He Belongs To An Exalted Order

Please stand for the Old Testament scripture reading if you'd like to follow along. It is Genesis 14 beginning in verse 8.

Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, the king of Zeboiim, the king of Bela, that is

Zor, went out, and they joined battle in the valley of Sidon. Now the valley of Sidon was full of the tomb and pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and some of them fell, and the rest fled into the hill country.

So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way.

They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.

Then one who escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshul and of Aner.

They were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

As he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them, and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.

Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsmen, Lot, with his possessions, and the women and the people.

After his return from the defeat of Shiverloam, and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shevan, that is, the king's valley, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be

Abram, by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. For the

New Testament reading, turn your Bibles to Hebrews 5, verses 1 through 10, and also we'll be reading out of chapter 6, 19 and 20, and that'd be 1003 in your hymn

Bibles. Hebrews 5, 1 through 10, for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to other gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward, since he himself is best beset with weakness.

Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sin, just as he does for those of the people.

And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place,

You are the priest forever, after the order of Echelzadech. In the days of his flesh,

Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Being designated by God as the high priest after the order of Echelzadech. Chapter 6, verse 19 and 20.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Echelzadech.

Remain standing. If you would, take your

Bibles and turn to Psalm 110, and then after we've read

Psalm 110, we will go to our text for this morning, Hebrews 7, 1 through 10.

So let's begin with Psalm 110, and I'll be reading the first four verses.

The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.

From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Now, if you would, turn to our text this morning, Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7, we'll read the first 10 verses. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high

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

And to him, Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the

Son of God, he continues a priest forever. See how great this man was to whom

Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these are also descended from Abraham.

But this man, who does not have his descent from them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case, tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

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

For he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. Let's pray.

Father, as we enter into Scripture now, we pray that you would make it clear to us. And Lord, above all, that you would take us to the feet of Jesus.

Lord God, help us to see that even in these involved passages, these mysterious places, you have a purpose.

So we pray that you would help us to know the importance of this Melchizedek, and more importantly, the importance of the

Lord Jesus. And we will thank you as you do that this morning. In his name, amen.

Sir Manning David, I'm sorry, Sir David Manning is the

British ambassador to the United States. He deserves to be dressed as Sir David Manning because he belongs to the order of St.

Michael and St. George. He is Sir David Manning because he belongs to a distinguished order named after two military saints.

Now Jesus belongs to a particular order as well. The order of Melchizedek, an order of which he is the only member.

Now, let's zero back in on the text. It's been some weeks since we've been here. So let's figure out how we got where we got.

Remember that our pastor writers told us that Jesus was appointed as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

You heard that in the New Testament reading a few moments ago in chapter five and at the end of chapter six.

And he argues that Jesus is a superior high priest compared to the

Levitical high priests of the old covenant. He's made that clear in chapter five.

Jesus' priesthood, as we just heard, is similar to the priests of the old days because like them, he represents men to God.

He is in solidarity with them because he is a man. And finally, he was appointed just like all other priests to that office.

And yet, as you read, as you heard in chapter five, in its representation, in its solidarity, and in its appointment, it is superior to the old covenant priesthood.

And he really drives home that point. In chapter five, verses five and six, where he says two things, he quotes

Psalm 2 and then Psalm 110 in those two verses.

In verses five and six, quoting Psalm 2, he says, Jesus' priesthood is superior because he's the son of God.

He is the king. And so he is a divine, kingly priest.

And then in verses, in that same verse, he quotes

Psalm 110, saying that Jesus is a forever priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And then he abruptly leaves that conversation. If you remember at the end of, or at verse 11 or verse 10 of chapter five, he abruptly leaves the conversation.

And he says to you, about that order of Melchizedek, I have much to say, but I have to leave that discussion for a bit because of your spiritual immaturity and your infantile spiritual appetites.

And so then, you remember, he goes into this extended warning of what will happen to us in that kind of immaturity if we remain sluggish like that.

But then he ends at the end of chapter six with some words of comfort telling us that God has us and we can be assured because of God's promises.

And then he comes back to this whole issue of Melchizedek at the end of chapter six, verses 19 and 20.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul that is Jesus, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So after speaking about Jesus' superior priesthood and likening it to Melchizedek, he gives us these warnings, right?

And then now he comes back and says, okay, having said all that, having warned you, let me tell you then about Melchizedek.

He returns now to the fact that Jesus is a forever priest after the order of Melchizedek as he was promised in Psalm 110, which our writer quotes in chapter five, verse six and alludes to in verse 10.

He says, Jesus is superior to the old priesthood because he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Because he's in that order, the order of Melchizedek, he's superior to the Old Testament priesthood.

