Our Priest Forever

0:13Good morning. The um the room to my back right looks so much uh healthier than normal. Praise God for that. Uh open your Bibles to uh Hebrews. That is where we are this morning. I will try to find it myself. Uh chapter 7 is where we are. Hebrews chapter 7, and we do have a lot to cover uh this morning. We're going to be covering the first 10 verses of chapter 7 this morning. And if you remember, it's been two weeks now since we had uh a one-week break with Brother Gerardo filling in last week. Thank you so very much for that, brother. Um but if you remember two weeks ago, I entered that sermon by alluding to the fact that we're now moving on to the meat of this letter. It seemed as though the author of Hebrews didn't really want to go this deep. Right. He started uh when he started, or while he started chapter five, when he first brought up this man uh Melchizedek, he paused because he felt his readers weren't ready. Right? That's what he said. Uh we then got to the rest, we got the rest of chapter 5, and then all of chapter 6 with the warnings and the encouragements, and we spent a number of weeks on all of that, only to see at the conclusion of chapter 6 this return again of this mysterious character Melchizedek. This is just my personal speculation, but it is as if the author of Hebrews was possibly considering bypassing this deep and strange exposition of Melchizedek because it was too deep or too difficult to explain. And he says that much in chapter 5 that these things are hard to explain. Because his readers had become dull in hearing, he told us. But by the inspiration of the Spirit, by the time he gets to the end of chapter 6, the flow of his writings has returned again to Melchizedek, and inevitably he was left saying, okay, I guess we're doing this. So that is chapter 7, him actually now expositing Melchizedek. Again, that's just some speculation, but nevertheless, we can be assured that what follows is not for the dull in hearing. It's not for the dull in hearing. To quote many an elementary school teacher, in the 90s, you've got to put your thinking caps on for this one. I know y'all have heard that. It is for this reason that many preachers and commentators seem to have a bit of anxiety about this passage, and even have suggested that we skip over this portion of Scripture. To that I say, that's maybe what the author of Hebrews intended, but here it is for us. So we must not and cannot skip it. I can tell you, church, having sat on this passage for many days now, uh, it is going to take some mental effort and work on your part this morning. You are going to have to put those thinking caps on to track with the explanations, but God willing, this very well may be one of the most encouraging and enlightening sections of all of Hebrews. I certainly pray that that is the case. So that's our introduction. Stand with me as we read Hebrews chapter 7, starting in verse 1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. And to Abraham, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything. He is first by translation of his name king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginnings of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever. See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And these, and those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case, tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you again, and as always, for your hard word, Lord, even when it is hard and difficult to explain. Lord, we pray and ask for your Spirit to illuminate this word. Lord, open our hearts to receive it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Yes, as you sit down, there is a lot there. Hang with me, though. We're going to get through it, and Lord willing, it will be made clear. Let's first address then who this Melchizedek is and who he is not. Genesis gives us very little about him. In fact, Hebrews has far more to say about him than all the rest of the Bible combined. He only occurs in a few verses in Genesis 14, which we're going to look at and turn to in a little bit. And David mentions him briefly in Psalm 110. There is much speculation about who this man is. Some say that he is Shem, or possibly Shem, one of Noah's sons, who is still alive, having lived hundreds and hundreds of years. Others say that this is clearly the pre-incarnate Christ. And I can certainly see why people would gravitate towards that explanation, because, as I have noted before, we would say that the preincarnate Christ shows up at times as the angel of the Lord or the commander of the Lord's army, as we see in Joshua. Here, though, it would seem a bit of a stretch to get there, as we would have to gloss over some specific, clear statements that are given to us in the text. Most obvious among those is that the writer says that he resembles the Son of God. He was a shadow of him. Someone who we can look back on because of the various circumstances he was involved in, and what is said about him, we can clearly see the foreshadowing of Christ. Providentially, Brother Gerardo foreshadowed him a little bit last week in his sermon as well. It is also through this Melchizedek that the fullness of Christ's office