Who Is this Mystery Man Genesis 14:18-20

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Sometimes, I look back at my childhood and I'm amazed at how much fun we had.
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I grew up on the west end of Lake Winnetonka in my family and I lived on an island. This island had a couple thousand people who lived on it and I had several neighborhood friends who
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I would hang out with. We used to play every sport you could possibly think of. We played baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, and more, all at the park that we had on the island.
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In this regard, my childhood was not much different from a typical child growing up in the late 90s.
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But there was one thing I did in my childhood that people would think is rather odd. While most of my friends were watching cartoons, my friend
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Kevin and I watched the show Unsolved Mysteries. Some of you maybe remember this program.
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It was hosted and narrated by Robert Stack, who was kind of an eerie figure himself.
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And it had an eerie theme song that opened the show. And at the end of the intro, they would always tell the audience, maybe you can solve the mystery.
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They showed mysteries ranging from finding a murder suspect, to missing persons, to sightings of sasquatch -like creatures.
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The show was successful as it aired continuously for almost 15 years.
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Why was a show like this so successful? Why did it attract my friend
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Kevin and I? It was successful because people like mysteries. And today, in this sermon, we are going to tackle a mystery as we try to figure out the significance of the mystery man,
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Melchizedek. Who is this king of Salem that we saw in our text last week?
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Is he an angel? Is he the pre -incarnate Christ? Or is he a significant priest that predated the
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Old Testament priesthood? We are going to have two passages in our sermon today.
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The first place we will be is in Genesis, Genesis 14, verses 18 through 20.
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We are also going to be in Hebrews 7, because in Hebrews 7, the author goes into detail about who this man was, and his connection to Jesus.
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So I encourage you to maybe put a bookmark in both places. It is on page 12 if you are using a
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Red Pew Bible for Genesis 14, and it is on page 1191 if you are in Hebrews 7.
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We are going to start today in Genesis 14, and what
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I am going to do is read the three verses that describe this man,
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Melchizedek, and this is the only historical mention of this man's life. These are the three verses we saw last week, and then we are going to look in Hebrews in a little bit.
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But first, I am going to start in Genesis 14, verses 18 through 20, where it says, And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
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He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.
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And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
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And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. And last week, we saw in our proposition, our big idea, in Abram's journey home, we were to take note of the character of two kings for your spiritual benefit.
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And we saw the first two points last week. The first point was, he is confronted by an ungodly king, unworthy of emulation.
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And the second point was that he was met by a godly king who is worthy of emulation.
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The king unworthy of emulation was, of course, the king of Sodom. He was a great sinner, and he said,
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Give me, instead of giving him the honor that he deserved. The second king here, of course, is
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Melchizedek, the king of Salem. This is a man we should emulate because he honored
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Abram the way he deserved to be honored. And so now we're going to look at the moment this whole sermon has been building up to.
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We already saw the ungodly character of one king and the godly character of the other, but now we are going to figure out the spiritual significance of this mystery man,
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Melchizedek. Who is this man who blessed the man,
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Abram? And Abram offered a tithe to him. What's significant here is that you offer a blessing to someone greater than you are.
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So, Father Abram, who's a very significant figure in the Bible, offers an offering to someone who is greater than he is.
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And what we will see is that Melchizedek's priesthood is greater than the
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Israelite priesthood that comes from Abram's line. We're going to see that today.
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This passage is the only mention of Melchizedek's life. We don't know many details about him.
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We don't know who his ancestors were, and we don't know when he died or who came after him.
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There have been many views brought forward about who this man was. Some Jewish interpreters thought
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Melchizedek was the archangel Michael, but most Jewish interpreters saw him as a man who was the first high priest before God Most High.
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And actually, Jewish historian Josephus believed that Melchizedek was the first king and priest of Jerusalem, since Salem is the old name of Jerusalem.
