In this message we come to the third comparison found in the book of Hebrews — that Christ as the Apostle is superior to Moses. At the very beginning of this Epistle, we saw the comparison between our God and the God of the Jewish people. Then, in chapters one and two, we saw two aspects of the comparison between Christ and the angels. As both the Son of God and the Son of Man Christ is superior to the angels. The third boast of the Jewish religion is Moses, who was their most outstanding leader. As we shall see in another message, the fourth comparison, that between Christ and Aaron, shows us that Christ as the High Priest is superior to Aaron.
As the Apostle and High Priest, Christ is superior to both Moses and Aaron. We see these two titles of Christ in 3:1 where we are told to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.” Jesus is our Apostle and our High Priest. As the Apostle, He was typified by Moses; as the High Priest, He was typified by Aaron. The Apostle is the One who was sent to us from God and with God (John 6:46; 8:16, 29). The High Priest was the One who went to God from and with us (Eph. 2:6). As the Apostle, Christ came to us with God to share God with us that we might partake of His divine life, nature, and fullness. As the High Priest, Christ went to God with us to present us to God that we and all our case might be fully cared for by Him. As the Apostle He was typified by Moses who came from God to serve the house of God (Heb. 3:2-6), and as the High Priest He was typified by Aaron, who went to God with the house of Israel and their cases (4:14—7:28).
Although you might have known that Jesus is our High Priest, I doubt whether many of you reading this message have ever heard that Jesus is also the Apostle. Jesus was the first Apostle in the New Testament. This is why I say once again that the book of Hebrews is quite peculiar. Firstly, it tells us that the Lord Jesus has been appointed by God to be the Heir of all things (1:2). Then it tells us that He is even the Captain of salvation (2:10). Christ as the Heir of all things and as the Captain of salvation is not so clearly revealed as in this book. Even Christ as the High Priest cannot be found elsewhere in the New Testament. Now we see that Christ is the Apostle. The word apostle in Greek means a sent one, one who is sent by higher authority. Jesus is the One who was sent by God. God sent Him to us.
Moses was a type of Jesus as the Apostle, the sent one. When the children of Israel were suffering persecution under the tyranny of Pharaoh, God appeared to Moses and charged him to go to the children of Israel and to Pharaoh. Thus, Moses became an Old Testament apostle. Moses was God’s sent one, the apostle who was to take Israel out of Egypt and lead them through the wilderness for the purpose that they might be constituted as God’s house and to be formed into a habitation of God on earth. This habitation of God was symbolized by the tabernacle made by the children of Israel in the wilderness. That tabernacle was only a symbol; it was not the real habitation of God. At that time, God’s real habitation on earth was the children of Israel themselves. The children of Israel were formed and constituted into a house of God by Moses, God’s apostle. This portrait is very clear. When we read the Bible we need to have such a heavenly vision, a revelation in the spirit. Without this, we can never apprehend the true significance of all the stories in the Old Testament.
There is, however, a difference in degree between Moses and Christ. Regardless of how much Moses prefigured Christ, he was still only a part of the house, whereas Christ is the Builder of God’s house (3:3).
Moses, as God’s sent one to take care of God’s house, was faithful to God in all His house. This typifies that Christ, as the Apostle from God, for God’s house, is faithful to God who constituted Him (v. 2).
Chapter three, verse 5, says that Moses was “a servant for a testimony of the things to be spoken later.” Moses was a testimony. Here a testimony means that Moses was a photograph. Your photograph is your testimony. Suppose we have never seen a certain person but we have a photograph of him. His photograph is his testimony. Likewise, Moses was a testimony, a prefigure, a photograph, a type of the real, typical, and genuine Apostle sent from God.
Christ is not only a part of the house but also the Builder of the house (vv. 3-4). Moses only had one nature — humanity. This human nature is good for God’s building. But Moses did not have the divine nature which is good for being the builder. The Lord Jesus has two natures, the humanity which is good for the material for the building of God’s habitation and the divinity which is the element of the builder. In His humanity, Jesus is the stone for God’s habitation. He is the foundation stone (Isa. 28:16), the cornerstone (Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11), the topstone (Zech. 4:7), and the living stone (1 Pet. 2:4) to produce us as living stones (1 Pet. 2:5). In His humanity He is the good material for God’s building and in His divinity He is the Builder. Moses was an apostle sent from God to constitute God’s house on earth, and Christ was also the Apostle doing the same thing. But Christ is not only a part of the building; He is also the Builder. This is the difference between Christ and Moses.
