Series Summary (Greater Than, Hebrews, ParkviewSedalia)

The letter to the Hebrews is a very interesting part of the New Testament. Written to a congregation in the first century of Jewish (Hebrew) Christians, it is a letter willed with encouragement, hope and promise, both for the original readers and for us today.

Hebrews is essentially a sermon, written down in letter form, and sent to this church of Jewish believers. Through all thirteen chapters, the author repeats the same cycle over and over and over again: Jesus is greater. He's greater than the angels. He's greater than the priesthood. He's greater than religion. He's greater than the Old Testament sacrificial system. He's greater than Melchizedek. And on and on and on, through the entire epistle, the author compares Jesus to these other things and finds him to be greater than them all.

That's great news! If the message of the entire letter is that Jesus is greater, then that helps us see that the supremacy of Christ and the sufficiency of his work on the cross on our behalf is enough. It's enough.

Over the next few months, we will take a look at this letter from beginning to end, studying it in detail. And by the time we come to the end of the letter, we will have a greater understanding of just who Jesus is and how he's Greater Than anything else we can compare him to.


Sermon Summary

Hebrews 3 brings us to the second warning the writer gives to his readers. The first was in Hebrews 2:4, and was a warning against neglecting our salvation. In chapter 3, the writer warns us against hardening our hearts. In describing this, he has to compare Jesus to Moses, showing that Jesus is greater than the Old Testament prophet. From there, he shifts to the people Moses led, and to one incident in particular where the people rebelled against Moses – and against God!

The writer describes what an unbelieving heart looks like, and leads to a hardened heart. Really, there are two ways that a person can have an unbelieving heart. The first is an active rejection of who God is, most often seen in the atheistic life. But more subtly is the heart that drifts, rejecting God's leading by not being intentional. This heart has ignored the first warning given. And a heart that drifts will soon become hardened.

So the question we must ask is this: What's the condition of your heart?