The Priest King

Well, guys, if you are just joining us, if you're new, we are in a series that we'll be in for I'm not really sure how long, I think most of the year, called Getting to Know God.

Getting to Know God.

The idea behind this is pretty simple.

No matter what your goals are for this year, or even your bigger goals in life, maybe it's beyond just one year, if you were to accomplish everything that you desire to accomplish in your career, in your family life, uh, whatever it might be, but you were not closer to God, it would be a tragedy.

And Jesus put it this way: what good is it to gain the world but lose your soul?

There is nothing, there is nothing more important than knowing God.

And we can know him, we can have a relationship with him.

He's made that possible.

Jesus has made that possible by coming to this earth, living life as one of us, so that we can understand him, and frankly, he could understand us, and we have the ability to know God.

But just like anyone, he takes some time to get to know.

It's a process, right?

When you meet somebody, you have to you have to get to know them, and that takes time, and and there's a lot of experiences that have to happen before you can say, I really know that person.

Well, the same is true with God, but probably on a much bigger level, because he's, you know, bigger than us.

We need to get to know him.

And we're taking a really interesting approach in this process of getting to know God bit by bit this year better than we ever have before.

We're studying the life of a man in the Bible named Abram, or he's he's gonna later be named Abraham.

He gets his name changed, and he is really known as the father of the Jewish people.

He's the father of the nation of Israel, which is the nation that God's gonna use throughout the Old Testament, ultimately to bring his son Jesus into the world through.

God uses Israel to show the world who he is.

Abram is the father of the nation of Israel.

He, in many ways, is kind of the father of faith.

He's always associated with being a man of faith, and we're challenged in Scripture to have faith like Abraham.

But Abraham's life is a very interesting life in which he gets to know God better and better through a ton of experiences and oftentimes a ton of failure.

When God first calls Abram to follow him, he believes in God, he knows who God is by maybe reputation.

There's belief and faith in God's existence, but he does not have an intimate, close relationship with God.

That is something that God develops with him over time, and God wants to do the same thing for all of us.

And so we're using Abram's life as a case study in many ways for what it looks like to get to know God.

And through Abram's life, we're gonna know God better.

And we're gonna go through that bit by bit.

If you are new to his hands, by the way, the way we typically do things on Sunday is that we want to go through Scripture.

Sometimes it's entire books of the Bible or sections of Scripture that we just want to go through verse by verse, and that's what we're doing right now.

And today, in our continuing study of Abram's life, as we get to know God, we're gonna meet who might be the most mysterious character in the entirety of Scripture.

The most mysterious person that we meet in the entirety of Scripture, and it's kind of a blink of an eye encounter.

I'm gonna go ahead and read it, and then we're gonna spend some time discussing this, and I'm just gonna tell you guys in advance.

This, we're gonna have to nerd out pretty hard today.

All right, this is some deep stuff.

I'm serious.

This is some of the, this man that we're gonna meet has inspired some of the deepest theological discussion and contemplation as much as maybe anyone in Scripture.

It's very, very interesting.

So uh, if you're someone who's followed Jesus for a long time, here we go.

Like, let's go, let's learn something we didn't know.

But listen, even if you're new, if you are brand new to faith or you're even just considering this whole Jesus thing, I believe in my heart that God has created you with a capacity to know him more than you might understand.

And sometimes in church, there's this temptation where when you look at the deep things of God, you say, Oh, well, man, let's skip that.

Let's let's water that down because we don't want it to be over the heads of the people who are newer, and we don't want to no.

I don't believe that that's necessary at all.

I believe that we can go through the deepest, most meaningful, even challenging things in God's Word as a group of very, very diverse people from different backgrounds and different stages in our relationship with God.

And I believe the Holy Spirit is powerful enough and active enough to give each of us what we need.

So even if you're new to your faith, you're gonna learn something today, and it's gonna be awesome.

All right, so let's go ahead and read this.

Genesis chapter 14, verses 17 through 24.

Genesis 14:17–24

After Abram returned from his victory over that guy whose name I will not even try to pronounce, and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shave, that is the king's valley.

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and a priest of God most high, brought Abram some bread and wine.

Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has defeated your enemies for you.

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.

The king of Sodom said to Abram, give me back my people who were captured, but you may keep for yourself all the goods that you have recovered.

Abram replied to the king of Sodom, I solemnly swear to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you.

