back to index2020-5-24 JESUS PRIESTHOOD IN THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK PT 1
00:00:06.160 |
We're finally jumping back into Hebrews chapter 7. 00:00:10.840 |
I'm encouraged to see how many of you are excited to get back into Hebrews, 00:00:19.440 |
Hopefully your enthusiasm will be the same after we study it 00:00:22.660 |
because it is something that really requires your commitment 00:00:30.280 |
But it is also really rich in knowing that God had prepared this 00:00:37.600 |
And so I think personally when I study about Melchizedek 00:00:47.520 |
you can see God's intricate work that's going on behind the scene 00:00:52.480 |
And that all of this leads to a greater confidence in who Christ is. 00:00:56.240 |
So let me read the passage that we're going to be covering. 00:00:59.960 |
And we're going to be in chapter 7 for about at least two to three weeks. 00:01:03.480 |
But let me read you the first part of it in verses 1 through 10 before we get in. 00:01:09.800 |
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, 00:01:13.360 |
who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 00:01:18.140 |
to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, 00:01:22.040 |
was first of all by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, 00:01:25.800 |
and also king of Salem, which is king of peace. 00:01:29.280 |
Without father, without mother, without genealogy, 00:01:31.560 |
having neither beginning of days nor end of life, 00:01:34.080 |
but made like the son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. 00:01:38.480 |
Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, 00:01:44.080 |
And those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office 00:01:47.560 |
have commandment in the law to collect a tenth from the people, 00:01:52.560 |
that is from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham. 00:01:56.400 |
But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them 00:01:58.640 |
collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. 00:02:03.300 |
But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater. 00:02:06.020 |
In this case, more men receive tithes, but in that case, 00:02:09.280 |
one receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. 00:02:13.120 |
And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received his tithes, paid tithes, 00:02:18.400 |
for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. 00:02:29.680 |
We pray that the study of Hebrews and specifically the priesthood of Melchizedek 00:02:36.440 |
would open our eyes to see your intricate hands of your sovereignty 00:02:42.440 |
and how you work together all things according to your good purpose. 00:02:47.040 |
So help us, Lord God, to have eyes to see, ears to hear, 00:02:51.000 |
and a heart that can be molded, Lord God, as you desire. 00:02:57.040 |
All right, so again, you know, we're living in really crazy times, 00:03:02.960 |
and I'm sure some of you have been following the news carefully. 00:03:06.640 |
I've literally been watching probably about an hour or more 00:03:10.240 |
of different information that comes out every day, 00:03:13.600 |
seeing what kind of judgments we're going to make, 00:03:16.120 |
what is the government saying, what are the numbers, 00:03:20.040 |
And so all of this obviously is so that we can have a better grasp 00:03:24.960 |
But right now the information coming out is so all over the place. 00:03:28.600 |
I mean, you have the extremes of if we come out, we're going to die, 00:03:32.440 |
to all of this is a hoax, is a fake, you know, this doesn't exist. 00:03:40.880 |
and the other side will also say science says this, 00:03:43.520 |
and they have their own doctors and own professionals, 00:03:46.160 |
own experts that will back up whatever they say. 00:03:49.000 |
And so it's very difficult to discern, you know, 00:03:54.800 |
And I'm sure we all have our different opinions about all of that. 00:04:01.040 |
our confidence should have never really been with all of those things. 00:04:05.760 |
Because whatever it is that we study, wherever we put our confidence, 00:04:11.080 |
if we put our absolute confidence in anything outside of Christ, 00:04:16.480 |
eventually it will be exposed for what it is. 00:04:20.320 |
Even with the best of intentions, mankind does not have the ability 00:04:24.920 |
to have the truth and be consistent all the time. 00:04:28.440 |
And so, you know, the reason why I say all of this is because all of this 00:04:32.240 |
is really connected to what the author of Hebrews 00:04:35.200 |
have been saying about Jesus all the way up to now, 00:04:40.560 |
If you are anchored in anything outside of Christ, 00:04:44.600 |
you will already have seen your heart drifted. 00:04:47.720 |
And I think, you know, one of the things that this exposed, 00:04:51.360 |
this pandemic exposed is, if your heart was already somewhere else, 00:04:58.760 |
my guess is many people have already drifted in their faith. 00:05:03.000 |
Because whatever they were anchored in wasn't Christ. 00:05:08.800 |
as soon as there wasn't people or fellowship, they began to drift. 00:05:14.480 |
And so as we make our way back into Melchizedek, 00:05:18.520 |
I want to make sure that we understand why we're studying this to begin with. 00:05:22.040 |
Our main point is not so that we can be better theologians and say, 00:05:25.280 |
you know, Melchizedek, Archibald taught about Melchizedek, 00:05:27.800 |
and I know who he is, and, you know, you may be able to know 00:05:30.520 |
more than 99% of other Christians who this guy is. 00:05:35.720 |
If you have all that knowledge and it doesn't transform your heart, 00:05:40.840 |
your life, your hope, then you've really missed the whole point. 00:05:44.000 |
In fact, it probably does more harm than good to know a lot of theology, 00:05:48.760 |
and your head gets bigger, but your life doesn't reflect that. 00:05:55.000 |
We're in chapter 7, and he's going to be the main character, 00:05:59.120 |
and who he is, his priesthood, all the way to chapter 10. 00:06:04.240 |
