Fill Your Thoughts With Jesus!

4th Sunday after Epiphany, 1/29/12
Hebrews 3:1-6

Fill Your Thoughts With Jesus!
I. As the apostle and high priest
II. As a Son over God’s house

Have you ever wondered how many thoughts per day you have? If so, how does it compare with someone else?

I spent a couple minutes researching it, and the estimates vary quite widely. One study claimed we have as many as 150,000 thoughts every day. Most studies, however, settled on a number around 50,000. If you’re a deep thinker, you can add 10,000 to that number. That’s a lot of thoughts! What in the world are we thinking about?

I would imagine that we wouldn’t mind sharing some of that information. We think about our children and our jobs, and what to eat for the three meals that day. We think about what we need to purchase at the store. We think about whatever it is that’s on our computer screen or smart phone at that given moment.

But there are plenty of things we think about that we greatly prefer to keep to ourselves. We don’t want people to know what we’re thinking about them because it’s not complimentary. In other situations, if another person knew what we were thinking about them, we could get into a lot of trouble or suffer some great losses.

And while many of our thoughts are necessary simply for us to exist another day, I’m sure it’s also true that many of our thoughts—perhaps far too many of our thoughts—aren’t necessary at all. In fact, they’re either wasteful or harmful.

So, what should we do? Take the advice of the inspired writer to the Hebrews. He tells us, “Fix your thoughts on Jesus.” Now there’s a worthwhile subject for our thoughts. In fact, as Christians, I’m sure you’d agree that there’s no more worthwhile person or thing to think about. But sadly, all too often we don’t. So let’s take this word of our God to heart this morning. Fill your thoughts with Jesus! God not only gives us that encouragement, he also gives us some pointed suggestions regarding Jesus to ponder.

Part I.

It’s fairly common for us to give names to people which describe what they do or what they’re known for. For instance, a particular sports team might name one of its members The Eraser because he or she is known for completely doing away with anything an opponent attempts. At work you might dub a co-worker the Time Clock Nazi if they constantly watching when people punch in and out and reporting any apparent violations. For better or for worse, those names describe what others perceive they do.

But let’s fill our thoughts with Jesus now, particularly with his names, names which describe who he is and what he does. The name “Jesus” means “The Lord saves.” That’s who Jesus is and what he does. The name “Immanuel” means “God with us.” Jesus called himself the Son of God and the Son of Man. I’m sure you could think of a few more. And all those names have deep meanings.

But did you notice what the writer to the Hebrews calls Jesus here in our text? After encouraging us to fix our thoughts on him, he calls Jesus “the apostle and high priest whom we confess.” I don’t know about you, but when I think of Jesus, those aren’t two of the things I often think about him. But obviously we should, otherwise the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have used these words. So, just what are we to think about Jesus as apostle and high priest?

Let’s take them one at a time. Apostle is not one of the names we associate with Jesus. Instead, we associate it with men like Peter, James, John and Paul. In fact, that’s exactly what the Bible calls these men. With the exception of Paul, first these men were disciples of Jesus; they followed Jesus. But at Pentecost he sent them out. That’s what the name “apostle” means, one who is sent out.

But how does that describe Jesus? God the Father sent Jesus to this earth on a mission. In fact, it was the greatest mission ever undertaken and the stakes were eternally high. The eternal future of every soul—every person—was in the balance. Jesus was sent here to accomplish salvation for every sinner. Here in the season of Epiphany we hear how Jesus began that work. During the season of Lent we’ll hear how Jesus finished that work. In the season of Easter we’ll celebrate how Jesus guaranteed that he completed his mission—by rising from the dead in eternal glory as true God and true man.

But what about high priest? Wasn’t that an Old Testament office? Yes, it was, but each high priest was a type or a picture of the Savior to come. The Israelites were not allowed to bring their sacrifices to God on their own; the priest had to do it for them. God was teaching his people the truth that they were not acceptable to him on their own. They needed someone to be their mediator. Jesus perfectly fulfilled that role. He didn’t sacrifice animals to make peace for us with God; he sacrificed himself and, in doing so, he reconciled sinful people with the holy God. And now he lives to intercede for us with his heavenly Father. Now that’s something worthwhile to think about.