And you might ask, well, if Jesus is superior because he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek, what kind of person was

Melchizedek? What is that all about? Don't just tell me that, explain it. Which is what he does now in verses one through 10, okay?

It's what he does. Now he's going to tell you about Melchizedek. And so you need to listen in order to understand because understanding this will point you to the only hope that you have.

Now let me say this right now, right? I'm spoiler alert, okay?

This is all about Jesus and what Jesus can mean to you.

But in order to understand that, we got to go back and understand a little bit about this man called

Melchizedek. Because your hope can only be in Jesus because he's after the order of Melchizedek.

So what do we find here? In the first three verses, we find this, that you need to understand the unique person of Melchizedek.

Verses one through three, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met

Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. And to him, Abraham apportioned a 10th part of everything.

He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness. And then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever.

So he begins, as he talks about this unique person of Melchizedek, he says, let me remind you about this guy named

Melchizedek. Now you heard about him this morning. We read his story, everything there is to say about him, in Genesis chapter 14.

You remember, he's the priest, he's the king priest, who met Abraham after he had defeated the four

Mesopotamian kings. Now you remember, these four Mesopotamian kings arrived in Canaan to go to war against the five

Canaanite kings, including the king of Sodom, where Abraham's nephew lived,

Lot. And the Mesopotamians defeated the Canaanite kings, plundering them, capturing many, including

Lot. And then Abraham got word of this. So he took his own paramilitary forces, and he went to war, this guy with his own forces, went to war against the four kings, and he defeated them.

And then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this king of Salem shows up with bread and wine.

And he blesses Abraham, and Abraham gives him a tenth of all the plunder that he had took.

That's all we know about the guy. That's it. That name, which suddenly appears at this juncture, just as quickly disappears.

And we don't hear anything about him till David mentions him in Psalm 110, saying

God's promise to send a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now, the details of that story that are said, and the details that are left out, are important for understanding

Jesus and his priesthood. So what makes Melchizedek a unique person?

First of all, he is a king -priest. He is a priest, but he's also the king of Salem.

He is a priest -king. And remember what our writer has already asserted in chapter 5, verses 5 and 6, that Jesus is, number one, king, number two, a priest.

Okay? So you see that connection. Melchizedek is a priest of the

Most High God. Now, that should just have bells going off in your head, because you remember that in the

Bible story, Abraham is the one whom God chooses to make his name known to all the nations.

And so here's Abraham moving, like God told him, to Canaan. And all of a sudden, a

Canaanite king shows up who is a priest of the same God.

Right? I mean, right away, you're like, wait a minute. I didn't think anybody else knew about God.

All of a sudden, here's this guy who's the king of the city of Salem, and he's a priest of the

Most High God. Okay? He blesses Abraham. And notice that even though Abraham is the recipient of the promises of God, it says in our text, he blessed

Abraham, the one who'd been chosen by God. Now, what happens then?

Abraham gives him a tithe. He gives him a tenth, right, of all the plunder he's gotten that he gained in battle.

Then he goes on to say, when you translate the word Melchizedek, when you translate that word, it means king of righteousness.

Now, remember, the Old Testament's written in Hebrew. Okay? The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.

Now, the Hebrew word for king is melech. All right?

But if you want to say king of, the form changes, and it becomes melechi.

All right? King of. So it changes that word melech. It then says melechi, which is how you put the of on that.

And then tzedek. Tzedek is the Hebrew word for righteousness.

And so Melchizedek, whom we call Melchizedek, is the king of righteousness.

That's what he means when he says, when you translate his name, what does it mean? It means king of righteousness. It also means that he is a righteous king.

Now, he can also be styled as the king of peace, he goes on to say. He's the king of peace because he is the king of Salem.

Now, the Hebrew word behind Salem is the word shalem, which is a form of the word shalom.

The Hebrew word for peace. He's the king of a city named peace.

He is the king of peace. But then the writer makes a point about the silence in Melchizedek's story.

He makes a point about the details that you don't get in the story. They're totally absent.

Now, in our text here, in chapter 7, verse 3, the text literally says that he is fatherless, motherless, and genealogy -less.

Okay? If you would translate it literally, that's what it would say, genealogy -less. That is no mother, no father, no genealogy.

Genesis is silent about his background. It says nothing about it. Absolutely nothing.

And so he's set apart from normal human experience by these five missing pieces.

Mother, father, family tree, and then what phrase follow?

He says, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. So there's nothing about his birth, nothing about his death.

Genesis is absolutely silent about that. Now, that is really strange because the whole book of Genesis is structured around 10 genealogies.

I don't know if you remember this. Of course, you remember everything I've preached, right? When we went through the book of Genesis, we noticed the structure of Genesis.

