Consider Christ Jesus
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Jeremy Richards
- 28 June 2026
- Hebrews 3:1-2
Feels like there's been a lot of hammering on young people and such, and there's just been just a blessing to see young people responding to what God has called them to do and acting upon it. It's been just so, so encouraging to my faith and I pray is to yours also. So let's go to Hebrews. Hebrews, Hebrews 3. Someone said to me, if you're going to be preaching in Hebrews the rest of your life, you better slow down.
You're already in chapter three. I was like, oh, yeah, I guess you're right.
Okay, Hebrews chapter three, Chapter three, verse one. It says, therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, who appointed him as Moses, also was faithful in all of his house. Consider. I've been thinking of this word consider. Considering is.
And I think, I would imagine that other versions, the new King James is what I normally read out of. Other versions probably use a different word that is similar to the word consider, but in New King James, this word. I've been just. I've been considering it. I've been thinking.
Considering is a very important part of the Christian life.
Considering is necessary for spiritual growth within the Christian life. Without the act of considering, we're not able to understand that which is spiritually in front of us. Considering has been given to us as a gift by which we can comprehend the truths that are not easily available to our normal senses. Right? We are actively interacting with this world using senses that we have.
Right? Those senses that we use to interact with the world are not considering normally. They are much more superficial ways that we engage with the world. Of course, we live in this technological age in which the cell phone has assumed a prominent position. I would just venture to guarantee that most of the times we are using these forms of technology and other things with the TV and all this.
Such this is not biblically considering. Everyone tracking it is a superficial state skimming of information that is being presented to us in a way that does not dive into the deepness of the things that Christ has to offer to people who consider. I'm not saying you don't pick up information. I'm only saying that there's something available to the Christian who considers, who thinks deeply. We see that considering is normally participated in in certain locations, location, certain environments that are not normally.
Available to us in the circumstances that we usually run in. Okay? There are normal life. Normal life usually doesn't facilitate considering. Okay.
We see that from the Beginning consideration. Considering happened in secluded spots. Considering happens in quiet spots. It takes a certain amount of focus to consider. But without this considering, something is left empty in the Christian's life.
Busyness and information does not replace considering. Moses in his desire. Now, I'm using the word consider only because that's what the new King James I'm sure there's a great Greek word and several other words that could replace it, but if you'd give me the grace just to use that, you know, Moses looked for time to consider. He was a great leader and was able to handle here. Later it says he was faithful in all of his house because he had the option to consider.
I heard it once said of a minister, you know, how is it that you could handle that load? And he says, look, I get up at 4 in the morning and I spend time, and that enables me to be fruitful in the rest of the day. Moses likewise, had to put his tent outside the camp because the burden placed on him necessitated time to consider, to meditate. He came out of that tent after times of considering, meditating, worshiping with his face shining. His face shining was the result of something that was happening while he was in the tent.
Considering his face shining was the expression, expression of an inward strength that allowed him to confront the difficulties that he was faced with. Considering is an important part of the biblical experience and the fruitfulness of an individual who wants to follow Christ. Jesus himself was an individual that was pressed on every side, encountered major difficulties. But in order to handle those difficulties, it appeared that he needed time to consider. It says, as was his custom, a great while before daylight.
I always wonder what time that was. A great while before daylight. All I know is he was pressed into the night by the crowds of the people that needed something that he had to offer. But in order to find free time, he had to go to a place where there were no people and no distractions. Considering takes an environment to facilitate fruitfulness.
That has to be a proactive step. Now, I don't necessarily think it always has to be the same place for every person, but we are told that when you pray, which I believe is a form of maybe considering is this kind of prayer. It says, go into a secret place, go into your closet, go where there's no distractions. Because considering requires you to focus your mental and physical capabilities to put them under restraint that you might hear from something. Now we're going to look at what it takes to, to what we're supposed to consider.
Consider, and I hope, if I can say Anything that through this message there would be a desire to necessary to leave at times the religious obligations that we feel we are under and just put your mind at rest and consider I, I was reading about this guy, this company, and they think that's what they do. They think so. They have this office, if I believe right there, a million dollars an hour to use this company. They think so they sit there, they don't necessarily have a job, they don't make something, they don't do something, they don't build houses, they're nothing. All they do is think.
