(The English outline follows the Chinese)
建築商比建築物值錢
希伯來書 3:1-6
李業基牧師2/11/2024 匯點教會San Leandro 分堂
建築商比建築物值錢
他[耶稣]比摩西配得更多的榮耀 … (希伯來書3:3)
- 對于現代的美國人來說: 新取代舊並不難理解，長江後浪推前浪，青出於藍而勝於藍，是社會的常規。
- 問題是，讀者是希伯來人，他們的價值觀是愈早遠愈有權威。
- 傳統的華人傳福音經常所見的問題。
… 好像建造房屋的人比房屋更尊榮 (希伯來書3:3)
- 建築商比建築物值錢。
- 製作人比產品值錢。
- 權威 Authority 屬於作者 Author。
三對關鍵詞
希伯來書 3:1-6
1同蒙天召的聖潔弟兄啊，要思想
我們所宣認為使者、為大祭司的耶穌；2他向指派他的盡忠，如同摩西向神的全家盡忠一樣。
3他比摩西配得更多的榮耀，
好像建造房屋的人比房屋更尊榮；
4因為房屋都必有人建造，但建造萬物的是神。
5摩西作為僕人，向神的全家盡忠，為將來要談論的事作證；6但是基督作為兒子，治理神的家。
我們若堅持因盼望而有的膽量和誇耀，我們就是他的家了。
- 房屋與家。房屋是一個家庭居住的地方，房屋與家庭是經常交換使用的近義詞。
- 摩西與耶稣。摩西與耶稣的有相似之處，也有不同之處。相似之處是他們的功能，摩西和耶稣都忠心服事神的家。不同之處是他們的身份，摩西是僕人。耶稣是主人。耶稣是神的兒子，只有耶稣才能真正代表神。
- 建造房屋的人與建造萬物的神。作者說，每座房屋都必有人建造，所以世上，製作人有很多。但建造萬物的只有一個，就是神。神是一切建築物背後的創造者。神是所有製作人的創造者。
三個推論
- 如果建築物不值錢，建築商就早晚會破産。
- 如果建築物有價值，建築商當然更加值錢。
- 最值錢的建築物就是接待建築商的家。即使是一棟舊建築物，如果可以用來暫時接待建造新建築物的建築商。那麽一棟舊建築物就算最終會被拆毀，今日，舊建築物還是非常有價值的。
個人或小組思考問題
- 我們珍惜房屋，還是珍惜建造房屋的人呢？
- 我們在打理一間舊屋，還是在建立一間新屋呢？
- 作為一個屬靈的建築物，我們用的是金銀寶石還是草木禾秸呢？
- 神有沒有通過我們建立建造房屋的人呢？
The Builder Is Worth More Than the Building
Hebrews 3:1-6
Pastor Gideon lee 2/11/2024 Crosspoint Church San Leandro
The builder is worth more than the building
He [Jesus] deserved more glory than Moses … (Hebrews 3:3).
- For modern Americans: It is not difficult to understand that the new replaces the old, and it is the norm of society that the elder shall serve the younger.
- The problem is that the readers are Hebrews, and their values are that the earlier they go, the more authoritative they are.
- Problems often seen in traditional Chinese evangelism.
… As if the builder of a house is more honored than the house (Hebrews 3:3).
- The builder is worth more than the building.
- The producer is worth more than the product.
- Authority belongs to the Author。
Three pairs of keywords
Hebrews 3:1-6
Holy brothers and sisters, who share in a heavenly calling,
Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s household.
For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses,
Just as the builder has more honor than the house.
(Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God).
Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household.
And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.
- House & Household. A house is a place where a household lives. House and household are synonyms that are often used interchangeably.
- Moses and Jesus. There are similarities and differences between Moses and Jesus. Both Moses and Jesus faithfully served the family of God. The difference is their identity. Moses is a servant. Jesus is the Master. Jesus is the Son of God and only Jesus can truly represent God.
- The man who built the house and the God who built all things. The author says that every house must be built, so there are many producers in the world. But there is only one builder, God. God is the creator behind all buildings. God is the creator of all producers.
Three corollaries
- If the building is not worth much, the builder will go bankrupt sooner or later.
- If the building is valuable, the builder is certainly more valuable.
- The most valuable building is the home of the host builder. Even an old building can be used to temporarily host builders who are building new buildings. Therefore, even an old building is eventually demolished, it is still very valuable today.
