A Priest Like Melchizedec Main Idea: Intro:

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1 A Priest Like Melchizedec Hebrews 7 Main Idea: We should put our confidence in Jesus, who is our priest on the basis of God s oath and who has an indestructible life, because He is able to save us to the fullest extent. Intro: You all have seen the Howell Prairie fog. Imagine something that you ve probably seen numerous times. A shadowy figure comes down the road, appearing out of the fog and then disappears into the fog. This is how Melchizedec comes into the biblical story. Even though there are at least 13 fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls that mention him and he is also acknowledged by historians such as Josephus who lived in the time of the Apostle Paul, we don t find the answers to all our questions. Who was Melchizedec? The Genesis 14:18-20 account is the only inerrant historical record we have of Melchizedec. And it does not give us much detail at all but only says that when Abraham was coming back from rescuing his nephew Lot who was captured along with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, Melchizedec came out and blessed him. Then Abraham paid Melchizedec tithes of all he had captured. The only other mention of Melchizedec in the OT is in Psalm 110 where God speaks prophetically of the Lord Jesus saying, The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedec. You are a priest forever in the likeness of Melchizedec. Pastor Stan has taken us through the first 6 chapters of Hebrews where Jesus is presented as the ascended Lord, exalted to the right hand of God. Remember that before His death, in Luke 22:69 Jesus said From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. That is where today, Jesus does His priestly work. As Pastor Stan was preaching, we saw that in Hebrews 5:6 and 10 a link was made between Christ and Melchizedec. The author then says in verse 11 of chapter 5 that he wanted to say more about this priesthood of Melchizedec but expressed his concern that the recipients of the letter were too immature to really understand it. So before really getting into the relationship between Melchizedec and Christ, he gave them the warning Stan taught about in Hebrews six. The author sums up the parenthetical warning section with verses of chapter 6, again linking Jesus with Melchizedec. It is important to understand that the link was one of similarity, not one of equivalence. You see, Melchizedec is a type of Jesus Christ. He is not Jesus Christ. Let me explain what a type is. Typology as a literary device, is very common in the Bible. The Bible makes a comparison of a type (a person, thing, or event) in the OT which foreshadows or prefigures an anti-type (a person, thing, or event) in the NT. The antitype in the N.T is always greater than the OT type. For instance, PP5 Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness in the OT was a type of Jesus being placed on the cross for us. In John 3:14-15 we read Jesus words, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will have eternal life. 1

2 Another example is in Genesis 22:1-14, the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. God makes it a point to say in verse 2, Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. God had told Abraham in Gen. 17:19-24 that Isaac and not Esau was the son of the promise. Do you see a foreshadowing of God, on Calvary in that same land of Moriah, giving His Son, His only begotten Son, His promised Son, Jesus for us? Just as Isaac and Jesus are not the same person but the type and its fulfillment or antitype, Melchizedec and Christ are not the same person but rather Melchizedec is a type of Christ and Jesus Christ Himself is the antitype, that is, the fulfillment. Because Melchizedec is not Jesus Himself, note how Heb. 7:4 calls Melchizedec this man and verse 3 says he was made like the Son of God. So in Hebrews 7, the author gives the analogy that he has been leading up to, that of Melchizedec as a type of Jesus Christ. The author invokes Melchizedec to contrast the priesthood of the Lord Jesus to the priesthood of those priests descended from Levi, priests that the Hebrews had depended on for so many centuries. As he starts chapter 7, there are some things that the author of Hebrews notes about Melchizedec. First in verse 2 note that his name meant the king of righteousness. So he was identified as righteous, as a godly person. We can know then, that besides Abraham and Job who lived at that time, there was at least this one other righteous man living. Melchizedec was also king of Salem, that is, Jerusalem. He was king of an identifiable geographical location. But in verse three we read something really fascinating. It says Melchizedec had no father or mother. It is interesting to me that the Bible says the same thing about Queen Esther. It says in Esther 2:7 that she had no father nor mother, yet we know she was a Jew and that she was brought up by a cousin named Mordecai. Listen to what the text says about Mordecai and Esther. He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle s daughter, for she had no father or mother. She obviously did have a father and mother or she couldn t have been the daughter of Mordecai s uncle. The fact is that her father and mother didn t figure in the story. When the Jews said there was no father or mother, it meant that the parents weren t recorded in the biblical text and weren t characters of importance to the biblical history. Remember that we do know the Father, God, and the mother, Mary, of Jesus. But there was no known genealogy or recorded pedigree for Melchizedec. Melchizedec just appeared out of the fog. There was no long line of ancestors or descendants that could be identified. There is no record of his death either and so because his death is not recorded in the Scriptures, in the Jewish consciousness, Melchizedec remained a priest forever. You see, he just disappeared into the fog! Verse 4 takes us to further examination of this priest, the man Melchizedec. The author points out that Abraham paid a tithe to him. The discussion of tithes is brought up in verses 5-10 because, as he develops his theological argument about the supremacy of Christ, the author wants to contrast the Levitical priests with Melchizedec, showing that Melchizedec was greater. 2

