back to index2020-5-31 KING PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST
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All right, again, we're eagerly anticipating for the church to come back, and I think if 00:00:12.360 |
there's any, you know, one good thing that came out of all of this or is coming out of 00:00:17.080 |
all of this is a greater thought about the corporate gathering of the church. 00:00:22.280 |
And I know because of the internet, many of the churches have been wrestling with the 00:00:26.640 |
idea of going online and how to minister to people and reach out to people online. 00:00:32.440 |
But along with that came the challenge of the loss of the importance of the physical 00:00:38.200 |
corporate gathering of the church, and more and more people have been just kind of nonchalantly 00:00:44.200 |
And I think this has at least caused the conversations to happen to take a deeper look into what 00:00:55.120 |
What is the difference between having service in your own living room versus the physical 00:01:01.240 |
And hopefully when we gather together, not only in our churches, but other churches, 00:01:06.640 |
that that may be restored and a high view of God and high view of worship may be restored 00:01:11.540 |
We're going to be jumping into Hebrews chapter 7 again, and I'm just going to read the first 00:01:20.240 |
And I'm going to take some time, usually I don't talk about political things, but this 00:01:25.120 |
morning I'm going to jump into a bit before we get into the text itself. 00:01:32.400 |
Because of many things that are going on around the world right now. 00:01:36.640 |
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham as he 00:01:41.720 |
was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. 00:01:47.600 |
Father, we thank you so much for who you are. 00:01:52.480 |
None of us are worthy to call you Abba Father by our own merit. 00:01:58.480 |
We are here, Lord God, as sinners who are forgiven. 00:02:03.240 |
We are here, unworthy Lord God, to be in your presence. 00:02:08.080 |
And yet we come to your throne with boldness because of the blood of Christ. 00:02:17.400 |
Renew our faith, renew our passion, renew our love, and whatever it is in our thoughts, 00:02:22.440 |
our emotions, in our lives, Lord, that we have been entangled with. 00:02:27.440 |
I pray, Father God, that that truth may deliver us. 00:02:38.740 |
I think all of us know what's going on to a certain degree. 00:02:44.080 |
Some of you guys may be following what's going on in the news probably more closely than 00:02:50.800 |
And obviously we had the COVID-19 fear, which we're not out of the woods yet. 00:02:56.240 |
But as a result of that, the churches have shut down. 00:03:01.620 |
Many people who are in businesses, some of you have been furloughed. 00:03:05.360 |
Maybe some people lost their jobs permanently. 00:03:08.800 |
And so there's a lot of stuff that's going on behind the scenes. 00:03:16.720 |
And every day we have, especially in this country, we have two parties who are eager 00:03:21.680 |
to blame each other and point fingers, thinking that maybe the solution is in their party. 00:03:27.040 |
We have financial crisis, international affairs. 00:03:30.380 |
We have issues with what's going on in China, with Iran, with North Korea. 00:03:36.040 |
There's problems going on even between China and India. 00:03:40.740 |
And so if you're watching the news carefully, it almost seems like it's just ready to blow. 00:03:47.840 |
And then on top of all of that, you know very well what's been going on around us in Los 00:03:53.840 |
Angeles and even in Irvine today, I heard news that there's going to be a protest happening 00:04:00.480 |
And so again, we want to caution you not to drive in that area because they have planned 00:04:08.160 |
What happened this week with the racial tensions, the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, 00:04:15.960 |
I think we've all seen videos, and I haven't talked to a single person who wasn't outraged 00:04:25.160 |
If what they are saying is true, it must stop. 00:04:30.720 |
Protests are a good thing, again, within reason. 00:04:34.760 |
We're not talking about like burning down buildings, but again, to make sure that some 00:04:39.840 |
