Jesus Christ: A Greater Priest - [Hebrews 7:1-10]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

1 view

0 comments

00:00
well this morning to start the service for the sermon at least, I'd like to have some word association with you to get you to think about what
00:08
I'm thinking about, that is the text if I say this word what comes in your mind immediately?
00:15
if I say the word Melchizedek what's the first thing that pops into your mind for word association?
00:23
maybe some of you think that I was speaking in tongues, maybe that's what you thought maybe some of you think it's maybe a celebrity child's name which
00:33
I've seen in the past include gravity pilot inspector Zuma Nesta Rock and others but when
00:42
I say the word Melchizedek, I hope you're thinking this is the priest that informs us about the
00:48
Lord Jesus Christ this is a priest that helps us understand the work of Christ the intercessor and the one who gives a sacrifice in a world of moralism and pragmatism and how -tos in sermons, unless you understand what
01:03
Melchizedek did and who Melchizedek is you cannot fully comprehend the person and work of the
01:11
Lord Jesus Christ he's a very important figure in the Bible and if you'll take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews Hebrews 7, this morning we're going to look at the priestly order of Melchizedek you, friend, need a priest if you've sinned and I know you have because of Adam I know
01:28
I have as well in Adam and also by our own nature if you have sinned, you need a priest you need a priest who offers a sacrifice for your sins you need a priest who makes intercession for you before the throne of God and Jesus is a priest he's a prophet yes, he's a king yes, but he's also a priest and that's what the book of Hebrews is about that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for sins as a great high priest he's the intercessor for sinners as a great high priest and he is the ultimate mediator now another word while you're turning to Hebrews for word association is this if I say the word forever what goes through your mind?
02:10
Melchizedek seems like a strange character but what about when I say the word forever probably words like everlasting go through your mind and eternal and constantly and perpetually if you combine the two words
02:25
Melchizedek and forever you get Hebrews chapter seven for instance look at chapter seven verse three he is a 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 look at verse seventeen of the same chapter please for it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek verse twenty one but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said in him the
02:58
Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever verse twenty four but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever and then finally combining these terms priest and forever in the same verse to give us a a picture of the entire chapter
03:18
Hebrews seven twenty eight 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
03:31
Jesus Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek and he does this work for his people forever
03:40
I call this the priest chapter the forever chapter and it is important that we'll see for twenty eight verses do you see how many verses are in the chapter twenty eight verses you have this exposition about this man named
03:52
Melchizedek have you ever heard I should probably just ask a question who here has heard a whole sermon on Melchizedek some have but not many after today everybody can raise their hand
04:02
I see that hand there in the back since God's character never changes he's always holy and therefore has wrath upon sin it never changes that we need a mediator a priest to stand before God and his character and therefore his law it's not just we get saved and everything's fine and we no longer need
04:23
God as a priest you need a king of priest you need a king of peace you need a high priest and this entire book the book of Hebrews is written to Jews who are thinking about going back to their old priesthood how hard is it to change for fourteen hundred years the
04:45
Jews have had a Levitical system an Aaronic priesthood and now this writer is saying no no no that's all in the past that all pointed to a greater priest but this is all now done because you have a better priest a new priest a high priest to tell a bunch of Jewish people for fourteen hundred years you've done it this way and now let me tell you the new way it's difficult especially if those
05:11
Jews that you're preaching to are getting persecuted for believing this new way if we just run back to the old way everything's going to be fine and so this writer writes a sermon he writes a letter it's a letter sermon and he's trying to exhort them what you believe about Jesus is important if you want me to summarize everything about Melchizedek it's this when
05:33
I say the word Jesus Christ those words what comes into your mind is the most important thing about you and you've got to have categories of prophet yes he proclaims
05:44
God's word and represents God as king yes out of all the kings king he's the king out of all the lords lording he's the lord but he's also a priest you have to be thinking prophet king and priest so that when you maybe you're not getting persecuted in your life but when things go bad things are difficult instead of running back to the old religion you think you know what what
06:07
I believe about Lord Jesus Christ is important and it helps me to get through this trial to think rightly for 1500 years almost these
06:17
Jews had a priesthood and it was a good picture it was an echo but it was not to be permanent
06:23
Jesus is the goal everything is looking forward to that Matthew Henry the commentator said this nothing made the
06:31
Jews so fond of the Levitical dispensation as the high esteem they had of their priesthood and it was doubtless a sacred and the most institution most excellent institution it was very severe threatening therefore that this writer denounces the
06:47
Jews can you imagine I have to go back on my old religion and by the way, that's the at the heart of the religion this is like a poke in the eye you're going after the priesthood and here the writer saying
06:58
Jesus is a better priest he's merciful he's a better priest he's faithful and he's approachable and Melchizedek is going to point you to the
07:07
Lord Jesus I like to think of Melchizedek as the Old Testament version of John the
07:13
Baptist remember what John the Baptist did? don't look at me look to Jesus and that's exactly what
07:19
Melchizedek does here as we see in Hebrews chapter 7 do you notice how the end of chapter 6 ends?
