Hebrews 6 (Part 2) - Hebrews 7 • Jesus like Melchizedek

so go to genesis chapter 14 if you would please for a kind of a launching point here uh this morning let me preface while you're getting there what we're going to be looking at the time period is during the time of abraham so we're looking at about 2000 bc okay during this time he is still referred to as abram because god has not yet given him the name abraham in the story yet and this was a time in the history of the land when there were individual city-states that had their own king and they were they were talking in and around canaan the land of canaan and what they would do back in those days is they would conquer one another and they would make the weaker city-states pay tribute to the stronger city-states it's kind of like a bully you know picking on a on a weaker kid on his way to school and making him give him his lunch money i don't know if you remember there was an episode of andy griffith that was that's i always remember that for some reason opie getting threatened by the bully kid you know making him giving of his lunch money well the story in genesis 14 is about a particular bully named kendall ermer he was the king of ilam and some of the kings who had been giving kedalam or teddy lamerer their lunch money for years finally decided they were done and they weren't going to pay the bully anymore so they just stopped paying him and if you'll look at verse 4 you'll actually see this if you skip down there genesis 14 verse 4 it says 12 years they had served caddy lamer but in the 13th year they rebelled and and when it says they rebelled it just simply means they stopped paying and and that's kind of a way of saying if you want my lunch money you're going to have to beat it out of me right yeah some of you guys that remember watching andy griffith that's actually what happened so anyway kendall aimer along with some of the kings who were still paying him their lunch money went out to fight against the kings that decided they weren't going to pay up anymore and if you'll skip down to verse 8 you'll see a list of the kings that no longer wanted to pay it says then the king of sodom the king of gomorrah the king of admira the king of zeboem and the king of billah that is zoar went out and they joined battle in the valley of siddim with kedalarmur king of ilam tidal king of goim amraphel king of shinar and aryak king of elassar four kings against five so you've got five kings that have decided they no longer want to pay going up against four led by ketu lammer now it says the valley of saddam was full of bitumen pits or bitumen actually is how that's pronounced your bible may say tar pits and that's an interesting side note and all it really needed to tell us is that there were pits because it's all it's going to tell us here is that when they were in the middle of the battle some of the people that were no longer wanted to pay were running for their lives because they were getting beat by kenny leimer and they fell into the pits but it's interesting that they make note of the fact that they're tar pits because you guys know how sodom and gomorrah are later destroyed reign of fire and brimstone from heaven guess what happens when that fire reaches those tar pits just a side point anyway that's what it says in verse 10 again now the valley of siddim was full of tar pits or batuman pits and as the kings of sodom and gabora fled so they're getting beat some fell into them and the rest fled to the hill country so katie lairmer is you know and his allies are are winning verse 11 it says so the enemy and that's kenny leimer took all the possessions of sodom and gomorrah and all their provisions and they left they went their way so they won so the big guy on the block is still the big guy on the block he's still the bully and he bloodied the nose of the guys who said we're not going to give you our lunch money anymore now here's the important note in verse 12. look in verse 12. they also took lot the son of abram's brother who was dwelling in sodom and his possessions along with them and they went their way so what we read there is that nephew the nephew of abraham his name was lot he and his family got caught up in all of this warfare between these warring city-state kings and he and his family and all their possessions were taken captive by these various kings all right verse 13. then one who had escaped came and told abram the hebrew who was living by the oaks of mamrie the amorite the brother of eschkal and of anir these were allies of abram when abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive he led forth his trained men born in his house and there were 318 we're told of them and he went in pursuit as far as dan and that's a long way north and as he divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and excuse me he and his servants i read that wrong verse 15. and he divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to hoba north of damascus man they went a long way north then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen lot with his possessions and the women and the people all right stop there for just a minute now you see what's going on so abram and his allies he has a couple of allies defeated kedalarmur and the three kings that were allied with him and he rescued his nephew and his nephew's family and all their possessions and recovered everyone and brought them all back and then here's where it gets interesting and it's this is really more relevant to our study in hebrews verse 17. after his return from the defeat of ketter lamer and the kings who were with him the king of sodom went out to meet him at the valley of sheva that is the king's valley and of course he's going he wants to thank abraham but then pay attention to this next verse and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine and then