The Lesser is Blessed by the Greater – Hebrews 7:4-10

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And with your Bibles opened to Hebrews chapter seven, let's bow before we begin. Father, we have sung to you of your greatness, your glory, your majesty, your goodness, your power, your wisdom, your infinite compassion and grace.

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And we've spoken to you things that are true concerning you. And now we pray that through your word, you would speak to us and to our hearts and to our minds, things that are true concerning you.

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May all that we do here in our understanding and in this preaching and in our receiving of your truth be to the honor and glory of Christ our

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Lord. In his name we pray, amen. I want you to think back to a moment to when the

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Lord first saved you, to that moment early in your life or maybe even recently when you came to an understanding of your sin and God by his grace delivered you from your bondage to that sin and redeemed you and caused you to be born again to a living hope.

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Think back to that moment when you came to that understanding and you were regenerated or at least as far back as you can.

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Now, I ask you a question, at that moment when God saved you, how much understanding did you have of the

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Melchizedekian priesthood of Jesus Christ? You laugh, right? Why is that?

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Because chances are good that most of you, for most of you, your level of understanding regarding the Melchizedekian priesthood of Jesus Christ was probably pretty minimal, pretty small.

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In fact, it is probably safe to say that you were saved long before you even heard the name

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Melchizedek or before you read Hebrews chapter seven or even before you knew who Melchizedek was and probably certainly long before you showed up here and started listening to a series of messages on the subject of Melchizedek.

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And yet, even though you knew nothing of the reality of this truth, this amazes me. At the moment that you were saved,

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Jesus Christ was, at that moment, serving at God's right hand as your

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Melchizedekian high priest. And you knew nothing of the power and the significance of that reality.

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Long before you ever heard of Melchizedek, he possessed that priesthood and he was effectively interceding for you on your behalf, praying for you because he knew that you were his, he knew that you belonged to him, and he was, at that moment, effectively praying to the

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Father, interceding for your salvation, securing and moving all things to the accomplishment of his purposes concerning you.

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Long before you ever heard the name Melchizedek, Jesus Christ possessed that priesthood and was exercising it for you.

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In fact, he was doing that before you were even born. Isn't that magnificent? And so now in Hebrews chapter seven, we are only starting to kind of crack open and try to understand the nature of this fantastic priesthood that Jesus Christ affects and serves in for our sake, for our deliverance and our salvation.

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And this is a priesthood that Christ has, not on the basis of genealogy or his lineage or his mother or his earthly adopted father.

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It's not on the basis of the fact that he comes from a certain tribe. The priesthood that Jesus Christ has as a

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Melchizedekian high priest is a priesthood that the Father has granted to him, given to him, and sworn to give to him on the basis of his own righteousness, the effectiveness of the sacrifice that he made on behalf of his people, his resurrection from the dead, and his endless life.

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By virtue of all of those things, he has been appointed a high priest to intercede between the

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Father and you on your behalf. And even before you heard the name Melchizedek, his blood was applied to your account.

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His sacrifice was your sacrifice. His resurrection was your resurrection.

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You were chosen and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Jesus Christ, from before the foundation of the world, and all of it is secured and procured and made yours because of what he has done as your high priest.

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Absolutely magnificent. So here we are in Hebrews chapter seven, and we are looking at the supremacy of this priesthood that Jesus possesses, a

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Melchizedekian priesthood, specifically in contrast to the

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Levitical priesthood of the Old Covenant. And that is the contrast that's working all the way through this passage, and we are picking it up in verse four.

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There is a, this priesthood that Jesus has, it continues today. It was established long before Abraham lived.

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Another man, Melchizedek, possessed it, and we get a glimpse of him in Genesis chapter 14, and we're kind of studying

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Melchizedek because of the parallels and the similarities between him and Jesus. And this character,

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Melchizedek, he is used by the author of Hebrews to describe the priesthood that Christ possesses and the efficacy of it on behalf of his people.

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And so that is why we're looking at it here in Hebrews seven. And as I mentioned last week, and I'll mention this again, the passage that we're going through is a very technical argument, and it gets even more technical today.

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I understand that the argument of the passage is not the most mind -boggling thing. It's not something that just warms the cockles of your heart the minute you start reading through it as you read about Levi and the

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Melchizedekian priesthood. It's just not something that on the surface of it is one of those gems that we mine out of Scripture.

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But it is something that as we look at the wisdom of God and the magnificence of his word, we see how all of these things tie together.

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It does have to impress us how the Holy Spirit has brought all of these details together in Hebrews chapter seven.