3 Notice how great this man, Melchizedec was then. The author points out two ways in which you can see that Melchizedec was great. First in verse 4 we see that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedec. Then we read in verses 6-7 Melchizedec blessed Abraham. Who could be greater to the Hebrew mind than Abraham? God gave him the promises. He was the father of the Jewish nation. But this great man, Abraham was blessed by Melchizedec and the author points out that the one giving a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed. So the author establishes that Melchizedec is greater than Abraham. But let s take a closer look at the matter of Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedec in verses 4-6. In verse 5, the author points out that the Levitical priests were to collect tithes from the Israelites, the children of Abraham. But look at the first part of verse 6. The one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham Abraham, the ancestor of the Levitical priests, paid a tenth to Melchizedec whose priesthood was not instituted through the Law. Let me take you down a little rabbit trail to explain the significance of these words, the one whose genealogy is not traced from them To illustrate how important it was to the Jewish mind that the priest be pedigreed, let me read you some excerpts from Josephus, a Jewish historian contemporary with the Apostle Paul. This is a quote from a debate with a Greek historian named Apion. For our forefathers did not only appoint the best of these priests, and those that attended upon the Divine worship, but made provision that the stock of the priests should continue unmixed and pure; for he who is partaker of the priesthood must propagate of a wife of the same nation, but he is to make a scrutiny, and take his wife s genealogy from the ancient tables, and procure many witnesses to it. And this is our practice not only in Judea, but wheresoever any body of men of our nation do live; and even there an exact catalogue of our priests marriages is kept; for they send to Jerusalem the ancient names of their parents in writing, as well as those of their remoter ancestors, and signify who are the witnesses also. But if any war falls out,...those priests that survive them compose new tables of genealogy out of the old records, and examine the circumstances of the women that remain; for still they do not admit of those that have been captives, as suspecting that they had conversation with some foreigners. But what is the strongest argument of our exact management in this matter is what I am now going to say, that we have the names of our high priests from father to son set down in our records for the interval of two thousand years; and if any of these have been transgressors of these rules, they are prohibited to present themselves at the altar, or to be partakers of any other of our purifications If you read Ezra 2:61-62, you can read how the genealogical record was used during the time of the restoration of temple worship after 70 years of captivity. You see, to the Hebrew recipients of this letter, it was of utmost importance that the lineage of the Levitical priesthood be absolutely pure, precisely following the dictates of the Law of Moses. But the author explains that although Melchizedec wasn t descended from Levi who was the great grandson of Abraham and who started the line of priests authorized by God to collect tithes, Levi paid tithes to Melchizedec through Abraham. Theologians call that federal headship, where Abraham was acting on behalf of all his descendants. So Levi, in the loins of Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedec, the priest of a greater priesthood. 3