07:26
where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and now we move into an exposition of Melchizedek who is
07:39
Melchizedek? where are we going? that's right where are we going?
07:47
to whom shall we go? for 28 verses
07:52
I mean when we think about Melchizedek oh yeah some Old Testament priest or somebody you know Jesus is related to him
07:58
God wants you to know 28 verses in the book of Hebrews and this is a good chapter to come to the
08:06
Bible and say you know what Lord? there are lots of things I underline in my Bible and I'm glad you do
08:14
I'm glad you have a marker and you underline things but how many people underline things about Melchizedek?
08:21
have you underlined anything in chapter 7? maybe towards the end but everything here is inspired and breathed out by God and so mentally we should be thinking this all needs to be underlined
08:33
Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek now to understand
08:41
Melchizedek better why don't we go to the Old Testament and see where Melchizedek is discussed not
08:48
Psalm 110 he's discussed there but Genesis chapter 14 let's go to Genesis chapter 14 and take a look at Melchizedek S.
08:59
Lewis Johnson said Genesis 14 has great importance for biblical Christology for it is the beginning of the unfolding in depth of the high priestly ministry of the
09:08
Lord Jesus one old writer said it is the most important chapters in all the book of Genesis maybe you thought it was
09:16
Genesis 1 or Genesis 3 another writer said if a writer of the New Testament considered Old Testament episodes even something so brief as this encounter with Melchizedek so important we would do well to become as familiar as possible with the wealth of information
09:33
God has revealed in the Old Testament Genesis chapter 14 what has happened in chapter 12 of Genesis Abraham has been called and God said you're gonna be a great nation
09:44
I'm gonna make your name great and I'm gonna bless you and you're gonna be a blessing to the other nations and then there's a famine in the land and so Abraham goes down to Egypt he's with Lot as they return and he gives
09:57
Lot his choice of land and Abraham takes the other part and we come to Genesis chapter 14 now there's a lot of names here of kings it's the first war in the
10:09
Bible and this is really like a military battle going on and what comes out of the battle is the important part
10:18
I'm not gonna read every verse but let's start in Genesis chapter 14 verse 1 in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar Eriach king of Elessar Ketalamar king of Elam and Tidal king of Goim these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom that sounds familiar
10:37
Bersha king of Gomorrah Shinab king of Adma Shemember king of Zeboim and king of Bela that is
10:45
Zoar and all these forces in the valley of Sedim that is the salt sea down by the Dead Sea 12 years they had served
10:52
Ketalamar but in the 13th year they rebel these powerful eastern kings invade the
10:59
Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea and there's a battle in verse 8 it says the king of Sodom the king of Gomorrah the king of Adma the king of Zeboim and the king of Bela that is
11:11
Zoar went out and they battle in the valley of Sedim with Ketalamar king of Elam Tidal king of Goim Amraphel king of Shinar and Ariat king of Al -Asar four kings against five now the valley of Sedim was full of bitumen pits and the rest and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell some fled sorry, king of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and some fell into them
11:34
I messed up on my words because I was thinking about La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles where all those mastodons would get stuck in the tar and they couldn't get out it's very hard to fight with these bitumen pits everywhere verse 11 so the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way so what's the big deal?
11:58
it doesn't matter does it? all these kings fighting that's just what they do here's why it matters verse 12 they also took
12:05
Lot the son of Abram's brother who was dwelling in Sodom Abraham didn't choose that Lot chose
12:13
Sodom and now he's been captured and his possessions and went their way then the one who escaped that was pretty lucky by the way the great god of fortune had this one escape and one escaped and told
12:27
Abram and first time here's a description of Abram the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of Mamre the
12:34
Amorite brother of Eshgal and Aner these were the allies of Abram I am positive there were a thousand other fights that went on back in those days that are not recorded in the
12:45
Bible dog fights and kings and fighting and battles not recorded why is this one recorded?