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So with your attention now in Hebrews chapter seven, we're gonna look at verses four, actually verse six through 10.

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We looked last week at the greatness of this Melchizedek. No one would doubt that Abraham was great.

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He was the patriarch of the nation. He was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel, actually the grandfather of the 12 tribes of Israel.

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Remember the timeline, because the timeline that I laid out for you last week is gonna come into play here. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes, down into Egypt, coming out of Egypt, the establishment of the law.

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400 years between Moses and Aaron and the establishment of the Levitical priesthood and the time of Abraham. You have at least four centuries that transpired between those two events.

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Now Abraham met Melchizedek way back here. And so the significance of that encounter between Melchizedek and Abraham is the subject of our passage here today.

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We looked at the difference. We looked at these two things that indicate that Melchizedek was greater than Abraham. Number one, the fact that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek and that's gonna come back into play here again today.

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But second, the fact that Melchizedek blessed Abraham. And today we're gonna look at that blessing and what it entails and why it is significant.

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So verse six, let's read together verses six through 10 and then we'll kind of break it down. Verse six, but the one whose genealogy is not traced from them, that is

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Melchizedek, he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises, that's

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Abraham. But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case, mortal men receive tithes, but in that case, one receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives on.

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And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi who received tithes paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when

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Melchizedek met him. Now there is a technical theological argument that has unfolded in those verses.

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It's not easy to grasp with our Western, North American mindset, but I am gonna kind of walk you through this so you can see what the author is saying.

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This would have made perfect sense to every first century Jew who read this passage, by the way. We look at that, we read it, and we scratch our heads and think, what is he talking about?

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And a first century Jew would look at you and say, how do you not get that? How do you not understand the arguments being made here?

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It's obvious to us, right? It might not be obvious to you. It's not really all that obvious to me and I gotta explain it to you.

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So that's the argument that we're gonna be looking at there, verses six through 10. This is a complex one and the argument is applied later on at the end of chapter seven.

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That's when the full significance of everything that he's saying is kind of unfolded or kind of comes to flower. Here at the beginning, he's just working through the details of this so that a

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Jew can understand the point that he's making. And here's the point. Abraham is greater than Levi.

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Sorry, I'll go it the other way. Abraham is greater than Levi. Melchizedek is greater than Abraham. The priesthood possessed by Melchizedek is therefore greater than the priesthood that came out of Abraham.

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And if the priesthood that is possessed by Melchizedek is greater than the priesthood that came through Abraham's lineage, then the one who possesses that priesthood, namely

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Jesus, is greater than any high priest who possessed the other lesser priesthood. That's basically the argument.

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And that seems rather simple, but let's see how it is that the author unfolds this. Abraham tithed, verse six says, to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek blessed

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Abraham. These verses describe both the gift and the blessing. And here's what I want you to notice, that there are three things here that demonstrate

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Melchizedek's priesthood is superior. And here they are, and this is our outline for this morning. Number one, this priesthood, and I'm speaking here in terms of the priesthood, not

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Melchizedek, this priesthood blessed Abraham. That's the first indication that his priesthood is greater than that which came through Abraham.

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This priesthood blessed Abraham. Second, this priesthood is eternal, as opposed to the other priesthood, which is temporal.

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And the third argument is that this priesthood received tithes from the Levitical. Now here's the important thing. We're looking at actions that are taken by Abraham and by Melchizedek, but the point of the author is this, that their actions speak on behalf of more than just the actions themselves.

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In other words, the actions that were taken between Abraham and Melchizedek in Genesis 14, when

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Melchizedek met Abraham, and Abraham paid a tithe, and Melchizedek blessed Abraham, those actions are not just mere actions that go no further than that encounter.

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The author's point here is that those actions actually represent other people.

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What unfolded between Melchizedek and Abraham was representative in nature, so that Genesis 14 is not just the record of a conversation between one king and another king or tribal leader.

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What unfolded between those two men had representative implications for others. So for instance,

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Abraham, when he paid tithes to Melchizedek was not just acting as a sole individual on his own behalf.

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Abraham, as the one who had received the promises, who was guaranteed a people and a land and a messiah and God's favor and blessing,

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Abraham standing in that stead was acting on behalf not just of Abraham, but of all who would come from him.

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He was doing something as their representative. Abraham represented everyone who was in his loins at that moment.

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All who would descend from Abraham were implicated in the action of Abraham toward Melchizedek, so that Abraham's actions are representative in nature.

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The same is true of Melchizedek. Melchizedek is not just a priest and a king acting on his own behalf,

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Melchizedek was doing something that represented the priesthood, the entire priesthood of which he had been appointed.