we're told parenthetically here he was priest of god most high which is a crazy statement because there isn't there any priest yet we're hundreds of years before the lord develops the priesthood um moses isn't going to be around for a lo probably about 600 700 years and so anyway this is a long time before that look at it goes on to say in verse 19. and he that's melchizedek blessed abram and said blessed be abraham by abram by god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and then we read this interesting final note it says and abram gave him a tenth of everything in other words melchizedek was given by abram 10 of all the spoil which was probably enormous okay now the reason this story is relevant is because it introduces this mysterious character named melchizedek and we've never heard of him before bible's never given us any information on melchizedek up to this point we know nothing about the man we don't know anything about his birth we don't know anything about his death we don't know anything about his mother or father there's no records about the man silence we don't have a clue why he is called priest of god most high we don't know what we do know from the passage is that abraham recognized melchizedek as the real deal he recognized him as a true servant of god the worshiper of the same god who had given him abraham the promises he gave him concerning his family the land and so forth other than that we know precious little about this man named melchizedek and and and what's interesting is we don't hear anything about him again for a thousand years literally about a thousand years later suddenly david is writing prophetically in the psalms talking about the coming messiah and he mentions melchizedek this guy's been off the radar for a thousand years and suddenly he says what we'll put up on the screen we've seen it before from psalm 110 verse 4 it's a psalm of david the lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek now we're going to leave that passage up on the screen for really the rest of the study because we're going to keep coming back to it but this is this interesting statement or prophetic statement that david makes a thousand years after melchizedek a man we know nothing about and have heard nothing from or anything about for a thousand years and suddenly his name pops up god the father is speaking about the coming messiah who we know to be god the son jesus christ and he says concerning him you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek now the first thing i want you to notice about this prophecy is that in it god swears an oath and we'll see why that's significant in just a bit god it says the lord has sworn that is significant but the second thing that he he he says here is you are a priest forever patterned after the priesthood of melchizedek you my son are going to be a priest not patterned after the aaronic priests which will come through the law but you will be a priest patterned after melchizedek and we're all kind of going cool what's the pattern of melchizedek what does he mean when he says after the order of melchizedek we know what the arionic order is it's listed for us in the law it's laid out for us in the scriptures we can read about it but this melchizedek guy he's this blip that pops up on the radar and we didn't even know where it came from and god comes along and says you my son will be a priest in that order in other words similarly to or after the pattern of okay so to answer the question what is the pattern or the order of melchizedek that's where we get into hebrews chapter 6. so now turn in your bible to hebrews chapter 6. and we're going to skip all the way down to verse 13 where we left off last week and here we find the author talking about abraham and he's mentioning the promise that god gave abraham look with me in verse 13 he says for when god made a promise to abraham since he had no one greater by whom to swear he swore by himself now okay now it's interesting now we're talking about god's swearing again but now not just about what he swore to the son which is recorded in psalm 110 we're talking about how he swore to abraham that he would give him a vast lineage and all of the land on which he was living or at the time which of course they didn't come to pass until many years later so it says god swore by himself saying surely i will bless you and multiply you verse 15 and thus abraham having patiently waited obtained the promise for people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation right stop here because you know we don't swear oaths really much today very very little but back in biblical times if you wanted to punctuate your statement and get people to believe you you would swear an oath and the jews took their oaths very seriously and you would always swear by something that was greater than yourself you would never say i swear by the hair on my head because that doesn't mean anything you would say i swear by god in heaven and they would rarely do that because they felt like that was so they would do other things like the earth or heaven i swear by the heavens created by god or whatever the case might be but they would always do it in order to call attention to the fact i'm telling the truth now you and i we might hear someone swear an oath and we kind of go big deal because it doesn't really mean that much to us but it meant a lot to uh the the people living back in in biblical times and you can see that when you keep reading in verse 17 as and because the author is going to answer the question why swear on oath in the first place so when god desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose he guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for god to lie we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us stop there in other words why did god swear an oath when he talked to abraham