Fill your thoughts with Jesus as the apostle and high priest.

We’ve been speaking about our thoughts this morning. Let’s consider our thoughts about ourselves for a moment. It’s my impression that our thoughts about ourselves range from one extreme to the other and everything in between. On the one extreme, our thoughts are filled with sinful pride. We’re pretty happy with the way we live. We’re convinced we’re living like Jesus wants us to. Or, we don’t give any thought to the truth that we daily sin countless times in thoughts, desires, words and deeds. That’s sinful pride. On the other extreme is sinful despair. We think about what a mess our lives are and how we’re responsible for it. We wonder if God loves, if he even could love us, or we’re pretty sure he doesn’t anymore. In between those two extremes are our self-centered, lustful, hateful, judgmental, discontented and envious thoughts all day long. Pretty pathetic, isn’t it? No wonder Jesus tells us, “Fill your thoughts with me as your apostle and high priest.” He is the solution to both those sinful extremes and everything in between. Think about why he came to this earth—to be your Savior from sin. Consider how he completely accomplished your forgiveness and won your eternal life by his life and his death on the cross. When you think about those things, you’d be surprised how much better off you are. Fill your thoughts with Jesus.

Part II.

The writer concludes our text with another name for Jesus that begins in a familiar way but ends rather peculiarly. First he talks about Moses and then he tells us, “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house” And then he adds something about ourselves, “And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

What’s all this talk about a house and why does the writer compare Jesus with Moses? Let’s spend a minute sorting it all out.

The writer mentions that Moses served God’s Old Testament people. In fact, “he was a faithful servant in all God’s house.” But that’s all he was. Just a human servant.


Jesus is far greater. He wasn’t just a servant, although he came to serve all people. He was actually a son. Our translation uses a lower case “s” on the word “son.” It would be better with an upper case “S.” Jesus is none other than the Son of God. As such he is the one who made us God’s house. He did so by his work of redemption. He shed his holy, precious blood and endured his innocent sufferings and death so that we could belong to our God forever.

In fact, our Savior actually lives in us and we in him. Jesus prayed these words about his believers to his heavenly Father on the night before his death, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (Jn. 17:26). By faith in Jesus we actually have Jesus living in us. We are his house.

That’s a blessing we share with every Christian, in other words, with every member of the Holy Christian Church, the invisible gathering of all believers in Christ. In this morning’s gospel, Jesus drove a demon out of a man. We, too, once belonged to Satan’s kingdom, not in the sense of demon possession, but we belonged to him nonetheless. But Jesus drove Satan away and made us his house.

And now he rules over that house. He rules over us individually and over all his Church for our good. He uses his almighty power to direct all forces, whether good or evil, to accomplish his saving purposes and his grand plan for all of history.

Now there’s something worthwhile to ponder, to consider, to enjoy. Fill your thoughts with Jesus as a Son over God’s house.

There’s a strong emphasis in Christianity to consider your Christian faith as a long list of what you do and what you don’t do. Other Christians are satisfied to boil that long list down to a short list of obligations, sometimes seasonal, sometimes year-long. And still others content themselves by stating that they always try to do the Christian thing, even though things such as regular worship and supporting Christ’s kingdom work aren’t part of it.

That’s the wrong viewpoint. The correct one is right here. Jesus reminds you of what you are, of what he made you. You are his house. In his grace and love for you he has made you his dwelling place. Isn’t that incredible? He washed your sins away with his blood. He made you his own. It cost him his life but he never hesitated to pay it. Now, with the power of Christ living in you, ask yourself how accurately your life reflects it. How well do I show others that Jesus lives in me? Now there’s something to think about. Jesus lives in you. Jesus empowers you. Fill your thoughts with Jesus. Amen.