of these things that are happening, that policies need to be changed, there needs to be accountability. 00:04:45.960 |
And I think we are all in agreement with that. 00:04:49.360 |
But we must not conform to the pattern of this world. 00:04:55.920 |
Romans chapter 2, 12 verse 2, it says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed 00:05:01.600 |
by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which 00:05:09.560 |
So when he's talking about not to conform to the pattern of this world, he's not simply 00:05:13.520 |
talking about pornography and murder and killing. 00:05:18.440 |
It's just the way what we value, how we respond to things, how we react to things, that we 00:05:24.080 |
don't react and think and implement things just like the world because our values are 00:05:33.160 |
Our answer, what we believe to be the answer to human problem is different. 00:05:40.080 |
Just because you change laws, it doesn't change the heart of men. 00:05:45.100 |
So this racial tension that has been simmering for years, probably decades, you know, it's 00:05:55.120 |
Tinder has always been laying there, but what has happened in the last few weeks has basically 00:06:06.760 |
And there's a few things that I want to say about racism, and this isn't completely disconnected 00:06:11.120 |
with what we need to talk about this morning about Melchizedek. 00:06:21.200 |
You know, I think all of us, to some degree, no matter what national background you're 00:06:26.400 |
from may have experienced some of that, some more than others. 00:06:30.640 |
I remember when I first came to the United States, we were so excited because Korea was 00:06:38.960 |
You know, I could remember a few times where we had candy, you know, at least that's what 00:06:45.360 |
You know, eating fruit was a huge treat in the 70s. 00:06:49.440 |
And so coming to the United States basically meant that we thought we were coming to heaven 00:06:56.000 |
We moved, my parents moved to Philadelphia, and my earliest memories of Philadelphia was 00:07:03.760 |
my parents working their tail off, coming home at 10, 11 p.m. at night. 00:07:08.440 |
And me and my brothers, basically, we were latchkey kids, you know, and my younger brother 00:07:12.560 |
Phillip coming home, walking home from school when he was five years old and losing him 00:07:18.040 |
So, you know, all of these things are memories of my childhood. 00:07:23.160 |
And I remember being in Kansas, we were so weird in Kansas. 00:07:27.720 |
Not only were we the only Asians, we were the only minorities, period. 00:07:31.320 |
So we had three Asians in the school, me, my two brothers, and that was it. 00:07:35.820 |
And I remember back then, because she couldn't pronounce my Korean name, my teacher would 00:07:43.160 |
And so it wasn't weird because it's like, oh, China Boy, I'm the only China Boy in the 00:07:50.040 |
And again, as a third grade student, didn't think much about it, you know, that's just 00:07:58.800 |
In Atlanta, Georgia, in the South, in the 70s, I mean, racism was blatantly out in the 00:08:04.400 |
open, not just the teachers, but even the students. 00:08:07.400 |
And I remember every single day, somebody calling me chink. 00:08:12.320 |
And so, unlike my brothers, I didn't just absorb it. 00:08:19.360 |
And so every day I went to school, I thought, maybe today I'm going to lose it. 00:08:24.600 |
So even to this day, I don't like wearing slippers outside. 00:08:29.080 |
Because mentally, mentally, even though those are decades and decades and decades ago, mentally, 00:08:35.240 |
I think maybe something's going to happen today. 00:08:40.400 |
Even though it's irrational, that's embedded, yes or no. 00:08:43.520 |
I don't like wearing slippers outside, right? 00:08:46.040 |
For that reason, just in case something goes down. 00:08:48.440 |
When my parents decided to go back to Korea, I thought, okay, finally, we're going to go 00:08:58.080 |
And I was made very aware of that when I went back. 00:09:01.960 |
But I realized that I didn't belong there either. 00:09:03.880 |
That short time that I was here in the United States, about four or five years, I was Korean 00:09:10.120 |
And so I remember being in Korea, constantly being told to go back to my country. 00:09:19.400 |
And that's when I realized that I didn't have one. 00:09:21.720 |