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Others thought that this was Noah's son Shem, who was, of course,
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Noah's godly son. Remember, Noah had three sons, and from Shem comes Abram, the line, the blessed line that God is working through.
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And Shem would have been a contemporary of Abram. So some thought, well, maybe Shem is the one who confronted and greeted
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Abram. Probably not, but that's an interesting idea.
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Now, in order to figure out who this man was, we need to look at other places in Scripture that describe his significance.
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Martin Luther once said that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. He said,
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Scripture interprets Scripture, because other places in the Bible shed light on places where you're having a hard time figuring something out.
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And that is what we have here. King David, in Psalm 110, and the author of Hebrews write on the importance of this man and his relationship to Jesus.
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And what these authors do is show how Jesus is different from the high priests of Israel that was put forth by the law of Moses.
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And while showing the difference between Jesus and the high priests of Israel, these authors show the similarity between Jesus and Melchizedek, the king of Salem.
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The first place we see the significance of Melchizedek is in the messianic psalm of Psalm 110.
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And I say messianic psalm because there are psalms that actually make predictions about the future king of Israel who was to come.
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So I'm going to read the first four verses of this psalm.
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And before I do, I want to stress that this is a prediction of a future messiah who is going to reign on the earth.
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So Psalm 110, verses 1 through 4, says the Lord says to my
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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.
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Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.
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From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
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You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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Alright, we see his name show up there, that this messiah is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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When David says the Lord said to my Lord, the first Lord he mentions is referring to God, the
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Lord God. The second Lord he mentions is a different Hebrew word. The first Hebrew word is the name of God, and that is
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Yahweh. And the second word means master. So God, in Psalm 110, is talking to another who is called
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Lord, and this is the messiah. The Lord tells him that he is supposed to rule in the midst of his enemies.
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And in verse 4, the Lord swears that he is going to do this. God closes by saying, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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So this future king is not only going to be a king, he is also going to be a priest.
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And that's why our first point here, or actually it's our third point, the first two points were last week.
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The third point of this sermon today is that this king priest reflects
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Christ's saving role as eternal high priest. So this king priest,
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Melchizedek was a king priest, this king priest reflects Christ's saving role as eternal high priest.
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And in order to understand the significance of a high priest, we have to understand the significance of the
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Old Testament priesthood. During the time of Moses and his brother
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Aaron, the Lord commanded Israel to have a priesthood. These would be people who would enter the holy place in the tabernacle or the temple, the temple would replace the tabernacle, and offer sacrifices to God for the sins of the people.
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And there are two different types of priests. There were many priests who performed temple duties.
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But there was only one high priest who could enter the most holy place in God's temple.
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And the succession of the priesthood went through the family. So Aaron was the first high priest.
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Aaron is Moses' brother. And Aaron's sons would follow. Israel had a priest until the temple was destroyed and the
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Israelites were taken into exile in the 6th century BC. So for about a thousand years straight, they had a high priest who did these duties, who was able to go into the most holy place and offer sacrifices for his own sins and for the sins of the people.
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But the New Testament makes a connection between Jesus and Melchizedek to point out how these men contrast with the
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Old Testament priests of Israel. The author of Hebrews talks about Jesus' relationship to Melchizedek in Hebrews 5 -7.
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But the author gets to the heart of it in Hebrews 7. So if you want to flip over there right now, this would be a good time to do so.
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That is where we are going to place much of our focus here. In verses 11 -18 of Hebrews 7.
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Actually 11 -28, correction. What I am going to do is read in sections and then explain to you what is going on in each section.
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So there's two sections here. The first is verses 11 -17 and the second section is verses 18 -28.
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So let's look here at verses 11 -17. Now if perfection had been attainable through the
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Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?
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For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.
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For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe,
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Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
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For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness.
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Alright, so let's stop right there. At this point, you need to understand the twelve tribes of Israel.