His name may not be specifically mentioned each week, 00:06:09.760 |
is going to be the central subject from chapter 7 to 10. 00:06:12.920 |
In fact, we can say the meat of the book of Hebrews is between chapter 7 and 10. 00:06:18.240 |
That everything that's been happening up to this point 00:06:20.200 |
is really to set up for chapter 7, 8, 9, and 10. 00:06:23.840 |
Because the argument was, starting from chapter 1, 00:06:34.040 |
And so all of this to say, to pay attention to Christ. 00:06:40.080 |
But the heart of the matter really comes to his priesthood. 00:06:44.920 |
Because the natural tendency for a Jew was to drift back into his old way of life 00:06:50.640 |
and say, well, Jesus may be a great man, and he fed thousands, 00:06:53.400 |
and performed miracles, and maybe he's a great man. 00:06:57.040 |
But to a Jew, the temple, the sacrificial system, was his life. 00:07:05.200 |
So he may be a great man, but what does that have to do with my life 00:07:10.200 |
Well, that's the point that he's trying to get at in chapter 7, 8, and 9, and 10. 00:07:16.760 |
But again, I'm going to read some verses with you 00:07:19.640 |
before we jump into the three-point that I have this morning. 00:07:24.680 |
Melchizedek is not first mentioned in chapter 7. 00:07:28.040 |
So I hope some of you who are excited about studying chapter 7 00:07:31.640 |
may remember that Melchizedek actually was introduced to us in chapter 5. 00:07:41.160 |
In Hebrews chapter 5, 9 through 14, "And having been made perfect," 00:07:46.080 |
talking about Christ, "he became to all those who obey him 00:07:49.080 |
the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest 00:07:55.600 |
So he actually introduces Melchizedek, right? 00:07:58.600 |
That Christ is our high priest according to Melchizedek. 00:08:03.040 |
But then in verse 11, he says, "Concerning him, we have much to say, 00:08:06.760 |
and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. 00:08:10.760 |
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, 00:08:13.240 |
you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles 00:08:16.360 |
of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 00:08:21.280 |
For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed 00:08:23.960 |
to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 00:08:27.520 |
But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, 00:08:30.760 |
have their senses trained to discern good and evil." 00:08:34.280 |
So even before he gets to chapter 7, he kind of has to pause. 00:08:38.760 |
And I'm pretty sure if you've been at a church for any period of time, 00:08:45.200 |
you probably kind of remember me saying, hey, 00:08:50.160 |
Or if you're going to stay awake for any part of the message, 00:08:52.680 |
this is the part of the message that you need to pay attention to. 00:08:55.040 |
I say all of that because I know it requires soberness 00:09:01.120 |
And if you just kind of casually listen, there are certain things 00:09:04.120 |
that may go over your head, and it's not going to make much sense. 00:09:06.720 |
Well, that's what the author is really doing here. 00:09:09.440 |
He's going to get into the details of Melchizedek. 00:09:12.280 |
There are some parts of what he says about Melchizedek 00:09:15.200 |
that if you sit there casually listening, like, you know, 00:09:18.320 |
I could talk about the love of God and grace of God, 00:09:20.520 |
and all these things are central issues of Christianity, 00:09:24.120 |
but you probably heard those messages so many times 00:09:26.760 |
that you can kind of casually listen and still get a lot out of it. 00:09:30.840 |
Well, Melchizedek, because most people don't know who he is, 00:09:38.080 |
and most people don't know the significance of who he is 00:09:40.600 |
and how he's connected to Christ and his priesthood. 00:09:43.320 |
So there's a lot of things that the author is going to say 00:09:47.680 |
that if you don't pay attention, if you don't, like, commit to pay attention, 00:09:52.120 |
if you go to sleep at four and wake up at seven, 00:09:54.800 |
it's probably going to go over your head, okay? 00:10:00.720 |
"I can't tell you if you're not paying attention 00:10:03.440 |
and if you're not committed to this, if you're immature," 00:10:06.840 |
and then he gets to chapter six with a stark warning 00:10:10.320 |
that if you've been in the church and you've tasted the goodness of God 00:10:13.920 |
and you had all the blessing, all the teaching, 00:10:22.360 |
and you're still drifting back into your old way of life, 00:10:27.320 |
So in other words, all of chapter six is to get them to pay attention. 00:10:38.880 |
but you really need to commit to this and pay attention. 00:10:41.880 |
There's consequences if you just remain as infants." 00:10:46.280 |
And then he wraps it up at the end of chapter six 00:10:48.760 |
before we get into chapter seven, starting from verse 17. 00:10:53.960 |
"In the same way, God desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise 00:10:58.200 |
the unchangeableness of his purpose interposed with an oath, 00:11:02.640 |
so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, 00:11:06.320 |
we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement 00:11:14.120 |
The whole reason why he gets into Melchizedek 00:11:16.680 |
is to make sure that the hope that we have in Christ is secure. 00:11:27.840 |
We're not talking about the church that you attend. 00:11:30.280 |
We're not talking about the confession of the friends around you. 00:11:40.080 |
And what I'm about to tell you is so that you can examine 00:11:44.400 |
to make sure that you are anchored in Christ. 00:11:51.360 |
a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil, 00:11:56.920 |
where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, 00:11:59.360 |
having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." 00:12:04.840 |
So I hope you notice that he ends chapter five introducing Melchizedek, 00:12:10.920 |
and then he goes back at the end of chapter six saying, 00:12:24.600 |
