Text: Hebrews 3:1-
Introduction
Last week, we have learned that we have to take heed of the words that we have learned and that those that we will be learning from the Bible so that we will not be missing three important things in our spiritual lives:
a. The salvation.
b. The authority and respect to our Lord.
c. Our Lord our self.
These three things are the very foundation of our faith, thus, without taking heed of the words that we have heard first, then it will be very difficult for us to receive nor recognize the salvation that was given and our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Today, we will be discussing the faithfulness of Christ not only to His Father but to humanity.
The Roles of Christ
The passage started with a sort of command that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus for the following reasons:
He is an Apostle – We have discussed before that an apostle is someone who was sent with a message. Jesus Christ was indeed sent with a message of Salvation, salvation that comes from God, salvation that was predestined to for humanity, a free gift from the giver of life.
He is the High Priest – The high priest is someone who works in the temple, leading, and teaching people about God. During the time Moses even up to now, the main role of a high priest is to bring sacrifices to the Lord. He is the only one who allowed to enter the Holy of Holies hall inside the temple of the Lord. He works as a representative of the people to the God.
As An Apostle
Here we can see two additional roles of Jesus Christ. He is an Apostle, someone who was sent with a message from God. This is why while he was on earth, He preached the good news of salvation, as a free gift to man. Unfortunately, most people did not take head of God's word and to what they have heard, denying their acceptance of salvation. Thus, even though it is free, only a few was able to have it.
Some of the famous set of sermons of Christ is what is known as the sermon of the mount (Matthew 6). Jesus taught the people how to go for another mile. He also taught people about God's plan of saving them by sending His only begotten Son to take the sins of the world.
He taught the people to obey God's will. Even if it is to the point of His physical death at the cross of calvary, He obeyed God. Even if he knows that He will suffer from unbearable things, He humbly accepted the will of the Father. These actions encouraged us all the more to be more faithful to Him.
By doing all these, he also have shown the love of the Father and His complete plan to humanity by demonstrating the kind of obedience that each Christians should possess. Not only that he demonstrated these acts, he also confirmed it authenticity.
With this confirmation, although it seems to be unbelievable to do that, it only showed that it is possible to happen, giving up His own life for unfaithful people just to show his great love for them.
As The High Priest
Being at the same time high priest, Jesus is our representative towards the Father. Again, for many people this is impossible to happen that he will be our representative if he himself is God. But the fact is, there is no such thing that is impossible to our God. Everything is possible. If such thing is not possible to human beings, it is very possible to our God where the limitless power lies.
Jesus Christ was our High Priest. Just like the human high priest, his role is to become the intercessor or the “man between” God and humanity. When Jesus said in John 14:6; “ 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”, He mean it. He is the only way to the Father. That is why he said, “ no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”, because He is the great mediator. The only person who is qualified to face the Father.
The passage is very clear in his statement. But some people tried to add more personalities in it. They were hoping that the more personalities to help them, the bigger their chance to be with the Father. However, the Bible only stated that there is only one personality that can ever do that, Jesus Christ.
As the Faithful One
Moses is the most significant heroes in the story of Israelites. He is the one that led the people out of the land of bondage, Egypt with God's help. The Lord spoken with Moses “face to face” and gave him the ten commandments (Ex.33:11). There is no doubt therefore that Moses is really highly respected among the Israelites.
The Jews respected Moses because he is the founder of their tribe, an organizer, and the father of their nation. Moses served as a servant of God, and he was faithful (v.5).
But who was Jesus Christ among the Jews? Perhaps while the writer wrote this book, Jesus is somewhat a popular person who died at the cross at calvary, yet only a few Jews believed in him. And most of them does not accept him as their savior. Most of them did not even realize that He is higher than Moses. This is why the author of this book is making an argument about Jesus role.
But Jesus on the other hand has been faithful more than that of Moses because he has been faithful as a Son over His own house (v. 6).
Conclusion
Knowing all these three, the passage gave a warning to all of us in verse 7-9. It says: “7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.”
We need to take heed of the words that we have received and heard. The Israelites suffered from their unfaithfulness for forty years. Even though they have experienced all the extra ordinary things that we haven't seen, they still turned their backs against God. As a result, they no one entered Canaan.
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