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The Levites were one of the twelve, and so was the tribe of Judah. The twelve tribes of Israel actually come from Jacob, Abram's grandson, and so there's twelve sons from there, and from each of those lines comes a different tribe.
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And so two of those tribes are Levi and Judah, the Levites and the people from Judah.
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And out of the Levitical tribe came the priests. So Aaron comes from the
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Levi tribe, and only from this tribe did priests come. Jesus came not from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah.
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The kings of Israel came from the tribe of Judah, not the priests.
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So why does the author of Hebrews make a connection between Jesus and the Melchizedek from Genesis?
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The answer is, Melchizedek has no ancestry mentioned in Genesis.
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It's just him. There's no tracing from before him, and there's nothing after him. There is no one mentioned in relation to him.
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Now, this does not mean that he did not have parents. He most certainly did, and he may have had children as well after him.
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But the author uses Melchizedek as an analogy for Jesus. An analogy is comparing two things that are similar but different.
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Obviously, Jesus and Melchizedek are different. One is the Son of God, and one is a human king -priest.
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But the similarity that the author of Hebrews draws between the two is that just as Melchizedek was a priest not from the line of Levi, so was
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Christ, as he descends from Judah. And just as Melchizedek did not become a priest because of his ancestors, so did
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Christ. So that is what we can draw from the first section in Hebrews 7 .11
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-17. You see how he's comparing Jesus with this king -priest?
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Jesus is a king -priest. Melchizedek is a king -priest. None of them becomes a priest based off of ancestry.
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God just appointed them to that position. Now, the next section in Hebrews 7, verses 18 -28, tells us something else.
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So look with me again. We're going to read this now, and then I'll explain what the author of Hebrews is getting after here.
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Verse 18. This makes
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Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.
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But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.
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Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
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For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
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He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
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For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.
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Okay, so let me explain that. The first section in Hebrews 7 showed us that Jesus was similar to Melchizedek, and that neither one became a priest because of bodily descent.
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In the second section, the author draws an analogy between the fact that no priest came after Melchizedek, and no priest will come after Christ.
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This section mentions that the first priesthood, the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament, was not made with an oath.
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The Lord made it without making a promise. This is so because the
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Old Testament Levitical priesthood was only going to be temporary. But the priesthood that God the
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Father makes with his Son, Jesus Christ, is made with an oath. The Lord promised in Psalm 110, verse 4,
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The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, You are a priest forever.
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The Lord is making this promise that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, is going to be the high priest.
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The Old Covenant, which was the Law of Moses, had only a temporary use.
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And now the Lord establishes the New Covenant, which is an everlasting covenant. It's never going to be replaced with something else.
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We enter the New Covenant through the blood of Christ, where Christ constantly makes intercession for us as our high priest.
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Actually, in the Lord's Supper, in the words of Institution, I say that, let me see if I can remember how
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I say it, that it's through his blood, through the covenant of the new blood, that Christ shed, that we are able to enter this new covenant.
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Those are in the words of Institution. Now, verse 23 explains that the
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Old Testament priests could not continue as priests because they would die. And another would have to replace him.
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But Christ, as the eternal high priest, continues on forever. This is what verses 24 and 25 say.
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But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God, through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
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So you can see the comparison between Melchizedek and Christ here. Melchizedek did not have anyone after him, nor does
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Christ have anyone after him. He is the final high priest.
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And the author of Hebrews draws this comparison masterfully. Christ is so much different from the
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Old Testament priests because they first had to offer sacrifices for their own sins, because they were sinners.
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And then for the sins of the people. But Jesus does not have to offer sacrifices for himself because he is sinless.
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He is the sacrifice. And he is perfect. That's what verses 26 and 27 say.
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It was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
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He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he himself did this once for all when he offered up himself.
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So he, Jesus, made us right with God through his sacrifice as he paid for our sins.
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He entered the holy place of God, which is heaven. And so we can forever have this fellowship with God because he interceded for us.