12:51
because Lot's involved because Abram's involved and we're going to introduce a character named Melchizedek what do you think
12:58
Abram did? Lot got what he deserved finally that rascal that scoundrel is going to get it when
13:06
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 that's all the way to the top of Israel instead of it serves him right he gets his 318 crack some of you aren't paying attention
13:25
I'll get you to pay attention right now Jason Bourne kind of guys see now everybody's awake these were his rangers these were his navy seals he's a rich influential man and we've got to get
13:39
Lot back and it's all the way to the top of Israel at Dan 318 men against army after army after army who could win with odds like that?
13:48
a paltry force of 318 if you have not studied Operation Entebbe you ought to sometime because this is the ancient version of Operation Entebbe remember
13:58
Entebbe? 1976 Air France flight 139 248 passengers from Tel Aviv hijacked to Libya they spent 7 hours refueling there and off they go to Entebbe in Uganda and the hijackers had all benefit of every tactical position yet when those crack assassins those crack rangers from Tel Aviv came to rescue them in less than one hour the commandos from Israel rushed the old terminal gunned down the hijackers rescued 110 out of the 113 hostages and the premier of Israel at the time
14:41
Yitzhak Rabin said this operation will be certainly inscribed in the annals of military history in legend and in national tradition it's a great event but 4000 years earlier 318 crack men of Abram go up to Dan to get
14:58
Lot verse 15 and he Abram divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and can you imagine?
15:08
he defeated them and pursued them to Hobah a hundred miles even farther north north of Damascus then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen
15:18
Lot with his possessions and the women and the people everything's recovered
15:24
I mean the bravery of Abram the skill intrepid
15:31
I mean praise Abram from whom all blessings flow but to make sure he got it right to make sure he understood who gave this victory a man shows up verse 17 after his return from the feet of Ketelomar and the kings who were with him the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shavah that is the king's valley and the text almost makes it seem before anything could even be said
16:00
Abram you're great and Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was a priest of the
16:09
Most High God or literally God Most High who really gave the victory?
16:19
verse 19 and he blessed him and said blessed be
16:24
Abram by God Most High possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God Most High who, note it, has delivered your enemies into your hand and Abram gave him a tenth of everything who's the real hero?
16:41
it's not Abram, it's not the 318 it's God and this priest shows up and what do priests do?
16:48
they sacrifice, yes they intercede, yes they bless and this priest blesses
16:54
Abram I mean this is amazing to me the providence of God he,
17:00
Melchizedek interrupts the meeting of Abram and king of Sodom to make sure,
17:06
Abram let me give you not just a historical perspective but a theological perspective here's how you should put the grid between you and these events it is from God and God alone that the victory came the success that you had,
17:22
Abram was a result of God's blessing the military victory belongs to God now
17:27
I have a question for you, congregation where was Levi when all this was happening? yeah, where was
17:34
Levi? I didn't say Levi's but you can remember it that way where was Levi? where was
17:39
Levi the priest that remember the Jewish people back in Hebrews are saying maybe we should go back to this old
17:45
Levitical system and sacrifice and the temple and the gold and the incense and the trumpets and the bowls and the labor and all the priests and all the
17:53
Levites where was Levi in the middle of all this? answer? he wasn't even alive he was nowhere to be found when this great man,
18:04
Melchizedek meets a great man, Abram who's the one who's the superior? Melchizedek who's the one as the superior who blesses?