I didn't belong there, and I didn't belong here. 00:09:24.560 |
And right around that time, I was about 12, 13 years old, and going through an identity 00:09:31.200 |
And when my parents decided to come back to the United States, I came back kicking and 00:09:35.240 |
screaming because it wasn't going back to heaven on earth anymore. 00:09:41.040 |
I was going back to a place where I didn't belong, where I'm going to have to fight just 00:09:46.800 |
to be a part of a school wherever my parents went to. 00:09:50.120 |
So even to this day, when I see racism, it reminds me of all of that. 00:09:57.400 |
And if there's one thing that I hate, one sin that I truly, truly hate, is racism. 00:10:04.280 |
Because it scarred me deeply when I was young. 00:10:07.260 |
But when I say that, I'm not talking about just anything. 00:10:11.760 |
Because sometimes the way that we call racism cheapens that sin of racism. 00:10:16.960 |
There's a difference between people being insensitive. 00:10:20.520 |
There is a huge difference between people being ignorant. 00:10:26.260 |
It's just that they haven't been around other people who are different than them. 00:10:29.880 |
And so they say things that they would say with their race or the people that they're 00:10:33.920 |
familiar with, and they don't realize that this may be offensive to somebody else. 00:10:46.440 |
Racism is sickening at the core when it is true racism. 00:10:55.340 |
Racism doesn't just exist in one group of people. 00:11:04.400 |
So if I say Chinese people are, or Koreans are, black people are, Mexicans are, we have 00:11:28.400 |
We all have certain prejudices that we have inwardly, and we know how to temper that because 00:11:36.600 |
But at the core of prejudice, or racism, it's prejudice. 00:11:41.240 |
And every single one of us is guilty of that because the sin of prejudice resides in all 00:11:46.400 |
Because at the core of prejudice, we elevate ourselves above other people. 00:11:51.480 |
And at the core of human rebellion is wanting to have glory. 00:11:56.640 |
That's why we work hard to be better than other people, to get better jobs, to have 00:12:00.320 |
better houses, to better career, better schools. 00:12:04.520 |
And all of that innately feeds into, if we're not careful, at the core root of our rebellion. 00:12:12.360 |
And prejudice is a byproduct of every human being that is trying hard to be better than 00:12:21.840 |
It's just racism is just the fastest way to get there. 00:12:25.080 |
And that is not isolated in certain people, certain parts of the country. 00:12:31.960 |
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:12:34.080 |
So I want to ask you to be careful to not to react to racism as if we are completely 00:12:44.120 |
That if we legislate and we get rid of those people, and if we isolate those people, that 00:12:57.440 |
And we have to be careful that in the way that we deal with racism, that we ourselves 00:13:08.240 |
When somebody says white people are racist, that's also racism. 00:13:14.360 |
When those people are like this, that's also racism. 00:13:21.520 |
You know, one of the things that I noticed of, again, doing church ministry for so many 00:13:25.120 |
years is that people come to church, and if they have a bad experience with a few people, 00:13:33.080 |
they will leave the church and they will say, "Berlin Community Church is like this." 00:13:39.400 |
And if you sit and talk to them, usually it's because they've had a bad experience with 00:13:45.720 |
But our tendency is when we're hurt, when something negative happens to us, we're not 00:13:54.900 |
Just kind of like what's happening with the riots. 00:13:59.600 |
Why are they looting people, especially in their own neighborhood? 00:14:02.720 |
But we have a tendency, when we're angry about something, when we're hurt and we feel injustice, 00:14:10.200 |
We don't have to participate in riots physically to be rioting in our hearts. 00:14:15.440 |
Because when we're hurt, our natural tendency is to, they're like this, even between husband 00:14:21.120 |
When we're angry, we don't say, "Why don't you help me with dishes?" 00:14:32.920 |
When we are upset and when we're hurt, we have a tendency to throw bombs. 00:14:37.000 |
So we need to be careful that in the way that we deal with racism, that we ourselves don't 00:14:48.760 |