Questions
- 我們珍惜房屋，還是珍惜建造房屋的人呢？
- 我們在打理一間舊屋，還是在建立一間新屋呢？
- 作為一個屬靈的建築物，我們用的是金銀寶石還是草木禾秸呢？
- 神有沒有通過我們建立建造房屋的人呢？
Reference English Transcript
[Slide: 1 Title]
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[Slide: 2 QR Code]
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[Slide: 3 Happy New Year]
Happy Chinese New Year! I wish everyone a prosperous and healthy new year. And my prayer is that we can enjoy the full of life and energy in the new year of dragon — that we will be vibrant like dragon and fierce like tiger!
It is great to have a fresh start. But as we turn from an old year to a new year, we don’t just forget everything in the past. Indeed, we cherish the precious memory of yesteryears.
[Slide: 4 3 Keys to OT]
When I shared with you two weeks ago, I made essentially the same point about the Old Testament. Although we are New Testament Christians, it is still helpful to read the Old Testament. There is a lot of God’s moral expectation for mankind and practical life wisdom in the Old Testament that remains helpful for people today. Just because we are saved and hope for the eternal future doesn’t mean we don’t have to live today. In fact, it gives us a better perspective of why we live and how we live. The key is to read the Old Testament through Christ. What it means is that we confront today’s real-life situation by bringing in an eternal perspective.
[Slide: 5 Lifeboat or ambulance]
A church is not a lifeboat waiting to be rescued. It is a rescue mission sent to a community with need. Just because we have the hope for a new and better place doesn’t mean we forget about the old place we live in today. The author of Hebrews wants the readers to understand this important truth.
[Slide: 6 Moses & Christ]
He is not saying Moses, referenced as a symbol for the Old Testament, has now become worthless. But Christ, referenced as a symbol for the New Testament, has superior worth. What Moses prepared Christ is completing. There is tremendous worth in Moses. The worth is not complete without Christ. It is not Moses vs. Christ. It is Moses preparing the way for Christ.
[Slide: 7 The elder shall serve the younger]
For Americans today, the idea that the old improving on the new is not difficult to grasp. The elder shall serve the younger. Or in Chinese, the green comes from the blue but is superior to the blue.
[Slide: 8 Taiwan]
Down in Milpitas, we joke that don’t think that it is true in Taiwan – that the green camp will overtake the blue camp.
[Slide: 9 Silicon Valley]
It is true in Silicon Valley, too. We have our own red, green, and blue camps. In the PC era, the blue camp dominated. But in the age of AI, the green camp is the big winner. Even the red camp is catching up.
In America, it doesn’t take a lot of convincing to say that the elder shall serve the younger. Why is strange that Jesus would surpass Moses?
But the author of Hebrews was not speaking to 21st century Americans. His intended readers were Hebrews who thought that the original is always the best.
[Slide: 10 Sinai]
They had this view that the history of Israel reached a peak with Moses. And it has been basically going downhill from there. Each generation loses something passed down from the previous generation. How could any new teacher like Jesus be above Moses then? That has got to be a cultural obstacle for some traditional Jews
[Slide: 11 Chinese]
It is kind of like the way Confucius sees the world in front of him. The heart of people is not like ancient times anymore! That is why it is a bit hard to preach the gospel to the traditional Chinese. Some worship ancestors. Some worship Kwan Gung. They are offended when you say your Jesus is greater than those idols they worship. Even among academic scholars who are not superstitious. You say to them that Jesus is a better teacher than Confucius. They will fight hard with you.
[Slide: 12 Heb. 3:3]
That is perhaps why the author of Hebrews makes the case Jesus is greater than Moses using another angle. He said:
For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house.
The author did not say Jesus built a newer and nicer house than the house of Moses. That would of course be true. And it might appeal to Americans like us. But because the author was talking to Jews, he argued this way. The builder is alive. The building is a fixture. Which one is worth more? The one who is alive.
The “house of Moses” has tremendous value. But its foundation is laid by God through the Son Jesus Christ. God continues to be part of the building process and is still building today. If the builder is worth more than the building, then Jesus is worth more than Moses.
Does this argument make sense to modern ears too? I think it would still make sense. For it is not a contrast between the old and the new. But the builder and the building; the producer and the product. Producers are alive and continue to produce. Once a product is made and shipped, it is fixed. For the same reason, the builder is of course worth more than the building.
Many here came originally from Hong Kong. Let me ask.
[Slide: 13 CH vs Whampoa Garden]
Which one is worth more? Cheung Kong Holdings or Whampoa Garden?
[Slide: 14 Li Kar Sing]
Of course, see this guy’s smile! The builder is worth more than the builder. The producer is worth more than the product.