Otherwise, you might say, I'm the one who made Abram rich.

I will accept only what my young warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give a fair share of the goods to my allies, Ainer, Eskel, and Mamre.

So, a lot of things are going on here, just as a backtrack.

Abram has just come back from battle.

Uh there was this huge sort of uh war between a lot of different city-states.

At this time, there's really not nations.

That hasn't really happened yet historically.

You have these cities that kind of all operate as their own city-state.

There's this big battle between a bunch of them.

In that, uh, Lot's nephew, or sorry, Abram's nephew Lot was captured.

And Lot's kind of the worst.

Like he's he's kind of that family member that someone, I promise you, someone in Abram's family was like, good, let him, let that's a good thing.

We're done with Lot.

But uh, but Abram's like, no, no, no, I'm gonna do the right thing.

We talked last week about having the confidence, the faith to do what is right, even when it's hard.

Abram went, he's like, I gotta rescue Lot.

And so he goes and he takes some men that he has that are part of his household.

He has this giant, we say household.

There's over 300 trained soldiers that are part of Abram's household.

This is a giant group of people.

Um, and they go and they fight and they get Lot back, and and there we go.

The king of Sodom, and Sodom is where Lot lives.

Sodom is a place known for its wickedness, like extreme wickedness.

We're gonna see God deal with that later in the story.

The king of Sodom is like, Abram, here, let's let's let's work together.

I'll give you some of the stuff that you know you you recovered for me, and Abram's like, I don't want to have anything to do with you.

He's really wise.

Really wise.

Like, nope, let's just not have any ties whatsoever.

I don't want to have any relationship there.

Really good life lesson that if enriching yourself means compromising your values and partnering with people who are wicked, think about that, give it some some thought, maybe pray about that and learn from Abram that it's it's better to retain your character and your reputation than to enrich yourself by partnering with really evil people.

Okay?

So Abram says, No thanks to the king of Sodom, but then there's this other guy.

And we've never seen him before at this point in scripture, and we do not see him again.

This is all we get of him.

His name is Melchizedek, and that name translates king of righteousness.

And he shows up and he's got bread and he's got wine.

And for those of us that know the story of Jesus, like that's familiar.

Do I know another king of righteousness who offers bread and wine?

I do.

Uh he is the king of Salem, and this this is very possible, Jerusalem, right?

It hadn't been called Jerusalem yet.

It may have just been called Salem at the time.

It's that city-state.

Um, there's a lot of mystery about who this guy is.

We're gonna talk about that here in a minute, but he comes and he blesses Abram.

He blesses Abram and he blesses him in the name of God Most High.

So he is a priest, says he is a the high priest of God most high.

And then Abram responds by giving him a tenth of everything he has.

Think about this.

Abram is so wealthy, and most of his wealth is gonna be livestock.

This guy leaves this blessing with the longest line of cattle and sheep and you who knows what, like just following along.

A tenth of everything Abram has, he gives to Melchizedek.

And then that's it.

That's all we see of this guy.

He's gonna show up again, not in person, but just meant is mentioned in one of the psalms.

And then there's an entire chapter and a little bit more dedicated to him in the New Testament.

One of the most mysterious and interesting people that we see in all of Scripture, and he's just there and he's gone.

I've had some experiences in my life with people, not like Melchizedek, just uh maybe less mysterious and maybe just more weird.

Um, but I've had some experiences in life where I've met someone and I had a brief encounter with them, and I will never forget it.

I don't know if you've ever had something like that happen to you.

When I was in my early 20s, I was on an airplane and I was flying to visit Megan.

We were long distance for a while.

And I get on the airplane and look, I'm I'm an extrovert.

How many of you are extroverts?

Just out of curiosity, and you shouldn't mind raising your hand if you're an extrovert, okay?

Uh sorry I didn't give you a chance to talk, but you'll have to do that for now.

Uh like I'm an extrovert, but I'm not an extrovert at airports.

You know what I mean?

Like, when I'm on an airplane, even when I flew to visit my dad and back, there's part of me that's like, God, please, if you love me, let the seat next to me be empty.

Please.

You know, and it never is.

But I I don't even, I'm very intentional at airports.

Like, I want to give off, and on the airplane, I want to give off a vibe that says, I'm not interested in talking.

And that's really selfish.