and made his promise because he wanted to show that he meant business that's the modern interpretation he wanted to show he was serious about this this god doesn't have to swear an oath he ought to be able to speak and you and i just go okay that's it right it's all we have to hear just god you speak we're good but he swore an oath for us because we're we need junk like that apparently and so he says he did it to be to show more convincingly that this is a a guarantee and he talks about by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for god to lie and those two unchangeable things are god's promise and god's oath okay okay and then he goes on to say this look at verse 19 we have this and he's talking about that oath as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul right we haven't we haven't what what's our anchor god can't lie he says it it's gonna happen it's done we have that in anger is that your anchor i hope that's your anchor today i hope god's word is your anchor his promises his well his character behind his promises knowing that he can't lie it's not it's not even possible for god to lie god can't lie boom that's it and that's an anchor it becomes an anchor for us okay all right he goes on to describe that further in verse 19 as a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf look at this having become a high priest forever after the order of melchizedek and this is where the author now begins to bring it all together to make the tie between the function of the jewish high priest who would go behind the curtain to atone for the sins of the people when he walked into the holy of holies there would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial animal on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant and and so on and so on and so on and he's talking about jesus now and connecting his priesthood to that of melchizedek who came before and now for whom is it is a pattern for the priesthood of jesus but of course in verse 19 when the author speaks about that inner place behind the curtain where jesus went he's not talking about a man-made temple he's talking about how jesus entered heaven itself right and then he connects jesus with melchizedek further in the latter part of verse 20 saying having become a priest forever after the order of melchizedek now we're going to keep reading chapter 7. you ready for this melchizedek king of salem priest of the most high god met abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him we just read that in genesis chapter 14. and to him abraham apportioned or gave a tenth part of everything again we're reminded that abraham gave melchizedek a tithe and the word tithe means tenth a tenth of everything now look what he goes on to say we're still in verse two he is first by translation of his name king of righteousness and what that he's saying there is the name melchizedek means king of righteousness do you know what do you know what the writer of hebrews doing here he's explaining to you what the order of melchizedek is okay just so you know we we asked the question what's the order of melchizedek god says you're a priest forever after the order of melchizedek the writer of hebrews is telling us now he's explaining what it is first of all he says melchizedek's name means king of righteousness then he goes on to say and then he is also king of salem that is king of peace so you see melchizedek was a king not just a priest but he was a king and he was the king of salem which was a city and salem means peace okay because i think you guys probably know that salem in hebrew is shalom peace okay so salem was one of the ancient cities back then that that that existed during the time of abraham and we know it as yerushalam or jerusalem so the same city all right so you can already see the connections that the author is making can't you between jesus and melchizedek even his name his name means king of righteousness and he was the king of peace and he was a king and a priest connecting jesus and melchizedek but there's more speaking again of melchizedek verse 3 he is without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life but resembling the son of god he continues a priest forever now i got to stop you right there at that verse because this is the one where people get messed up this is where they get off track this is where the train kind of goes and jumps the track because what they do is they read here and they say okay he's without father mother he has neither beginning of days nor end of life and they think well it was eternal that's what they think it says and so they say well that's clear then you see melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of jesus but that's not what the writer of hebrews is saying and frankly they're missing the point the author is saying we have no record of the parentage of melchizedek we don't know who his parents were we don't have a record of his birth we don't have a record of his death so in so understanding or having no records he it's just it's there's no end there's no beginning and there's no end to our understanding of the man he's not saying he didn't have a beginning he's not saying he didn't have an end he was a man who was born he was a man who died we just don't know when and we don't have any record of we don't know whose parents were the point of what he's making is that the fact that we have no records shows us that melchizedek was a foreshadowing of the eternal son of god jesus christ he is a picture of jesus christ and that's why in verse 3 it says resembling the son of god now i'll tell you that the literal translation here of the hebrew in verse 3 is made like the son of god made like the son of god which is why the esv translators i believe correctly put the word resembling there he's not the son of god he resembles the son of god in the sense that he is