[Slide: 15 Elon Musk]
If you go down to Fremont a couple of years ago, this is what people said. If you want to make Elon Musk rich, you buy a Tesla. If you want to make yourself rich, you buy some Tesla shares.
(Disclaimer: I am not giving stock purchasing advice. And fair disclosure: I don’t own Tesla stock and I am not a certified financial advisor!)
But EV is not selling as good these days. Not only did Tesla get a price cut, Tesla stock also got a price cut. Elon Musk is currently not the richest man in the world.
[Slide: 16 Bernard Arnault]
The honor goes to Bernard Arnault. Never heard of him?
[Slide: 17 Louie Vuitton]
Well, ladies would perhaps know Louie Vuitton. Same thing. A $2500 genuine leather handbag? It is so expensive. No wonder people steal it in broad daylight. But it is still several zeroes away from the network of Mr. Arnault. So again: the producer is worth more than the product. The builder is worth more than the building.
[Slide: 18 Author and authority]
In English, the word “authority”, came from “author,” the originator. And that’s what the Jewish people believe. Because God is the author of our lives, God is the ultimate authority of our lives.
[Slide: 19 Hebrews 3:3]
In understanding the Bible, we need to be careful not to take a verse out of context. Before we draw too much conclusion from a single verse, we need to take a step back and see if this interpretation is correct by examining the full context.
[Slide: 20 Hebrews 3:1-6]
Jewish people like to arrange their ideas in parallel. It is called a chiasmus. To help you see the structural parallels, I have added some indentation on the screen. I also color highlighted certain keywords.
Let me read for you Hebrews 3:1-6.
The first thing I hope you can see is that if pivotal idea is found in the middle, the idea that “the builder is worth more than the building” must be the central idea of the passage. Writing style is different with different languages and cultures. Americans are impatient. We give it away right away. Englishmen are more patient. They save the best for last. They will lay out the whole case before drawing out the conclusion, kind of like Sherlock Holmes detective novels. But with Jewish parallelism, you find the central idea in the middle.
[Slide: 21 3 keyword pairs]
We detect the parallelism by watching some keywords. And there are three keyword pairs that are important: house and household, Moses and Jesus, the house builder and God the creator.
[Slide: 22 House and household]
First, house and household. House is where a household lives. Therefore, the two words are sometimes used interchangeably. Sometimes we will point to a building and say that’s a church. We mean that is a church building because the church is really the people. When we say that as a church, we are God’s temple, we are God’s house, we are God’s family, we are saying the same thing. We are God’s people. But we do use different words to highlight different shades of meanings. Hence, we can use that to understand the difference between house and household. House consists of fixed structures so that household can safely live. In that sense, the Mosaic Law is kind of like a house, so that the nation of Israel can live.
[Slide: 23 Moses and Jesu]
Second, Moses vs. Jesus. With the comparison between Moses and Jesus, there are similarities and dissimilarities. What is the same is that both Moses are Jesus are servants. Moses was said to be faithful servant of all God’s household. Jesus also serves faithfully. But one thing is notably different. Jesus is the son of God. He alone can truly represent God. He owns the house.
It says Moses gave testimony for the future. That means Moses prepared for Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, the reference of Moses here is really a symbol for the Old Testaments, what could be metaphorically called the House of Moses. All the Old Testaments prepare for Jesus by prophesizing about the work Jesus would do.
[Slide: 24 house builder and God the creator]
Third, house builder and God the ultimate builder. Every house is built by someone. In other words, there are many builders. Anyone who helps build up the house of God is a builder.
But God is the ultimate builder. He is the builder who is behind everything that is built.
[Slide: 25 Moses and Jesus]
So how do we best understand the contrast: Jesus as builder and Moses as building? We need to place ourselves back in the historical context of the first century Christians with a Jewish background.
[Slide: 26 +law]
For them, the Law of Moses is like a big building, the house of Moses. The structure is long fixed. It is like the temple of Jerusalem. But it is done. That’s what “Moses” meant to them.
[Slide: 27 + history]
But when the author said Jesus is the builder. The point is that God did not only lay the foundation of all houses, including the House of Moses, but God continues to build. In fact, God is building a new house through Christ. And it is ongoing work. And Christ is builder is still working through us as we are also builders.
[Slide: 28 3 corollaries]
Let’s think about how we can practically apply this idea that the builder is worth more than the building.
I think, as a church, as a building, we can come up with three corollaries with the idea.
First, if a building is worthless, the builder is bankrupt.