It's structured around 10 genealogies. The whole book is structured around genealogies.

How strange that. How strange that. In a book that's structured around genealogies, in which births and deaths, fathers and even mothers are listed.

How strange it is for our writer to make a big deal of that.

I mean, that's what the book is about. Now, in order to serve as a priest in Israel, you had to establish your genealogy.

Every priest in Israel had to come from the tribe of Levi. And you were supposed to be able to trace your genealogy back to Levi.

And then on top of that, there was another genealogy within the genealogy. And that is the line of Aaron.

Aaron's a son of Levi as well. But Aaron, in order to be a high priest, you had to show your genealogy that connected you to Aaron.

So although he's a worshiper of the Most High, although he is a priest of the

Most High, he has no genealogical credentials to present to show you he has a right to that office.

And our writer is essentially saying all those things are irrelevant for this great priest.

His priesthood is not based on genealogy or birth, nor is it ended by death, as everyone else would expect the record to show.

Now, what's the point? He is like Jesus. Notice. But he resembles the

Son of God because he continues as a priest forever. Now, it's not saying that Melchizedek is still alive.

It's saying he resembles Jesus because he's like Jesus whose priesthood is neither based on birth, nor does it end in life.

Jesus' priesthood is not based on genealogy either because Jesus is not of the tribe of Levi.

Yet he's a priest. He's a priest like Melchizedek. Jesus, in other words, is the forever priest prophesied in Psalm 110 who would be in the order of Melchizedek.

He's a forever priest. You see, the story of Melchizedek is not some kind of mystery that God wants us to unravel.

Like, right away. See, we spend the most ink on the things the Bible says the least about.

Like, wait a minute. How could there be a Canaanite king who's a priest and who worships

God? How is that possible? And why wasn't he involved with the other kings in fighting off the

Mesopotamians? And on and on and on it goes. But God didn't give us this so that we'd have a great mystery to unravel.

That's not the point. The issue is that he points ahead to someone greater that is

Jesus. He resembles the Son of God. Jesus is the forever priest.

The priest who brings you to this most high God. And he's most high because this

God cannot abide sin. He hates it. And he will punish all sinners.

But you have a priest that makes you presentable to God. Or that you can go before God.

A sinner has no right to even stand in God's presence. And this priest can never die.

And so he's always there to make your case. To say to God, I've got the wounds to prove it.

I died for that person. And I represent him. If you've trusted in Jesus, that's what's happening.

He is a priest forever before God. Well, God tells you more about Melchizedek so that you understand that Jesus is superior.

And then in verses 4 -10. 1 -3 he's talked about the unique person of Melchizedek. Now he talks about his unique position.

Understand the unique position of Melchizedek. Verses 4 -10.

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

And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people.

That is, from their brothers. Though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man, who does not have his descent from them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

One might even say that Levi himself who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham. For he was still in the loins of his ancestor when

Melchizedek met him. Understand the unique position of Melchizedek. First of all, he serves as the priest for Abraham.

He serves as Abraham's priest. Now he starts out in verse 4 by saying, see how great this man was.

That is not where you are going to go. When you read Genesis, who is the hero of the story? Who is the hero of that story?

Abraham is. Abraham is where you want to fix your eyes. But he says, no, no. I want you to fix your eyes on Melchizedek.

Because great as Abraham was, the very patriarch of the whole nation of Israel, the very greatness of that patriarch is surpassed by this mysterious king priest.

He is even greater. How do you know that? Abraham gave him a tenth of the hard -won spoils of war that he possessed.

Now why did Abraham tithe his plunder? Why did he do that? What was the deal?

By giving Melchizedek a tithe, he recognized him as his priest.

He recognized him as his priest. That he was his intermediary between God and him.

To tithe to a priest in worship was to recognize that priest's authority to intercede for God on your behalf.

Now he says, remember that the Levites were the ones who collected tithes in worship from their brother

Israelites. The Levites occupied a privileged position. They lived off the tithes of the other tribes.

By law, the other tribes were to pay their tithes to the Levites. And in that particular privileged position, they exacted the tithe from the rest of Israel.

And all of them were descended from Abraham. Even though they're brothers, they're getting the tithe from all those brothers.

They're all part of the same nation. But Melchizedek stands outside of those boundaries. Here's the point.

Melchizedek isn't even in those boundaries. He was not a son of Abraham. He's not even an

Israelite. He cannot be compared to the Levites who received tithes from the fellow

Levites. He occupies an entirely different category of priest.

He stands outside of Israel, and yet he collected a tithe from the patriarch of Israel.

And not to put too fine a point on it, he finally says, and by the way, Melchizedek blessed

Abraham, and the superior always blesses the inferior. It's not the other way around.