I'm gonna own that.

Like, I'm usually flying and I'm tired and I talk to people all the time, and so you know, I have headphones and I'm reading something.

So I'm giving off that vibe.

But the guy next to me, who at the time I again I was in my early 20s, he was probably 30, early 30s, a little bit older than me.

I could tell after five seconds, he has very different ideas of what this flight is going to be.

And so I pretty much shut my book.

Here we go.

And and I'll never forget this.

He he looks at me and he says, Hey man, I'm so and so.

Tell me, who are you?

And I said, Well, my name's Justin.

He cuts me off.

It was rude.

And he goes, No, no, no, no, that's your name.

I want to know who you are.

And like I'm not in the mood for this on an airplane, okay?

I did not.

And I go, well, uh, okay.

Well, I I I work at uh a church, and he goes, No, no, no, no.

That's what you do.

I want to know who you are.

And that's about how the conversation went for the next two hours of me answering questions and then being told, not correct.

I got off the plane and Megan was like, How was your flight?

And I said, It was fine, but I don't know who I am.

Uh I'm having a little bit of a crisis of identity right now.

I've got some deep soul searching to do.

And to this day, I'm like, was that a real person?

Was that an actual human being?

Like, if you told me that that was an angel that was sent just to mess with me or teach me some lesson that I still haven't learned yet, uh, I don't know.

It was the most, it was the strangest experience.

I'll I'll never see that guy again.

I don't even, I'm not even sure if he was real, to be honest with you.

Like, if you say, if it was like a Twilight Zone episode, and they were like, there was no one sitting next to you, I'd be like, what?

Like it could have been, I would have believed it.

I would have been like, I'm nuts, I'm crazy, I made that up in my head.

There's this other time where I was at IKEA in in downtown Atlanta, and Megan was with me, and then she just said, Hey, hang here, I'm gonna go and check something out.

And I was like, cool.

So I'm in IKEA.

And this man walks up to me, older man, looked almost exactly like Morgan Freeman.

In fact, I am not a hundred percent sure it was not Morgan Freeman.

And he just walks up to me and goes, Hey, are you a pastor?

And I was like, Yes.

And then he gives me a hug, a very long, like, I mean, Megan comes back and she just sees me hugging Morgan Freeman.

And like, she goes, and I'm hugging, like, I don't I have no idea.

Guys, I think we hugged for five minutes.

And then he he he lets go and he says some things to encourage me, and he hands me a business card that just has his face on it and his name.

Never saw him again.

No contact information on the business card.

There's no like number I can call.

It's just this is, and again, I'm like, I'm glad Megan was there.

I'm glad she was there, I'm glad she saw it.

You can ask her, but you can ask her about this encounter, she will vouch for it.

It's like, what in the world was that?

You know, I've had these moments in life where just someone comes into the picture and then leaves, and you're just like, what just happened?

And Melchizedek is like that for Abram and for us reading the story of Scripture, where here's this guy, he just shows up and he blesses Abram, and Abram's like, I'm gonna give you one tenth of everything I own.

And the guy leaves with a tenth of everything Abram had, which would have been an unbelievable amount, because Abram was very, very wealthy, very successful, and then he just he's gone.

And he's called a high priest of God.

But this is long, if you know the story of Scripture, this is long before the nation of Israel is set up, and Moses sets up the sort of the priesthood through his brother Aaron and the and what will become the Levites, that tribe.

But he's the high priest and he knows, obviously knows God, recognizes that God is who has given Abram victory.

It's this very, very interesting story.

And it's led to a ton of speculation.

In fact, at the time of Jesus, and many of you may know this, maybe not, at the time of Jesus, there had been a 400-year period of silence from God.

There had not been a prophet, there hadn't been a, that's the way God used to operate in the Old Testament.

There hadn't been a prophet from God in 400 years.

No person had spoken on behalf of God directly.

And in that period of time, there were a lot of writings that were written by followers of God.

There were a lot of really interesting writings that became very important to the people of Israel.

And some of these we still have today, we call them the Apocrypha.

Very often, these are books that were not directly inspired in the same way that Scripture is, because it wasn't directly given through the Holy Spirit, but they were important books to the people of Israel by people who very much loved and feared God.

So they're valuable, but they're not on the same level as Scripture.