Second, if a building is worthy, the builder receives greater glory.
Third, a building is most worthy if it hosts builders. In fact, even an old building is worthy if it can be used to host builders building a new house.
[Slide: 29 first corollary]
If the builder is worth more than the building, what is the worth of the builder if the building is worthless? It could be equally worthless.
[Slide: 30 Straw marble]
Since we are builders ourselves, we need to examine if what we build is worthy. If we build a straw building, it will not stand when there is fire. Just like building up a physical body takes good planning and a lot of investment, there is no shortcut to hard work when it comes to building up a spiritual body.
[Slide: 31 bubble]
We cannot just prop things up. When we rely on gimmicks to prop things up, we can inflate a bubble very fast, but it might burst and collapse just as quickly.
[Slide: 32 Gold finger]
The Hong Kong movie Goldfinger was a box office success. It was based on a true story about a corrupted corporation that went bankrupt in Hong Kong during the 1980s. There are lots of idiosyncrasy about Hong Kong in the 1980s that you would find out and it’s probably worth watching just about that.
[Slide: 33 Gold finger 2]
But the moral of the real story was essentially the same as all other bubble stories: what happens if there was lot of easy hot money. Instead of using borrowed debt to develop real worthy assets, some companies would use borrowed money to artificially pump up the asset price they own. It becomes a pump and dump scheme. Pump enough to fool people to buy in before they themselves get out. So long as the market bubble keeps inflating, that might be fine.
[Slide: 34 Thatcher]
But when the market tide turns, like when the news of Hong Kong returning to China sent the market crashing, everything falls apart. As Warren Buffett said, when the tide turns, you find out who has been swimming naked.
[Slide: 35 Evergrande]
Recently Evergrande which used to be the largest real estate developer in China was ordered by Hong Kong High Court to liquidate. Some people observed that it is just the tip of the iceberg of China’s real estate problem. A conservative estimate put the number of vacant homes to 80M. What caused this? Easy money. And it is made worse by state policy of price control.
[Slide:36 Ego]
But spiritual life is similar. You cannot grow your spirituality by keeping yourself busy and fake a lot of emotional excitement. It is because a lot of these hypocritical works do not build up. They only puff up. If it is all to fulfill your ego, it is still building a straw building. You will eventually burn out.
[Slide: 37 Ananias]
That was why the story of Ananias in Acts was considered so important. They said they sold all their property and gave to the church. But they kept some for themselves. When the apostle Paul exposed their lies, they dropped dead. Some saw donating their money to church as a quick way to gain respect. But if you care about how people look at you and not about how the all-knowing and almighty God look at you, your heart is in the wrong place. the Holy Spirit would not take that.
[Slide: 38 Ascetism]
Some early Christians pursue ascetism and mysticism. They looked pietistic. But Paul warned several times in his letters to different churches. Hypocritical acts cannot build spiritual life. It only puffs up the ego. And it will burst like a bubble.
[Slide: 39 Second corollary]
The reverse is the same. If the building is worthy, the builder reserves greater glory. If instead, we do the real work of building up oneself in knowledge and love, then it is solid growth that can endure circumstantial changes. If you do the hard work that are truly spiritual, you can be assured that God will be glorified.
And that is what we should think about all the times both individually and as a church. How can we build up this body and this building so that it is worthy of our heavenly calling? How can we make this building more worthy?
[Slide: 40 Spiritual fruit]
Pastor Chiu and I both served at Truth Theological Seminary. I have been sharing the spiritual fruit in the chapel hour on Thursday. It was part of a 3-part series. The first part, on love, joy, peace I also shared with some of you at the leadership rally. This past Thursday I shared about the second set of three, on patience, kindness, and goodness.
[Slide: 41 Rome]
One of the students named Paul who served in Rome as a missionary had an interesting insight. He said he used to pray for patience because it is a character of God. But he learned that the way it really works is that God put us into humble circumstance so that we developed patience. In Southern Europe, in Rome, people live a life that is much slower pace than in the US. You have no choice but to learn patience.
[Slide: 42 Lorenzo church]
In as much as I pray that God will allow the Japanese church to find a new place as soon as possible so that we can move in, I believe we will look back at this period as God’s way of teaching us to be patient. Only with patience can we learn to bear the Cross of Jesus.
[Slide: 43 Patience stubborn]
There is a difference between patience and stubbornness. Patience doesn’t mean we just keep doing the same old routine. That’s stubborn. We can be patient while keeping an open mind, learn to be flexible with the circumstance.
