Jesus: Our Better & Final Savior (Hebrews 7:1-28)

But this week, we're going to be continuing our study of the book of Hebrews by bringing our attention to somebody that we've kind of hinted around about for a little while now.

This Melchizedek. Now, up to this point, Melchizedek has been mentioned, and it seems like the author was getting ready to say something about him, but then he paused himself.

He paused himself and says, look, we've got to just kind of do a reset here.

Some of you, you're not able to hear what I'm about to tell you about Melchizedek because you've become dull of hearing.

And so he begins to kind of introduce this Melchizedek in several places, but primarily he begins this process back in chapter 5.

And so back in chapter 5, we see this Melchizedek being introduced in verse, let's just start reading in verse 5 of chapter 5.

It says, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

As he also says in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

And then he goes on to say a few more things about this, and then in verse 10 there he says, being designated by God a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

And so you hear this name over and over again, and it's kind of interesting that he keeps introducing him and trying to get this started.

But then he says, look, at this point the author takes a break from it, and he actually kind of gets on to the readers a little bit.

He scolds them a little bit, and he tells them that about this there's a lot that I have to say, but I can't say right now because you have become dull of hearing.

Or probably my favorite translation of that verse is he tells them that they have become too lazy to understand.

Now, however, the author is ready to dig deeper into this now.

He's ready to say, you know what, we've been introducing Melchizedek, now let's just jump right into the deep end and talk about who this Melchizedek was.

Now I believe that as we look at chapter 7 as a whole, that I believe the main idea of this text is that Jesus is our high priest and king,

and because of this he is able to save.

Jesus is our high priest, he's our king, and because of this he is able to save.

And the point that I want us to clearly see today as we work our way through this text

is that Jesus is the only one with the authority to save.

And our only hope in this life and the life to come is by placing our faith and our trust in him.

This is the hope that we are going to be diving into today.

And so before we can truly understand the point the author is trying to make about who Jesus is

and what this means for us, we must first get some background information about this Melchizedek.

So to begin with, I want us to quickly answer a question.

And the question that I want us to answer as we begin this is very simply, who is Melchizedek?

Who is this Melchizedek?

And so we're going to look at the first 10 verses to begin with.

And so if you will follow along as I read Hebrews chapter 7, verses 1 through 10, it says this.

Hebrews 7:1–10

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God,

met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.

And to him, Abraham apportioned a 10th part of everything.

He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness.

And he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

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.

See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a 10th of the spoils.

And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law

to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers,

though these also are descended from Abraham.

But this man, who does not have his descent from them, received tithes from Abraham

and blessed him who had the promises.

It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

In the one case, tithes are received by mortal men,

but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham,

for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

And so as we look at this, we're beginning to see a little bit more of who Melchizedek is.

Now this passage right here is really key for us understanding this,

because outside of this, there are very few passages that shed light on Melchizedek,

especially outside of Hebrews.

Outside of Hebrews, there are just a couple of places that we'll find in Scripture

where Melchizedek is mentioned or at least talked about.

You have Genesis 14, which is pretty much giving you much of the same information

that you see right here in Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

And then you also have Psalm 110 that says what Hebrews continues to say over and over again,

that this Melchizedek is a high priest forever.

Now in this passage, there are a few things that we really need to understand

to better make this connection between Jesus and Melchizedek.

Just in the first three verses here, there's a few things that we're able to see

about who Melchizedek was.

First of all, it says that he was a king.

It says for this Melchizedek, king of Salem.

Now Salem is a Hebrew word here that means peace.

It tells us that again in verse 2 right there that he is a king of peace.

And so we see that this king is king of Salem.

He's king of peace.

But it also tells us what his name Melchizedek means.

It means this righteousness.

He's a king of righteousness.

And so right out of the gates, we're able to see that this Melchizedek is king of Salem.

And many people believe that Salem would go on to become Jerusalem.

And so this king of Jerusalem, this king of peace and this king of righteousness is who Melchizedek was.

But we're also told right here something that's a little unique to him.

That he's not only a king, but he's also a priest.

Now essentially in the Old Testament, you had two priesthoods.

You had the Levitical priesthood that we generally think of when we think of the priest in the Old Testament.

The Levitical priesthood that was there when they conquered the promised land.

The Levites were not given a portion of the land like the other tribes.

Instead, their job was to work in the temple, handling all the details and the logistics of temple life.

And a subset of the Levites, those who were descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, could become priest.

And so you have this Levitical priesthood.