And so in those writings at that time, some of which we actually have, uh one is, for example, the book of Enoch, there's a lot of talk and discussion and speculation about some of the more mysterious characters in the Bible.

One of those, I just mentioned Enoch.

He's one of those guys that qualifies for that.

In uh Genesis chapter 5, we read about Enoch, and this is all you get of Enoch.

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

This is all you get of him in the Old Testament.

Uh really, when Jared was 162 years old, remember, by the way, we talked about this several weeks ago.

Quick little recap.

In the Old Testament, early on, people lived much longer than they live today.

Some people have a hard time believing that.

You read this and you're like, that's ridiculous.

What I will tell you is this.

I'm not going to go through all that I went through a few weeks ago.

Modern science very much believes that we we could hack the genetic code, so to speak, and with the right medications, the right supplements, we could greatly extend human life.

Modern science believes that fully.

And if scientists could hack the genetic code and change the lifespan of someone, I firmly believe that God can hack the genetic code and change the lifespan of someone.

And basically the story of Scripture is that we lived a long time, and you'd think, man, all the good we could do if we lived all these years, it was like the opposite.

We lived really, really long lives, and people just got more and more selfish and evil, and God's like, you know what?

They live too long.

So he changed it.

That's basically what happened.

All right?

So it says, when Jared was 162, he became the father of Enoch.

After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived another 800 years and he had other sons and daughters.

Jared lived 962 years, then he died.

When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah.

After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years and he had other sons and daughters.

Enoch lived 365 years, walking in close fellowship with God.

Then one day he disappeared because God took him.

That's it.

Enoch went for a walk, never came back.

And Methuselah's like, where's Dad?

He just God took him.

And that's all we get of Enoch.

And there's been a lot of speculation that Enoch never died.

That God, when it says God took him, it doesn't mean like in the metaphoric sense, like God takes us.

Like God's like, hey, come hang with me in heaven.

And he's like, great.

And so Enoch is this mysterious character, and at the time of Jesus, there were a lot of writings about Enoch.

Well, Melchizedek is like that.

At the time of Jesus, there was a lot of interest and talk about Melchizedek because he's this very mysterious character, and in the years where God wasn't speaking to prophets, the people were like, hey, what's up with that?

Who was that guy?

And there's just, he's a fascinating figure.

There's all kinds of interesting theories and thoughts about him.

And one of the biggest questions that the people had was, who was he?

Even today, there's a lot of speculation about who Melchizedek was.

You have one school of thought that just says he was just he was a man.

He was the king of Salem, and he happened to know God, and he was close to God, and he was actually a high priest.

God had picked him to represent him in a really special way.

And so, like Abram, he's a man who follows God, but obviously he's greater than Abram, because Abram is blessed by him, and then Abram gives him all his stuff.

So that's one school of thought.

There's another school of thought that he's divine.

This is actually something we see in the Bible.

It's in theological terms, it's called a Christophany, which is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus before, because remember, Jesus is God.

He is, he became a man, but he pre-existed that, right?

In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, the word was with God, John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

And so we have stories, for example, of like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, if you know this story.

They're these followers of God.

They live in Babylon.

They refuse to bow down and worship the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, so they get thrown in the fire as a punishment.

And then instead of dying, they're okay.

And the people looking at the fire go, Whoa, we threw three guys in, but there's a fourth in there, and he looks like a son of God.

And we would recognize that.

Most people would say without debate that that's Jesus hanging out in the fire with him, being like, What's up, guys?

Um, this is cool.

And it's just Jesus before becoming Jesus the man.

And some people will say that Melchizedek is a Christophany, an Old Testament appearance of Jesus, and that may be true.

That may be true.

It's not as crystal clear as that because there are some other things about Melchizedek that are very, very human.

I mean, he's a high priest, he's called the King of Salem, and technically that means king of peace.

So then again, you're like, oh man, king of righteousness is his name, king of peace is his title.

I mean, that seems like Jesus.

Um matter what, he is he's a type of Jesus.

And what I mean by that is there's this idea that even if it's not Jesus, it's a it's a figure that gives us a picture of who Jesus is and will be.

Some people actually believe that he is uh he's a man named Shem.

Shem was Noah's son, and he lived a very long time after the flood.

In fact, his life would have lined up with Abram's life, and he would have been much older than everyone else, because after the flood is when the lifespans really started to go down, and so he would have seemed like this really mysterious ancient person to everybody else, and he followed God.