18:13
Melchizedek how does Abram even know that this person is superior? because he receives the blessings and he gives tithes so what the writer of Hebrews is doing is this
18:25
I know you Jews need to have a priest because you've got to have a priest to stand before God who could stand before the wrath of God the holiness of God the justice of God with one sin you need a mediator you need to go between you need an advocate and the writer of Hebrews is saying and Jesus is that advocate he's the risen savior who chapter 1 purged sins and sits at the right hand of God the
18:48
Father almighty and I know what you're saying Jesus is no priest because he's not from Levites tribe
18:58
Jesus is from the lion of the tribe of what? Judah so he can't be a priest he's not from Levites he's a
19:06
Judean and he can therefore be not my priest and the writer is saying before the
19:13
Levitical priest came from whence the Levitical priest came Abram there was a man that Abram recognized as a priest and his name was
19:20
Melchizedek there's more priest than one not just Levitical priest but Melchizedekian priest and this great
19:31
Melchizedek blesses Abram what a great providential meeting this interruption that happened so Abram knows side note text doesn't have anything to do with this but it's just good to be reminded when it comes to all victory all spiritual victory all walking by faith it's the
19:52
Lord behind the scenes who does all this now Melchizedek people since he's such an kind of a guy that just walks on the scene and walks off the scene they try to think who is
20:04
Melchizedek and these are the two views there are ten views two main views he was a pre -incarnate son of God Jesus before he had a body or he was a real priest named
20:16
Melchizedek he has to be a real priest named Melchizedek a historical person king of Jerusalem he's described as a king of a local city that doesn't sound like a
20:28
Jesus how can Jesus be better than Melchizedek if Jesus is Melchizedek how can this be
20:39
Jesus when Jesus shows up in the Old Testament as a Christophany before he has a body the text is always the
20:46
Lord appeared the angel of the Lord appeared appeared, appeared, appeared there's no appeared language here in chapter 14 back to verse 18 of Genesis 14 and Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was a priest of God most high
21:02
Melchizedek is greater than Levi because Melchizedek is something that Levi never was a king and a what?
21:09
priest Levi is only a priest he's better because Abram recognizes that he's greater but he's also greater because Melchizedek is a king and a priest not just a priest so the writer of Hebrews is trying to say listen
21:21
Jesus is a priest and he's better than a Levitical priest blessing verse 19 blessed verse 19 blessed verse 20
21:36
Melchizedek the superior blessing Abram his inferior and Abram responds with giving tithes now let's go back to Genesis excuse me
21:47
Hebrews chapter 7 the backdrop for Melchizedek we've seen is Genesis chapter 14 now what the writer of Hebrews is going to do the first 10 verses of chapter 7 is give an exposition of Genesis 14 so I'm pretty much just going to read it and make a few comments
22:05
Hebrews 7 1 -10 is a theological summary inspired that summarizes
22:12
Genesis 14 to establish that there is another priesthood that's not Levitical but Melchizedekian is that a word?
22:20
I just like to say that that's one of my new favorite words I love to say sacerdotal I love to say propitiation and now
22:27
I like to say Melchizedekian by the way when I was studying Genesis 14 all those king's names try to pronounce those in front of people it's easy for you to sit there and go he just didn't pronounce that properly but when you get up here uh -huh
22:45
Amraphel chapter 7 has been something that the writer of Hebrews has been wanting to talk about since chapter 5 but remember what he said?
22:55
you're not mature enough to take it so finally now he's getting to what he wants to talk about that Jesus is this great high priest and again
23:04
God wants you to think about Him as He's revealed Himself and friends it is not adequate enough to just think about Jesus as He died on the cross and was raised from the dead and that's it of course there's nothing wrong with that but that's baseline that's what you learn when you're a brand new
23:21
Christian Jesus paid it all all to Him I owe that's the heart of the Gospel yes but there are other facets of the diamond of salvation and when you look at the diamond of salvation from this perspective you see oh
23:34
I was a slave to sin and now Jesus redeemed me and then you look over here reconciled there were irreconcilable differences between the
23:41
Holy God and my sin until Jesus made us friends and then you turn it over here
23:48
God's wrath is poured out against sin or else He wouldn't be holy and just Jesus intercepts that wrath and satisfies it in my place as a propitiation and you keep turning it and now we're turning it to Jesus is a priest you need a priest with all the scandals that we have in New England about bad priests that shouldn't make you go you know what all priests are bad friends all priests are sinful except one and if you're gonna stand before God you don't want a sinful priest because He's gonna have to answer for His sins since you are sinful along with me
24:21
I need someone who's the perfect high priest who's greater than Aaron who's greater than the political system who's greater than Melchizedek even but Melchizedek is going to point yes that Jesus whom you serve is the right kind of priest
24:34
God's priest so here's a theological summary of what we just read Hebrews 7 .1
24:39
