Our actions and the intensity of them are affected and inspired by something beyond ourselves. And so, the author of Hebrews wants to inspire us to action by having us look at Jesus – to see who He is and who we are in Him. As we face suffering, opposition, problems, difficulties, false teaching, cultural pressure, being lured to drift away; as we face sin, temptation and fear, we are encouraged to fix our thoughts on Jesus so that, as members of his household, we will hold fast to the confidence and hope we have in Him.
First, we are to fix our thoughts on Jesus.
The word translated “fix your thoughts” means to study, examine, learn. And so, we are encouraged to ‘study Jesus’; we are to ‘learn Jesus’. Another translation uses the word “consider”. I don’t know if that’s strong enough, but it does make an important connection to something the writer will state later in Hebrews 12:3. After telling believers to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and to run with perseverance and to fix our eyes on Jesus, he says, “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” In everything we face in life, we are to consider Jesus - to fix our eyes and our thoughts on Him.
Why? Because He is the apostle and high priest of our confession. What is our “confession”? It is the core of what we believe in the Gospel, and not just what we personally believe, but what we believers believe together. The word used is homologia from homo meaning “same” and logos meaning “word” = “same word”. Our confession is what we have been told and what we believe together about Christ. Now “apostle” sounds like a strange title for Jesus. (He had His own apostles, so He couldn’t be one, right?) Well, the word simply means “one who is sent.” And Jesus was sent by the Father into the world to redeem it. And He was sent to be our High Priest, our Mediator – the connection between God and us.
And we fix our eyes and our thoughts on Jesus because He is faithful. We read in 3:2-3, “He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house.”
Jesus is greater than Moses because He is our builder. Jesus is not only the agent of creation, but the agent of re-creation as well. We are built up and established in Him. And Jesus is also greater because whereas Moses was a servant, Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is our Head – not simply a servant of the household, but the head of the household.
We fix our thoughts on Jesus, so that, as members of his household… We are members of God’s house. We see this (v1) in the phrase “holy brothers” (or fellow believers) who share in a heavenly calling. Since we are children of God with Christ as our Head, we are spiritual siblings (brothers and sisters). We share the same Head and the same heavenly calling.
And so we are God’s House. Now “house” can refer to a dwelling; to the Temple; to a household (as for me and my house) or expanded as a people (house of Israel). And it’s interesting that these meanings are merged together in the Bible. In the NT we find the Church to be the people of God who are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Moses was a faithful servant of God’s House, but Jesus is Lord over God’s people. We are built in Him. This is what Jesus suggests in the Parable of Wise and Foolish Builders. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
And so, rooted and established on the Rock of Christ, we fix our thoughts on Jesus, so that, as members of his household, we will hold fast to the confidence and hope we have in Him (v. 6 - And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.)
What are we to hold on to? Our courage (NIV) or confidence (ESV), our solid assurance and our hope. And our hope is not just a pious wish, it is a certain reality. So certain, in fact, that we can boast in it. What is our hope? That we are loved and accepted by God; that life has meaning and purpose; that death is not the end and that in Christ we are set free from sin and guilt and the slavery of the fear of death. Our hope is that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ who has fully paid for all our sins with his precious blood, and has set us free from the tyranny of the devil. He watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall from our heads without the will of our Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for our salvation; and that we are assured by the Holy Spirit of eternal life and made wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for the Lord.
Sometimes life can feel like a roller coaster, what are you holding onto? The confidence and hope we have in Christ or something else? In the midst of the mundane, the daily commute and daily grind (that can grind us down) what are you holding onto? The confidence and hope we have in Christ or something else? When you’re trying to scale the walls of life or when you’re hanging off the edge, what are you holding onto? When you feel like your drowning and when you really are, what are holding onto? The confidence and hope we have in Christ or something else? What is your house – your household – your marriage, your children – what is your house holding onto? The confidence and hope we have in Christ or something else?
Our actions and the intensity of them are affected and inspired by something beyond ourselves. That is why we must fix our thoughts on Jesus so that, as members of his household, we will hold fast to the confidence and hope we have in Him.
Are you looking to Jesus? Are you like Peter, in the midst of the wind and waves, in the midst of the storms that rage in our lives – are you looking to Jesus? Or are you, like Peter, getting distracted by the wind and afraid of the waves? Are your eyes turning to look at the problems that surround or are they fixed on Jesus? Are your eyes turned inward, looking in vain for some hidden strength that lies dormant inside yourself or are you looking to Jesus, whose strength is not hidden and which is not lying dormant, but is available to you? Fix your thoughts on Jesus. Learn Him. Trust Him so that as members of His household, you can hold on, hold fast to the confidence and hope we have in Him!
Is what you are holding onto trustworthy?
§ Is your money or your investments or the market trustworthy? We’ve recently learned the hard way that the answer is no.
§ Is your job/career enough to base your life on? What happens when you lose it?
§ Are your status symbols or your possessions? Why do we always need more? And what happens when we lose them?
§ Is your personal health? You don’t know what’s going to happen.
§ Are other people? What happens when you find yourself alone?
§ Is fate trustworthy – the assumption that you, like a cat, will always end up landing on your feet? Even a cat only has nine lives.
§ Can your spouse and your family be everything for you? Experience teaches us that they can’t.
Only God is completely trustworthy. And only the God who has sent a Savior – who has sent the Son to come to His brothers and sisters to bridge the gap and bring us back to the Father. Only that God – the God revealed through Jesus Christ - can be completely trusted with our lives, because He made us and knows us and loves us in spite of ourselves.
So fix your thoughts on Jesus so that, as members of his household, you will hold fast to the confidence and hope we have in Him.
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