We we don't know.

But no matter what, I would say that the most important thing is not who Melchizedek is, we just don't know.

We can have some cool thoughts about it, some it's in the category of interesting, but what's really vital is to understand who Melchizedek points us to and what Melchizedek teaches us about God.

Because that's why we're here, is to get to know God better.

And even though he's a blink of an eye, Morgan Freeman hug type character in the Bible, uh, he has so much to teach us about who God is and about specifically who Jesus is, so much so that he's going to inspire what may be one of the most deeply theologically interesting and powerful, layered ideas of Jesus' role in our lives, and the writer of the book of Hebrews, which may be the most, in my opinion, Hebrews is probably the deepest book in the New Testament as far as like theologically, hold on, for dear life, we're going places.

Uh a whole chapter of Hebrews is going to be devoted to Melchizedek.

So let's explore this a little bit, okay?

We're going to look at a lot of scripture, but I want to start with Psalm 110.

This is the only other place that Melchizedek really shows up in the Old Testament.

He's just mentioned.

Psalm 110 was written by David, who wrote many of the Psalms, and here's what it says in verse 1.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.

This is classically understood as a prophetic psalm about Jesus.

Jesus would actually quote this psalm.

In fact, this psalm is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament.

Jesus would quote this psalm to the Pharisees later and use it to sort of prove that he is the Messiah, because the Pharisees were taught correctly that the Messiah would be a son of David.

He would come from David's line.

But Jesus would let them know yes, that's true, but the Messiah is also greater than David, and he would use this psalm.

Because in this psalm, David says, The Lord, and in if you have a Bible, it's that's all capital, so it means Yahweh, God.

The Lord, all caps, said to my Lord.

Well, who is David's Lord?

David was the king.

There's no, like if you ask that question, who is David's Lord?

No one, I don't know.

Because it's not the Lord, because in this scripture, the Lord is saying to David's Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.

And then later on in that same same psalm, he says, the Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow.

And he says, This, you, and we have to ask the question, who's the you?

Well, it's not David, because at the very beginning it says, the Lord said to my Lord.

So God, the Father, is addressing David's Lord, and that's who this you is addressed to, and it says, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

You're a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Again, very deep idea, and we're about to dive in.

Are you guys okay?

Alright, cool.

So, Melchizedek shows up, blesses Abram, takes a tenth of the stuff, right?

High priest of God most high.

We don't hear about him except in this psalm where David says that God the Father, right, Yahweh, which is the name that God has in the Old Testament, he says to David's Lord, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Okay, what is that about?

So now we get to Hebrews.

And this is where this all comes together in a really big way.

I'm gonna read a lot.

So here we go.

This is awesome stuff, though.

And I really encourage you guys to take this, read it more on your own time, reflect on this, because God is so good, he is so cool.

Here's what we have Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God most high.

When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met and blessed him.

Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had, everything he had captured in battle, and gave it to Melchizedek.

And then the name Melchizedek means king of justice or king of righteousness, and king of Salem means king of peace.

There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors, no beginning or end to his life.

He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God.

Consider then how great this Melchizedek was.

Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in in battle.

Now the law of Moses requires that the priests who are descendants of Levi must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham.

But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham.

And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God.

And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed.

The priests who collect tithes are men who die.

So Melchizedek is greater than they are because we are told that he lives on.

In addition, we might even say that these Levites, the one who, the ones who collect the tithe, they paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abram paid a tithe to him.

For although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him.

So if the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood?

With a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron.

So let me pause there for a second and just kind of catch us up if you're new.

So the people of Israel had twelve tribes, and whenever they conquered the promised land, all of the tribes but one got land.

And the tribe that didn't get land was the tribe of Levi.

The Levites, instead of getting land, became priests.

And the people had to pay a tenth of everything they had to the Levites, and that is how the Levites made their living.

It's how they fed their families.

And this was something that was established by blood.

If you were not a Lev, you could not be a priest.

At least not a priest of the order of Levi.

And what's happening right here in Hebrews is, and we're going to look at this in a second, is the writer of Hebrews, who again we do not know who the writer of Hebrews is, one of the few New Testament chapters, or books rather, that we do not know the author of, but clearly inspired by God.

He has just made a claim that we're going to explore in a second.

We're kind of going in reverse order.