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He was standing as God's mediator, representing God to Abraham and doing something in that position as mediator between God and man, receiving a tithe from Abraham and giving or conferring the blessing of God upon Abraham.

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So Melchizedek stands in between that, functioning not just as one rando guy that he found in the

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Middle East on his way back down south after conquering a bunch of kings. Melchizedek is not that. Melchizedek is acting on behalf of his entire priesthood.

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So he's doing something as a representative, Abraham's doing something as a representative. So here's the blessing.

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Notice, let's pick it up at verse six, but one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham.

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Now, the one whose genealogy is not traced from them, meaning through Aaron and through Levi and through Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, one whose genealogy does not come from that line, that is

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Melchizedek. He is the one who received a tithe and then gave the blessing. Now, verse six indicates that Melchizedek had a genealogy.

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Do you remember what we read back in verse three? Hebrews chapter seven, verse three. Speaking of Melchizedek, it says he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, made like the

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Son of God who remains priest perpetually. So verse three says he is without genealogy. Verse six says he has a genealogy, it just wasn't traced through Abraham.

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Do you remember what the explanation of verse three was? Because some people ask me this after the message. What do we do with that statement that he had no genealogy, he was without genealogy?

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It doesn't mean that he didn't have any genealogy, it means that in terms of how he's presented in Genesis chapter 14, when

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Moses describes him, his genealogy is not presented and that's significant. And the author sees that as significant. It's not that he didn't have a genealogy, it's that it's not mentioned.

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Because verse six says he had a genealogy, but he just was not traced through Abraham. In other words, he stands outside of the

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Abrahamic line, outside of the Abrahamic covenant, and in one sense, as representing God, he stands over top of Abraham and the

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Abrahamic covenant. As one who intercedes between God and Abraham. Melchizedek stands in that stead, representing

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God to Abraham, representing Abraham before God as a high priest. That was his role as a representative and as a representative in that function.

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So in Melchizedek, verse six, he collected a 10th. And we looked at that last week and kind of looked at the contrast between the tithe given to the

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Levites and the tithe given by Abraham to Melchizedek. And I'm not gonna rehash all of that. But Abraham is the one, he notes, as the one who had the promises.

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He collected a 10th from Abraham and Melchizedek, blessed the one, verse six, who had the promises. And what were the promises that Abraham had?

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Remember there were three of them? There were a few that were tied into this, but there were three significant promises. That he would be given a land, that he would be giving a multitude of descendants to fill that land, and that the

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Messiah would come through his land and rule over those descendants in that land. Those are the three promises given to Abraham.

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A land, a people to fill the land, and a Messiah through his line. Those were the three promises. Well, Abraham was the one who possessed that.

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Remember Abraham, in Genesis chapter 12, he was the one that God appeared to and chose him and said, look, you leave your family in Ur of the

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Chaldees and you go to the land that I'm gonna give you. And I'm gonna give you all of the land and I'm gonna give you a descendants and I'm gonna give you a promised seed through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

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Those are magnificent promises. And you look at what God promised to Abraham and you can honestly ask the question, is there any man greater than Abraham?

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Is there any man superior to that? Has there ever been a man who has lived on the face of the planet who has given such a covenant, such a blessing, and such a promise other than Abraham?

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See, his greatness is indisputable. It is beyond dispute that Abraham is great. And every Jew acknowledged that.

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He's the patriarch of the nation. He is the one through whom the blessings came. He is the one because of God's faithfulness to his word that he gave to Abraham.

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God is faithful to all who come from Abraham's line. God's faithfulness to the Jews today is in response to and because of God's faithfulness to Abraham.

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He cannot break his word to Abraham. Just like God will not break his word to David. God's word to David can never be broken.

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Why? Because God made a covenant with David. But David's covenant and David would not exist if it were not for whom?

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For Abraham. Is there anyone greater than Abraham? Every Jew would acknowledge because of the promises given to him and what

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God had guaranteed to him and what God did for him. There's no greater man than Abraham. And yet, he's lesser than somebody else.

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Because verse seven says, "'Without any dispute, the lesser "'is blessed by the greater.'" Who's the lesser? It's Abraham.

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He's the one who received the blessing. And the one who gives him the blessing is Melchizedek. And so he's the greater one.

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Now you'll notice that the author of Hebrews says, "'Without any dispute.'" In other words, he's saying, look, this is inarguable.

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That the lesser of this case, Abraham, was blessed by the greater that is Melchizedek. And this is beyond contest.

