Jesus, Greater than Moses
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 28 July 2024
Let us consider Hebrews 3:1 – 6 where we know that author is the Holy Spirit. Now, Hebrews was written to a community of Jews who had been evangelized by the first apostles and prophets. And, some of them believed, and a congregation of believing Jews had arisen. But there were some Jews who were intellectually convinced but who had never made the step of faith.
In addition to those two groups, there was another group who had not been convinced, who had heard the Gospel but made absolutely no response at all. It is then to these three groups that Hebrews is written. There are certain passages directed to Hebrew believers, true Christians who have received Christ. They have come out of Judaism. And they have been born again.
Then secondly, the group of Hebrew non-Christians who are intellectually convinced. And they are warned that since they know so much, they better act upon it, lest they fall away and never be renewed again to repentance. Those who know the truth and willfully reject the truth are warned. They shall have much more punishment who willfully do not believe the Son of God.
Then thirdly, the group of Hebrew non-Christians. They don’t believe. So then there are three. If He’s talking to believers who are still hanging on to Judaism, He says, “You don’t need it. Christ is sufficient.” If he’s talking to unbelievers who are convinced, He says, “Put your faith in him. Christ is sufficient.” If he’s talking to the unbelieving Jews, He says, “Christ is superior. He is sufficient.”
So the theme in Hebrews is the perfect Christ, superior and sufficient. We need nothing in addition to Jesus Christ. Now, if the Holy Spirit is to show that Christ is better than anybody else, then the Holy Spirit must prove that the character of Jesus Christ, is better than all of those connected with the Old Testament. If this is a better covenant, it must have a better mediator.
The Holy Spirit says in Hebrews 1 that Jesus Christ is better than everybody and everything. In Hebrews 2 He says that Jesus Christ is better than angels. In Hebrews 3, He says Jesus is better than Moses. In Hebrews 4, Jesus is better than Joshua. And then Jesus is better than Aaron. So Jesus is better than the Old Testament people, sacrifices, et cetera. Jesus is superior, supreme and sufficient.
That’s the theme of Hebrews in two words: Consider Jesus. Now He compares Moses, the one who brought the first covenant. And the Jews esteemed Moses very highly. He was the man to whom God spoke mouth to mouth. He was a man who saw the glory of God. He was the man who had the glory of God transferred directly to his face. He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt.
But beyond that, the greatest thing in the mind of a Jew was the law. And Moses was the one who gave the law. And the Old Testament commandments and rituals were the Jews’ priority. And Moses had brought not only the Ten Commandments, but he had penned the entire Pentateuch, which lays out all the laws that governed everything they did. So Moses was the great law-giver.
And as great as Moses was, the Holy Spirit calls on us to gaze on Jesus, who is far greater than Moses. If you think Moses is great, consider Jesus. So in order for the Holy Spirit to present evidence to support the superiority, the supremacy, and the sufficiency of Christ, he selects a three-fold presentation. He says that Jesus is superior in His office, superior in His work, and superior in His person.
Superior in His office, He is the high priest. Superior in His work, He is the builder of the house. Superior in His person, He is the Son. First, the Holy Spirit says Jesus is superior to Moses in His office. Verse 1, “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. Consider Jesus.” That’s what I would like you to do tonight.
The first word, “Therefore.” On the basis of what I have just said, consider Jesus. We see Jesus in Hebrews 2:9, made lower than the angels. You’ve said that He’s the salvation captain, also a sanctifier, also brothers and sisters, He destroyed Satan and death. He is speaking directly to the believing Christian Jews, who were looking at Jesus out of one eye but glancing back all the time.
But most of us can’t relate to coming out of Judaism. And we don’t understand the temptation to hang on to the old things. We do find ourselves believing that our works and our religious trappings are what it’s all about. And while we accept God’s free grace complete in Christ, we kind of hang on to this kind of legalism rather than live the positive Christ-controlled, spirit-energized life.
“Therefore, holy brethren” So here He’s speaking to believers, to Christians, to holy Jews, holy brothers in Christ. Now, they’re not holy because of their practice, but because of their position. He calls them also “partakers of the heavenly calling.” In Hebrews, just about everything is heavenly. He is making a distinction between Christianity to Judaism. Judaism was an earthly calling with an earthly inheritance.
We’re only strangers and pilgrims here. We dangle our feet in the world, but we don’t really belong here. You’re citizens in heaven. Now, let go of the earthly things. That’s why there shouldn’t be any ritual in the church. We don’t need the ritual because the reality is here. Jesus said, “You worship the Father in spirit and in truth, not in ritual.” So believers then share in the righteous nature of Christ.
Consider Jesus. Now, the word “consider” does not mean it’s flighty. The word does not mean take a glance. The word means set yourself to gaze intently on Jesus. “Well, what’s He saying this to Christians for? We already know Christ.” Listen, no one needs that message any more than we do, because we are a long way from really discovering all of His glory, all that He is.