The writer of Hebrews has made a claim that Jesus is our high priest.

Now the Jewish people that he's writing to would have said, how?

How can he be?

He cannot, Jesus cannot be a high priest because he is not from the tribe of Levi.

Jesus was from the tribe of Judah.

So they're like, that's impossible.

He can't be the high priest.

But the writer of Hebrews says there is a different order of priests, a greater order of priests, that we have established before Levi even existed, before there were tribes of Israel at all.

We have a high priest named Melchizedek, and we see a psalm about someone that will be called a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

So he's using this to sort of explain to the Jewish people, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's a whole different priesthood that's on a whole different level than the priesthood of Levi.

Are we tracking?

Alright, cool.

So let's keep going.

I know this is, look, I don't get to pick what we talk about when we go through scripture, but this is this is heavy stuff.

Verse 12.

If the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it, for the priest we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members have never served at the altar as priests.

What I mean is this our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe.

This change has been made very clear since a different priest who is like Melchizedek has appeared.

Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.

And the psalmist pointed this out when he promised, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Yes, the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless.

For the law never made anything perfect.

But now we have confidence, right?

Confidence and faith.

They go together.

We've talked about that.

Now we have confidence or faith in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

This new system was established with a solemn oath.

Aaron's descendants became priests without such an oath.

But there was an oath regarding Jesus.

For God said to him, The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow, you are a priest forever.

Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God.

There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office.

But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.

Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin.

He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven.

Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day.

They did this for their own sins first, and then for the sins of the people.

But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins.

The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness.

But after the law was given, God appointed his son with an oath, and his son has been made perfect, the perfect high priest forever.

Okay.

So again, Hebrews, read it seven times and keep reading it.

I've read I've read that book, I've read commentaries about the book, a very, very deep book.

But what it's saying here is very powerful and very interesting.

We have a high priest.

We don't think in those terms as Christians, especially those of us maybe from like an evangelical background or non-denominational background.

Some of you maybe grew up in a Catholic setting and you had a priest.

And I'm not a priest.

I'm not a priest.

In fact, some people would say I'm not even a pastor because I didn't go to seminary.

Um and I don't really care.

Like this is my role.

This is why but I'm a I'm a pastor, I'm not a priest, but I serve in that sort of function to be someone whose job it is to help people connect with God.

That's my job.

That's my role.

The way I teach, if if it doesn't help you connect with God, I'm not good at my job.

So a priest is someone in the old system who served as an intermediary between God and the people.

They were an intermediary.

That is not what I am.

I am not an intermediary between you and God.

There is nothing between you and God because of Jesus.

And we'll talk about that.

But in the old way of thinking, people had a priest, and that priest was the one they went to, and the priest would go on their behalf to God and then come back to them, and there was just this it was a middleman.

Okay?

Middle management in the kingdom of God.

But the writer of Hebrews makes this powerful statement.

And it's through the life of Melchizedek, who Abraham interacted with, this high priest who pre-existed the high priest of the Jewish system.

He says, no, no, there's a different type of high priest, and Jesus is that forever.

We'll go back to Hebrews chapter 4, and this is where it gets really powerful for us.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

I hope at least.

So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Jesus is many things.

But one of those things, and this is where Melchizedek is a type of Jesus.

He kind of gives us a category, we might say, to understand Jesus.

Melchizedek was a priest king.

We have a priest king in Jesus.

And this is so beautiful.

And this is where I just I want to sit here for just a few minutes as we wrap up and reflect on this because I personally need to think of Jesus in this way more often.

It's very easy for me to think of Jesus as my king.

It's very easy for me to think of Jesus as my Savior, as the one who did something that forgave my sins, paid the price for my sins, and now I have forgiveness through Jesus.

Very easy for me to think in those terms.

And these are all deeply interconnected, by the way.

But but it's important for me to think of Jesus as my priest.

Now I did not grow up in a Catholic church.

How many of you just out of curiosity, you grew up, you grew up Catholic?

Alright, cool.

I only went to a Catholic church one time when I was in college, and I gotta say, to those of you who grew up, man, I did not know calisthenics and church could go together.

There was a lot of like, there was a lot of this, you know.

Got a good quadricept workout in church, it was fun.

And I didn't know what I was doing.

I I just I went into the church, I'd been encouraged by someone, hey, you should try out different things and you've never experienced.