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This is beyond dispute. Every Jew would say, Abraham is the greatest who ever lived, but then the author says, but this is without dispute, that there had to have been at least one who was greater than Abraham, and that's

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Melchizedek. By virtue of his position, by virtue of his priesthood, by virtue of what he did, what he received from Abraham, and what he gave to Abraham, he was in that moment and in that role performing something greater than Abraham.

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The lesser, Abraham, is blessed by the greater, who is Melchizedek. Now how is it that the fact that Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek shows that Abraham was less than Melchizedek?

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If I walk up to you and I say, bless your heart, or you sneeze and I say, gesundheit, or I say, bless you, or I say, may the

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Lord be gracious to you, that's greater, God be with you, those are all ways that we say or express a desire that somebody is blessed.

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But if I say that to you, does that make me greater than you, in this sense? No, because then you could come back and say, well yeah, gesundheit back to you.

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So now I'm, in fact, two gesundheits to you, now I'm greater than you because I blessed you twice and you only blessed me once. It is the nature of the blessing that God gave to Abraham through Melchizedek, it's the nature of that blessing that demonstrates that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.

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Because Melchizedek didn't simply say, gesundheit, or bless you, or may the Lord be favorable to you, or God go with you, or Godspeed, or any kind of statement like that.

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The blessing that God conferred upon Abraham through Melchizedek was not just a desire for well -being, it's not just a well -wishing, or a wishing that something would go good with that person.

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It was not just an expression of a desire that God would be favorable, it was the conferral, it was the blessing, the transfer of a blessing to Abraham.

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That's what demonstrates the greatness of it. So I would just remind you of what was written back in Genesis chapter 14, a couple of weeks, that we looked at a couple of weeks ago.

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Here's the account of that blessing. And Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now he was a priest of the

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Most High God. He blessed him and said, blessed be Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be

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God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. He, that is Abraham, gave him a tenth of all. Now you'll notice what

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Moses does at the beginning before he mentions the blessing. He front ends the load of that, he front loads the, how would you say that?

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He loads up at the beginning end of that statement the reminder that Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God.

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In Genesis chapter 14, Moses writes, Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now he was a priest of the

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Most High God. Moses wants us to understand that. That what Melchizedek is about to say is not just that one tribal leader who ruled in Jerusalem said to another tribal leader who ruled in another city in the southern land of Israel, Abraham, hey,

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God be with you. May God's grace shine upon you, go your way. That's not it. This was a statement and a conferral of blessing.

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Melchizedek, in his role as priest, remember, he is representing his entire priesthood. In his role as an eternal high priest,

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Melchizedek conferred and announced and pronounced a blessing on Abraham. And it was a function of his priestly role, an eternal priest of God.

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He mediated a blessing and announced God's favor and proclaimed it upon Abraham.

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So it wasn't just a desire for well being toward Abraham. It wasn't just a gesundheit. It was actually the bestowal of a blessing.

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As one who mediated and stood between God and Abraham, Melchizedek becomes the channel through which that blessing is conferred upon Abraham in that context.

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And we can't divorce it from its context. Because Genesis chapter 14 comes right after Genesis chapter 13, which comes right after Genesis chapter 12.

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And Genesis chapter 14 also comes before Genesis chapter 15. And what happened in those chapters? We remember back in Genesis chapter 12,

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God blessed Abraham, pulled him aside and said, you leave Ur of the Chaldeans and I'll give you a land, a people to fill the land and a

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Messiah will come from your line. And Abraham left. And then in chapter 13, there was this dispute over the land with Lot.

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And God reiterated the promise to Abraham in Genesis 13. Don't worry, I'm giving you the land and I'm giving you descendants to fill the land and through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

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Then we have Genesis chapter 14, where Melchizedek does what? Melchizedek, aware of all of those blessings that God has promised to Abraham, confers those blessings upon Abraham and blesses

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Abraham saying, blessed be Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth. In other words,

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God is the one who possesses this land and Abraham is the blessed one of that God whom he serves and blessed be

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God most high who's delivered your enemies into your hand. So Melchizedek reiterated all of those promises to Abraham.

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He conferred a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had received all of those promises. And remember, that's the point of Hebrews chapter seven in verse seven, without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.

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Why? Because Melchizedek blessed the one who had the promises. It almost indicates that Melchizedek was aware of what

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God had promised to Abraham and as God's representative, Melchizedek said, it is going to be. The possessor of heaven and earth is going to bless you and give you everything that he has promised you two chapters ago.