But fourth and finally, racism, the answer to racism is always Jesus, is regeneration. 00:14:57.360 |
Because at the root of racism is our human rebellion. 00:15:06.920 |
And so as much as we want to cry out and say, "We don't want what happened to that black 00:15:21.560 |
That in our protest, I pray that the Christians will see the proclamation of the gospel as 00:15:32.920 |
That we don't just simply point out what is bad. 00:15:36.540 |
That we don't just get outraged and say, "If we just change the law, if we just lock up 00:15:40.240 |
a few people, this would be a better society." 00:15:44.120 |
You and I are here because we believe that that is not the case. 00:15:47.080 |
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:15:50.120 |
Police department, Asians, blacks, whites, Hispanics, all have sinned and fall short 00:15:59.480 |
Democrats, Republicans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:16:04.560 |
Americans, Chinese, Korean, Indians, Mexicans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory 00:16:12.200 |
So the only remedy to sin that you and I believe is a regeneration that happens by the blood 00:16:21.880 |
So before we pour so much energy into changing the politics, again, I think we live in a 00:16:30.320 |
free country where they give us the right to vote, right to protest, and so when we 00:16:39.480 |
But in the process of pointing evil, that we make sure that we give the remedy along 00:16:49.960 |
You know, dealing with racism is very tricky, especially if you faced racism before. 00:16:57.160 |
I remember years ago, I had an African-American friend who I was driving around town and I 00:17:07.960 |
And he was sitting to my right and I was driving around, we were trying to look for something 00:17:15.680 |
And when we got pulled over, I was like, I wasn't speeding, you know, and I, or at least 00:17:19.720 |
I didn't think I was, so what did I do wrong this time? 00:17:23.160 |
So they pulled us over and they told my friend, his name was Michael, to get out of the car. 00:17:27.720 |
And again, he was an African-American brother. 00:17:31.280 |
He went out and I was sitting in the car and a police officer came over to me and asked 00:17:38.760 |
He's like, okay, we just have to ask some questions. 00:17:41.860 |
So they had a list of questions that they asked him. 00:17:45.240 |
Then I got out of the car, I said, because I began to realize what was happening. 00:17:49.720 |
And so I got out of the car and I said, officer, did I do something wrong? 00:17:52.400 |
He said, no, no, no, no, no, we just wanted to double check. 00:17:55.760 |
And I asked him, what are you double checking? 00:18:08.680 |
And so I realized the only reason that we were pulled over was because he was black 00:18:12.400 |
and I was Asian and maybe it fit some profile. 00:18:15.920 |
Maybe there was some report or they were looking for somebody. 00:18:18.320 |
And I asked Michael, Michael, does that happen to you often? 00:18:32.400 |
So he just kind of blew it off as like, I'm just used to it. 00:18:41.920 |
And I was also very confused because the officers pulled us over for my protection. 00:18:52.360 |
They pulled me over because their duty is to protect. 00:18:57.640 |
And they thought maybe if this is not, maybe it fits some profile. 00:19:03.160 |
And then they really was trying to protect me. 00:19:06.440 |
So in one sense, I was thankful that they were doing their job, but I was also upset 00:19:14.720 |
Problem with racism isn't black and white because it's not about policy. 00:19:23.640 |
It's not about changing programs and getting rid of certain people. 00:19:30.920 |
But all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:19:34.560 |
The answer is not that simple, at least in the eyes of the world. 00:19:40.360 |
You think, oh, if we can get Republicans to run four more years, we'll have a great country. 00:19:46.040 |
If we can get the Democrats in office, things will get so much better. 00:19:52.040 |
That is the lie that Satan tells year after year after year after year. 00:19:55.880 |
And if you live long enough, you know, like the politicians that come and give all these 00:20:03.600 |
And if you've been watching politics, following for any period of time, you know that the 00:20:07.320 |
