Bush appointed a new commander of the Joint Chiefs, Peter Pace, Pete Pace, and he’s a Marine, the first Marine. You know, I years ago, I remember a woman calling—was a long time ago—and asking about our church, and I described it. She knew about us and said, “Are you going to come visit?” Well, no. I don’t think we could do it. “You guys are like the Marines,” she said, “at your church. We’re not ready for that in our family yet.” You know, there’s a commitment to Jesus that we preach and hopefully we live that does make a difference for Jesus in our education, our political action, and every other thing.

But so she was sort of right. But this text tells us that Jesus is the faithful one and the only house that he builds is a faithful house. The only ones who are part of this house are those who are faithful to keep this confession until the end and have joy in it.

Even the marine motto is “semper fi”—short for “semper fidelis.” What does it mean? Always faithful.

As we go forward, you know, as the army of the king of the sun rising on Wednesday, we’re supposed to be Marines. Always faithful to Jesus. That’s it. That’s the motto of the Christian life that this text calls us to. Jesus is faithful. He’s the source of our faithfulness. Will we be faithful to him this week? That’s the calling. And it’s a wonderful thing because on one hand, it says that the house of God is only made up of Marines.

Number one: You know, I don’t know how to explain this exactly. I don’t know how to think about it, but it’s not true that you can be a Christian and have a life that’s not marked by faithfulness. This text tells us otherwise. It says that the only way you’re part of the sure or faithful house of Jesus is if you hold fast this confession. If you hold fast this confidence and boldness to be faithful in your witness of Jesus with your tongue, with your actions, and in your everyday deeds—only if you’re a Marine, simply always faithful—are you part of the house of Jesus Christ?

That’s what the text says.

Now, I don’t know what to do, you know, with a lot of people that are kind of nominal about their faith. I mean, the text, I think, pushes me in a direction of saying, well, you better be careful. He tells these Hebrews, “boy, if you don’t maintain it to the end, you’re—if you’re not a Marine for Jesus, if you’re not semper fi, always faithful, not too good.”

So our call today is a simple one. Be faithful to Jesus. Be faithful to speak his name. Be faithful to live your lives in such a way as would bring blessing and glory to the God of heaven and well-being to you.

Now, let me talk about a couple of very specific quick applications. I want to talk to the old guys here, me, and I want to talk to some of us who are older, right? And we have temptations now that you young guys don’t have. We’re tempted, strongly tempted, on the one hand, to get kind of grumpy about everything and not be faithful in our love and service and hospitality of the church of Jesus Christ. And the other thing we’re tempted to do is sort of fade off the scene, you know, because our culture particularly, that’s what you do. You get an old guy, you sort of become useless. The young culture moves the culture along. But of course, the Bible is contradictive of all that, right?

It’s the old guys who rule the church and rule the culture one way or the other. And you either do it with your apathy and your grumpiness and the church and culture suffers, or you do it with your renewed commitment to be faithful to the end of our lives. We got 20, 25 years left.

Brad Hangard told me last week, we ought to have a support group for guys in midlife. Different things going on. Our bodies are getting weaker, not stronger. Different temptations. And this is what we’re called to do. Semper fi is what we need to be telling each other now. Old guys, over and over again. Semper fi. Keep the faith. Be faithful to the end.

I love this verse from the Psalms. Psalm 71:18:

“Now also, old guys, when we are old and gray headed. We’re getting there and we’re most of us are there and some are. Oh God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come.”

Old age is to be a time of renewed commitment to semper fi. And we need to have that renewed commitment because if we don’t, we’re going to get tired of going to Salem and doing this at the church and doing this with our kids.

So old men, older guys, semper fi, you’re coming into your own.

Now, it may feel like we’re losing power and strength and you know the talking heads. “This is not my house that I wanted. This isn’t my beautiful wife. And the wise are saying, ‘This isn’t the husband I wanted.’” But God says, “Oh yes, it is. These are the people you’re supposed to be faithful to. This is perfect for you. I’m all wise. I’m all powerful. I’m all sovereign.” God says, “And I love you so much. And this is the house you should have right now.” I mean, literal house, house you’re functioning in your home. This is the wife you need most. This is the best wife for you. This is the best husband for you.

You’re tempted at middle life, mid-life, start to fade off. No. Faithfulness. Be faithful to love your wife. Be faithful to love your husband. Continue to the end. Be a Marine and applying faithfulness in the context of your life now that you’re older.

I’ll tell you another application of this. We’re starting a school this fall. And I’m going to probably shoot myself in the foot here. I want to get this school started. I think it’s important. It’s part of what has held the last 20 years of my life, in part, is committed to doing to raise up a more faithful generation, to take kids as they’re approaching adult life and do stuff with them that maybe we can’t in some of our homes. So there’s lots of good reasons for starting a school up and for some of us taking advantage of them.