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But it wouldn't have been two chapters ago, it would have been a couple years ago. But he's gonna give to you all of that. And then in chapter 15, do you remember what happened in chapter 15?

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That's when God reiterated those promises all over again and told Abraham, I'm gonna give you a land,

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I'm gonna give you people to fill the land and I'm gonna give you a Messiah through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Those are the three promises.

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Stated in chapter 12, reiterated in chapter 13, conferred by Melchizedek in chapter 14 and restated again in chapter 15.

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What was God trying to do in all of those chapters? He's trying to tell Abraham over and over and over again, you are the one who has received the promises,

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I have promised to do something and I'm going to do it. And here's what I have promised and I'll repeat it and he repeats it again and again and again.

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Because God wanted Abraham to know what I have sworn to you, I have sworn and by my righteousness

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I will fulfill it. Melchizedek becomes the one who stands between God and Abraham and confers that blessing.

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That demonstrates Melchizedek's greatness. He didn't just say gesundheit and walk away. He conferred a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had the promises.

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Melchizedek stood and blessed that one. If Melchizedek was merely congratulating

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Abraham as one king or tribal leader to another, then there's no greater or lesser relationship going on.

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But if Melchizedek stands as a priest of the Most High God, representing God in that priesthood, and he confers a blessing upon Abraham as one who represented his entire nation, because in view in the promises is not just Abraham but Om.

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Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes and all of their descendants, in view of Abraham when he confers the blessing is

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Abraham as a representative of all of those peoples. And by virtue of the fact that Abraham is blessed by Melchizedek, Melchizedek then stands over him and is the channel through which he is blessed.

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Therefore, Melchizedek is greater. So who's greater, the giver of the gift or the one who receives it? It's the giver of the gift, right?

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The giver of the gift is the greater one. What did Abraham do to receive that promise? What did he do to receive all those promises and blessings?

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Nothing. He was an undeserving idol worshiper when God called him out of darkness and said, you will represent me and I will give you a land of people and a

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Messiah. Abraham didn't deserve any of that. And here is Melchizedek who stands in the place of one who bestows or confers and announces and pronounces all of those blessings upon Abraham.

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Clearly Melchizedek is the greater. So Melchizedek is greater because his priesthood blessed

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Abraham and thus all of Abraham's lineage and the tribes and Levi and Aaron, meaning that Melchizedek's priesthood blessed the priesthood that would come from Abraham.

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Second, this priesthood is eternal. Look at verse eight. In this case mortal men receive tithes but in that case one receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives on.

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So the author returns here to the subject of the contrasting between two tithes. And last week we looked at the contrast between the tithe that Abraham offered and the tithe that the

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Levites received and we looked at how the author kinda lays that out in verses four and five. So we're not gonna go back to that.

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But there is another difference between these tithes that's mentioned here in verse eight. In this case, that is, in Abraham giving to Melchizedek, or sorry, in this case, in the case of the

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Levites who collected a tithe from the sons of Aaron, those tithes were given to mortal men. And when he says in this case mortal men receive tithes, he's talking about those collected in verse five.

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The Levites who received the priest's office have commandment to the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham.

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So in that case, mentioning verse five, the Levites collecting a tithe from all of their brethren, it's mortal men who received those tithes.

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And the Levites were mortal men. And so he's gonna contrast that with the tithe that Abraham gives to Melchizedek, whom he said is witness that he lives on.

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We'll deal with that in just a second. So when the author says that in that case, or in this case, mortal men receive tithes, he has in mind the

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Levitical priesthood. And I'll save that for later. He has in mind the

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Levitical priesthood and the Levitical priesthood was composed and comprised of men who all died.

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And the records of their death is testified to in scripture over and over and over again. And the law in the

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Old Testament provided for the succession of priests. Remember, it had to come from Aaron's line. So Aaron had sons who served as priests, who had sons who served as priests, and on and on it went.

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Now, why did they have to serve as priests? Why did the law have to provide for other priests to come in and fulfill that office?

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The law had to provide for that because those men were mortal men and they died. And the author makes hay from this back at the end of the chapter seven when he says in verses 23 to 25, the former priests, on the other hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.

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But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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So there, the mortality of the Levitical priests is highlighted at the end of the chapter. And he says for that reason, they had to have a succession.

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It had to be based on genealogy. And the law provided for more men to fill in. And so you had an abundance of those kind of priests.

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Why? Because they were mortal men and they were gonna die. And even if they didn't die before they reached the age of 50, at the age of 50, they were removed from office and replaced by somebody else who would come after them.

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And so there's this continual long line and this long succession of priests in the Levitical system. Why? Because tithes were paid to mortal men.