My guess is some of you who are listening to this sermon right now 00:12:31.440 |
because he is only mentioned in a few verses in Genesis chapter 14. 00:12:42.080 |
So in totality, he's mentioned his name maybe about two or three times. 00:12:46.720 |
And yet, three, four, five chapters are dedicated 00:12:52.360 |
in that what a huge role he plays in redemptive history. 00:13:01.360 |
And that's why, again, so many chapters are dedicated. 00:13:03.840 |
And why he spends a whole chapter telling them to watch out 00:13:09.640 |
So just to kind of give you a broad outline since we're jumping back in, 00:13:13.200 |
chapter seven is about the superiority of the priesthood of Melchizedek. 00:13:19.360 |
Okay, so that's what we're going to be talking about today in a few more weeks. 00:13:22.520 |
Chapter eight, "Therefore, because of the superior priesthood, 00:13:26.960 |
the superior priesthood introduces a superior covenant." 00:13:38.680 |
meaning that the old system, the whole system of approaching God 00:13:43.240 |
has been replaced by a whole new system of priesthood, covenant, and the sanctuary. 00:13:48.760 |
And then ultimately, all of this points back to Christ and his ultimate sacrifice. 00:13:54.000 |
So chapter 10 is about the superiority of Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice. 00:13:59.600 |
Okay, so that's a broad outline that we're going to be covering. 00:14:02.640 |
Chapter seven, "Superiority of the priesthood." 00:14:05.040 |
Chapter eight, "Superiority of the covenant." 00:14:07.520 |
"Superiority of the sanctuary," chapter nine. 00:14:10.360 |
And "Superiority of the sacrifice" in chapter 10. 00:14:14.600 |
All right, so all of that is an introduction, okay? 00:14:17.480 |
So if you fall asleep now, it's completely your fault. 00:14:25.960 |
The main point today is the superiority of Melchizedek over Abraham. 00:14:38.800 |
And so, again, if you are following the outline, you can see, okay? 00:14:46.280 |
"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, 00:14:49.840 |
who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him." 00:14:56.800 |
In order for us to fully appreciate what he says here about Melchizedek being superior 00:15:03.520 |
to Abraham, we really have to have a good idea of who Abraham is, okay? 00:15:08.960 |
Because without that, again, you might have some loose understanding of who Abraham is. 00:15:13.440 |
And without a deeper understanding of who Abraham is, when you hear...you wouldn't hear 00:15:19.960 |
like the first century Jews that he's talking to. 00:15:27.960 |
In fact, let me go back early on where Abraham is introduced to us in Genesis chapter 11. 00:15:33.720 |
But again, the promise that God makes to Abraham, which is a covenant that he makes 00:15:39.240 |
with Abraham to his descendants and ultimately to the rest of the world, 00:15:46.720 |
Talking about Abraham and his descendants, "and I will bless you and make your name great. 00:15:51.200 |
And so you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you. 00:15:57.520 |
And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed." 00:16:04.800 |
According to the scripture, Abraham is not simply the father of Israel. 00:16:12.320 |
Abraham is the source of blessing for mankind. 00:16:18.080 |
So if you hear Abraham as, "Well, God started Israel through Abraham," 00:16:22.480 |
it wouldn't really make the kind of impact, what he's saying. 00:16:25.320 |
Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, then it should. 00:16:29.320 |
Because according to God's promise, all the other nations outside of the blessing of God 00:16:34.680 |
can have a great nation, but yet the God of the universe who created all things isn't 00:16:42.760 |
So the real blessing that only God can give is going to come through Abraham. 00:16:48.520 |
Rest of Israel's history, rest of Old Testament, is the fulfillment of this promise. 00:16:56.160 |
Every part of what you study in the Old Testament from a Jewish perspective is the fulfillment 00:17:05.120 |
That God is going to, how is he fulfilling this? 00:17:10.560 |
How are the other nations being blessed by this? 00:17:12.880 |
So the origin of their faith begins with Abraham. 00:17:19.160 |
In fact, God calls Abraham and Abraham and his family obeys and they set out on this 00:17:28.880 |
In a short period of time, they become so wealthy, according to Genesis 13, 5 and 6, 00:17:34.960 |
that his nephew and Abraham actually has to split. 00:17:39.000 |
So within one chapter, they've accumulated enough wealth where they couldn't even share 00:17:46.640 |
So this is not like New York, where you got limited apartment space and then you accumulate 00:17:56.980 |
We're talking about just acres and acres of land. 00:18:03.320 |
And so again, the fulfillment of Genesis 12, 1, 2, and 3 that we see right away in chapter 00:18:08.960 |
13, that they become so rich and they can't even stay together, so they split. 00:18:14.880 |
So Abraham stays in the Canaanite land and Lot chooses to take his goods and he goes 00:18:21.480 |
where we know later on Sodom and Gomorrah, they come out and so he settles over there 00:18:30.880 |
Well where Melchizedek comes in is in chapter 14. 00:18:34.700 |
In chapter 14, Abraham and Lot, they're just enjoying their life and they're enjoying the 00:18:40.840 |
blessing of God, but the kings of the Canaanites, four separate kings, they unite and they go 00:18:46.940 |
into battle with the kings near the Sodom and Gomorrah, about five of them. 00:18:52.920 |
So those four kings attack them and Lot happens to be on the losing side. 00:18:57.400 |
Not that he was in the battle, he just happened to be in the land. 00:19:00.120 |
And so the four kings of the Canaanites come and conquer them and they take all their possessions 00:19:07.200 |
Abraham hears about this as his nephew has been caught up in this and now he's lost all 00:19:22.840 |
But again, it's very important that you understand what's going on historically. 00:19:29.220 |
