“Focus on Jesus” Hebrews 3.1-6 Transfiguration, series C, ‘16

1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The message from God’s Word this Transfiguration Sunday is taken from Hebrews 3:1-6 and is entitled, “Focus on Jesus,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. In the 1924 Olympics Eric Liddell of Scotland refused to run in Olympic trials when the trial came on Sunday. This committed Christian, the favorite in the race, sacrificed his opportunity to win a medal. He did participate in other events when trials weren’t on Sunday and eventually won the gold medal. Returning home to Britain, he found himself a national hero, admired for winning the medal and for maintaining his convictions.  Less than a year later, Liddell went to China as a missionary. He committed himself to the demanding task of rural evangelism, traveling many miles in rugged conditions on foot or by bike.  When the Japanese invaded China during World War II, they captured Liddell and sent him to a prison camp in August 1943. One of 1,800 prisoners packed into a tiny facility, he met the physical and spiritual needs of the camp. He organized athletic meets, taught hymns, and led Bible studies. On February 21, 1945, just a month before liberation, Liddell died of a brain tumor.
3. You can see that Liddell organized his life around his commitment to serve Christ. He could’ve remained in Britain and enjoyed praise as a national hero. He could’ve enjoyed the relatively peaceful task of teaching in a Chinese college. He could’ve left China before Japan invaded. Each time he followed the priority he had set as a young man. He chose to follow the will of God.  He chose to focus on Jesus!
4. The author of Hebrews penned this chapter to warn professing believers who didn’t have their priorities straight.  He wanted Christians of his day as well as us Christians living today to keep our focus on Jesus.  Hebrews 3:1-6 says, “1Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3For 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. 4(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6but 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.”
5. As I said before the writer of Hebrews is addressing people who were considering things that would affect their eternal salvation. They were comparing the Gospel message of salvation through faith in Jesus with a message of Law and works-righteousness, a misunderstanding of the Law given at Mount Sinai by Moses. The writer of Hebrews is telling his hearers to focus on Jesus as the way of salvation, because the Law of Moses can never save.  We face the same challenge in our lives. We, too, are tempted to seek salvation in the Law, represented by Moses, but, as the author of Hebrews encourages us, if you’re thinking about Moses, focus instead on Jesus. 
6. Focus on Jesus as someone who is faithful.   The author of Hebrews was addressing people who felt abandoned.  The Book of Hebrews is written to Jews, Hebrews, who had become believers in Christ—people now being ousted from their own nation, their synagogues, as traitors.  People feel abandoned when they sense that someone they’ve trusted has been unfaithful to them. Unbelieving Jews thought these new Christians were being unfaithful to their heritage. As a result, Jewish Christians were now being abandoned by their own people. In turn, this made these Christians wonder if God was abandoning them, being unfaithful to them.  When I feel others are being unfaithful to me, I’m tempted to become unfaithful to the one I think has abandoned me. This was the temptation facing those early Jewish Christians—to give up on Christ as Savior and rejoin their persecutors in trying to be saved by keeping the Law of Moses.
7. We know what it’s like to feel abandoned in our Christian life as well.   Friends—even Christian friends—sometimes let us down. We suffer disappointments. We, too, can begin to wonder if God has been unfaithful to us, and that may make us think we must do something more to earn his love.
8. Therefore, focus on Jesus.  Yes, Moses was faithful in all God gave him to do—speak his Word, give the Commandments.   But Jesus was faithful unto death. He was the “high priest” who offered himself as sacrifice. He didn’t abandon us even to save his life. 
9. Focus on Jesus for your greater glory.  Moses offered a kind of glory.   He brought Israel out of slavery, gathered them as a great people, delivered God’s covenant that set them apart from all other nations.   There was glory in being people of the old covenant, and the Hebrew people took pride in this Law that set them apart.  But, pride in the Law became the proud delusion that they could keep the Law, that they were better than all other people because of their obedience, and ultimately that God owed them their special glory. 
10. Do we know that delusion too?  Are we proud of our obedience to God? That’s glorying in Moses.  When we feel God’s let us down, do we think the answer is to try harder to please him?  That’s glorying in Moses, the Law too—but it will only lead to despair. 
11. Focus on Jesus! He gives a greater glory.  On the Mount of Transfiguration, he showed the disciples his glory (Lk 9:28–29).  But the greater glory was yet to come when he humbled himself on the cross (Lk 9:30–31). By so lowering himself, he showed his true greatness: love beyond all telling.  The glory of keeping (and failing to keep!) the Law ourselves can’t compare with the glory Jesus’ cross gives us. This is why we “listen to” Christ “alone”—not Moses—for glory (Lk 9:35-36a). 
12. Focus on Jesus to enter God’s house (vv 5–6).   Moses can’t get us into God’s house in heaven.  It’s not his house; he’s only a servant.  Moses offers no way to heaven at all. Under the Law of Moses, we’re on our own to earn our way, and that’s hopeless. In Deuteronomy 34:4 we see that Moses couldn’t even enter the Promised Land himself on his own merits. 
13. But focus on Jesus! We do have confidence and the sure hope of heaven in him, the Son (v 6).  It is his house. He’s the Son.   And we are his house, his family, by faith—that is, by the confidence, the hope, that he has done all the Law of Moses demanded of us and has taken the punishment for our failures on the cross. Therefore, we get to live in the family home, the house he’s built for us in heaven.
14. There are many things that our world would tell us to focus on.  In fact, today many will be focusing on the Super Bowl and who will win it, the Denver Broncos or the Carolina Panthers. But there is One in our lives who will always be faithful. On this day, we see Jesus revealing his glory. And he is the One, the only One, who enables us to share the home we long for in heaven. Focus on Jesus!  Amen.