But let me tell you a reason that’s not so good. And I know this is going to be a little controversial. What would not be a good reason to send your kids to school? If moms—is if you sort of want to coast now, you know, if you want to be sort of like the culture among us and sort of take the foot off the gas and slow down and smell the roses, which means not attending to your kids as much. If it’s if it’s a desire to sort of slack off from faithfulness, don’t send your kids to Kings Academy.

If all it is you’re tired, not enough.

See, now if you think they can get a better education here than what you’re doing or taking classes that would be good or not great. But see, wives, older homeschoolers, semper fi, keep the faith. Be part of the Marines, the true house of Jesus Christ.

He’s faithful. He gives us his faithfulness today. He ministers it to us. It’s a gift of his. Right? The psalmist doesn’t say, “Now I can really tough it up and I can do it.” He says, “No, forsake me not, God. Give me—make me always faithful so that I can declare your name to the young.”

So old people, old guys, old women, moms who are getting tired. Semper fi. Keep up the good work. Continue to the end. Semper fi.

This Wednesday we go to Salem. Semper fi—a message of Jesus and what his word says. The best way to love a homosexual is to get him to repent of his sin. Not to continue letting him go on in that sin. Our job is to rescue those that are being hauled off to death. And that’s what those guys are through sexual temptation. And women, semper fi, be faithful.

It’s going to cost the Hebrews, right? They’re in a big urban area, little home church. What can we do?

He says, “What can you do? You’re going to transform the world. You’re the pioneers that I have planted in this darkness to bring the light of Jesus. Just semper fi in the small things of life. It’ll be all right. Be faithful in your sexual relationships. Be faithful in your work.”

When you go to work on time, young people, now addressing a different group. When you go to work on time, you’re fulfilling the calling of Jesus Christ. He’s the faithful high priest and you want to be the faithful employer or employee, right? It’s not a small thing. It is of the essence of our holding fast our faith. Semper fi.

When you get up tomorrow morning, you’re tempted to sleep in and not get to school on time or not do your studies or not go to work or not work hard and well for your employer. Semper fi. Tough it up. Be a Marine. Be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. He’s faithful. And I’m telling you, the only ones that are part of his house are those who are faithful and endure. And even more than that, rejoice in that hope that Jesus has accomplished these things for us to the very end.

Young boys and girls, step for fi, be faithful in the little task. You may think it’s no big deal whether or not you do the dishes like mom said. But it’s the essence of the Christian calling to be faithful when mom and dad tell you to do a task to fulfill it to the end. Jesus is the great high priest. He’s the faithful one and he calls us to be faithful people.

And more and more we can be pioneers and transform this culture through just the simple acts of faithfulness because we live in the context of a world that is moving further and further away from simple faithfulness—to complete a task to get to the task on time and do it well.

Young men and women, you may think you’re just being trained in silly little household tasks, but your parents are equipping you to be kings and queens as faithful Marines for the Lord Jesus Christ in the things that you’re called to do.

Young teenagers, be faithful to what? Faithful you, young boys, to hear your moms. You teenage boys, over and over again. We were talking about this in Proverbs class this morning. How do we get from a prince to a king? Well, we get down to Lemuel and he’s learned stuff from his mom as king. And he’s giving us not his words, but his mother’s words. And then he tells us about what a great wife he’s got.

In Proverbs, teenage boys are to be called to faithfulness over and over again into several things. Hard work, right company, but primarily the right kind of women. See, and you learn that by being faithful to honor your mom when you’re 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. I mean, honor your dad, too, but it’s your mom that’s tough.

See, we’re coming up to Mother’s Day next week. Be faithful. A Marine for Jesus Christ.

God only calls those who are faithful into his house. He builds a sure house. And this text is a calling. It’s great news that the greater Moses has come. That all the things were talked about. Now the son has arrived who is the great son of God, the apostle, the son of man, our high priest. He’s made us holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. All that stuff is wonderful.

And he tells us this gospel to the end that we may have his faithfulness unto the end—the way he was faithful for us. We sang earlier. “Come ye faithful. Raise the anthem. Cleave the skies with shouts of praise. Sing to him who found a ransom, ancient of eternal days.” Jesus is the ancient of days.

The text tells us we’re to be faithful. “Oh mighty host. No tongue can tell the numbers of its throng. No words can sound the music vast of its great battle saw.” Faithfulness is the battle cry. Semper fi as we move into our week today into the rest of our lives.

We do so at the battle cry of semper fi—always faithful. This is the mark of those who claim the name of Christ: Christians.

Let’s pray. Father, we pray that you would make us faithful this week. Faithful to persevere if we’re tired. Faithful to get up if we’re tired. Faithful to go to bed if we’re not tired, Lord God, so that we can get up the next day. Faithful as workers. Faithful to put in good long hours at our jobs and diligence. Faithful in running our companies for you, Jesus Christ. Faithful in professing Jesus as the great apostle and high priest whom we honor. Faithful to take the message of Jesus, the king of the sun rising.

And when those of us who go to Salem this Wednesday do so, call us, Lord God, to be that faithful flank, the forward troops of Jesus Christ in simple acts of faithfulness to you day in and day out. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.