He's going after four kings, four kingdoms, who just defeated five other kings. 00:19:37.160 |
And he had enough fighting men to take with him and he actually beats them. 00:19:45.920 |
Again, you have to understand the historical context and well Melchizedek shows up. 00:19:50.880 |
So when he says Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, that you understand the historical 00:19:56.880 |
context, Abraham has been tremendously blessed by God. 00:20:03.320 |
He's not even a nation yet and yet he's able to conquer four kingdoms by himself. 00:20:09.380 |
And after he regains possession of all that was lost, gives it and is coming back with 00:20:16.360 |
his nephew is when he comes and encounters Melchizedek, the king of Salem. 00:20:25.280 |
Again, all of this is a background because the point that he's trying to make is Melchizedek 00:20:43.960 |
Greater than all these men, greater than all the possessions. 00:20:46.880 |
So whatever was happening during history at that time, Melchizedek was greater than Abraham. 00:20:53.280 |
So imagine if you were a Jew hearing this, knowing the historical context, who is this 00:21:03.600 |
He shows up from nowhere and Abraham bows to him. 00:21:11.400 |
Abraham has so much possession in chapter 13, he can't even stay in the same place as 00:21:19.400 |
Remember, these four kings conquered five other kings. 00:21:24.680 |
Abraham has become strong enough in chapter 14 to even conquer them. 00:21:30.440 |
And then here's this guy, literally one or two verses shows up and Abraham bows to him. 00:21:38.760 |
So if you're reading that carefully, if you're reading through Genesis carefully, you should 00:21:57.000 |
Other than way over in Psalm chapter 110, he says, well, the Messiah is going to come 00:22:05.560 |
So the only other thing that we know about Melchizedek is that Abraham considered him 00:22:12.280 |
That's all we were taught in Genesis 14, that he is a king priest, received the tithe, disappears. 00:22:19.120 |
And then he says, the Messiah is going to come in the order of Melchizedek. 00:22:22.320 |
So if you've been studying the Old Testament, preparing and waiting for the Messiah, and 00:22:26.720 |
all of a sudden the author of Hebrew says, you want some meat? 00:22:34.140 |
You want to really understand what God has been doing in history. 00:22:38.960 |
Jesus comes in the order of Melchizedek to fulfill that prophecy in Psalm 110. 00:22:45.560 |
But before I get into this meat, you need to pay attention. 00:22:50.060 |
If you've been a casual Christian and all you want to know is Jesus loves you and died 00:22:55.120 |
for you and that's enough for you, and you're not curious enough to dig into his glory, 00:23:01.280 |
and you're not curious enough to ask deep questions, then it's going to go over your 00:23:11.080 |
Well, all of that, again, to give you the background understanding of how a first century 00:23:19.520 |
Jew who knew the history would have heard, Melchizedek is greater than Abraham. 00:23:27.760 |
Now we're going to be on this subject for the next two, three weeks. 00:23:31.320 |
But for today, I'm going to give you three things that this passage says, what makes 00:23:37.680 |
Number one, the one who collects tithes is greater than the one who gives it. 00:23:43.560 |
It says in verse four, "Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch 00:23:54.840 |
Observe how great this man, Melchizedek, was to whom Abraham patriarch gave a tenth of 00:24:05.640 |
The specific law of tithing did not come in until the Mosaic law in Leviticus chapter 00:24:13.360 |
So those of you who are with us studying Leviticus chapter 27, remember what he says there. 00:24:19.600 |
But tithing actually shows up way before that, here in Genesis chapter 14, and probably before 00:24:24.880 |
that, because there is no instruction given to Abraham. 00:24:27.800 |
Abraham knew to give tithe even before any instructions are written down. 00:24:32.840 |
So in other words, the sacrificial system outside of the Mosaic law existed. 00:24:39.360 |
He shows up and the meaning behind the tithe, whether it was pre-Mosaic law or post-Mosaic 00:24:45.360 |
law, in Leviticus 27.30 says this, "Thus all the tithes of the land, of the seed of the 00:24:51.440 |
land, of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's and it is holy to the Lord." 00:24:58.480 |
Tithing was commanded to the nation of Israel as an act of lordship. 00:25:05.000 |
Giving a tenth of the best of the harvest was given to God to declare that all of this 00:25:15.760 |
It was a first sign that whatever, whether I was a millionaire or whether I'm just making 00:25:20.520 |
a few bucks, that in His sovereign will, God gave me what He gave me and I'm returning 00:25:28.880 |
Well, he says, Melchizedek shows up and Abraham, if he was rich before, now he's filthy rich, 00:25:38.360 |
Because he just beat four kings and everything that they took became his. 00:25:44.920 |
So you see this progression of God blessing him and he's become this filthy rich man and 00:25:49.760 |
he gives a tenth of that as an offering to Melchizedek. 00:25:54.320 |
And so he says, "The one who receives the tithes is greater than the one who gives it." 00:25:59.480 |
So immediately Abraham recognizes him as greater. 00:26:03.720 |
Hebrews 7, 9, it says, "So to speak, though through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, 00:26:09.880 |
Again, I hope I didn't lose any of you, okay? 00:26:14.320 |
I hope you're putting your thinking cap on and straining to understand. 00:26:18.160 |
And if you don't understand, please ask, right? 00:26:21.480 |
Don't just kind of, you know, just kind of, "I don't understand. 00:26:26.080 |
If I don't understand, it must not be important." 00:26:29.040 |
I think part of the reason why there's shallowness in Christianity is because there's shallowness 00:26:35.740 |
And so you kind of, it's kind of like seeing, you know, seeing like, you know, beautiful 00:26:44.240 |
Those of you who ever traveled to maybe Seven Wonders, you know, like maybe, I don't know, 00:26:49.920 |