Like, I'll go to the Catholic Church.

And I went in, and then there was a point where everyone stood up and walked and got in the line, and I was like, all right, I'll get in the line.

And I waited in line, and the priest was handing out uh bread and and wine, and I didn't know that you're supposed to be like, you're not just supposed to get in that line.

Some of you who grew up Catholic are like, why did you should not have been in that line?

I did not know.

This was not clearly detailed for me.

And so I remember the priest looked at me strangely, because he'd never seen me before, and I was just like, you know, I did what everybody else did.

And I guess I was like a thief.

I like stole the sacrament.

And uh I didn't mean to, though.

It was an accident.

Forgive me.

That's my only experience growing up Catholic, but in that Catholic setting, right, you have you have this priest figure, and you go to him, and he gives you what you need from God.

I didn't grow up thinking in those terms.

But that but that's who Jesus is in the perfect form.

But he's not like a normal priest, he doesn't have sin.

In fact, what it says here, this is so beautiful, guys.

We have a high priest who understands our weakness.

He understands your temptation.

I'll actually say this.

I read this in a commentary, I love this thought.

Jesus understands every temptation you will ever face, but you cannot understand his temptation.

Because Jesus was tempted to the fullest extent that Satan is able to tempt.

And all of us have caved way before Satan got to that level.

Now think about that.

Like when Satan has tempted us and we have fallen for that temptation, which all of us have many times, Satan didn't even have to bring out the big guns.

It's like he was like, hey, you want to?

Like, no, you sure?

Okay.

That's how most of our sin works.

And Jesus, I mean, Satan tried, and then he tried again, and then by the time it was over, Satan was like, I will give you all of the kingdoms of the earth.

And Jesus still said no.

None of us could ever understand that level of temptation because none of us have ever gotten to that point.

But Jesus did.

So though we cannot understand his level of temptation, Jesus can fully understand what it feels like to be a human being and to be tired and to be weary and to be tempted.

He understands us because he is one of us.

He became one of us, and so we have a high priest who serves us, who intercedes on our behalf, meaning that he is with God the Father and He is speaking on our behalf.

And he can look at God the Father and be like, hey, I know how it feels to be like them.

It's not easy.

He has compassion for us.

He has mercy on us.

You know, it's interesting, that name Melchizedek, it means king of righteousness.

And like, man, all of us would be excited to have a king of righteousness.

It's like, oh, a king of righteousness?

I don't know about that.

Because you know what a king of righteousness has to be primarily concerned with?

Justice.

Because righteousness is perfect justice.

And if someone is a king of righteousness, that means they are a person of justice, and that means they have to deal swiftly with evil.

And there has been evil in my heart, and I have done evil things in my life because I'm a person and I'm flawed, and there have been things I did, I knew it was wrong, and I did it anyway.

That is evil.

And a perfect king of righteousness, if it was just the king of righteousness, would deal swiftly with that.

But because Jesus is a high priest who understands our weakness, he is not only the perfect king of righteousness, but he's also the king of mercy and of grace and forgiveness.

And that is our high priest.

When you pray to Jesus, when you go to Jesus, he understands you, he gets you, and he can perfectly intercede on your behalf with God the Father and know what is the what is the appropriate amount of justice and consequence, what is the perfect amount of mercy and forgiveness.

How does all that work together?

I can never even begin to fathom that, but Jesus does it perfectly because he is our perfect high priest.

And so what we're told in Hebrews, yeah, we can praise God for that.

And worship team, you guys can make your way out.

What we're told in Hebrews is as a result of that is this.

And again, I know today deeply theological day, and you guys have been awesome.

I really appreciate it.

We got one person about to get baptized, we get to celebrate that.

But but maybe you're sitting here and you're like, okay.

High priest, Melchizedek, type of Christ, Christophany, that may be a word you you heard for the first time.

Uh, use it often.

Use it as many times this week as you possibly can.

Just find ways to bring up that word.

Um, how in the world does this actually help us and relate to us in day-to-day life?

Well, let me read what Hebrews 4 said one more time.

This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings we do, but he did not sin.

So, so, that's a big so.

So, because of that, because Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, and we do not need men on this earth to be intermediates between us and God.

You do not need me to go to God for you.

There is nothing that is standing between you and God because of Jesus.

You have Jesus, you don't need anyone else.