politicians are not as powerful as they think. 00:20:12.080 |
Now what does this have to do with the passage that we're looking at? 00:20:17.640 |
The letter that is written to the Hebrews are drifting back to their old life because 00:20:22.880 |
they took their eyes off of Christ and whatever problems that they were having in life, they 00:20:27.600 |
thought it would be easier if they can just go back to the majority, if they went back 00:20:35.120 |
They were just kind of drifting back because that was the easiest path to take. 00:20:39.580 |
And so the author is reminding them to be anchored in Christ. 00:20:51.920 |
Have you forgotten that Christ and Christ alone is your refuge? 00:21:00.860 |
No amount of hard work, no amount of discipline, no amount of discipleship is going to weed 00:21:09.800 |
That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." 00:21:16.720 |
You need to memorize more of the Old Testament." 00:21:19.880 |
He said, "No, everything that you've done until you are born again is useless." 00:21:42.880 |
We're completely helpless until Christ comes and saves us. 00:21:46.840 |
And so that's the underlying tone of the whole book of Hebrews, to not to drift, to be anchored 00:21:53.460 |
in Christ so that we would look to Him and not to run to the world. 00:21:57.740 |
That's why he says in Hebrews 7.4, "Observe how great this man was to whom Abraham the 00:22:02.200 |
patriarch gave a tenth of the choice's spoils." 00:22:09.480 |
And obviously, he's not saying to look at Melchizedek. 00:22:12.640 |
He's saying to look at Melchizedek because Christ comes in the order of Melchizedek. 00:22:18.800 |
Again, at the tail end of the book of Hebrews 12, you can say that summary of everything 00:22:25.920 |
that he's been trying to say in chapter 12, verse 2, says, "Fix our eyes on Jesus, the 00:22:33.440 |
Not only is he the one who begins our faith, he's the one who's going to continue to sanctify 00:22:39.120 |
You don't just begin with Christ and end with hard work. 00:22:43.080 |
You don't just begin by grace and then end with work. 00:22:56.200 |
So it humbles us that we are always desperate, whether you've been a Christian for one year, 00:23:02.480 |
whether you've been a faithful Christian for 40 years. 00:23:06.760 |
Until the day we die, we meet Christ, we are all desperately in need of Christ. 00:23:13.040 |
He says, "Christ is different than the other kings. 00:23:23.720 |
Now king priest doesn't sound like much, but if you know the Old Testament, it was prohibited 00:23:29.800 |
Malchus in 7.1, it says, "Malchus is the king of Salem, priest of the Most High God." 00:23:37.480 |
God prohibited the kings of Israel to be priests, and the priests were not able to be kings. 00:23:50.020 |
So if you were the king of Egypt, if you were the king of Babylon, king basically meant 00:23:57.760 |
In fact, if anybody is immune to the law, it would have been the king because the king 00:24:03.000 |
If you broke the law, you can say, "Well, today that's the rule." 00:24:06.240 |
King of Israel did not have that kind of authority because there was a king above that king. 00:24:11.600 |
And God made that very clear to the nation of Israel. 00:24:14.680 |
Deuteronomy 17, verse 14 to 20, God was preparing the nation of Israel to get into the Promised 00:24:21.220 |
Land, and He foretold that when you get in, one of your primary problems that you're going 00:24:28.100 |
to run into is that you're going to put your hopes on the kings. 00:24:35.380 |
Verse 14 to 20, "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess 00:24:39.980 |
it and live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations who are 00:24:45.460 |
In other words, they were looking for leadership. 00:24:50.700 |
And He says, "You shall surely set king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. 00:24:56.720 |
Even the one you choose," He said, "No, I will choose him, one from among your countrymen 00:25:03.180 |
You may not put a foreigner over yourself who is not your countryman." 00:25:06.900 |
So even the selection of the king, God Himself said He's going to do it. 00:25:10.580 |
In other words, there's a God above this king. 00:25:13.780 |
Secondly, verse 16 and 17, "He shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the 00:25:20.180 |