like Dam for, you know, like you've gone to Machu Picchu, you know, the Great Wall, those 00:26:56.400 |
are the only thing I can think of right now, right? 00:27:01.600 |
It's not the same hearing other people describe it. 00:27:03.600 |
It's not the same, right, as when you are able to physically watch it. 00:27:08.240 |
Well, I think in the same way, many Christians are satisfied with the explanation that other 00:27:18.320 |
And the reason why many people's faith remains shallow is because they're satisfied with 00:27:22.440 |
just staying, keeping their distance and not really digging in. 00:27:25.320 |
Well, again, this is one of those things that the more we dig, the more of glory of God 00:27:34.560 |
The more we dig, the more you see just how deep this thing goes, right? 00:27:40.400 |
So when he says, just by him giving the tithe, it can show, it shows that Melchizedek is 00:27:47.800 |
greater than this guy who just conquered all these kings. 00:27:55.160 |
Remember when Jesus says to the Jews, he said, "If you abide in my word, then you shall 00:28:01.680 |
know the truth and you will be my disciple and you shall know the truth and truth shall 00:28:11.440 |
You're comparing us to these bond servants, these indentured servants. 00:28:21.680 |
And then it says in John 8, 33, they answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have 00:28:28.840 |
How is it that you say you will become free?" 00:28:40.040 |
You know, at the beginning of all this pandemic, right, and fear gripped the world. 00:28:47.080 |
We were seeing scenes of people dying on the street and we were hearing crazy numbers of 00:28:52.040 |
over 2 million people are going to get infected or even die. 00:28:55.440 |
And so we thought at the beginning of all of this, that every single one of us is going 00:28:59.500 |
to know somebody personally, that there's some people in our church who's going to get 00:29:04.300 |
And so fear gripped not only us, but the rest of the world. 00:29:07.560 |
And that's why they did something really radical, shutting down the economy for this long, even 00:29:14.880 |
Now that the information is coming out, and it is still serious, but it wasn't anywhere 00:29:20.480 |
close to what they were fearing in the beginning. 00:29:24.440 |
And so slowly the economy is coming back and slowly people are coming back to work and 00:29:30.520 |
And I know that there's still a lot of fear, but at what point? 00:29:36.120 |
How safe does it have to be for people to gather? 00:29:41.080 |
Is it a 100% guarantee that no one is going to get sick? 00:29:45.440 |
100% that you're going to live a long life, you and your children, and die at a ripe old 00:29:58.920 |
There are some things that we do as Christians that a lot of non-Christians wouldn't do because 00:30:09.640 |
Living a long, safe, healthy life is the promise that the world gives, not Christ. 00:30:19.600 |
Because we believe in Christ, because we are anchored in Christ, our decision-making is 00:30:30.040 |
Our satisfaction, our hope, our foundation, our security is grounded in Christ, in Christ 00:30:38.800 |
See, these Jews thought that they were safe because they were descendants of Abraham. 00:30:45.400 |
We said, "No, there's something greater than Abraham." 00:30:48.920 |
Well, if there's somebody greater than Abraham, where does that put us? 00:30:54.080 |
There's something outside of Israel greater than us, then where does it put us? 00:30:57.680 |
And all of a sudden, it completely abolishes their security. 00:31:05.080 |
Whatever it is that you are anchored in, you're not safe. 00:31:10.160 |
And that's why I said, "You're drifting back thinking that you're going to be safer if 00:31:14.400 |
He says, "No, Christ brings in something greater than that." 00:31:21.120 |
So just by the tithe alone, you can see that Melchizedek is greater. 00:31:24.560 |
But secondly, the one who blesses is greater than the one who is being blessed. 00:31:32.160 |
Verse 7, "But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater." 00:31:37.440 |
But without any dispute, you know what that means? 00:31:41.960 |
Abraham met Melchizedek, and it seems like, at least according to Scripture, that he's 00:31:47.760 |
never met him before, but immediately he recognizes somebody greater than him. 00:31:52.080 |
Just so that we understand the context, if there was any period of time Abraham would 00:31:58.240 |
have been an arrogant person, I think it would have been then, right? 00:32:10.160 |
He's got so much possession, he had to separate even before this happened. 00:32:13.760 |
So imagine how much wealth that Abraham has at chapter 14. 00:32:22.520 |
But all of a sudden he sees this strange guy coming, Melchizedek, and he immediately submits 00:32:33.920 |
You know, like a lot of people play basketball, and maybe you're really good, and you're king 00:32:40.720 |
of the court, and if you play, you know, you get to play in four, five, six games straight 00:32:45.560 |
because you're the best guy on the court, and all of a sudden Michael Jordan shows up, 00:32:49.920 |
or Kobe, or LeBron, whoever you're a fan of, or Steph Curry, okay, I'm going to cover everybody. 00:33:01.280 |
Maybe in street ball and maybe at LA Fitness there's some competition, and maybe you might 00:33:07.280 |
be a little bit better than them, but all of a sudden if one of those guys shows up, 00:33:11.180 |
there is no disputing because no one would take you seriously. 00:33:15.920 |
Even if you mentioned that, they would laugh at you. 00:33:19.040 |
He says that Melchizedek's superiority was so obvious. 00:33:26.700 |
We don't know if there was some glory upon him. 00:33:29.980 |
But as soon as he saw Melchizedek, he recognized God's presence upon him and his authority, 00:33:37.120 |
and he said without dispute, there was no jockeying, there was no questioning, there 00:33:43.320 |
was no who are you, why should I give you, there's none of that. 00:33:46.960 |
As soon as he saw the Lord's anointing upon him, he, without dispute, he gives him the 00:33:58.120 |