But our passage introduces another priesthood that's not nearly as well defined throughout the Old Testament.

And it is a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek.

The author's making the case that this order is greater than the Levitical order.

This priesthood is greater than the Levitical priesthood.

And so why would he even bother to do that?

Because he's about to introduce to us this idea that Jesus is a better high priest.

Because Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And so we begin to see this.

But also, I want us to quickly see right here that he was appointed.

He's a priestly king who was appointed.

Verse 3 tells us he was 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.

So what does this mean?

Does this mean that he's eternal?

Is this a Christophomy?

Is this an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament here?

This doesn't seem to be the case.

It seems that he was a real human and that he had a real father and mother.

But the way that he's presented in Jesus makes it seem like he just pops in and he pops right back out.

He's there and he's gone.

He appears for a moment and then he is gone.

He shows up out of nowhere and then disappears.

It seems a little mysterious here.

We're not told about his parents so it seems like he's eternal.

And so what the author is trying to communicate is the great king and priest, the king of righteousness and priest,

the priest who is a priest forever, is greater than Abraham and thus he is greater than the Levitical priesthood.

But he's not just doing this for the fun of it.

He's not just trying to build this idea of who Melchizedek is just for the fun of it.

He's doing it to point to Christ.

And so the next truth that I want us to see in this passage is that Jesus is our priestly king.

Jesus is our priestly king.

I want you to look at verses 11 through 19 with me here in Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

It says,

It says,

It says,

Now this is one of those moments when I realized that we could spend a lot of time in this passage just looking at this.

But in this section we clearly see that Jesus is perfect.

We clearly see that he is sufficient.

We clearly see he's a priestly king who has made the perfect sacrifice and the final atonement for his people.

We see that his priesthood is perfect.

We see that his priesthood is royal.

And we see that his priesthood is eternal.

Something that we continue to come back to over and over again in this.

And so I want us to think about that last truth for just a moment.

That his priesthood is eternal.

Look at verses 15 and 16 again right there.

Let's look at it a little more closely.

Do you know what?

Do you know what?

Do you know what indestructible means?

Isn't it a trick question?

I mean, it just means that something can't be destroyed, right?

It just simply means that it's something that can't be destroyed.

Now, I don't know if you were like me, but I can remember when Nalgene bottles really first started making an appearance.

I got those.

I mean, everybody had a Nalgene bottle.

And what everybody was saying about these bottles was you can't break them.

They were making all kinds of crazy claims about it.

And they're saying you could run over them with a car.

You can slam them down.

You can do all of these things.

And they're indestructible.

And they're indestructible.

Well, when I hear that, I kind of want to put it to the test.

I kind of want to see how indestructible this is.

And so the first thing I did, filled it up with ice water, went up on a balcony, threw it off of the balcony onto a parking lot, and it cracked and busted immediately.

Water went everywhere.

And I'm like, okay, well, that didn't work.

That wasn't what I was expecting.

And so when we say that something's indestructible, we're not talking about that.

We're not talking about something being tough or difficult to break, but a life that is impossible to destroy.

A life that is impossible to destroy.

A life that is beautifully and powerfully described in Acts chapter 2 when Peter is preaching at Pentecost and says,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Now, at this point, he doesn't seem indestructible.

At this point, Peter's just said that Jesus died.

And if this is where the story ends, well, then that's where the Bible ends.

If this is where the story ends, then why are we even here today?

But that's not where the story ends.

So let's keep reading there.

He was crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

But God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

That is an indestructible life.

That is our hope.

That is what we build our lives on.

This is everything.

That's an indestructible life.

Jesus holds a priesthood that is truly forever.

This truth is life-changing and life-giving for us today.

It means that Jesus' victory over death, hell, and the grave is final and it is eternal.

Which means that the same power that conquered the grave is the same power that saves us today.

The same power that raised Jesus from the grave is the same power that holds us today,

that gives us hope, that gives us meaning.

And so meaning that because it is not possible for death to have the final say over Jesus,

this means that for those of us who are in Christ,

it is not possible for death to have the final say over us either.

This is the hope that we build our lives on.

This is the hope that the Bible says if this isn't true, then it's all for nothing.

This is everything.

And so the fact that Jesus holds this priesthood forever, eternal,

is life-changing and life-giving to us today.

It is also what helps us to see one final truth

that I want to spend the remainder of our time thinking about today.

All of this is pointing to the truth that Jesus is a better Savior.

All of this is coming together in the fact that Jesus is a better Savior.