people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall 00:25:27.260 |
He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he 00:25:31.460 |
greatly increase silver and gold for himself." 00:25:39.420 |
I mean you would think that if you're the king of the world, king of the country, of 00:25:43.260 |
course you're going to have wealth beyond everybody else. 00:25:47.900 |
But God says, "You will not multiply your wife. 00:25:54.580 |
So this king was, in a sense, he was an under shepherd because it didn't belong to him. 00:26:07.820 |
If you're the king, you're the owner of the palace. 00:26:10.260 |
If you're the king, you're the owner of every possession in that land. 00:26:13.340 |
But he said to the king of Israel, "You shall not have many horses, or silver, or gold." 00:26:20.540 |
So you know, people often ask, you know, look at King Solomon. 00:26:23.420 |
He had many wives and God was not pleased with him. 00:26:28.660 |
You have to be careful that we don't extrapolate things that are happening in narratives and 00:26:36.580 |
No, God clearly spelled out, "He is not okay with it." 00:26:40.340 |
And part of Solomon's sin was he went astray and he disobeyed God. 00:26:45.940 |
He goes on in verse 18, "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of the kingdom, 00:26:50.100 |
he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical 00:26:56.620 |
So even the law itself, the king didn't create the laws. 00:27:07.940 |
He couldn't get many wives or he couldn't become wealthy for himself. 00:27:12.900 |
And even the law, he couldn't create the laws. 00:27:21.760 |
But he said the nation of Israel, "Because you're asking for a king." 00:27:26.300 |
He said, "I'm going to give a king to you, but this king is going to be an under shepherd." 00:27:31.060 |
And then verse 20, "The reason for all of this is that his heart may not be lifted up 00:27:42.260 |
So that the king may remain humble like the rest of the subjects. 00:27:51.660 |
So that the king of Israel will not become proud and he thinks that he is somehow better 00:28:03.260 |
Even the king of the smallest country in the world. 00:28:08.940 |
Even the most insignificant, a country that you've never heard of. 00:28:12.180 |
If you say he's the king of that country, you would automatically assume he's the richest 00:28:21.620 |
And yet the kingdom of Israel, he says, "So that your heart may not be lifted above his 00:28:25.660 |
countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandments to the right or to the 00:28:29.460 |
left so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel." 00:28:36.740 |
So Israelites kingdom was unlike any other kingdom because there was only one true king. 00:28:44.540 |
And all the other kings in Israel's history were supposed to represent the true king. 00:28:53.660 |
And one of the limitations that he put is that the king could not be a priest. 00:29:00.060 |
He is not, he wasn't allowed to occupy both offices. 00:29:06.780 |
We see in 1 Samuel chapter 13, King Saul breaks that commandment and as a result of that, 00:29:17.020 |
King Uzziah, King Uzziah becomes a great king. 00:29:24.160 |
And as a result of that, of all of his accomplishment, it says in chapter 26 verse 16 that he became 00:29:30.280 |
powerful and that when he became powerful, he became proud. 00:29:34.400 |
And as a result of this pride, he said his kingdom was going to be lost. 00:29:42.100 |
In fact, we see a clear picture of what kind of king Israelites had in 2 Samuel chapter 12. 00:29:54.180 |
He takes someone else's wife and in order to cover that up, he murders him. 00:30:01.660 |
Now in any other nation, any other king, that would have been perfectly fine. 00:30:09.900 |
As outrageous as that may be, who's going to contest him? 00:30:17.560 |
He could just come out and say, "You're my wife today," and that's it. 00:30:29.740 |
He could take their wives because he's the most powerful. 00:30:33.660 |
But in the nation of Israel, the kings were not like the other nations. 00:30:39.140 |
That's why when the prophet Nathan comes and confronts him about his sin in 2 Samuel chapter 00:30:44.980 |
12, David couldn't do anything other than repent because he recognized his sin. 00:30:54.020 |
And what's interesting about the way he repents is Psalm 51 verse 34 says, "For I know my 00:30:59.220 |