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But there's a contrast with the tithe that Abraham offered to Melchizedek. And what is the contrast? In that case, that is, in the case of Melchizedek receiving the tithe from Abraham, look at verse eight.

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But in that case, one receives them, that is Melchizedek, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. Now, did

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Melchizedek really live on? Did he live forever? Is he still alive today? Hiding away somewhere in a cave?

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Guarding the last chalice of the Lord Jesus or something like that? Hiding away somewhere in a cave, still living on?

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Or did he actually die? He did actually die. But in terms of how he is described in scripture,

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Melchizedek continues to live on. See, his death is not recorded. And the author sees significance in how it is that Melchizedek is described in scripture.

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It's not that he had no successors, Melchizedek, it's that his successors are not named. And if he had successors, those successors would not have necessarily been priests because that priesthood was not based on genealogy.

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So if Melchizedek had had children, which we don't know if he did or didn't, but if he had children, they wouldn't have necessarily served as priests because that Melchizedek wasn't passed on genealogically.

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It was directly divinely appointed by God. He appointed Melchizedek. Melchizedek served in that capacity.

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And because he served in that capacity doesn't mean that his sons were someday gonna take over for him and serve in that capacity. They were mortal men.

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His death is not mentioned. And so for the author of Hebrews, he reads Genesis chapter 14, and it is as if Melchizedek never died.

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Because you read of the encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek, his genealogy is not mentioned, his mother's not mentioned, his father's not mentioned, the beginning isn't mentioned, where he comes from isn't mentioned.

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It's just that he appears out of nowhere. Here he is. And then he disappears without any mention of his death or his successor or anything.

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And here's the key. The way he is presented in the narrative is consistent with the nature of his priesthood.

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The author of Hebrews takes the description of Melchizedek in Genesis as a description of his priesthood.

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And this is significant. This is why I say it's representative. And listen to this carefully. I'm reading this because I want to make sure

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I get this right, because I think this is the key to understanding the significance of Melchizedek. I would say quote and give accreditation, but these are my own words.

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So here we go. He, that is Melchizedek, appears in the narrative as if he had no beginning and no end, because that describes his priesthood.

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He has no beginning and he has no end. In the narrative, he appears as one who is without genealogy, because that describes his priesthood.

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It's not based on genealogy. He appears in the narrative as one with no father and no mother, because that describes his priesthood.

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His qualifications for priesthood, unlike the Levitical priesthood, do not depend upon who his mother or his father were, or the type of character or quality of people that they were.

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And he appears in the narrative as one whose death is not mentioned and who never dies, because his priesthood does not come to an end.

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The author of Hebrews looks at Melchizedek in Scripture and says what describes him, describes his priesthood.

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It has no beginning. It has no end. It's not based on genealogy. Doesn't come from a mother, doesn't come from a father.

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He sees Melchizedek as a living portrayal, a picture of the kind of priesthood that he served.

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That's what is key. It is not Melchizedek himself that he is over -typifying, he's over -symbolizing, that's not it.

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He sees in the way that Melchizedek is described as one who is representing that priesthood. Everything that was true of Melchizedek is true of that priesthood.

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And the way that he is described in Scripture perfectly describes his priesthood. It is a priesthood that Jesus Christ himself today possesses.

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So the three things that demonstrate the superiority of Melchizedek's priesthood, number one, that priesthood blessed Abraham. That shows that he is greater.

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That priesthood is eternal. And this priesthood received tithes from the Levitical priesthood.

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And here is where it gets kind of complicated in verse nine. And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when

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Melchizedek met him. Now this is obscure a little bit to the Western mindset. We typically don't think of this way, that what we do represents, is actually the action of everybody who comes from us.

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Because I don't think that that is all the time the case. It is certainly the case with Abraham.

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Why? Because God had made a promise to Abraham that pertained to everyone who would come from him.

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Since he was the father of the nation, and promised to be the father of the nation, when he acts in Scripture in certain capacities, he is acting on behalf of all who would come from him.

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And this is the idea of federal headship. We see this a number of times in Scripture. Most probably familiar to you, would be the fact that because your federal head, the one who represented you in the

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Garden of Eden, sinned and rebelled and ate of the fruit, and plunged his entire race into perdition and sin, and destruction and corruption, because of what

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Adam did. And so today, even though you have never met Adam, who represented you in the garden, you are constituted a sinner.

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You are guilty of his act of eating that fruit, and that rebellion against God. And you are a sinner, and you are guilty, and you are condemned because of what your father did.