4 Verse 11 then is the pivotal verse in this chapter. if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedec, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron (the line of high priests of the Levites)? In verses 13-17, the author of Hebrews makes a major point of emphasis that Jesus, the priest after the order of Melchizedec, was NOT of that Levitical line. for the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. The problem for the Hebrew mind was that the Law of God given through Moses established that only those priests descended through Levi and his son Aaron were to serve in the temple worship. Again, the author is making a point here that Jesus was NOT descended from the Levitical line of priests. And then verses 15 and 16 point out that the difference is that Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedec, not one of the Levitical priests who needed the physical requirement of a genealogy from Aaron and Levi. No, Jesus was the priest who because He was not pedigreed as a Levite, was the antitype, fulfilling the shadowy type of Melchizedec. The author of Hebrews made such a clear point of Jesus not fulfilling the requirements of the Levitical priesthood because he wanted to contrast the Levitical priesthood with the priesthood of Jesus Christ The Levitical priesthood was instituted on the basis of a requirement of genealogical succession given in the Law of Moses but it could never make anything perfect. Man was never able to follow the Law and the Law could only condemn and show us our need for Jesus. The genealogical succession was not enough to guarantee a perfect priesthood. On the other hand, verses 16 and tell us that Jesus held His priesthood on the basis of the oath of God and His indestructible life. You see, God swore that Jesus would be a priest forever, a priest who was foreshadowed or prefigured by that shadowy figure Melchizedec. Just as we read about God swearing an oath to Abraham in chapter 6, here God certifies with an oath that Jesus would be a priest like Melchizedec. He could swear by no one greater than Himself so He swore by His own self. We can have no greater assurance about Jesus in His eternal priesthood. Jesus eternal priesthood was on the basis of His indestructible life. As He was crucified, evil men motivated by Satan himself thought to take Jesus life from Him, but the One with the indestructible life rose from the dead and ascended to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high where He serves eternally as our Priest! They couldn t destroy Him! Verse 22 says that because of His indestructible life and because of God s oath establishing Jesus priesthood, Jesus guarantees a better covenant. The Mosaic covenant under the law could only bring 4

5 condemnation. Jesus brings life! Stan will be preaching about that better covenant in the next chapter. Then in verses we see another contrast regarding the Levitical priests and Jesus. The Levitical priests all died, so each could only serve for his lifetime. The result was a long succession of imperfect priests. Verse 25 goes on to say that Jesus, because He has an eternal priesthood, is able to save forever those who come to God through Him. Notice first of all that those Jesus saves are the ones who come to God through Him. No matter how sincere, it does no good to try to come to God on your own merits or through some priest other than Jesus. If you want to come to God, you have to come through Jesus. No one else can give you a relationship with the Father. Not any great religious leader, no guru, no philosopher, not your parents. I love the way the KJV translates that Jesus is able to save forever. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him. That means that Jesus saves to the fullest extent. What the author is talking about is salvation perfected, eternally complete, no matter how lost you are or how badly you have messed up. He crosses every boundary to save the worst sinner and there is no limit to the salvation He gives. There are no confines to the power He has to save because He lives forever to make intercession for us. He saves from the uttermost to the uttermost! Remember, He is a priest forever! You will never have to rehearse your sins to a new priest because Jesus knows you and He knows what you have confessed. You don t have to wait for a new priest to get to know you, to know your family and friends, and to know about your past to give you good advice, because Jesus will continue to be your priest forever. When He intercedes for you, He will never mess up because He knows you intimately, and He will always be there to intercede. Verses offer us another contrast between Jesus and the Levitical priests. Look how verse 26 describes Jesus as holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. In Jesus who is exalted above the heavens in God s presence, we see not just the total absence of evil but also positive righteousness, moral purity, and absolute light. Contrast that in verse 27 with the Levitical priests, who because they were sinful men, had to offer up daily sacrifices, first of all for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people. Jesus didn t have to offer up sacrifices for Himself because He never sinned but rather He Himself willingly became the sacrifice for the sins of the people. Because Jesus as God s Son was the perfect sacrifice, He didn t have to re-sacrifice Himself daily but rather He did it once for all time there on the cross of Calvary. In verse 28 we see the last point of contrast given. The Levitical priests were weak imperfect men appointed by the Law to serve as priests. Jesus was the Son of God, appointed by the oath of God as a priest after the order of Melchizedec and made perfect forever. So Jesus is the High Priest that suits us perfectly, the only One who fit God s plan for an eternal High Priest. When it says Jesus was made perfect in verse 28, it doesn t mean that righteousness was conferred on Him. He was already the perfect, righteous, sinless, and spotless Lamb of God. He was the only One who could carry the sins of the world on His shoulders. But what made perfect refers 5