transgressions and my sin is ever before me." 00:31:02.740 |
Because he knew that there was a king above him. 00:31:06.500 |
"But you and you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight." 00:31:12.660 |
Now that seems like a completely immoral thing to say because he committed adultery. 00:31:21.420 |
And yet when he repents, he says, "You only, I have sinned and done what is evil." 00:31:39.740 |
Now he's not saying that I'm innocent of his blood, I'm innocent of adultery. 00:31:45.260 |
But as the king of Israel, the only law that he broke is God's law because he was the king. 00:31:55.340 |
And that's why he was saying, "I've broken your law." 00:31:59.860 |
As a king, I could do whatever I want, but as the king of Israel, I've sinned against 00:32:08.260 |
See, Israelites' kings were not like any other kings. 00:32:16.980 |
God established kingship and authority even in the secular world for the purpose of carrying 00:32:25.940 |
And that's why we are called to submit to those who are in authority. 00:32:28.780 |
See, the priesthood was given in order to reconcile sinners to God. 00:32:36.980 |
They couldn't create the law, but they were to carry out the law that God gave them. 00:32:41.220 |
The priests existed so that when they broke the law, that there would be a remedy. 00:32:47.060 |
And God said that these two offices cannot come together. 00:32:58.060 |
But Jesus fulfills what he prohibited in the nation of Israel because the kings were under 00:33:05.300 |
shepherds and the priests were also under shepherds. 00:33:08.780 |
And he kept these two things separate because it was reserved for Jesus and Jesus alone. 00:33:16.180 |
So when he says Jesus comes in the priesthood of Melchizedek, he's saying that Jesus is 00:33:21.660 |
also king and priest, which was not allowed in the nation of Israel. 00:33:29.860 |
When Jesus came and he said, "I did not come to abolish the law, but I came to fulfill 00:33:37.720 |
Whatever God told him to do, he did it completely. 00:33:39.900 |
But secondly, what it means to fulfill is to take it to completion. 00:33:44.780 |
That whatever God gave him the law, what his intent was, he said it pointed to him. 00:33:51.260 |
And so he came to fulfill the prophecy that your Messiah is going to come as a king priest. 00:34:00.460 |
In Zechariah 6.13, "Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord and he who will 00:34:05.420 |
bear the honor and sit and rule on his throne." 00:34:10.140 |
"Thus he will be a priest on his throne, which other kings were punished for doing, but he 00:34:17.900 |
said your Messiah is going to come as a priest on his throne." 00:34:21.060 |
And the council of the peace will be between the two offices. 00:34:23.900 |
In other words, he says when the Messiah has come, he's going to bring those two offices 00:34:29.740 |
The only other place Melchizedek is mentioned in Psalm 110 verse 4, "The Lord has sworn 00:34:36.100 |
You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." 00:34:55.700 |
Imagine if Jesus was just king and his role is to carry out justice. 00:35:09.420 |
We wouldn't be here because we all broke the law. 00:35:15.700 |
So if Jesus is king of kings and Lord of lords, you and I would be crushed. 00:35:23.360 |
It is not a throne of grace that we approach. 00:35:29.020 |
And when you approach the throne, a God who is holy, holy, holy, just like everything 00:35:34.860 |
in the tabernacle said, if you come with any sin, if you're tainted in any way, if there's 00:35:39.020 |
any disobedience in you, you will be consumed by my holy wrath. 00:35:45.940 |
If Jesus was only king, you and I have no hope. 00:35:54.160 |
He embraced priesthood and the purpose of priesthood was to reconcile sinners to God. 00:36:02.140 |
But if priests, priests never, they didn't carry out the punishment. 00:36:08.460 |
Priests did that because they were the ones who were in authority. 00:36:10.580 |
The priests were always receiving the gifts and to reconcile. 00:36:15.940 |
Now if Jesus was only priest, which many people forget that he is also king and we only see 00:36:23.540 |
him as a mediator who's always mediating for us, one saved, always saved, and our sins 00:36:33.480 |
It doesn't matter what we do because all we see him as is a priest. 00:36:40.560 |