In Hebrews 2 Christ is the Firstborn Son and we are the many sons who form the church. In that chapter Christ is the Captain, the Firstborn Son, and the High Priest in order for the many brothers to be the church. Chapter three is somewhat different. In this chapter Christ is the Apostle, and the church is the house of God. In Hebrews 2 Christ is the Firstborn, the Captain, and the High Priest, and the brothers are the church. In Hebrews 3 Christ is the Apostle and the brothers are the house of God. The church has a double function. To Christ, the church is the Body; to God, the church is the house. Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body of the Head. This is the first function of the church. God is the Father, and the church is His house. This is the second function of the church. Just as Christ is the Head and the church is His Body, so God is the Father and the church is His house. The church as the Body of Christ is an organism. In like manner, the church as a house is not a physical house; it is a living house.
As all Greek students know, the Greek word rendered house here may be translated as “household” or, using the modern term, “folks,” “the members of a family.” God’s house is not a physical house but a living house. God’s house is His family, and His family is His house. His house is also His household, for His folks are His dwelling place. Suppose a certain family has a house. The family is one thing and the house is another. The family is living and the house is physical. But God’s family and God’s house are both living.
In what way is God’s house living? It is living in the Father’s name and in the Father’s life. When we say that it is living in the Father’s name, this means that it is living in the Father’s reality. This house is a living composition of the many children of God in the Father’s life and reality. This is wonderful. Where the house of God is, there is the family of God, and where the family of God is, there is God the Father with His life and reality. This is similar to the church as the Body of Christ. Christ is not separate from all the members of the Body, for, as the Head of the Body, Christ indwells all the members. Christ should not be counted as a separate member of the Body because He is in all of the members of the Body. Likewise, God’s house is God’s family. The Father is not a separate member of the household but is in all of the children. This is Bethel, the house of God, the very house that Jacob saw in his dream (Gen. 28). This is the reason that where the church is, there is Bethel, the house of God with the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, as the heavenly ladder. Such a church is the gate of heaven by which people can communicate from the earth to heaven. There is even now a communication between earth and heaven. When we are in the proper church life, we are in the gate of heaven. If you have the spiritual eyes, you can see the angels ascending and descending upon the heavenly ladder.
Who is the one who formed, built, and constituted this house and who takes care of this house? Jesus Christ, the Apostle sent from God, has and still is constituting and building up His house. He is not only building the house but also carrying it on. This house is a movable, portable house; it is a living and walking house. Do you believe that today’s organized Christianity is such a house? Can organized Christianity walk? We are living, walking, and moving. We are walking corporately with the Apostle. God’s house is a corporate Body. If we are going to enjoy the Apostle and if we are going to enjoy the Father with His reality, we must be in the house. In religion, I am sorry to say, people are not told that they have an Apostle. But we must know that we have an Apostle. Our Captain of salvation and our High Priest is the Apostle, the One sent by God to take care of God’s house. If you are not in the house, you will not enjoy Him in His aspect of being the Apostle. You may enjoy Him in other aspects, for He is great, kind, and more than merciful, and He will do many things for you. But as far as the church as the house of the Father is concerned, you will not be able to enjoy Him as the Apostle.
This is the reason that I do not believe in being an individual Christian. Once you are an individual, you are through. When you are an individual, you are a separated stone. As a separated stone, you have nothing to do with the house. We need to be in the church. Many of us can testify what enjoyment, blessing, and grace we have partaken of since we came into the church. We are going to see wonderful things happen in and to the house.
Many of the young people are stirred up to preach the high gospel. After being stirred up, they may be unable to wait for even half a minute. They want to know the next step. Young people, the next step is to get into the house and stay with the house. The step after that is to go on with the house. We cannot preach the high gospel unless we have the house. In order to have the highest preaching of the gospel we must have the church as the house of the living God. Then we shall be able to declare to all the thoughtful people, “Come and see. Here is the meaning of life. Come and see the life that so many philosophers have been seeking for in the past but failed to find. Come and see the church life.” We need to have the church life. We cannot preach the high gospel if we do not have a model. People want to be practical. They don’t want to hear about something that will happen by and by; they want to have it now. Then people will ask, “Where is this thing that you are talking about?” and we shall be able to say, “Come and see.” Without having the church life on the highest plane there is no possibility of preaching the high gospel. In a sense, the high church life is the preaching. We simply need to bring people in and let them see and taste. Then they will say, “Now I know.” It is easy to preach the gospel when we have a model. Every salesman knows that it is difficult to sell a product unless you have a sample. The best way to sell something to people is to show it to them.
In the last message I told you about the many nurses from the great hospital in Peking who were captured for the church life. They were highly educated and qualified nurses. Many times they attended the church meeting in their white uniforms, coming to the meeting as soon as they got off duty. This influenced others, who asked them, “What is this thing that has captured you? You don’t care for eating or anything else — you just go to those meetings. What is this?” As a result of this, many others were caught.
We need to have the highest church life, something that is so attractive to people. We need to let people know what is the real humanity and what is the genuine human society. The church life must be the best society, the highest communal living. Be assured that one day this will happen. I do believe in the Lord’s life. Someday, not long from now, the whole world will see and religion will be surprised. By then they will see the difference. They may criticize and oppose us today, but time will vindicate.