[Slide: 44 Play the hand you are delt]
In fact, that’s what patience is about. Now I am not encouraging you to be a gambler. But I thought there is some truth to what gamblers say: play with the card you are dealt. The important thing is to not give up. Have patience and success will come.
[Slide: 45 Theme]
Now, back to the key verse today. The author of Hebrews said: Jesus is greater than Moses. But clearly, he didn’t mean to say abandon the Old Testament. But how do we put the two together?
[Slide: 46 Third corollary]
One way I can think of is this: A building is worthy if becomes a household for builders. And that’s my third corollary. Even an old and temporary house is worthy if it can become a home base for builders of the new house. That is called leveraging. You leverage what you have, transitory, to develop into something you will have, forever.
[Slide: 47 project]
Before I came to Crosspoint, I served several years in a church in Massachusetts. And my personal accomplishment there was that I helped them succeed in doing a 20,000 square foot building project, which they have waited patiently for 20 years to do.
[Slide: 48 pic 2]
The church had about $600K dollars in annual giving. And they had saved up about 1.2M building fund. But the cost of building keeps going up faster than they can save. When I got there, it was like 2016, consultants told the leaders the rule is that they can raise 3 times the annual giving. That’s 1.8M. They could only afford a building of about $3M. But even the lowest bids came in at about $4.5M. That’s $1.5M short. And they really didn’t want to borrow money.
[Slide: 49 MBB]
I was a good friend of the director of mission at the Greater Boston Baptist Association because I was the chair of the search committee. He had told me about volunteer builders from the South called Mobile Baptist Builders. Some of them are professional homebuilders.
[Slide: 50 MBB 2]
But as a short term mission, they would use their vacation time to help build churches around the country. They didn’t ask for any money. All the church would need to do is buy the material buildings and provide them with houses to stay. They would do what they call framing – building the outside, the roof, and the windows.
Massachusetts has codes that make such volunteer participation quite hard. And most commercial builders don’t prefer to work with volunteers like that as they also become liable.
[Slide: 51 Frame]
But thankfully, the commercial builders were willing to work with them after seeing their works. Part of the reason is that the market was quite hot then, the builders themselves couldn’t find enough workers even if they were to take on a project. They were willing to lower the bid to slightly over $3M with the help of the volunteer builders.
[Slide: 52 Lowell Pic1]
But the church folks were more skeptical. And only because of the saving the church folks agreed to do that. Some never had “foreigners” living in their homes, although you think about it, this is America, who is the “foreigner”?
[Slide: 53 Lowell Pic2]
The generosity even inspired many of the church people to pick up a hammer and participate in the building project. Now, that church was more like Milpitas. Most folks were engineers. But at least 180 people in the church participated.
[Slide:54 Lowell Pic3]
Now, when it is all said and done, the building ends up costing $5.2M. The capital campaign raised much more than 3 times the annual giving. It was 7 times the annual giving. And it would actually be impossible if brothers and sisters were not made builders themselves. When people take ownership of the building project, not only writing checks, but also give their time and energy, inspired by the sacrifice by Christians brothers and sisters who come thousands of miles not asking for anything.
[Slide: 55 Lowell Pic4/Gideon]
This is what happens when a church is not just a housekeeper of an old building, but when a church is inspired to become a place to host builders. Do they regret the building cost rising to 5.2M? Not at all. We all remember what happened in 2020 when the material cost highly inflated. If they had not finished the project in 2019, $7M would not be enough.
[Slide: 56 CBCGL]
The most important thing is that when the brothers and sisters in the church understand that they are not just stewards of an old building, but a family that can be builders of new houses, the church has a higher value. In fact, there are not many Chinese people there anymore. But because they have this new church building, their English ministry can be greatly developed and become a blessing for many nationalities. And you ask them, are they still afraid to do English ministry for foreigners today? No, they are not afraid. They are very willing!
[Slide: 57 Conclusion]
Let me summarize. Today we try to understand why Christ is above Moses because the builder is worth more than the building. We see that it can lead to three practical corollaries.
[Slide: 58 3 corollaries]
If a building is worthless, the builder is bankrupt. But if a building is worthy, the builder receives greater glory. Therefore, even an old temporary house can be worthy if it serves as the home for builders of a new house.
[Slide: 59 4 questions]
Before we wrap up, leave some questions for individuals or groups to think about.
Do we cherish the house, or do we cherish the person who built it?
Are we taking care of an old house, or are we building a new one?
As a spiritual building, do we use gold, silver, precious stones, or wood and straw?
Is God establishing people through us to become builders?