We've seen it through the order of Melchizedek,

that Melchizedek is a better priesthood,

a higher priesthood than the Levitical priesthood,

because he's a priest and he's a king,

and because he was appointed and he holds this forever.

We see it through that.

We see it that all of this is pointing to Jesus,

that all of those things that were said about Melchizedek are perfected in Jesus,

and now is coming to this final point that I want us to wrap our minds around this morning,

that Jesus is a better Savior.

I want you to look at verses 20 through 28 with me.

It says this,

And it was not without an oath,

for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him,

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,

you are a priest forever.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him,

since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have a high priest,

holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners,

and exalted above the heavens.

He has no need, like those high priests,

who offer sacrifices daily,

first for his own sins and then for those of the people,

since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests,

but the word of the oath, which came later than the law,

appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

You see, up to this point, you may be thinking,

Brett, this is great and all.

I'm glad you're sharing this Melchizedek with us.

The early readers probably would have been really impressed by this

because, you know, there wasn't much to say about them,

but now you're making it clear to them,

but what in the world does it have to do with us today?

I've never even thought about Melchizedek.

I've never even come across it in my mind.

I wouldn't even know how to pronounce it on the page right here.

And you may be thinking, what's the point of all of this?

The fact that Melchizedek was better than the Levitical priesthood,

but what difference does it make to me today

that Jesus is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek?

Well, first, it shows us that we have a better and final Savior.

We have a better and final Savior.

There are so many things that we could focus on in this passage,

but there's three things that I want to really just bring our attention to

that are laid out for us in these last few verses.

All this talk about Melchizedek and Jesus helps us to see

that Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant.

It allows us to see that He is able to save to the uttermost

those who draw near to Him, draw near to God through Him.

It allows us to understand that He always lives to make intercession for us.

And so as we think about that, the first thing that I want us to see

about Jesus being a better Savior

is that we clearly see Jesus as the guarantor of a better covenant.

Jesus as the guarantor.

If you remember from last week,

one of the major themes that we talked about

was the surety of God's Word.

We talked about how when God makes a promise,

when God says something, it's true.

That it doesn't matter what He says,

if God speaks it, it's true.

And so sometimes if the author is saying,

hey, God made an oath with this, He swore by this,

then what it's really emphasizing

is the fact that we have a God who speaks,

and when He speaks, He speaks truth.

And so right here in this passage,

He speaks this truth,

and it tells us of this oath that He is making.

The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind.

You are a priest forever.

You see, all of God's promises in the new covenant

are guaranteed by Jesus Himself.

He guarantees to pay all the debts

that our sins have incurred

or will ever incur against us.

And so what this passage is reminding us of

is that God's covenant promise cannot fail

because God's priest, Jesus, cannot fail.

All of these promises cannot fail

because Jesus can't fail.

He's the guarantor of this better covenant.

A guarantor, you see,

is someone who gives a guarantee

to be responsible for someone else's debt.

Jesus has guaranteed His life, death, and resurrection

to be responsible for our debts.

All too often, we think,

Lord, if I could just be good enough.

We try to gain confidence before God

by saying, Lord, maybe if I come to church enough,

maybe, I know, I'll give 11% to the church.

And then maybe that will, you know,

kind of make up for some of these other things.

You know, I'll try to be there

every time the church doors are open.

I'll try to do this, and I'll try to do this.

And we spend so much of our time

trying to gain confidence before God

based on our own works

that we miss the point of this.

And so maybe today you need to stop

trying to be responsible for the debt

that you can't pay

and give it over to Jesus,

the guarantor of a better covenant.

But it also tells us here

that Jesus is better

because He is able to save

to the uttermost

those who draw near to God through Him.

In other words,

Jesus is able to save

to the uttermost.

He's able to save

those wretched sinners

who are spending life in prison

for crimes that we wouldn't even dare

to speak about in church

or from the pulpit.

And He's able to save

those wretched sinners

who spent their life going to church,

who spent their life

looking good on the outside,

who gave their life

to being good on the outside,

that they look good,

they look the part,

they look all these things,

that on the outside,

everybody said,

they've got it together.

And so Jesus is able to save

those who are spending life in prison

and those who are sitting in churches today

who've put their hope in themselves.

He's able to save to the uttermost.

He's able to save

in the greatest possible way.

He's able to...

So who does Jesus save to the uttermost?

It tells us those who draw near to God

through Him.

Spurgeon, reflecting on this verse,

said, he says,

Where do these people come?

They come to God,

which implies leaving something else.