and identity is best explained if we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it. Okay, with that said, I stand with those who hold the position that Melchizedek was a man. He was the king of Salem. He was appointed directly by God to serve as both king and as priest, high priest, even before such an office was formally given through the Levites. And I think that too will become clear as we go. And we're introduced to Abraham, we're introduced to Mesedek, sorry, during Abraham's return trip from having rescued his nephew Lot from enemy captives. If you've read this story, we we went, we skipped over that story when we were in Genesis. But Lot was living in Sodom. Four kings from neighboring places invaded Sodom and Gomorrah. They took everything, plundered the cities, including Lot, and they took other hostages with them, women, children. Someone escaped and told Abraham about all that had happened. And Abraham, being an absolute beast of a human being, gathered together 318, only 318 men of his own people. And he pursued those kings. He killed them all, and he brought back Lot and all the possessions and all the women and the children and everybody who was taken. What a story, right? That would make an incredible movie, but please no one make that movie. On the return journey, though, Abraham, likely still worn out from battle, is met in the valley of Shave. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I think I am, by the king of Sodom. And he is also met by this mysterious king of Salem, Melchizedek, who is also mentioned as being the priest of God most high. Okay, and there are a few things that are significant and worth noting about what our text says this morning about this man and what our text doesn't say, in fact, and certainly what Genesis doesn't say about Melchizedek. First, what it says is that he is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever. To understand the significance of that, we need to know how important genealogy was in the Old Testament, certainly among the priestly order. In the book of Ezra, for instance, in chapter 2, there is this long list of genealogy of Israel. A lot of names that we cannot pronounce, and I will not even try. And at the end of that, there are some people who seem to be attempting to register as Levites, as priests, but they can't prove their heritage. Ezra 2, verse 62, and you want to turn there, says this. These sought their registration among those who enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there. So they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The Levitical priesthood was a very tightly guarded order. And if one couldn't definitively prove their Levitical connection or genealogy, they could not serve as a priest of God. But the writer of Hebrews points out to us that Melchizedek is clearly not supported by any genealogy. Because as far as we know, he just fell down from heaven and then went right back up after this encounter with Abraham was over. We don't believe that's what actually happened, but no one really has any clue who this guy was, where he came from, and yet Genesis says he was priest of the Most High God. The point that Hebrews will elaborate on is that there is another priestly order. One that doesn't run through man by way of strict adherence to genealogy, but rather one that is appointed by God. And that brings us to the second major section of the text, which is really verse 4 through the end. And I'm going to kind of cover all that together, and then we'll pick out some specifics. The author is laying out how we can be assured that this priestly order, right? This other priestly order, apart from the Levitical Priestly Order, is actually superior to the Levitical Priestly Order. How can we be assured of that? And there is a point to that. We're not just quibbling about which priest is better. So again, have your thinking caps on. The basis of his argument is that the inferior is always blessed by the superior. The father blesses his sons, and then the sons bless their sons, right? The priest blesses those who are spiritually unclean, i.e., spiritually inferior to them in that respect. That is how blessings work, and such an argument is without dispute, the author of Hebrews says. So when we get to Melchizedek, we see that there is one, that he was one who blesses Abraham. Melchizedek blesses Abraham, the inferior. Melchizedek receives tithes from Abraham and blesses him, establishing a clear communication that there was a priest greater than Abraham. But how can anyone be greater than Abraham? That's blasphemy to a Jew, right? To say that there is one greater than Abraham. And we know this because of conversations that Jesus had with the Jews, right? In John 8, they say to him, Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets who died? Who do you make yourself out to be? They say to Jesus. To which he replied, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, You are not fifty years old, and you've seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. They, of course, tried to stone him for saying that. If they would have eyes to see, though, they would have known that one greater than Abraham, who was before