Many Christians don’t enjoy Jesus. They’re miserable and unhappy. They don’t know anything about joy. The only thing the Lord’s good for is to cry on. And the reason is, they don’t know Him experientially, they don’t know Him richly. You need to recognize real virtue. If you don’t enjoy Jesus, then you better stay with Him until your Christian life is one thrill after another.
God gives Jesus two titles. He calls Him the apostle and high priest. This is the first way that Jesus is better than Moses, for Jesus was both apostle and high priest; Moses was not. Moses was an apostle. Who was the high priest? Aaron. So Jesus is superior in his office, for He is both. Apostolos means sent from God. And Jesus is the supreme ambassador of God, sent to earth.
Secondly, an ambassador has to speak with the voice of the one who sent him. And so Jesus came and said, “I speak not that which I decide to speak. I speak only what I hear the Father say.” So Jesus was the perfect sent one from God. He came with all of God’s power, and with God’s voice He spoke. But beyond that, He was always the high priest of our profession.
The word “priest” in the Latin is the word pontifex, which broken into two words, means bridge-builder. And Jesus was the one who built the bridge from God to mankind. And so Jesus is not only the sent one from God, with all God’s power and speaking with God’s voice, but He is the one who takes man and God and brings them together. He’s the bridge-builder. And He’s also the bridge.
Then it says that He is the apostle and high priest. That is, He’s the one we confess. “If you profess Christ, if you confess that He is your Lord, then you certainly ought to gaze on Him, right?” That’s what He’s saying. “You Jews, you have received Christ, you’ve confessed Him as apostle and your new high priest, you’ve received all that He has. Now gaze on Him intently.”
Secondly, He’s superior in His works. Verses 2-4, “He was faithful to the one who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. 3 For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. 4 Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God.” Before talking about the difference, He talks about the similarities.
In John 6:38, it says, “For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” John 17:4 says, “I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” Jesus always did the father’s will. He was faithful. And then the Holy Spirit says in verse 2, “Just as Moses was faithful in all God’s household.” You see, there’s no distinction.
Now, you’ll notice that it says he was faithful in all God’s household. What is God’s household?” Well, in the Old Testament you read about the house of David and the house of Israel. So who is God’s household? Believers. The Old Testament believers, Israel, and any proselytes who may have been involved. Old Testament believers. Moses was faithful in God’s household.
And it says in verse 2 that Christ also was faithful to His house. It’s in Ephesians 2:19, “So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household.” It is His church. 1 Peter 2:4-5 says, “As you come to Him, a living stone, rejected by people but chosen and honored by God 5 you yourselves, as living stones built a spiritual house.”
But here comes the difference in verse 3, “For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house.” Moses was faithful, but he’s a piece of the house. Jesus made the house. That’s the difference. Jesus created Israel. All things were made by Him, Hebrews 1 or John 1. And without him was not anything made that was made.
So in order to do that, you have to be God.” That’s verse 4, “Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God.” And who built all things? Jesus did. He’s God. Every house is built by someone. You’re a part of God’s house. Somebody shared Christ with you, right? And they’re responsible in a human sense for part of the house. But who really created the house? Jesus did.
Thirdly, the superiority of His person. Verses 5–6, “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.” There’s a lot of difference between a servant and a Son.
Servants come and go; but sons are for life. Verse 5 says, “And Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant.” And this is a dignified word. It also is used of angels. It’s used of prophets in the Septuagint. He was a faithful, obedient, ministering, and he was a good steward of God. In Exodus 40, eight times it refers to Moses’ obedience to all that God commanded him.
As exalted as he was, Jesus was more exalted. Notice that the Holy Spirit never compares Jesus with the failures of Moses. He can be compared with anybody’s successes and still come out infinitely greater. Moses wasn’t the end of the line. That’s what Judaism doesn’t understand. Moses was only faithful as a testimony to those things which were yet to be said. Judaism without Christ is not the whole story!
Jesus said, “Moses wrote all about Me.” So you see, to accept Moses and not Jesus isn’t really to accept Moses. Moses was only a servant who pointed to something which would come after that. He was a steward of another’s house. Verse 6, “But Christ is the Son.” Over His own house. We are the Lord’s house. We are built together, Ephesians 2:22, for a house of the Spirit.
1 Timothy 3:15 says, “But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” Verse 6, “But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.”
You can tell who are really in the house of God, because they stay there. The one who falls out, never belonged in the first place. Now, this is repeated in Hebrews. If you really commit yourself to Christ, that’s evident by the way you live your life. But if under the pressure of persecution, you never make that commitment, then it proves you never were His house to begin with.
2 John 9 says, “Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.”
What’s He saying to us? He’s saying two things. Number one, be for real. Examine yourselves. Are you really in the faith? How about some of you tonight? Are you for real? And secondly, I say to you who are Christians already, consider Jesus. Christian, learn to live your whole life with your sights on Him. He is all you need. Paul said it well “You are complete in Him.” Let us pray.