Now this blessing for Abraham's family is huge, right, because remember Abraham already 00:34:08.480 |
Remember Genesis chapter 12, we said I will bless you and through you I will bless all 00:34:12.560 |
the other nations and because of God's blessing, they're getting filthy rich and then they're 00:34:17.160 |
able to conquer other nations and yet he saw the blessing of Melchizedek greater than him 00:34:32.680 |
That should really cause us to take a step back and say there's something upon this guy, 00:34:41.400 |
It wasn't like he just happened to be a great king. 00:34:44.120 |
There was some anointing upon him that he recognized. 00:34:47.660 |
And this blessing upon Israel, again, comes back again, remember the story of Jacob and 00:34:55.040 |
Esau, Jacob is the slippery one, Esau is the hairy one. 00:35:01.040 |
Whenever I read that story, I think like humanly speaking, I naturally gravitate toward Esau 00:35:08.200 |
He's the guy who's hunting, you know, and Jacob's the guy who's a mama's boy. 00:35:13.800 |
He's home, you know, playing something with his mom. 00:35:18.240 |
And so Jacob is staying home and he's maneuvering to take his older brother's blessing away. 00:35:25.160 |
Esau comes back famished and he said, "Well, if you give me your birthright, your blessing 00:35:31.560 |
as a firstborn, I'll give you this bowl of soup." 00:35:37.080 |
So what does this blessing mean to me when I'm going to die? 00:35:40.840 |
And it's just kind of drama, he's over-exaggerating. 00:35:44.800 |
Well that little event, that little twist that Jacob carries out causes the blessing 00:35:55.680 |
Later on in Hebrews 12, verse 16, he warns us not to be like Esau who sold his blessing 00:36:11.920 |
When we look at that, it's like, wow, he lost his blessing from God because he got hungry 00:36:22.440 |
Now you have to understand that this blessing, this firstborn blessing upon Esau was not 00:36:33.180 |
When he rejected the blessing, he wasn't just rejecting the inheritance of his forefathers. 00:36:39.420 |
He was rejecting God's blessing, God's promise that he made upon this family. 00:36:45.120 |
And so when he rejected, he was literally saying, you know, what good is God to me? 00:36:49.920 |
What good is all the promises that God made to me, to my fathers and my grandfather, if 00:36:58.660 |
And that's why he was called immoral and godless because he rejected God for a bowl of soup. 00:37:07.440 |
My point is to receive Abraham, who had this anointing from God, to meet Melchizedek and 00:37:17.200 |
to say, your blessing, I need you, your blessing. 00:37:26.480 |
The one who was being blessed is less than the one who is blessing. 00:37:32.120 |
You know what this tells us is, our greatest hindrance in our walk with God is pride. 00:37:45.400 |
When we are not able to recognize, we're not able to recognize who God is, and we refuse 00:37:56.100 |
That is our greatest hindrance to true worship and is the greatest hindrance to ultimately 00:38:02.560 |
But when we're in the presence of God, there is no disputing. 00:38:08.000 |
When you go to heaven, you know, like even on earth, even in the church, there's always, 00:38:13.920 |
there's always discussions about whose opinion is right, whose is wrong. 00:38:17.560 |
Right now you have the whole country, whole world divided as to who's right and who's 00:38:22.680 |
I don't think we're going to know for years, to be honest, like which information is right, 00:38:27.760 |
And everybody is absolutely convinced my party is right, my information is right, my facts, 00:38:36.000 |
And I don't think we're really going to know until years have passed and everything that 00:38:41.360 |
And when we are separated from our emotions, our own opinions, and we just purely look 00:38:56.640 |
My understanding, my giftedness over your giftedness. 00:39:04.620 |
But when you look at the scene in heaven, there is no disputing. 00:39:10.000 |
If you've ever seen the picture of what heaven looks like, angels, elders, holy creatures, 00:39:17.000 |
the multitudes, Jews and the Gentiles are all bowed down at the throne of grace in eternal 00:39:31.400 |
When we're in the presence of God, it automatically causes us to be humble. 00:39:35.800 |
I would think Abraham would have been a very difficult person to bring to his knees at 00:39:41.920 |
And yet as soon as he recognized God's anointing upon Melchizedek, he became humble. 00:39:51.100 |
Even though it was just a blip in history, it was a shadow that if you've been paying 00:40:02.760 |
Why would Abraham with God's blessing receive blessing from him? 00:40:07.180 |
So that when Christ came and he said, "Jesus comes in the order of Melchizedek," that's 00:40:15.060 |
Now it makes sense why Abraham submitted himself to him. 00:40:21.240 |
Now it makes sense why Melchizedek did not dispute. 00:40:27.060 |
Third, and finally, the one who serves perpetually is greater than the one who serves temporarily. 00:40:36.280 |
All the other priesthood that the Jews knew was temporary. 00:40:39.000 |
In fact, they had a time limit as to how long they can serve. 00:40:44.800 |
In Hebrews 7.3, it says, "Melchizedek is without father, without mother, without genealogy, 00:40:50.680 |
having neither beginning of days nor end of life." 00:40:54.560 |
Some people have read this and thought, "This sounds like Jesus." 00:41:01.160 |
And so there's been a lot of discussion as to, "Is this Jesus? 00:41:05.800 |
Because so many of the descriptions that he gives about Melchizedek sounds like Jesus. 00:41:09.960 |
Well, clearly he is not Jesus, and I'm going to explain that a little bit later. 00:41:14.960 |
What he is saying is that Melchizedek doesn't come from the same line of the Levites. 00:41:22.320 |
And when he says he's without genealogy, it means that his authority does not come from 00:41:32.960 |
Because if you remember the Old Testament, the Old Testament is filled with genealogies, 00:41:41.680 |
And sometimes we read these genealogies, "What is the purpose of these genealogies? 00:41:46.160 |