for this Melchizedek king of Salem priest of God most high or the most high
24:44
God met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him and to him
24:51
Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything he is first by translation of his name king of righteousness
24:59
Melech by the way is king and Sedeq is righteousness so his name means king of righteousness and then he's also king of Salem you're gonna understand that if you think about Jerusalem 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 in other words in the book of Genesis you have genealogy after genealogy after genealogy you have death after death after death recorded you're nothing about Melchizedek not that he didn't have a genealogy not that he didn't have a death but this is to make you see that he's pointing to the greater one
25:40
Jesus he's a type of who Jesus is and we have this man that should come into our mind this is not like a normal man he resembles the son of God because he continues a priest forever the dignity of this priest the excellency of this priest verse 4 and here we have the first command in this chapter and it's the word see see observe how great this man was to whom
26:11
Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils 58 times in the
26:16
New Testament this word see is used and it comes from the word where we get our English word theater when you go to a theater you are seeing you are watching you're observing you sit and you see take a good long look remember when we were kids at least we did in Nebraska we would say if somebody was staring at us we'd say what there are some universal truths take a picture it lasts longer this is not speed read through Hebrew 7 because all this boring kind of dry
26:48
Melchizedekian stuff just stop let it sink in it's almost like the Old Testament Psalms and in Habakkuk say
26:55
La just stop and let that sink in if Abraham meets somebody greater and Jesus is greater than that greater one then the people that come from Abraham's line
27:07
Moses Aaron Levites they must not be as great as Abraham they must not be as great as Melchizedek they must not be great as Jesus because Jesus is greater than Melchizedek he's greater than Abraham he's greater than the
27:23
Levites that's his argument see watch perceive this word can be used for inspect an army and see if they have any lint on their collars to see if their shoes are signed
27:39
NBA players do that they sign their shoes to see if they're shined you're supposed to hear not look at any shoes any collars any ties look closely at this picture give attention seriously ponder don't speed read past this word is we beheld his glory
28:07
John chapter 1 verse 14 take a good long look they beheld
28:13
Jesus' miracles watch very carefully consider the ramifications Hebrews 7 .5
28:19
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 remember he's before them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior the
28:52
Melchizedekian priesthood is superior to Abraham and Abraham's descendants the tribe of Levi verse 8 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 as it were that Levi himself who received tithes paid tithes through Abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when
29:19
Melchizedek met him so the writer wants you to know it's ok
29:28
Jesus is a high priest you need a priest to stand before God and even though we're saying no to the
29:33
Levitical priests we have a greater priest than that let me give you some truths as we think about this chapter that's really theological discourse of a narrative number one did you notice that Hebrews 7 gives you the interpretation of Genesis 14
29:56
Hebrews 7 gives the interpretation of Genesis 14 I think beloved you ought to regularly see that in the
30:03
Bible when Jesus is on the road to Emmaus and he's raised from the dead he teaches his disciples that comprehensively may not be minutely or atomistically but generally and comprehensively the
30:20
Old Testament speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and do you think Genesis 14 speaks of the Lord Jesus?
30:25
I think the answer has to be yes the ultimate fulfillment of Melchizedek was the
30:30
Lord Jesus Christ secondly to make sure we understand and to make the implicit explicit
30:38
Jesus is superior to Aaron because Melchizedek was superior to Abraham number three don't miss the names the names matter there's so much theological import in the names what does it say in Hebrews 7 verse 1
30:56
Melchizedek king of Salem he's the king of righteousness and he's the king of peace what two great concepts prefigure the
31:06
Messiah if you would like to talk about the Messiah the Lord Jesus and you'd like to describe him with a couple of terms these two should be on there righteous peace he gives righteousness and he gives peace what a great description of the work of the
31:20
Lord Jesus Christ what does 1 Corinthians chapter 1 say when it comes to righteousness he is our righteousness
31:29
Jesus has been a man and he has been born of a woman born under law that he might redeem us from the curse of the law and when he earns our righteousness by obeying the law he doesn't need to obey the law for himself in terms of making himself righteous he already is but he's doing it for us 1
31:47
Corinthians 1 says and because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God that is righteousness you stand before God Christian as perfectly righteous because of the
32:01
Lord Jesus you can't be less righteous you can't be more righteous when it comes to legal standing and position you are righteous if you had to pick a type in the
32:10
Old Testament that would point forward to Jesus I bet you would pick somebody named righteous because that's exactly the work of the