If a man comes to God,

he must leave his sins

and his righteousness.

He must leave both his bad works

and his good ones.

How do they come?

They come by Jesus Christ.

Do not consider

that any will be heard

and saved by God

apart from the merits

of his Son.

This is why God is able

to save to the uttermost.

This is why God is able

to save anyone that comes to Him.

Because in coming to Him,

you're saying that there is nothing

that you can do to save yourself.

This is how Jesus is able

to save to the uttermost.

Because He realizes

that His life

is the only one

that can pay for yours.

His life is the only one

that is perfect.

His life is the only one

that is good enough.

And because of that,

by placing our faith

and our trust in Him,

by drawing near to God

through Him,

He is able to save us

wherever we are today.

But also finally,

as we think about Jesus

as a better Savior,

there is a powerful

and comforting truth

in this passage.

And that is that

He always lives

to make intercession.

He always lives

to make intercession.

Sometimes we get

a wrong picture

of what it means

for Jesus to be

interceding for us.

If you're like me,

then you probably

sometimes feel like

Jesus and God

must be getting

fed up with you.

If you're like me,

you probably feel like,

you know what?

I've sinned again.

You know,

I keep going back to God

saying, Lord,

I keep doing this.

And if you're like me,

then it's really easy

in your mind

to just think

God's getting fed up

with you.

That Jesus being

an intercessor for us

is like,

God, I've looked.

I know He's done it again.

But look,

just give Him

one more shot.

Give Him one more shot

and let's see how.

And before He has

that sentence out of His mouth,

I've done messed up again.

And so finally,

after the thousandth time

of messing up

and falling short,

God finally says,

that's it.

Enough is enough.

But this passage

lets us know

that this will never happen.

man.

This passage

lets us know

that He lives forever

to make intercession for us.

That there's never going

to come an end to that.

One of my favorite,

if not favorite authors

is Jerry Bridges.

And in one of his books,

he was reflecting on this idea

that this justice

has been satisfied.

And he wrote this.

And I've mentioned this

a time or two before

a while back.

But it's a chapter

in the book

that I continue

to go back to sometimes.

And it continues

to be helpful for me.

So I pray that it's helpful

for you as well.

But he wrote this.

He says,

Now this is where Christians

oftentimes find themselves.

Where a lot of times

we get fed up with ourselves

and we fed up with our decisions

and we fed up with our sin

and so frustrated

by our actions

that we think God

is about to just get fed up

with us

and be done with us forever.

But Bridges went on to say,

he says,

Immediately,

on the hill of those words

though came this thought,

No, you wouldn't.

Because Jesus satisfied

your justice for me.

You see,

if you are a follower of Christ,

if you've placed your faith

and your trust in Jesus,

you can never say

that God would be perfectly just

in sending you to hell

because of Jesus.

It is a very accurate statement

that apart from Jesus,

we are all perfectly

on a path to hell.

That God would be perfectly just

in sending us to hell

apart from Jesus.

But because of Jesus,

that truth changes.

Because of that truth,

our eternity changes.

This is the beauty of the gospel

that we need to be reminded of

every day.

That there is nothing we can do

to make God love us anymore.

Nothing that we have done

to make Him love us any less.

This is a truth

that we can hold on to

because of what Jesus accomplished

on the cross.

It was perfect.

It was complete.

It was finished.

It was finished.

And so instead of Jesus

standing before God

shaking His hand,

His head with His arms

telling us,

God, I don't know what to do with Him.

We must picture Jesus

standing before God

holding up His finished work

on the cross

and saying,

He's mine.

That's mine.

That one belongs to me.

That one's bought and paid for.

And then exhaustible love

and mercy

bought and paid for

by Christ Himself.

Look at verse 26.

It says,

For it was indeed fitting

that we should have

such a high priest,

holy,

innocent,

unstained,

separated from sinners,

and exalted above the heavens.

That sounds like

a better high priest to me.

And He says,

He has no need

like the other priests

who offer sacrifices daily

first for His own sins

and then also

for those of the people

since He did this

once and for all

when He offered up Himself.

This is a better high priest.

You know,

it's not often

that I try to go through

28 verses of Scripture

in a Sunday.

It's not often

that we'll try to take that much

and actually

this is one of those passages

that probably could have taken

three or four weeks

easily to cover that.

There's enough depth,

there's enough theological truth

to go into this

in a much deeper manner.

But the reason I wanted us

to look at the entire chapter

in one week

was because I hope

that it's able to point us

to seeing Jesus

more clearly.