6 to is that Jesus was made fit for His High Priestly role. Think about what we have already read in Hebrews. What changed for Jesus to make Him perfect for His priestly role? We saw in Heb. 2:9-10 that Jesus was made lower than the angels, he took on human flesh to taste death for every man. It says here that He was perfected through suffering. Perfected for what? To be our priest. In 2:14 we read that Jesus shared in our flesh and blood to take care of the death problem for us. In 2:17 we see that He was made like us in all things so that exercising His mercy and faithfulness, He might become the perfect propitiation for our sins. In 2:18 we see that our priest is able to come to our aid because He was tempted in every area in which we face temptation. In 4:15 we read that because He was tempted just like us, our priest can sympathize with our weakness. He knows how weak we men, women, and children are in the flesh; this makes Him approachable for us in our weakness. What a perfect High Priest we have in Jesus! The Hebrew Christians were persecuted because of their loyalty to Jesus. They were persecuted because they had turned away from the Levitical priests who had been the ones to go before God as their representatives. But the best efforts of these Levitical priests were ineffectual because they were done by a long succession of sinful men who soon died and who were never able to do more than represent the sinner before God. The Levitical priests best efforts were also stymied because the blood of bulls and goats could never really take away sin. All those sacrifices could do was to demonstrate the obedience of faith of those offering them and point to the antitype or the fulfillment of the type they presented. The fulfillment was in the death of Jesus, the One who died for the sins of the world and the One who was effectual to take away sin. So the message of Hebrews 7 to those Hebrew Christians was, Persevere! Go forward with Jesus! Don t go back to the ineffectual Levitical priesthood! God gives that same message to you today that He did to the Hebrew Christians so many years ago. Don t go back to the ineffectual sinful men in whom you put confidence in the past. In their best efforts they tried to represent you to God or God to you, but that priesthood will never deal effectively with your sin. You can never come to God through them. They cannot mediate between you and God. Look what I Timothy 2:5 says, For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. God has given us a Priest, one who has been made perfect through His incarnation and suffering, who knows about meeting temptation, and who experienced the weakness of human flesh. He is sympathetic to us, understanding us completely. He is the One who as our advocate with the Father, is able to mediate between God and man, pleading His own blood. He is the One who intercedes for us continually in the very presence of the Father. 6

7 We should put our confidence in Jesus who is our priest on the basis of God s oath and who has an indestructible life, because He is able to save us to the fullest extent. God is saying today, You can t approach God through human priests. They can t deal with your sin. Hold fast to the Priest about whom God swore, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedec. 7

8 A Priest Like Melchizedec Hebrews 7 Main Idea: We should put our confidence in Jesus who is our priest on the basis of God s oath and who has an indestructible life, because He is able to save us to the fullest extent. Intro: Melchizedec in the OT Gen. 14:18-20; Psa. 110:4 Melchizedec as a type Jesus as the antitype Melchizedec and Abraham Melchizedec and the Levitical Priests Jesus, a Priest according to the order of Melchizedec with an oath forever indestructible life made perfect able to save to the uttermost Application: 8

9 Family Life Groups Sermon Discussion Questions A Priest Like Melchizedec Hebrews 7 Main Idea: We should put our confidence in Jesus who is our priest on the basis of God s oath and who has an indestructible life, because He is able to save us to the fullest extent. Questions: What about Jesus priesthood has become clear to you after studying Hebrews 7? How might that make a difference in your relationship to Him? What man or woman (or group) have you viewed as a human priest, that is, one who represents you to God or represents God to you? In what way has the priesthood of that person been deficient for you? In the light of I Tim. 2:5, what specific steps can you take to cling to Jesus as your priest and not revert back to that failed human mediator between you and God? Who is a person dear to you who walking sinfully today because of fleshly weakness? How might you intercede for that person before our great High Priest? What about Jesus as priest gives you confidence and hope for that dear one? How could you help him or her reach out to Jesus as High Priest? 9

10 Leader 1 Leader 2 PASTOR DAN TUGGY APRIL 17, 2016 Hebrews 7 (NASB) Antiphonal Reading 7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. 3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. 4 Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. 5 And those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest s office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham. 6 But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. 7 But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8 In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. 9 And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Congregation 11 Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? 12 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. 13 For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. 15 And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is attested of Him, Leader 1 Leader 2 YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. 18 For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20 And inasmuch as it was not without an oath 21 (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, 10

11 THE LORD HAS SWORN AND WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ); Congregation Leader 1 PASTOR DAN TUGGY APRIL 17, so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. 23 The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Congregation 26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever. 11