a king of righteousness he is the king of peace he he appears to be eternal he you know in the sense that we don't have any genealogy for the man and so forth he resembles he's a picture he's a foreshadowing that's why god said through david you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek in the picture of in the same way now he goes on in verse 4. see how great this man was to whom abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils and what he's going to do now is give us a little lesson on tithing and you should know first of all the way tithing worked for the nation of israel is that all of the tribes were to tithe and bring their tithe into what they call the storehouse so that the levites could be supported you you'll remember if you go to the book of joshua that the levites didn't get any land they weren't given any land when when they apportioned the land in israel the levites got none because they were to serve the lord god was their portion but he he the lord through moses told the israelites you take care of the levites by bringing in the tithe your crops your animals you tithe right to the levites and in so doing you take care of them so they can take care of my work so they can do the work that i've called them to do all right so now you understand that basic premise keep on reading verse five and those descendants of levi who received the priestly office and he's talking about the the descendants of aaron have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people it was commanded god commanded it that is from their brothers though these also are descended from abraham but this man and now he's talking about melchizedek who does not have his dissent from them he's not a jew at all received tithes from abraham and blessed him who had the promises all right stuff there so he's making the point here that melchizedek got a tithe from abraham right even though as a priest he predated the law and this command to take care of the priests hadn't even been given yet but yet abraham gave melchizedek a tenth of everything showing melchizedek to be great greater than all so melchizedek predates the law and the giving of these gifts predates the law and he's building up to appoint you guys okay let me stop remember and don't ever forget when you're reading the book of hebrews the letter is written to people who are returning under the law god got to understand that the letter is being written to people who are returning to the law so you can see what's going on here he's telling them that jesus's ministry and priesthood was patterned after melchizedek who we see in the scripture predates the law transcends the law and is greater than even abraham because right okay so let's let's keep going because he's the one who blessed abraham so here's here here's why he's saying all this verse 7. it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior in the one case tithes were received by mortal men but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives one might even say that levi himself who receives tithes paid tithes through abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when melchizedek met him so in other words the levites who were to receive tithes from the jews the rest of the jews actually gave tithes to melchizedek even though they weren't born yet because they descended from abraham so he's just again arguing about the greatness of melchizedek and and and of course that being a picture of the surpassing greatness of jesus christ our our messiah and high priest in whom we hope and the reason he's making this argument is to prove that jesus has an enduring priesthood unlike the high priests under the law okay so here's one of his most important statements verse 11. now if perfection had been attainable through the levitical priesthood for under it the people received the law what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of melchizedek rather than one named after the order of aaron in other words he's saying hey listen if the levitical and arionic priesthood got the job done perfectly why would god speak prophetically through david about another priest that was to arise after the order or in the pattern of melchizedek why i mean if if the priesthood that existed under the law was was all that why would there be need for another priesthood to arise why again it's talking to jews who are being tempted to go back under the law do you understand he's saying to them that the priesthood the whole mosaic law that you're now wanting to go back under god told you a thousand years before the birth of christ that he was going to raise up a new priesthood that would supersede the old you want to go back to the old jesus is the new the better right and then i think he makes one of the most important conclusions in this whole chapter and arguably in this entire letter in verse 12 so if this isn't underlined in your bible you might consider it or highlight it for when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well now guys that verse might you might just it might not grab hold of you at first read but let me tell you something oh if we'd pay attention to this verse and meditate on it and think about what it means oh goodness we could save ourselves so much grief if this single verse here verse 12 we're given the attention it deserves groups like the seventh-day adventists never would have come to the light of day this verse is so important because it says when there is a change in the priesthood and there's a change in the priesthood you guys jesus under a different order there must be of necessity a change in the law there must of necessity be a change in the law that's what he's saying so that means for you and i we should expect a change in the role that the law plays in our life why look at verse 13. for the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe he's talking about jesus now for which no one has ever served at the altar for it is evident that our lord was descended from judah and in connection with that tribe moses said nothing about priests we've talked about this before if somebody from the tribe of judah said i want to grow up and be a high priest you'd say you have to say to him you can't only people from the tribe of levi and the branch of that tribe that came from from aaron can be high priests you can't i'm sorry son you got to be something else so god never said anything about anyone from judah being a high priest what tribe has jesus descended from his first earthly lineage the tribe of judah he's right he's the lion of the tribe of judah so we got a new order going on here it's like wait a minute he can't be a priest we know the order it's in the law you got to be from the tribe of levite well no wait a second we've got a new order going on here it's a different order it's a different pattern it's the pattern of melchizedek right verse 15. this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of melchizedek who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily dissent which we read about in the law but by the power of an indestructible life for it is witnessed of him jesus you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek not after the order of aaron as was commanded in the law you guys getting this this is good stuff but you know what this is that meat he was concerned that these guys were going to choke on earlier when he started talking about you guys are kind of babies and you still need a bottle but now he's giving him the meat he's getting into it and he's this is this is you know yeah you got to chew this up verse 18. for on the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness and he says parenthetically for the law made nothing perfect but on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to god and it was not without an oath all right now we're going to come back talk about god making oaths he's going to mention again now the oath of psalm 110 let me remind you we've still got it up on the screen psalm 110 the lord has sworn and that's an oath so we're going to come back to oaths now we talked about the oath he made abraham now we're talking about the oath he made to jesus you are a priest forever all right it was not without an oath he says verse 20 for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath did you know that the ironic priests were made priests without an oath god never said an oath but this one speaking of jesus was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him the lord is sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever and now here's the conclusion verse 22 you ready here this is it guys this makes jesus the guarantor of a better covenant this is what you would say to people who are going back under the law he's saying the mosaic law the covenant that israel had through the mosaic law was okay but this one's way better this one's better don't go back under the inferior this covenant is better and jesus is the guarantor of this better covenant verse 23 the former priests and now he's talking about the aryanic priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office in other words they're saying there had to be a lot of them because after a while they'd croak and then somebody else would have to take their place so there had to be a lot of them they had to they better have a son or two or three or four because they're going to have to take up after dad after he you know verse 24 but he now we're talking about jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever consequently he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to god through him since he always lives to make intercession for them and i love that verse there is no end to the intercession of jesus and that's what a priest does remember that's the role of the priest is to go before god on behalf of the people that's what a priest does guys if you're married you're the priest of your home and it's your job to go before god on behalf of your family it's your job whether you know it or do it it's your job you are to go before your before god for your family it's a job of a priest so he says jesus is able to continually fulfill this ministry of intercession because he continues verse 26. we'll read through the end of the chapter for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest holy innocent unstained separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens he has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all great words when he offered up himself for the law appoints men in their weakness as high priest but the word of the oath psalm 110 which came later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever so there you've got the teaching on melchizedek it's it's pretty crazy it really is it's pretty but it's and it's deep from the standpoint of all of the ins and outs and the meanings and the pictures and the foreshadowings and and all the things that are meant to get you and me to focus on jesus christ his ministry what he came to do and why his ministry is different and why the mosaic law doesn't fit with the new covenant so stop trying to squeeze it in there like sabbath keeping and food laws and feast observances and special days and months and years and all the other crazy things that we think we got to cram in there to try to be a little more biblical jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant what is that covenant he who believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live we are saved by grace through faith and this not of ourselves it is the gift of god lest any man should boast amen you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Length: 38min 21sec (2301 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021