Why are there so many pages and chapters that talk about genealogy? 00:41:51.620 |
Maybe if I was closer, maybe if that was my grandfather, that would make more sense." 00:41:55.320 |
The reason why there's genealogy is because genealogy traces the authenticity of that 00:42:02.660 |
So he was constantly tracing the genealogy of how this Savior was going to come. 00:42:08.520 |
But they also traced the genealogy of the Levites, because only a Levite can participate 00:42:16.720 |
So when he says he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, means he is outside 00:42:24.040 |
That his authority doesn't come because his parents were Levites, or because his grandfather 00:42:33.440 |
There is a separate system, separate priestly system that is not submitted to human system. 00:42:45.680 |
Remember when the disciples asked Jesus to pray, right? 00:42:50.960 |
He said, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 00:42:56.320 |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 00:43:02.720 |
That's the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, right? 00:43:06.000 |
That his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:43:11.640 |
Meaning, whatever God is doing, whatever system that God has, whatever order that exists in 00:43:18.240 |
heaven will eventually be reflected on earth. 00:43:24.200 |
The problem that we get into is we want the earthly things to be reflected in heaven. 00:43:31.760 |
And a lot of times the way we even imagine what heaven will be like is utopia on earth. 00:43:39.120 |
Whatever is the most beautiful thing that I can imagine on earth, that maybe that's 00:43:45.440 |
The prayer and the activity of Christians is to recognize that even the most beautiful 00:43:51.240 |
thing that you and I see on earth is under God's curse. 00:43:56.600 |
Sin affected not only human beings, but it also affected animals. 00:44:03.320 |
So everything that you and I see, all the systems that we see, have all been affected 00:44:09.880 |
And it will all be done away with when Christ comes. 00:44:15.060 |
So a Christian's prayer is to have his kingdom come. 00:44:18.920 |
Things will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:44:22.320 |
Well the reason why I say all of this is because Melchizedek's priesthood is a heavenly priesthood. 00:44:29.920 |
That wasn't meant for temporary system where Christ came and it's done away with. 00:44:35.480 |
That that temporary system ultimately was to prepare for the eternal system that was 00:44:50.840 |
When I see your face and I mention Melchizedek and you have a blank look, I'll know if you 00:44:55.800 |
paid attention or not or if you got it or not. 00:45:02.000 |
Melchizedek, his priesthood comes from heaven. 00:45:10.480 |
So I didn't mention this in the beginning, but I think it's important that I mention 00:45:17.000 |
Why does God use like Melchizedek as a type, as an impression to prepare for the coming 00:45:26.160 |
Why doesn't he just say, "Melchizedek is a system made in heaven. 00:45:33.960 |
Why does he just give us a picture of him and then we find the reflection of that in 00:45:41.560 |
Because first of all, it wasn't about Melchizedek. 00:45:54.120 |
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1, it says, "God spoke in many ways in the Old Testament through 00:46:07.760 |
So in other words, everything that you knew about the gospel has been spoken through poetry, 00:46:15.280 |
through illustrations, through proverbs, through narratives, and through various kinds of types 00:46:26.280 |
But now in the New Testament, the new covenant, God speaks clearly through his son, which 00:46:43.000 |
India has the heaviest concentration, the largest concentration of illiteracy in the 00:46:48.120 |
In fact, they say that 39% of every illiterate person in the world is in India. 00:46:54.560 |
That's a large number of people who are illiterate. 00:46:58.280 |
And majority of these illiterate people are in villages who are poor because they don't 00:47:03.720 |
So you have young children as young as three, four, five, even up to 10, 15, 16, 17-year-olds 00:47:13.000 |
We have several of our pastors who have no education. 00:47:15.840 |
And so when we go there and try to teach the Bible and we do expositional teaching, many 00:47:22.200 |
So a lot of the mission work that is done in India are telling them how to tell stories 00:47:33.800 |
And this, hopefully this will kind of help you to understand why the Bible is told a 00:47:40.120 |
During the time of Christ, an average Jewish community, what do you think their illiteracy 00:47:50.120 |
According to studies, literacy rate in an average Jewish community during the time of 00:47:58.360 |
Christ was somewhere between zero to 10%, depending on which village you lived in. 00:48:06.120 |
In fact, most scholars believe there was much less than that. 00:48:11.360 |
That means over 90% of the people that Jesus was speaking to could not read or write. 00:48:17.880 |
Over 90% of the people that the Bible was written for them to understand could not read 00:48:24.720 |
So they were completely dependent upon coming to the temple. 00:48:27.880 |
And that's why the Bible says over and over again to commit yourself to what? 00:48:32.000 |
Like reading of the scripture because they couldn't read it for themselves. 00:48:36.360 |
And that's why they were so susceptible to wolves coming in. 00:48:41.640 |
Because they were completely dependent on them to tell them what the Word of God says. 00:48:46.600 |
And so God communicated these important things through poetry, through many different channels, 00:48:51.840 |
through particular types, Melchizedek, so that when Christ came and they saw who he 00:49:02.320 |
Even though the way we're studying it, we're expositing words and verses and paragraphs 00:49:07.560 |
and syntax and grammar, the early church could not study it that way because they didn't 00:49:17.040 |
God left stories to make it clear that here's a clear connection of who he is. 00:49:23.720 |
