Jesus is Greater than Moses

 Read Hebrews 3

Some of you probably won’t agree, but that’s fine. You can just be wrong.

There has never been a team like the New York Yankees.  Think about it.

Babe Ruth

Lou Gehrig

Joe DiMaggio

Mickey Mantle

Reggie Jackson

Thurman Munson

And that doesn’t even take us into the current era. Some of you kids might know Derrick Jeter. I have omitted some, many.

And you can’t leave off the center of universal wisdom, Yogi Berra.

There was no one quite like the Yankees.

You don’t have to like the Yankees. You can love Boston, Chicago, or even the Rangers, but no team past or present compares to the Yankees.

Why is this important?

If I were to say to you that now the Rangers have superseded the Yankees as the greatest team ever, you might be a little skeptical. That would be natural.

What now? Are we going to compare Michael Jordan and Lebron James?  No. There is no comparison. MJ is the GOAT. That’s too easy.

What’s the point?

The point is that we cannot understand Chapter 3 in its original context. We can try—and we do.  There is a lot that falls under the category of biblical criticism to help us have some empathy and understanding, but we can’t put ourselves in the shoes of the original audience. It’s a bridge too far, but we try; hence the New York Yankees.

Why can’t we truly empathize? They, like their fathers and their fathers before them, grew up with Moses. Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt. Moses parted the Red Sea. We know that God did it but Moses had the backbone to park those who were with him in a place where there was no escape from Pharaoh's army and the only route open was through the Red Sea.

The law came through Moses.

Moses persuaded God not to wipe out his chosen people and start over.

Moses. Moses. Moses. People knew of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and those who followed, but the story of God’s Chosen People began in Exodus when a Pharaoh did not remember what Joseph—a Hebrew—had done to save Egypt’s bacon. The Hebrew people became a threat to Egypt’s national security, so they were enslaved.

God sent Moses to deliver them.

Out of all of this Moses stuff that pervaded the Hebrew life and culture and way of life, the Law given through Moses surely was the pinnacle of all of them.

The law governed life among God’s Chosen People.

And now, there is this person that we know by the name of Jesus, and suddenly everything is about him.  What happened to Moses?

He is still important. The law is still important. They have simply been surpassed by Jesus. Jesus takes us so much farther than Moses or the Law ever could.

We accept this much more easily than the Hebrew people did 2000 years ago. Why? Most of us grew up with Jesus is Lord! We didn’t go through a season of Moses and the Law. We started with Jesus and had to look back to get the fullness of the story of God, his creation, and his love.

We knew the 10 Commandments. We thought there were a lot of death penalty offenses in the Law and probably wrestled with God being love in his very essence. We know about parting the Red Sea, water from a rock, and manna from heaven.

But for most of us, these things were not part of our formative years. Most of us started with Jesus. Last week when I said PAY ATTENTION, I knew that most of you had already paid attention and received the salvation of the Lord and were responding to that salvation in your discipleship.

The second half of that message was mostly for you, but both the second and third chapters of Hebrews lay a foundation. Pay attention. Salvation is through Christ alone and Jesus is greater than Moses. I can say that here and nobody will get their feathers ruffled.

But as we come to chapter 3, the author wrestles with the predisposition of his original target audience. That condition is one governed by Moses and the Law.

What do we need to know?

Jesus came and said he did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. He did just what he said he would do. He fulfilled the law. He confirmed this from the cross.

Some twist this verse to mean that Jesus came to enforce the law. He came to and did fulfill the law. Why is this important? Why is it important to us?

We get to move forward into living the abundant life that God intended. We get to finally do the good works that God intended. We don’t do them for our salvation, but because we have been saved.

We have passed from death to life!

The cycle of sin and sacrifice repeated again and again has given way to the one and only sacrifice required to make us right with God forever.

Nobody other than Jesus ever fulfilled the law. Through him, we live in right standing with God. The righteousness of the law was imputed to us in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

It’s just not as big of a challenge to us to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and more important than the law or Moses.