We have been given many bad names. Some even call us a cult. Recently I received a letter from a brother who was on a ship in the navy. He met some other Christians on board ship and saw how poisoned they were against us. But let us wait and see what time will say. Do not be influenced by the rumors. No one on earth today is as fundamental as we are. No one honors God’s divine oracles as we do. No one believes in the Triune God as practically as we do. We do not believe merely in a doctrinal way — that is a Vanity Fair. We are practical. If we believe in justification by faith, it must be practical and experiential. We believe in every aspect of the Bible in the way of experience. We do not want to have any vain doctrines. What does vain doctrine do for you? Nothing. We were born into a doctrinal Vanity Fair, but there is nothing in it, only terms. I was born into such a Vanity Fair and it took me more than twenty years to unload all of those vanities. Whatever we believe in today must be practical. We do believe in the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and we believe according to the black and white letters of the pure Word, not according to tradition.
The Lord is here and He is covering us. Anyone who opposes this testimony does not have a case. Sooner or later his follies will be exposed. Time will tell. Time will prove. This testimony is not something new; it has been tested for over fifty years. Wherever this testimony has gone, nothing has been able to stand against it. If you were to ask the missionaries who have gone to Taiwan, they will tell you that no work in Taiwan can stand against the work of this testimony. All the missionaries admitted that this is the leading work on the island of Taiwan. In 1968, over one hundred thirty American brothers and sisters visited Taiwan. While they were there, they met a missionary who spoke against us. Although he did not like this testimony, he had to admit that it was the most prevailing work. Why is this work prevailing? Because it is the Lord’s testimony. It is not up to us; it is up to Him. But we must be one with Him. Do not hold on to anything.
Let me give you a testimony of what happened to one of the opposers. In 1958, I was invited to visit a spiritual place in England. I went there neither to receive help nor to give help to others but to see the situation there. The leader honored me by putting me in a special house and assigning a person to take care of me. For a month’s time the leader turned all of the meetings over to me, not only the meetings of the conference but even the regular meetings. During my stay there I discovered that that place was not for the church; it was absolutely for its ministry. During the twenty or thirty years prior to 1958, the ministry in that place was prevailing. Many admitted that it was a spiritual ministry. After I stayed there for a month, the leader brought me to his retreat in Scotland. I stayed with him there for a week with the purpose of sitting down with him face to face to have a talk about the Lord’s economy, about what the Lord is doing today. His opinion was that the Lord would use his ministry to establish ministry centers throughout the earth. I told him that the Lord’s economy is to establish local churches in city after city. Although we were good friends, we could not get along. He found that I was more than stubborn in this matter, and I learned that he could not be changed one bit. We did not fight with each other, but within we realized that there was a great discrepancy between our understandings of the Lord’s economy. We returned from his retreat house in Scotland to England. Before I left, he asked me to speak again in one of the regular meetings. I did not know what to speak until I got on the platform. Then the message came. In that message I told the people that the ministry is not for the ministry, but that every ministry must be for the local churches. I was very strong, saying, “Look at the ministry of the apostle John. Although it was the most spiritual ministry, it was not the lampstand. Look at all the local churches in Revelation — most of them were a mess. But the local churches are the lampstands.” In that message I emphasized strongly that the local churches should not be for the ministry but that the ministry must be for the local churches.
The dear brother who was the leader in that place had touched God’s government. To be governmentally wrong with God is a serious thing. If this testimony is the Lord’s recovery, then it is something that is divinely governmental. If any man can touch this testimony without anything happening to him, it proves that this testimony is nothing. But this is the Lord’s recovery, and we all must be careful. How serious it is to touch the Lord’s recovery!
The dear one who invited me to England had firstly been invited by us to come to Taiwan. He came in 1955 and again in 1957. During his first visit he did not touch the church matter, but in his second visit he purposely touched it. This set off a strong debate between him and us. The debate was between this brother and the leading ones on the island of Taiwan. During the first two of these meetings I was doing the interpretation and did not speak in the debate. However, in the third meeting I joined in. Although we were friends with this dear brother, even intimate friends, we held different concepts regarding the Lord’s economy. This brother left Taiwan in April of 1957. When I visited him in England sixteen months later, in August, 1958, he told me that when the plane took off from Taipei for Hong Kong, the flow within him was cut off and that it had not been recovered. On the very day he told me this, he said that he had cried to the Lord early in the morning, asking Him why the flow had been cut off.
Christ, typified by Moses, was faithful to God in taking care of God’s house (v. 2). Chapter two verse 17 tells us that He is faithful as the High Priest. Here it says that He is faithful as the Apostle sent from God to us.
Moses was only a part of the house, whereas Christ is both the house and the Builder of the house. So Christ is counted worthy of more glory and honor than Moses was (3:3). We need to see that Christ as the Builder of the house has more glory and honor than Moses. Hence, Christ is much superior to Moses.