And he says that Melchizedek was made like the Son of God. 00:49:27.800 |
And this is why we believe that this is not Jesus because he said he was made, first of 00:49:35.240 |
The Son of God was not made like Melchizedek. 00:49:43.560 |
And so Melchizedek took a reflection of him and then now Christ comes to fulfill what 00:49:59.680 |
A Jewish priest could only serve between the age of 25 and 50. 00:50:03.240 |
So even if he had a long career, it would only have lasted 25 years, he says. 00:50:10.960 |
And again in Psalm 110.4, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest 00:50:15.880 |
forever according to the order of Melchizedek." 00:50:20.160 |
Remember what I read at the end of chapter 6? 00:50:23.600 |
The reason why he talks about Melchizedek is for what purpose? 00:50:27.500 |
So that our hope will be firmly grounded in the truth of Christ. 00:50:34.740 |
That wherever that we are anchored in that is not Christ is always going to shift. 00:50:41.120 |
That Christ, his priesthood is not one time done and over with. 00:50:46.360 |
In other words, he is constantly interceding for us. 00:50:49.680 |
Not only while we live, but even after we die. 00:50:55.120 |
Even in eternity, he is a perpetual priest interceding on our behalf. 00:51:01.780 |
So our foundation, our hope is not just during this lifetime. 00:51:11.600 |
At all times, perpetually, eternally, he stands before us and God. 00:51:22.080 |
So therefore, because Christ has fulfilled that role, there is no longer any need for 00:51:31.600 |
Which is really interesting because as soon as Christ came, remember what happened at 00:51:45.700 |
Remember where Jesus is coming into Jerusalem and he weeps over them? 00:51:48.640 |
Because only if you knew today what would bring you peace, but because you did not recognize 00:51:53.200 |
the coming of the king, that judgment is coming upon Jerusalem. 00:51:59.240 |
He was prophesying about the judgment coming on AD 70. 00:52:02.420 |
The Roman government got sick of the Jews and they came and completely obliterated the 00:52:08.040 |
Every stone was just taken out and there's no remnant of the temple because the Romans 00:52:14.440 |
Now the reason why that's significant is one, it fulfilled Jesus' prophecy. 00:52:18.760 |
But two, they can never have the Levites because all the genealogies was kept at the temple. 00:52:29.520 |
So if somebody comes and says, "You know what? 00:52:30.960 |
I come from the line of the Levites, so let's set up the sacrificial system." 00:52:38.560 |
And they can never establish the king of Israel either because he had to come from the line 00:52:46.520 |
And even if they were able to somehow find it, the temple is utterly destroyed. 00:53:04.360 |
Just like John the Baptist came on the scene to prepare the coming of Christ and as soon 00:53:13.120 |
All the sacrificial system, the Levites, right? 00:53:21.380 |
And now he stands before us in the heavenly sanctuary in a new covenant with a greater 00:53:26.880 |
priesthood, with a greater sacrifice, interceding on our behalf for eternity. 00:53:35.960 |
Can you imagine this was half of the sermon that I prepared for today? 00:53:41.600 |
Until yesterday, until yesterday I had actually three times longer than this and I said, "There 00:53:47.680 |
is no way I'm going to be able to go through all of this in one day." 00:53:50.800 |
And even now as I'm wrapping up, it's like, "I could have cut this in half." 00:54:03.320 |
First of all, if you're not in the Word, if you're not in the Word, it doesn't matter 00:54:07.520 |
how much counsel you get and, "Oh, you know, church people are so encouraging to me. 00:54:13.160 |
You know, I really love our pastors and I really love our community." 00:54:19.680 |
If you yourself are not in the Word regularly and your anchoring is not Christ, it's on 00:54:25.280 |
people and system and so I strongly want to encourage you if you're not in the Word to 00:54:32.980 |
But those of you who are in the Word, and you're used to just kind of getting elementary 00:54:40.140 |
understanding of the Word of God and when it comes difficult, Leviticus, you know, like 00:54:45.480 |
Revelation, Ezekiel, minor prophets, some of the things that are a little bit more difficult 00:54:50.440 |
to understand, right, we kind of shy away from. 00:55:15.460 |
And those whose hearts get enlightened, whose eyes become open, are the people who recognizes 00:55:21.380 |
the treasure that is in Christ and so He goes out and sells everything so that makes sure 00:55:25.800 |
He has it and in comparison to what He has, all of the other things become rubbish. 00:55:32.740 |
For those who are continually pressing on, pushing forward to take hold of that which 00:55:44.420 |
Melchizedek is one of those treasures that I believe that if you strain to really deeply 00:55:51.260 |
understand that even this blip in history, even this thing that you may have never properly 00:56:01.260 |
understood like God was doing that behind the scene? 00:56:08.020 |
God had all of that covered even in this, even in this little tiny glimpse that He showed 00:56:12.820 |
me that all this, all these roots are connected to that? 00:56:18.580 |
And you'll see the more you dig into the scripture, you know maybe you've been looking at the 00:56:23.460 |
trees and you're looking at the fruits, but you don't understand the depth of these roots 00:56:27.760 |
because the real fruit is really underground. 00:56:33.940 |
And that's when you really see, man, this is the Holy Spirit. 00:56:42.180 |
And again, that's how it affects me when I study Melchizedek. 00:56:46.300 |
It reminds me that even the things that I have no understanding, that eventually when 00:56:50.820 |
I do dig it up, when I do understand it, wow. 00:56:56.380 |
So I hope that that's where you are or hopefully that's where you will be. 00:57:00.620 |
So as we continue to study through the book of Hebrews, that it will impact you deeply 00:57:05.700 |
and that you would fall in love with the redemptive history and the Word of God afresh as we continue