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He interceded for us as our high priest. And he forever intercedes for us as our high priest.
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Because he enters the holy place with his own blood that he shed. And I mentioned that holy place is heaven.
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So we can go to heaven to be with God because he stands between us and God as our high priest forever.
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So when we talk about Billy Graham going to heaven, when we celebrate that, the only way
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Billy Graham or anybody is going to heaven is through this. It's through Christ's eternal priesthood where he shed his blood forever for us.
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God counts it forever. He's our high priest forever. And we should say amen to that.
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And his intercession is eternal because he is eternal. Romans 6 verse 9 says,
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We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.
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Death no longer has dominion over him. In a few weeks, about a month down the road, we're going to celebrate
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Resurrection Sunday or Easter. And that is a celebration of the resurrection of Christ.
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Jesus is almost 2 ,000 years old when we consider the fact that he was raised from the dead.
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In his humanity, he's that old. And he's going to be the God -man forever. And so we rejoice over that.
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Now we just saw a treasure from Holy Scripture. And I hope you can see that the Bible is a supernatural book.
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It really is. Every time we read this book, we should be blown away as we read it. And God's plan to bring a people to himself through the blood of Christ is an incredible plan that God has already brought to pass.
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We see the gospel here that Jesus is our eternal high priest. So this is the third example that we are to take note of.
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This king -priest reflects Christ's saving role as eternal high priest.
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And that's our third and final point from this two -part sermon. So in Abram's journey home, we were to take note of two kings that are polar opposites of each other for your spiritual benefit.
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And we've seen three examples. Number one was he is confronted by an ungodly king unworthy of emulation.
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Number two was a godly king welcomes Abram worthy of emulation.
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And the third example was this king -priest reflects Christ's saving role as eternal high priest.
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I began this sermon by saying that we were going to figure out who this mystery man Melchizedek was.
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And what we saw is that he's not the pre -incarnate Christ. He was not an angel.
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He was not to be worshipped. He was a priest -king who served the
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Lord. A priest -king who predated the Old Testament priesthood.
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And he had the authority to bless others like he did to Abram to show his significance.
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And this man was pointing ahead to a king -priest, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would be a king and a priest forever.
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And what we see is that the author of Hebrews uses Melchizedek as a type of Christ. He is not
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Christ, but he has these similarities with him. And the author of Hebrews does a good job showing us those similarities.
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And the similarities we saw were just as Melchizedek is a king -priest, so is Christ. Just as Melchizedek's priesthood is greater than the
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Levitical, so is Christ's. Just as Melchizedek did not become a priest from bodily descent, so did
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Christ since he came from the tribe of Judah. Just as Melchizedek did not have a priest after him, so does
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Christ. No priest comes after him. As he is the eternal high -priest who always makes intercession for sinners.
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So what a beautiful truth we have seen from the Bible. And next week, as all the people who got stuck in the snow today will join us.
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And by the way, I encourage you to tell those people, listen to the sermon so they don't fall behind.
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Next week we are going to look at a covenant the Lord makes with Abram, known as the
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Abrahamic Covenant. And this covenant is such a significant covenant. To understand the
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Bible, the flow of scripture, the biblical theology of the Bible. And you are going to see how it impacts you.
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So I look forward to doing that next week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word.
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Lord, every week, whoever you bring is who you brought. And I'm so glad, Lord, that each one who was here was able to hear from your word today.
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To see this beautiful truth explained. And I hope, Lord, that people understand.
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And if there's any confusion, I pray that you bring them clarity. Lord, thank you for giving us the ability to understand these beautiful truths of scripture.
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We thank you, Lord, that Jesus is our eternal high -priest. He's not only our king, he's our priest.
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And he offered up himself so that we could stand with you forever. We can be in your presence forever.
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Only in the Old Testament, only the high -priest could be in your presence in the most holy place.
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And because Jesus is there eternally and has paid for our sins, we are able to stand in your presence for all time.