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And by virtue of what he did, you stand before God as a sinner.

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You say, that's not fair. Now you don't like that, because you might be thinking in your mind, that's not fair because if I were in the garden,

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I would not have made that decision. And no, you would have made that decision.

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Which is why God can treat you just as if you had made that decision. Why? Because there's a 100 % probability that if you were

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Adam in the garden, and you had been presented that same situation, that you would have fallen just like Adam did.

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Anybody would have. And so he acts as your representative. And you say, that's not fair,

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I don't like that. Before you go off and get all upset that that's how God has arranged it in his economy, and it most certainly is, just keep in mind that if that is not how it is, then you could never be saved.

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Because just as Adam acted on your behalf as your representative, another acts on your behalf. See, you need somebody to stand in your stead and to act on your behalf, and to perfectly keep all of the law that you failed to keep.

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And to do all of the righteous deeds that God demands. You need somebody to stand in your stead, and to act as your representative, and do all of that for you, so that you can be given that righteousness which you need.

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So that you can be forgiven on the basis of his death. And who is this one? It is obviously the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Just as all of us fell in Adam, all of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ and are in him, we are declared innocent, and we are made righteous, and we are forgiven, and we are cleansed, and we are taken to heaven, because his death is seen as our death.

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His resurrection is seen as our resurrection. His perfection and righteousness is seen as our perfection and righteousness.

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So just as we fell in Adam in the garden, we are made alive in Jesus Christ because of what he did.

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Adam did represent all of us in the garden, which was why we are all sinners. But Jesus Christ represented all who believe in him, and who are in him by virtue of faith.

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He did all of those deeds on our behalf, and that is what saves us. We are credited at the guilt of Adam for his act of rebellion, and we are constituted sinners because of what he did.

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But we are made righteous because of what Jesus Christ has done. And it is the exact same kind of transaction that takes place in both the instance with Adam and with the second

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Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this is how God has worked it out in his creation, because of this idea of federal headship, that one person can act in representation of another, it is because of that that you and I can be saved, because of what

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Christ has done. So is this how God has worked it out in his redemption, his plan of redemption in creation?

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It is. I would have you keep in mind something, that this idea of federal headship in the

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Old Testament is particularly seen in the instance of those with whom God made a covenant, and told them, you are representing someone else.

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So with Abraham, he can act on behalf of all his descendants, why? Because God made a covenant with him.

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And by the way, this idea of representation goes both ways. Not only are we considered guilty because of what

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Adam has done, we are fallen because of what Adam has done, because he was our representative. God is faithful to the descendants of Abraham because of a promise he made to Abraham.

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So because God made a promise with Abraham, he is faithful to the Jews. And the argument at the end of chapter six, when you're talking about the security of salvation, the argument at the end of chapter six in Hebrews was this, remember, that God is faithful to us, and he will not cast us off, why?

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Because of a promise he made to Abraham, and we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham's promise. We are spiritual children of Abraham.

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And by virtue of the fact that God must keep his word to Abraham, he will keep his word to you, why? Because if he casts you off and causes you to perish, he would be violating his promise to Abraham, and to the one, the seed, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who came from Abraham. So therefore, the structure remains.

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This is established, that this one person, Abraham, can act on behalf of all of the people who come from him.

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So, he says in verse nine, so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes.

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So Abraham was acting when he met Melchizedek on behalf of all who had come from him. This is the argument of the author.

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He was acting as their representative, their head. And so even though Levi was 100, 150 years from being born by the time that Abraham did this, he was acting on behalf of Levi.

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And even though those who would give tithes to the tribe of Levi, hundreds and even thousands of years later, would come from Abraham, Abraham was acting on behalf of his descendants,

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Levi, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes, Levi being one of them, and that tribe which collected all of those tithes,

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Levi, through Jacob, through Isaac, through Abraham, paid tithes to Melchizedek. Do you see the flow?

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So Abraham, as a representative of the nation, functions and does something on behalf of Levi, and therefore, it is

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Levi who is doing it. So if the argument would go something like this, that Abraham is greater than Levi, and Abraham offering tithes to Melchizedek demonstrates the greatness of Melchizedek, and if it is actually

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Levi who collected all those tithes from all of the nation of Israel, he was paying tithes through Abraham to Melchizedek, what does that say about Melchizedek's status above all of the descendants of Abraham?

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He's greater than all of them. Once again, the whole argument doesn't make a lot of sense to us because we're not used to thinking in these terms, but when you recognize in Scripture that there are people who are appointed to act on behalf of those who will come after them, and that God is faithful to people who come after them because of a promise made to a prior one, and that this idea of headship and representation is all the way throughout

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Scripture, then you begin to see the argument here, which is why the author of Hebrews would say it is without dispute that the lesser is blessed by the greater.