The tithe went from the worshiper through the priest to God, and a blessing proceeded from God through the priest to the worshiper.

The priest had authority to confer God's blessing on the worshiper, and even to the one who has the promises of God.

Here, then, is a priest who is superior to, who is greater than Abraham himself.

Okay? Now you see where his argument is going. He's greater than Abraham, who's the father of Levi, from whom all the priests come.

He's greater than even the patriarch. You see as well that Melchizedek served as Levi's priest in verses 8 through 10.

Now again, he picks up the issue of the Levitical priesthood. But the writer makes another distinction between them and Melchizedek.

He makes another distinction. Those Levites who collected all those tithes from their brothers eventually died, to be succeeded by other priests who died.

To be succeeded by other priests who died. Their priesthood ended at their deaths.

They were mortal. But the text says nothing about Melchizedek's death, or to priests succeeding him.

So the text testifies to a living priesthood, as it were. Melchizedek points to Jesus as the resurrected one.

So he says, do you want to attach yourself to priests who die? Or to a greater priest who conquered death and lives forever?

You see? That's where he's going with us. Anyone who ministers after the order of Melchizedek must be superior.

And he is. Because there is no death that ends his priesthood.

Finally, he says, Melchizedek occupies that position greater than Levi, or the

Levites in their priesthood, because they paid a tithe to him. He said, wait a minute, they weren't even there. Well, yeah, as he says, they were there in the person of their father,

Abraham. And so they paid tithes. They paid tithes to Melchizedek.

He is their priest as well, even superior to them since they paid him. If then the priesthood of Melchizedek surpasses that of the

Levites, then Jesus, who is in the order of Melchizedek, is superior to those old priests.

And that's where he's going to take us. If you keep reading, and I hope you do, that's where he's going to take us.

He says, therefore, we have a greater high priest. Now, why spend all this pen and ink on a shadowy figure from ancient history?

You know what? God is not in the business of writing great mystery stories.

He is in the business of telling his story. And his story always leads you to Jesus.

Never forget that. The story that God tells is his story.

All of the Bible is his story. And it's leading to one point. To this one called

Jesus. To Jesus, the superior forever priest.

You reply, that's interesting. I don't need a priest.

A priest hardly ever entered my mind. So, you know, can't we just skip over this part?

Some of you, or all of us, have to realize this. You cannot go to God with your sin.

God doesn't just sit up there. Folks, this may surprise you. God doesn't sit up there and say, hey, everybody makes mistakes.

You know, I'm not going to judge you. Who am I to judge? Only the supreme holy ruler of the universe, he has the right to judge.

And he says, you cannot come to me with your sin. I hate it, and my wrath will be poured out on sinners.

What do we do about that? There has to be a sacrifice offered to turn away his wrath.

What do we do about that? Let me tell you something. You all here, if I can use that term, you have all tried other priests.

Some of you have even gone to real priests. Who are set up as priests.

You've gone to confess your sin. You've gone to those priests who somehow, I don't know by what authority, absolved you of your sin.

But guess what? They die. What happens then? More to the point, what happens when you die, and you don't have that priest?

Then what are you going to do? You say, well, I've never gone to a priest. Well, let me suggest to you some other things here that some of you have.

Some, trying to deal with your sin and your guilt, have gone to the priests called therapists and doctors.

Because inside you have this foreboding that your life isn't right, and there are emotions that are flying around, and you want to get rid of those.

And I'm saying to you, those priests fail every time. They never deal with the real problem, which is your sin.

You need a priest who can turn away God's judgment. You need Jesus, the forever priest.

You know what? Most everybody has served as their own priest. They have.

You know how they do it? You offer sacrifices of good intentions, and a resolve to do better.

And somehow God's wrath will be turned away from you, because you say, God, I'm going to do better.

From now on, I'm going to obey you. It doesn't do any good. That will not turn away the wrath of God, because you can never offer anything good enough to do it.

He is so holy. He is the most high. You can't even be a priest yourself.

You need a superior, forever priest, and his name is Jesus. Now listen to me.

He's yours if you just rest in him. Get rid of your resolve.

Stop going to the other priests, and go to this one, and say,

Jesus, your sacrifice, it's all I need. I'm going to trust in the sacrifice you've made.

And that superior, forever priest will bring to you forgiveness from this

God most high, who will not be appeased with anything else but the sacrifice of his son.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that we have a priest after the order of Melchizedek, a priest whose priesthood never ends, a priest who is far superior than any other priest we could go to, ourselves or anyone else.

Help us to rest in that priest, to rest in the offering that he has made on our behalf.

Thank you. Thank you for this priest. We pray this in his name.