Do you think Moses had an issue with this? Consider that Moses was with the Lord at this transfiguration. Moses was all in. Moses knew his part.

Do you remember the Corrie Ten Boom quote that I gave you a few weeks ago and told you that you would get it again?  Don’t try to tell God what to do. Just report for Duty.

I don’t think Moses filed a complaint with the HR department because Jesus got the better position. Moses knew his part and that his part would be surpassed by what Jesus came to do.

That was the plan. That was God’s plan.

Just as John the Baptist knew that he and his ministry would lessen as the work of the Lord kicked into high gear; I’m certain from the full biblical witness that Moses was and is good with Jesus surpassing him and the law. There was not competition between Jesus and Moses, except those concocted by humankind.

Just as Jesus told the Pharisees that tried so hard to trap him with Sabbath offenses, I am Lord of the Sabbath; we must acknowledge that he is Lord of and over all, and that includes Moses.

Here’s the cool beans part. God has made us brothers and sisters with Christ. That means we are brothers and sisters with Moses too.

For the next part, and we are getting into law and grace as well as old and new covenants, I will use my old faithful analogy of headlights.

Over the past 16 years, I have used this a dozen times. That’s ok, sometimes it takes 20 times to catch the idiom here.

Imagine driving late at night on State Highway 152 west of Cordell and the vehicle coming at you has those bright, halogen or some space-aged headlights.  They are blinding.  You can barely see as the two vehicles pass.

You might even say a mean word or two as the two vehicles pass in the night.

Imagine driving exactly the same road at exactly the same spot and meeting the same vehicle 12 hours later.  He still has his headlights set on obliterate. You hardly notice.  Their intensity is the same as the night before, but they don’t affect you at all.

Why?

Because the light from the sun is so much brighter.

Now consider Moses and the law that came through him.  It was engraved in stone, written in ink, and it had and still has its glory.  The law came from God and by definition that makes it good, and as it turns out, for our own good.

But that law was like the headlights.  They shone brightly at midnight but at noon they paled in significance when the sun shone so brightly. Their intensity had not been diminished. It was surpassed.

The sun is the Son and the New Covenant.

Some of the Jews have veiled faces.  They cannot see what we see.  They were anchored in the law and this chapter is aimed mostly at them.  Don’t give up on them, read the rest of the book.

Of course, Jesus is greater than Moses. The New Covenant is the follow-on to the Old. The law is still good and continues to benefit us. Moses is still Moses but we should realize that he is onboard with Jesus surpassing him. He gets it.

C’mon, this is the guy that had to pass the mantel of leadership to Joshua before the people entered the land promised to them. Moses got it that his part did not include a river crossing at the Jordan.

Jesus takes us where we could never take ourselves—right standing with God. That’s some good geography right there.

Jesus did not do away with the law. The law was not nailed to the cross. The invoice for our sins was nailed to the cross.

Don’t go down the rabbit trail of multiple fallacies based upon the bogey of the law was nailed to the cross. Just know without having to play this game that the law was not done away with, it was surpassed.

Jesus is the way to the Father.

Is Jesus greater than Moses? Are you ready for a highly theological term? Duh.

Yes. He is greater than us all. Remember, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus who is above all things is the ultimate manifestation of God’s love for us.

We get this but it was a hard sell to many Jews in the mid-first century.

We talked about the remainder of this chapter in the first service.  It reiterates much of what you got last week.

Today is the only day in which you can act upon anything. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not promised.

So, this message wasn’t written just for me? I could have slept in or had an extra breakfast burrito.

Or you can add another arrow to your quiver as you stand ready to defend your faith. For many will come at you in this modern age and present the law and Moses and everything that according to modern Judaizers was greater than or equal to Jesus in opposition to the surpassing glory of God that we know in Christ Jesus.

Stand ready against all Jesus Plus anything else gospels.

Yes, this book was mostly for the Hebrew people two millennia ago, but your charge to make a defense for your faith is in effect every day.

You need to be ready to answer all questions as to why you believe that salvation comes in Christ alone.

Amen.