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How is it without dispute? Well, because obviously, Levi was giving tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham.

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Is that obvious to you? I mean, were you thinking about that all along? That's the most obvious thing in the world, it's beyond dispute.

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Well, to us it's not, to us it's a little difficult, but to a first century Jew it'd be, oh yeah, that's right. Abraham acted on behalf of all who came from him as their representative, and therefore when he gave to Melchizedek, Melchizedek received tithes from Levi.

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Now here is all of the argument put, hopefully, in a brief summary. If Melchizedek blessed

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Abraham, conferring a blessing upon Abraham and all of his descendants, and Melchizedek is acting on behalf of that priesthood,

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Abraham representing not just Abraham, but Isaac, Jacob, and all who would come from them. If Melchizedek blesses

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Abraham, and Abraham represents all of his descendants, then whom is Melchizedek blessing?

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Levi, and all who would come from Levi, which means that Melchizedek's priesthood, this eternal priesthood, where priests are appointed not on the basis of genealogy, but on the basis of, we're gonna see later on in the book,

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Christ has appointed a priest according to the order of Melchizedek on the basis of an endless life and an ability to save and the perfection of his sacrifice, because he has been appointed in that position.

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If somebody blesses another from that position, then they are greater than those whom they bless. So if Abraham, if Melchizedek blesses

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Abraham, he blesses all who come from Abraham. Therefore, the priesthood of Melchizedek, blessed, issued a blessing upon the priesthood of Levi.

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Now which priesthood is greater? Melchizedek or Levi? Melchizedek. Conversely, and likewise, if Abraham gives tithes to Melchizedek, and he's representing everybody who comes from him, and he is offering this to Melchizedek as one who is a priest representing that priesthood, then

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Abraham, functioning on behalf of Levi, is giving from Levi's priesthood a tithe to a higher and greater priesthood, which is

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Melchizedek's priesthood. Therefore, it is without any dispute, it cannot be argued, and it cannot be disputed that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.

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And if Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, then here's what we know, the picture is never as great as the reality.

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And Melchizedek is a picture of what? The Lord Jesus Christ. If you walk out into the wilderness, and you get a great view of something from the top of Schweitzer, you go up on Baldy, or some other mountaintop around here, you take a picture out at the beautiful area in which we live.

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What is greater, the picture of that reality, or the reality of that reality? The reality is greater.

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Melchizedek is the picture. Jesus Christ is the reality. And therefore, it is without any dispute that the priesthood that Jesus occupies is greater than the priesthood that any high priest in the

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Old Testament occupies. Why is that? He's gonna tell us later on, because he ever lives to make intercession for us.

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Friends, this is our high priest. He, in his divine nature, is without beginning, he is without end, he possesses that priesthood, eternally so, and he ever lives to make intercession for us.

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And he did this, making effective intercession for all who are his, applying the blood of his sacrifice and his perfect atonement to our account, long before you even heard the word

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Melchizedek. And it is for that reason that you are safe and secure. You don't have to know anything about Melchizedek in order for the sacrifice of Christ and his work as our high priest to be effective for you.

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That's the beauty of it. And he does it even now. And he'll still be doing it tomorrow, and next week, and next month, interceding for all who are his, not for those who are not his, for all who are his.

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And he does it effectively, he does it perfectly, and for that reason we are secure. Those powerheads. Our Father, we love you and we thank you that that which we needed, because that which we needed for salvation and for righteousness, you have abundantly and perfectly provided in your

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Son and through the sacrifice of your Son. We thank you that you have not left us ruined and undone in our sin, but that by your grace you have provided a sacrifice that perfectly atones for our sin.

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And that the very one who offered the blood of his sacrifice, that perfect sacrifice, also then has come into heaven and presented that sacrifice before you.

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And he now sits at your right hand and intercedes for us, making perfect and effective intercession on our behalf.

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We thank you that we have such a high priest who never dies, never will die, and has been appointed as our mediator to stand in our stead and to represent us, and that he will do so everlastingly.

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It is a perfect salvation that we rejoice in, and the perfect grace that has made it available and made it effective to those who believe.

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We thank you for your mercy, we thank you for your grace and your compassion and for the forgiveness of our sins, and we gladly rejoice that there is a high priest who is greater than all others, and that he is our high priest, and that he belongs to the covenant of the redeemed, and that we can have him as our savior, and we can have him as our king.