And so because only see him as a priest, there is no lordship. 00:36:45.040 |
It's not necessary because they don't know him as king. 00:36:49.920 |
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came to fulfill that office that was reserved for 00:37:01.160 |
He was king priest and he was king priest perfectly. 00:37:06.600 |
In Psalm 110 verses 1-4, the Lord says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make 00:37:14.280 |
The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion saying, 'Rule in the midst of your 00:37:20.440 |
In other words, you're going to be established as the king. 00:37:23.080 |
"Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power." 00:37:27.120 |
In other words, your kingship, you're not going to rule in fear. 00:37:35.440 |
You're not going to carry out justice because you're going to slap them. 00:37:38.720 |
He said, "They're going to come to you because you're also the priest." 00:37:43.480 |
And he said, "They're going to offer up worship to you freely." 00:37:52.940 |
And the way he reconciled us to himself, he's absorbed our sins upon him before he sat on 00:38:00.600 |
You know, I heard a great illustration this week about what happens. 00:38:07.100 |
In order to make something clean, you have to make something unclean. 00:38:13.240 |
Just like we're trying to sanitize everything and in order to do that, we have to pick up 00:38:17.680 |
And you don't use dirty rags if you want to clean things. 00:38:20.300 |
You take a clean rag and then you take the dirty surface and then you wipe it down. 00:38:26.020 |
And so when you wipe it down, the surface becomes clean, but where's the dirt? 00:38:33.140 |
So the rag that was clean is made unclean in order to make the surface clean. 00:38:40.740 |
The Bible describes our priest king in order to make us righteous so that we may dwell 00:38:55.260 |
He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I may become the righteousness of God. 00:39:03.420 |
Imagine why this king-priest office is so important. 00:39:08.980 |
This may not be a perfect illustration, but imagine. 00:39:15.780 |
Somebody got into trouble and you got taken to jail and the public defender comes and 00:39:23.740 |
he wants to have a conversation with you and then somebody whispers in your ear and he 00:39:37.540 |
He's a public defender because public defender, I'm supposed to tell him what's going on so 00:39:45.400 |
If I tell him all my sins, I'm going to go to jail for a long time. 00:39:50.820 |
But the guy who's defending me is also the DA. 00:40:00.540 |
They will never let that happen because those two offices are contradicting because no human 00:40:08.700 |
being can carry out the public defense and DA at the same time because we're going to 00:40:19.500 |
Either you're not going to do a good job as a DA and say, "You know what? 00:40:23.140 |
I'm going to pretend like I never heard your sin and I'm just going to defend you and I'm 00:40:30.380 |
Or you're a public defender and I heard all your sins. 00:40:38.840 |
No human being is able to be a public defender and DA at the same time. 00:40:47.700 |
Only a being who has perfect judgment, who has perfect knowledge, who himself is not 00:40:57.860 |
tainted with prejudice himself, who is able to carry out perfect justice and perfect grace 00:41:08.840 |
And there is no human being that can ever be in that role. 00:41:14.760 |
That's why it was prohibited for kings and the priests that those two offices would mix 00:41:32.480 |
A holy, holy, holy God who knows all things, who judges all things, loves us unconditionally 00:41:44.480 |
because of the love of his son, Jesus Christ. 00:41:59.480 |
Our DA, our public defender is the same person. 00:42:08.640 |
Where he doesn't sweep our sins under the rug, he doesn't allow chaos to happen, he 00:42:16.920 |
The kingdom that we are headed to is not anarchy where people do whatever they want. 00:42:23.340 |
There is order, there is righteousness, but there's also peace, there's also grace. 00:42:30.840 |
Because we have a king who comes in the order of Melchizedek. 00:42:38.160 |
Why would we want to drift and replace him with anything else? 00:42:44.760 |
Why would we want to go to any other kingdom? 00:42:47.040 |
Why would we put our confidence in any other leader, in any other mediator?