Jesus is Sufficient

We live in a world of distractions. We have so many things competing for the attention of our minds. What is occupying your mind these days? Whatever it is that’s occupying your thoughts today; whatever it is that’s distracting you, making you fret or lose sleep; whatever’s robbing you of your peace or joy, what we’re about to look from Hebrews 3, may help guide your thinking, remove your distractions, and give you peace. In this passage we’re going to look at what it means to consider Jesus, so that we may see why He is completely sufficient to help us with whatever we’re facing or whatever we need.

1.Consider Jesus Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, Hebrews 2:1 We’re going to unpack three statements from this opening phrase that speak of who we are as God’s people, before we look at what it means to consider Jesus.

1) we are brothers and sisters. Jesus made us God’s children when we trusted in Him. In the previous chapter, we are told that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He suffered. Both the One who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:10-11 So, this command to “consider Jesus” is for every person who believes in Jesus. You are now part of God’s family. You are either a brother or sister of Jesus. This is your core identity.

2) “holy” Prior to Christ, you were not holy, but now you are. Now, when the Father sees you, He no longer sees you as a sinner, or a rebel, or as an enemy. He sees you with a new nature. You are a new person, different from before because you bear the nature of the risen Jesus. You are not just an adopted child of God, you’ve be given the nature of God. You are a new creation in Christ, your old nature is gone, and a new nature has come.

3) We share in a heavenly calling. And part of that calling is to become like Jesus so you might live and love like Jesus. And that’s why the author now commands us to “consider Jesus.”

What it means to “consider Jesus.” This word “consider” is a command and it communicates the idea of giving undivided attention to or giving continuous observation to. God wants your focus on Jesus – not all these distractions that take you away from your heavenly calling.

“The reason so many Christians are weak and worried is that they do not keep considering Christ, and so His full strength and comfort and guidance are not theirs. The Holy Spirit continually says to every believer, “Consider Jesus.” When life gets tough, and problems seem to have no solution, and everything goes bad, and disappointment and depression become “normal”, and temptations seem impossible to resist – put your gaze (attention) on Jesus and keep it there intently until He begins to unfold before your very eyes in all His glorious power.” Richard Phillips

For the remainder of this passage, the author of Hebrews gives us three things to consider about Jesus. Here’s the first thing he calls us to consider about Jesus:

2. Jesus is Sufficient as God’s Sent One Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. Hebrews 2:1-2 Apostle means “Sent One.” It was a title often used for official ambassadors. In this sense, Moses was God’s apostle. Moses was sent to bring God’s law and covenant to His people. He was sent to deliver God’s people out of bondage in Egypt. Moses was faithful in representing God before the people. But Jesus is far superior.

Moses was a man, but Jesus is the Godman. Moses was a sinner judged for his sin; but Jesus was sinless and was judged for the sins of His people. Moses brought the Law, but Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. Moses brought the covenant, but Jesus is the blood of the new covenant. Moses led the children of Israel out of bondage to Egypt but failed to lead them into the promised land. Jesus leads his people out of bondage to sin and brings them all the way to life with the Father. Jesus is greater than Moses.

As God’s Sent One, Jesus was faithful to His mission. He came to say and do exactly what the Father sent Him to say and do. If you want to know the Father’s will, you can listen to Jesus. If you want to know what the Father is like, you can learn from Jesus. When you listen to Jesus, you will hear that He promises to always be with you, that He promises to help you, guide you and protect you. As God’s faithful apostle, Jesus is far superior to Moses.

3. Jesus is Sufficient as Our High Priest Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. Hebrews 2:1-2 Note the difference between these two roles. First, as an apostle Jesus represented God to man. Now as our High Priest Jesus represents man to God. We saw that in His sacrifice. Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He offered up Himself to God as the sacrifice for sin we needed in order to cleanse us of our sin and remove us from God’s wrath.

This is what the author of Hebrews wants you to consider. When you consider Jesus as your High Priest, He makes you pure and acceptable to God. You no longer have to worry if you’re good enough. Jesus has made you good enough. When you consider Jesus as your High Priest, you don’t have to keep doing things to get God’s approval. You already have it.
There is nothing good you can do to get God to love you more, and there is nothing bad you will do that will get God to love you less.

3. Jesus is Sufficient as the Builder of God’s House 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. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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. Hebrews 6:3-6
God has always had a people He is building into His household of faith. In the Old Testament, His people were the Jews, in the New Testament, His people are the church. But they are both God’s people. They are both God’s household.

As Jesus is compared to Moses here, it is not to criticize Moses. Moses is identified as a faithful servant in God’s house. Jesus is identified as faithful over God’s house as a Son. As a servant, the word used here speaks of a position of nobility under the authority of the one who appointed him. You can think of Moses’ servant role as that of a steward of God’s house. Moses was entrusted with the management of God’s people. And we learn from the New Testament, that what is required of a steward is faithfulness. Moses was a faithful steward of God’s people. But he was not the Son of the house.

Everything Moses did as a steward pointed forward to Jesus. He built a tabernacle in the desert as a place for God to dwell. Jesus is called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” The sacrifices of lambs and bulls and goats were types or shadows of the sacrifice that Jesus would provide for God’s people. Paul looks back on how Moses brought manna from heaven and caused water to flow from a rock. He remembers that Israel “drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.” I Corinthians 10:4 In John 6, Jesus taught, “It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world… I am the bread of life” (John 6:32-35). So, what Jesus said about Moses was true: Moses testified about him. It was of Jesus that Moses spoke, when he said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites – You must listen to him.” Deuteronomy 18:15

4. Jesus is the Son who builds the house for God. “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22 The main reason anyone builds a house is to live in it. When God redeems you, the way God builds His house is to join you together with other believers, so that He might live in our midst.

We are together God’s house; He dwells among us as well as in us. In 2 Corinthians Paul says, “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16 Peter said it this way, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5). The church is the holy temple where God dwells in Spirit, where God is worshiped in Spirit and truth and where the spiritual gifts God gives you are used to serve Him.

What that means for you, is that Jesus has a place for you in His family. The church is the community of faith that Jesus is building so you can belong, learn, be loved, encouraged, and prayed for. The church is God’s household where you don’t simply receive the blessings of His grace, but where you can pour out God’s grace to others as you love, encourage, honor and carry the burdens of your brothers and sisters.

Here’s the good news of Jesus’ house building blessing: There are no misfits in God’s family. Every misfit fits in with Jesus. This is the church that Jesus is building today! This is an ongoing process. Jesus is still fitting people in. That is why Jesus is superior to Moses. Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house. But Jesus builds the house with those who trust in Him, so God may dwell with us.