Melchizedek is a fascinating

person in the Bible

and it would benefit

all of us

to spend more time

thinking about Him.

It would benefit

all of us

to start thinking

about the theological truths

of what it means

for Him to be

a high priest

and a king

and to be appointed

that have no beginning

or end.

It would benefit

all of us

to spend more time

thinking about

His connection

to and foreshadowing

of Jesus.

The fact that He was

a priestly king,

the fact that He was

appointed,

all of those things.

But ultimately,

I believe the author

is using all of this

to help us

see Jesus

more clearly.

I believe what the author

is trying to do

is trying to open up

our minds

to see Jesus

for who He truly is.

To wrap our minds

around the goodness

and the greatness

of who Christ is.

That yes,

He is a king.

He's a king of righteousness.

He's a king of peace.

He is a high priest

who is able

to make perfect

on the sacrifice

with His own life.

He's a high priest forever.

He constantly lives

to make intercession

for us.

He's trying to do

all of that

to help us

to see

that Jesus

is a better Savior.

He's the only Savior.

He's better than anything

and everything

in this world

and He's worth

giving our lives to.

A hope that clearly

points to Jesus

as the guarantor

of a better covenant.

A hope that shows us

Jesus and Jesus alone

can save to the other most

those who come to Him.

A hope that gives us

the wonderful assurance

that we have a Savior

who never ceases

to make intercession

for us.

And so today

it is my hope and prayer

that we see Jesus

as the only one

with authority

to save.

And our only hope

in this life

and the life to come

is by placing

our faith

and our trust in Him.

Some of us here today

just need to be reminded

that Jesus saves

in the greatest way possible.

And that as a child

of the King

He never looks at you

with disgust

or disappointment

but He looks

at you

as His child.

Let that be

what drives you

to live for Him

to serve Him

to be obedient to Him

possibly by changing

the way

that you interact

with those

who are closest to you.

Maybe by the way

that you use

the resources

that God has blessed you with

maybe by serving Him

in a different capacity

whether that means

changing a vocation

and going into the ministry

maybe that means

deciding and praying

about where God

wants to lead you

and your family

to serve Him.

Maybe it means

being obedient to Him

by joining this church.

Maybe it means

being obedient to Him

by following through

with believers' baptism.

That's been a prayer

of mine

over the last little while

and over the last

three weeks

in the 11 o'clock service

we've gotten to see

five baptisms

and two more

that are going to take place

next Sunday.

Many of those

or about half of those

are children

half of those

are adults

who at one point

in their life

were baptized

but they realized

that at that moment

in their life

they didn't realize

what they were doing

they were being baptized

because their friends

were because they felt

pressure to.

But now that they've

given their life

to Jesus

they want to follow

through with that baptism.

Hopefully this passage

as we see Jesus

more clearly

it causes us

to have more faith

and trust in Him

to serve Him

in greater ways.

But others in here

may need to see

and believe Jesus

for the first time.

And so I want to ask you

are you ready to come

to the Father

through faith in Christ?

Are you ready

to give your life

to Jesus?

Are you ready

to follow Him?

Are you ready to say

Lord there is no hope

on my own

I'm placing my faith

and my trust in You

because You

and You alone

can save.

Father thank You

so very much

for this passage

Lord a passage

that causes us

to jump into

some deep waters

to think more clearly

about who You are

and so Lord I pray

that You have

helped us

to see You

more clearly.

Lord that we

wouldn't become

too lazy

to understand

these truths

that are in Your Word

but Lord that we

would take the time

that we would dive

into Your Word

to see You

more clearly

for who You are.

and so Lord I pray

that as we see You

more clearly

that You would give us

the boldness

to live for You.

Help us to see You

clearly

so that we can live

for You in greater ways

whether that's changing

how we interact

with our families

by changing

how we devote

our time

and our resources

to things

maybe by changing

where we live

or what we do

or how we use

the resources

that You've given

to us.

Lord give us

a bold faith

to live for You

to serve You

with everything

that we have

and Lord I pray

that if there's

someone here today

that has never

given their life

to You

that's never

placed their faith

and their trust

in You

that You would

help them

to see You

more clearly

so that they can

realize

that You

and You alone

have the power

to save.

Lord thank You

for this passage

thank You

for what it teaches

us about You

and help us

to live for You

in greater ways.

We ask all this

in Jesus name

Amen.

I want to invite you

to stand

we're going to sing

a song of invitation

and if God is speaking

I want you to respond

as we stand together

and sing.