Abraham, a priest, was already established. A priest greater than Abraham, who received tithes from him, who blessed him, was already established. Even more. Given that the Levitical priesthood came through Abraham, and prior to that, Abraham tithed to and was blessed by this superior priesthood. It is concluded that even the Levitical priesthood tithed to this greater priesthood. Okay? That's the point that he's making in this second part of that passage. And that's what he's meant when he says that Levi being in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. So think about it like this, then. All the Jewish nation came from Abraham, right? This is clear. So a system in which the other tribes paid tithes to the Levites, the priests, amounts to essentially brothers paying brothers. And that's what he says in Hebrews. Mortal men paying mortal men and exchanging money for blessing. And if that's all it is, then can't we say this is an inferior or perhaps even a flawed system? And the Jews lived and died and would have killed for that system. But Hebrews is showing us that there is actually something bigger going on in that system. Even Levi. And every Levitical priest down through the ages existed in Abraham. The Levitical DNA was in Abraham. And he paid tithes to this greater priestly order. So simply by using God's given wisdom and the direction of his word, we can see that all the Levitical priests, though they received tithes from their brothers, they actually themselves paid tithes into this greater priestly order, something greater than themselves, established before Abraham, according to the will of God, through this priestly order of Melchizedek. Okay, so why is this so important? Why is those distinctions important? Well, aside from obliterating the continuation of the intercessory role of mortal priests, which it certainly does, there are deep spiritual implications for us here. The first of those is that the higher order of priesthood, or this higher order of priesthood, has no end. It has no end. There was an age limit on Levitical priests. Did you know that? An age limit. It was 50. Around 20 young Levites could begin this apprenticeship. By 25, they could start serving as priests. But by 50, they had to retire. They were done. And another generation took their place. This is by order of God. And not only was their office temporary, but their intercession was temporary, too, right? They could offer sacrifices for sin and give blessings, but such things like their positions had a term limit. The people continually sinned. The priests themselves continually sinned. And since their sacrifice and prayers offered no lasting forgiveness of sin, they were stuck in this perpetual loop of sin and sacrifice. Not unlike the moral law that was given to us and by which we are told, do this and you will live. But doing this and living is wholly unattainable for us, isn't it? So is God unjust then? And establishing a priesthood that is not effective eternally? Or a moral law that is hopeless to fulfill? Maybe that case could be made if in his grace he didn't have already established an everlasting priesthood that is eternal and it is effective, and one in which the Levitical priesthood only foreshadows for us. And this is why the author of the Hebrews says that these things are difficult to explain, and why these things are the meat that we have to chew on. They require us to see the substance beyond the shadow, the eternal beyond the temporal. They require us to see that the law and the priesthood were never the final point. But rather the means by which we cry out to God, we are hopeless. We need something better than this. And there is. Melchizedek, as the text says, translated literally means king of righteousness. Isn't it the righteousness of Christ to which we cling? It was the eternal righteousness that Christ had in eternity past, and this same righteousness that he earned on our behalf in the incarnation, by perfectly fulfilling the law and the priesthood, it is this righteousness that by faith he freely gives to all who call upon his name. This righteousness doesn't simply wipe our sins clean, returning us again to a neutral state. But by nature of this perfection of this righteousness, like a light shining in the dark, it expels the darkness. And we are forever imputed with the very righteousness of Christ. By the grace of God and to his glory, it is not as though we have not sinned, which that in and of itself would be gracious, but by faith it is though as we have lived the same perfect life that Christ lived, this law that was impossible to fulfill, this priesthood that was otherwise insufficient, has been completed for us and given to us in perfect righteousness. Wretched sinners that we are. Because of Christ we are now seen through the righteousness of the King of righteousness. And this also means, on account of this imputed righteousness, that we are partakers of the King of Salem. That is the King of peace. Colossians 1, 19 to 20. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or on heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And those two are necessarily connected, as our text says in Hebrews. Because of the righteousness of Christ earned for us and given to us by grace through faith, we are also at peace with God. Not only with God, but with all creation, as Colossians says. All things have been reconciled by the cross in heaven and on earth, and through, and though it may not seem like it, at times we do have peace. And we can experience his peace because on the throne sits the King of Salem, the King of peace, who is by his righteousness, he has made us partakers of his eternal kingdom, one of righteousness and one of peace. This is also, though, why so many missed Jesus, and why so many still miss him. Christ is too often a disappointment when we look to him to conquer our military foes, to win all of our political battles. When we expect him to ride in on a war horse, but instead he sits on a donkey. When we expect him right now to heal all our pain, enlarge our bank accounts, keep us from every trial or every trouble, make no mistake, he will do all of those things in his time. But you will truly see him, and you will truly know him if you look to him as the king of righteousness, and then the king of peace. Christ came first to establish righteousness, earn righteousness for us. And that looked not like a throne, but it looked like a cross. And then he sat down, having established peace. Our pursuit of righteousness and peace may also look at times more like a cross than a throne. But take heart if that is the case, because that means you are on the right path. 1 Peter 4, 1 to 2. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. The final thing I want to pull out from the text this morning is that this passage reveals to us somewhat indirectly that in Christ we have eternal refreshment. I will explain. The author of Hebrews doesn't make this connection explicitly, but I do think it's obvious enough to point out, certainly worth pointing out. I mentioned that Hebrews is referencing this story in Genesis, right, when Abraham is coming back from the slaughter of the kings, having rescued Lot. This is where he meets Melchizedek, and also where Melchizedek refreshes him and blesses him. And I want you to see this. Turn with me to Genesis 14. Genesis 14 and verse 17. Genesis 14, verse 17. After his return of the defeat of the Kedalaomer, I know I got that one, and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shave, that is the king's valley. And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the Most High God and blessed him. You can't help but see in every detail of these passages the glorious foreshadowing of Christ. I'm tempted to say that this is God continually leaving breadcrumbs to keep the analogy uniform with the bread and the wine, but I think this is far less subtle. This is more like the giant Buckeys road signs that say clean bathrooms 52 miles ahead. By the grace of God, we can now see these giant billboards in the text that say Christ just ahead. We can go back and read the Old Testament and we can see that all roads lead to Christ. Bread and wine, it says. Melchizedek refreshed Abraham with bread and wine. This mysterious priest of God, of whom as a type of Christ, refreshes Abraham with bread and wine. And what is bread and wine if not a foreshadowing of the final priest who refreshes us not with literal bread and wine? As even those elements call us to what? To remember his body broken for us and his blood poured out for us. Do you want eternal and everlasting refreshment? Do you want to be a partaker of the King of righteousness, this King of peace? Then eat his flesh and drink his blood. Not the bread that the fathers ate and died, but the bread that came down from heaven. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Romans 3, 23 to 26. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he passed over our former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And amen. According to the righteousness of Christ, he is both the priest and the sacrifice. And because both are perfect, he is our priest forever. And because he is our priest forever, we can be assured that we are indeed at peace forever. So next week we will further see Christ's intercession for us, the hope that he gives us in that intercession. But until then, may we thank and praise God for this meat of his word and for the bread and the wine, namely our Savior, our King, and our priest after the order of Melchizedek. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for Christ. We thank you for not the breadcrumbs, Lord, but the signs and your word that you give us, those types and these shadows that point us so clearly to Christ. Lord, help us to remember these. Lord, help us to see them when they show up in your word and all throughout your word, Lord. Thank you for inspiring Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, to show us these types so clearly, Lord. Help us to see them. And in seeing them, help us to see you, Lord. Help us to fall on our knees and thank you. For our Savior for our bread and wine that refreshes us eternally. We thank you for Christ. And we thank you for the forgiveness of our sins that is offered to us in and through Him. We thank you for His priesthood that is eternal. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.