He says it's not a normal to come into our company and just see someone sitting at their desk with their feet on the desk thinking, eyes closed, and they get paid a million dollars an hour. And people would be like, that's outrageous, that's crazy. But the truth is, is one good idea is worth more than a lot of, a lot of wasted effort. One good idea is a bargain when it makes lots of money. And so people hire these million dollar an hour thinkers who just sit on their butts and think, but people keep hiring them.
In a spiritual life, all our activity is not worth trading for considering. All our spiritual hubbub and engagements cannot be sacrificed for considering. The truth is, is we need to consider for some reasons. Here it says in chapter three, verse one, it says therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. First of all, in order to really spiritually consider, you need to be a certain kind of person that only certain people can spiritually consider.
Heavenly things are so far above natural mindsets that they cannot be comprehended.
The only people who have the privilege of spiritually considered are number one, described as holy brethren. Now we see this holy is right on the tail of that description of the sacrifice which our High Priest makes for us. It is called, described as propitiation that Jesus Christ as high priest offered himself as a sacrifice to fully satisfy the righteous judgment of an angry God against sin. That, holy brethren, is those who have participated in that sacrifice by having Christ's blood applied to their life and the legal responsibility of sin being covered completely. There is not one stainless, there is not one spot, not one wrinkle in the life of individuals to whom the blood of Jesus Christ has been applied.
They are holy, holy brethren. The second kind of people that is necessary is to consider is partakers of the heavenly calling. Those who have a mindset whose focus is not the focus of the earth. If you're focusing on the earth, you are going to want to have the rewards that the earth offers. But those with a heavenly mindset are individuals who are capable of considering higher things.
Moses, after being a judge and a leader in the wilderness for over, maybe possibly up to 6, around 6 million people having to be a part of all their grumbling and complaining, the one thing he can think of is he said, lord, just show me youe glory. This being king, this being judge or leader thing is not exactly satisfying people with a heavenly calling. I want something more than what this earth offers. These individuals, holy people with a heavenly calling who have been called by Jesus Christ out of this world and invited to walk as strangers, are invited to consider. These are the things we should consider.
In chapter three, verse one, it says, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. The book of Hebrews, ultimately is going to be about you. And I. Given the opportunity to consider Jesus, you think, wow, is there that much to learn?
Really? Is there that much to know? Is there something more than the superficial skin that I have by this point understood about the nature of Jesus Christ? Is there a deepness in the well? A guy came to me this week and he's like, you know, I need to open the well.
And so I went up to his place and I had a pick and he had covered the well with concrete and put steel cable all laced in. And so I'm trying to pick this concrete to break it up. But as I'm breaking up this concrete, concrete's falling. But you know the sound that concrete normally makes when it falls into a well? The splash.
Right. And it was making more of like a clunk. That's not a normal well sound. And yeah, we good. And I look down there, shine my flashlight and hey, there's no water in this well.
There's no water in this well. And he was looking for something. He was hoping that there'd be something down there, but there was no water. Is it possible that there is a deepness in the well of Christ that you have not experienced? Ooh, I'm not sure.
Is it possible that these things that we're going to talk about in a second deserve, no, rather demand the attention of holy heavenly minded people? That there's resources available to you and I that far exceed the worth of anything you have ever experienced? Is it possible that God Almighty, coming in the likeness of man, having set aside his life from eternity past for the purpose of redeeming sinful men, offering himself as the full sacrifice to satisfy the Father's wrath, has more of availability of resources to me than I have experienced Thus far, I think you and I would say, you know, I might just be seeing the surface. There might be a deepness here. Just possibly there's something deeper than what I have experienced.
These are the things we're to look at. Consider the APostle that number one, Jesus is the apostle we see in a few paces. Jesus asked Peter, who do men say that I am? And Peter responds, you know, some people say John the Baptist or one of the prophets. And Jesus says, you know, who do you say I'm Peter, who do you say I am?