Right?

You you might have someone like me who has a uh a knack for teaching or something like that, or someone else that maybe you you listen to that can help you in some way, but that's just a helpful tool.

This is not some type of conduit to God.

Right?

Any pastor who believes they're a conduit to God is full of a lot of things, including themselves.

But like we have Jesus, he is our high priest.

And we can know him and we're family with him and we're loved by him.

But it says, because of that, because Jesus is our high priest, a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, and we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

So here's what that means, guys: it means when you need something, because you have Jesus as your perfect high priest, you get to go to God boldly.

How boldly do you go to God and ask for what you need?

Specifically, it says, mercy and grace to help us.

That's the reason why when when Jeff was on stage a few weeks ago at our prayer night, we could pray boldly for healing.

We can pray boldly for God to find a kidney for him, and praise God he did.

It means when you have a really tough situation in your life and you don't know what to do and you're struggling, you can go boldly to God, not timidly.

And I'm not talking about some type of pride where you think God like works for you or something like that, but I'm saying, like, no, no, no.

You have a high priest in Jesus who loves you, and he's he's told you that you belong to him and you're part of the family of God.

If you've given your life to Jesus, you are family with God, you're a child of God, you don't have to knock on the door, you just swing it open like my kids do all the time.

And you come boldly and you say, Father, I need help.

Father, I need patience, father, I need healing, father, I need you to do, I need you to fix this problem.

Father God, I need you, and you don't have to worry what the answer will be because you have a perfect high priest in Jesus who's paid the price for you and he's paved the way, and you're good.

It's a beautiful thing, it's a beautiful thing.

That doesn't mean that God always answers us in the way that we'd like.

There's lots of times my kids swing the door open, and the answer they hear is not right now, but they know that they're loved, they know that they can open the door.

And there's power in that.

I think in some ways it's more powerful.

Like I'd rather know that I can just open the door to God.

That's that's more meaningful to me than if God always says yes to what I ask for.

Does that make sense?

Like it's it's more meaningful.

That I know I can just open the door.

That God has an open door policy with me, and He has that with you through Jesus.

Because you have a perfect high priest.

And we'll close with taking the Lord's Supper.

So grab this and I'll do this fast.

Uh again, the layers with Jesus here in Hebrews and through Melchizedek, it's deep, right?

Because Jesus is our high priest, but he's also the sacrifice.

And high priest offered sacrifices, but the high priests who offered the sacrifices were imperfect, and the sacrifices that they offered to pay for sin were also imperfect.

So you had imperfect high priests offering imperfect sacrifices.

Jesus is a perfect high priest who offered a perfect sacrifice himself, and that's what this meal represents.

And so, if you're new, feel free to take this with us.

We have cups with bread and juice as you walked in.

Just like Melchizedek walked up to Abram and had bread and wine.

Jesus with his disciples took bread and wine and he blessed it and he gave it new meaning.

And he took the bread and he said, This is my body, which is to be given up as a sacrifice for you.

And this represents the sacrifice Jesus made to pay the price for your sin, not just so that you could be forgiven.

That is like the base level.

It's the greatest, it's like, and there's more.

There's all kinds of features with this.

Yes, you're forgiven for your sins.

But more than that, you have total access to God the Father through your perfect high priest in Jesus.

That's what this bread represents.

And so together we're gonna pray and we're gonna thank God for this.

Father God, we thank you for this bread.

This is your body, Jesus.

This is your body.

Offered up on our behalf.

Not only are you a perfect high priest, but you offered a perfect sacrifice because you never sinned.

You are a stainless, sinless, perfect God.

And you gave yourself for us.

And we thank you for that.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

This represents the blood of Jesus.

And blood in his culture always represented life.

This is everything.

This is Jesus.

We might say in our world, I would bleed for someone that I love.

Like Jesus bled for you.

That's how much he loves you.

And this purifies us, makes us holy.

And so let's pray and thank him for it.

Lord, we thank you for this juice and what it represents, what it means.

It means that through your blood, all of our unrighteousness and imperfection has been washed away.

And though we still struggle in this life and we still fail to live up to our own standards and yours as well, in your eyes, you have deemed us perfect.

Because the blood of your Son has washed away our sin.

Thank you, Lord, for being our high priest and thank you for being our sacrifice, for being everything.

We love you, Lord.

Let's take this.