Consider Jesus

In one paragraph

Ray walked through Hebrews 3:1-6, showing why the author's call to "consider Jesus" was written not as an evangelistic appeal to outsiders but as a decisive, ongoing charge to people who had already chosen Him. The sermon pressed on what it means to fix your thinking on Christ all the way through to a conclusion, and why that matters when life or persecution tempts you to drift back to something...

Read together

1. Hebrews 3:1-6 the main text of the sermon, read in both NLT and NASB and expounded phrase by phrase
2. Psalm 22 quoted as Jesus saying 'I will proclaim your name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise'
3. Isaiah 8:17 quoted as 'I will put my trust in him'
4. Isaiah 8:18 quoted as 'behold, I and the children whom God has given me'
5. Numbers 12:5-8 God speaks from the pillar of cloud declaring Moses faithful in all his household and unique among prophets, used to show how highly Moses was regarded
6. Deuteronomy 18 Moses said to look for a prophet like him who would speak for the Lord
7. Matthew 16:13-18 Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, son of the living God, and Jesus says he will build his church on that rock
8. 1 Corinthians 8:6 spoken as the closing benediction: one God the Father from whom all things came, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things came

Talk about it

1. Ray walked us back through Hebrews 2 before getting to chapter 3, showing how Jesus had to be made like us in every way so he could be a merciful and faithful high priest. What does it mean to you personally that Jesus knows what it is like to live in human flesh and be tempted?
2. The Greek word translated 'consider' carries the idea of thinking something all the way through to a decisive conclusion, not just turning it over in your mind indefinitely. In what areas of your life do you find it hardest to let your thinking about Jesus actually land on a firm decision?
3. Ray pointed out that the writer of Hebrews never says anything bad about Moses, but simply argues that the builder of a house deserves more honor than the house itself. How does that distinction, builder versus part of the house, change the way you think about the relationship between the Old Testament law and Jesus?
4. Ray told the story of his grandfather sending his brother and cousin back to the land after hunters had run them off at gunpoint, because as grandsons they had rights the hunters never had. How does the difference between Moses as a servant in God's house and Christ as a son over God's house affect the way you understand your own standing before God?
5. The passage closes with a conditional: we are God's house if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. The original audience was being tempted to drift back toward the law of Moses under pressure. What pressures today make it hard for you to keep holding fast, and what does it look like practically to keep doing that?