And Peter says, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says, you know, blessed are you, Peter, for man has not revealed this to you, but heaven has revealed it to you in some way. I maybe got a little confused, but basically an understanding that Peter saw something about Christ's nature as a result of him seeing that. He said, I tell you that you're Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The understanding of the nature of.
Of the apostleship of Jesus Christ, the authority of Jesus Christ gives individuals the ability to overcome the gates of hell.
Mikey, I bet at times you have been discouraged or defeated by the devil. Is that true? Maybe so, but hopefully not this morning. Okay. The truth is, is probably in our life that you and I are veering from the course that God has ordained for us by the sideward or the buffeting pressure of the devil.
It might be then more than you and I understand, the fulfillment of the purpose that God has ordained for you and I is more affected by the work of devil than we realize that it is possible that your effectiveness is diminished because you don't understand the truth of the nature of the foundation that he is. It says in Ephesians chapter two that he is. I'm. Go ahead and read.
Says now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. You possess certain rights. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. The fullness of the understanding of the rock solid nature of Jesus Christ gives you the ability to place your life on a foundation that cannot be shaken. Without that understanding, you are building your house on the sand.
Why are you discouraged when life comes and washes the sand from out under your foundation? If you don't build on the right spot, you shouldn't be surprised. But you should expect that after a careful consideration of the nature of Jesus Christ, that that foundation can withstand the storms that come against it. Every single a considering a thoughtful Lord, you by nature belong certain things and by my understanding those things, I am able to root myself into that rock. And it stands.
You also are being built as living stones that Christ is anchoring you into that building. The first thing we consider is his apostleship. The second thing, which Hebrews is a lot about, is that we need to consider the office of high Priest of Jesus Christ, that He came to offer a spiritual sacrifice for you and I. This is an amazing thing that you and I, having nothing to offer to God from our own resources while we were at war with God through the wicked acts of our mind, he sent his Son to die in our place to offer for us a spiritual sacrifice which we did not deserve.
This accomplishes something in the life of a believer. It is worthy to consider, as we look at these two things, the apostleship and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. This accomplishes something in the life of a believer that is more valuable than the religious activities that we sometimes overwhelm ourselves with. Sometimes I think, in my opinion, that I am in a place spiritually that is more affected by the minutes communing with Christ. When in whatever reason, the few times the quietness in my soul became enough to hear a heavenly voice, more was accomplished sitting with my feet on the desk than in all the labor and years and strife and struggling.
My hope is, if you might be willing to consider opportunities to spend in quiet meditation on these two things, that Christ is the cornerstone, that he is the apostle, that this foundation is one I need to place my life on. And number two, that he is the high priest, that he offered something, and I need to comprehend what it is to see him and what he endured as a sacrifice for us to see the benefit that I enjoy now. I would be the first person to repent wholeheartedly before you that I cannot bring more of it to you. I'm very, very, very sorry.
And I wish that I were walking in deeper water. And so my hope is that it says by the joining together, by the encouraging of each other, of focusing our energy, it becomes one by which one person to another shares the mystery that they have found in Christ, that as a body we may grow together into a building for the worship of God. In I'm going to Finish in verse 2 it says, who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful to him in his house. Jesus Christ came with a purpose to redeem mankind and was faithful in that engagement.
From my perspective, because of that faithful sacrifice, he should be considered.
You're investing your energy in something already and it's paying something back. Why not take those moments not to stress, not to burden, not to checklist, but just to consider. So take and put your feet on the desk and say, lord, I have been made holy by your sacrifice. I have engaged with you on a path. Now I want to know about you.
I want to know about your sacrifice. Reveal to me those mysteries. If he shows you, if there's the evaporation off of one drop of water that reaches your soul, it will accomplish more for your sustenance than all you have labored for up to this point.
Let's pray. Oh, Father, I wish. I wish that I had riches that are available, Lord. But you can reveal to our spirits the greatness of the Son of God, Lord. And I just ask that there would be a spiritual increase of desire in our hearts to know Christ.
I want to know you. I pray it would be resounding in us enough to put away distractions. Lord, we ask by the greatness of Christ's sacrifice, by the holy power of his name, that you said that you would answer in Jesus name, Amen.