32:17
Lord Jesus he righteously obeys the law because we are unrighteous that's the theme of Hebrews I mean Romans as well
32:23
I have no righteousness Jesus earns righteousness he imputes righteousness and in light of that we want to live righteously or justly what a great concept he's
32:36
Melchizedek and the other word that's wonderful there is Salem and it just means peace
32:42
Salem it means peace how can God and man have peace because Jesus the righteous one dies and has become our peace
32:53
Romans 5 .1 therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our
32:59
Lord Jesus Christ friends the war is over peace with God through the bloodshed of Christ Jesus number four there are not very many people in the
33:16
Bible who are kings there are not many people in the Bible who are priests there are not very many people in the
33:22
Bible who are prophets and there are few that are kings and priests but there are no prophet priest and king and Jesus is both king and priest and prophet in one person and even that therefore makes him better than Melchizedek fifthly just things to think about as we work through when it comes to evangelism this is just a deduction here from this text when it comes to evangelism or proving a point to other
33:58
Christians what do you think is better for options rationalism or opening up your
34:06
Bible long long time ago and I've done lots of dumb things as a pastor but somebody said
34:13
I don't want to come to you for biblical counseling pastor and I said why not he said because you're just going to open up the
34:19
Bible and tell me what's in the Bible I don't have anything else to give you
34:26
I have two modes the Bible says and if I were you those are my modes right one's scripture one's wisdom don't confuse the two you've got to prove to a bunch of Jews Jesus is better where do you go
34:44
I guess you can go to archeology I guess you can go to rationalism I guess you can go to a variety of other evidences and how lives are changed but this writer the writer of Hebrews he regularly and often quotes scripture to make the point because the
34:59
Bible's powerful the Bible does its work I don't have to win any argument well this is what the
35:05
Bible says right here when you think about Jewish people and you go to Isaiah 53 and you just read
35:10
Isaiah 53 I've met people before who have said to their husbands their husbands are evangelical they were
35:16
Jewish do not quote the New Testament from me and he said to her I just quoted you Isaiah 53 do you notice what's happening how does this person who's preaching the sermon win the argument this is what the
35:31
Bible says another side note another take away I know and I know this for Pastor Mark too the new pastor at Cape Cod Bible and you'll meet him just momentarily since your problems in life are difficult you need to have a great
35:48
God to solve these problems and if you're expecting the pastor to get up and give moralistic platitudes and everything will be okay you're not thinking rightly and I know this church and I know
35:59
Cape Cod Bible they don't think that way Hebrews 7 is a sermon about Melchizedek going back to Genesis doing all these things thinking come on just tell me everything is going to be fine it'll be a good year better than last year
36:12
I'm going to be more prosperous now this writer says you're in a deep fix here you're getting persecuted you're losing your homes it's going to get worse that temple up there he doesn't know when it's going to be destroyed but it's 70
36:24
AD it's coming down and then what are you going to do and he's saying listen I want you to begin to think about who
36:30
Jesus is because you walk by faith and not by sight think about who Jesus is in all the aspects because as you do you'll start forgetting about yourselves you won't think about the problems that you have and when you think about them you'll think about them in light of eternity in light of forever so when you want preaching it better be deep if you've got problems that are deep it better be from the text so whether you're evangelizing or proving a point or listening to a sermon you want the
36:59
Bible and by the way I'm sad to inform Pastor Mark that you don't have the best congregation in New England to preach to because you're listening to him right now who wants to hear about Melchizedek and I will quit after when do
37:12
I normally preach for 75 minutes and they'll still want more Wesley Blackstone came to me one day and he said
37:21
Pastor you know you just got a whatever it was a 6 % raise and I'm expecting 6 % longer sermons fair enough and isn't it true that as we've been going through the message as you've been trying to engage and it's tough
37:42
I mean it's cerebral you're trying to really focus on it I hope you've forgotten about the issues that need to be taken care of and all the compartments of your life and how you fall short and others fall short when they're around you and all these other things but here's this one that never fails you he's always going to do the right job and he's sent by God because God the
38:02
Father loves sinners because Jesus loves sinners and came for them and he's the intercessor and he's the high priest
38:08
I want sermons that are straight from the text and if they're difficult if they're technical if they're from Old Testament passages
38:15
I know nothing about then please preach away pastor and I know that's you and so two more takeaways and then we're done everything in the
38:28
Bible is important I know you know that but I want you to remember that everything in the
38:34
Bible is important you all these genealogies Genesis chapter 5 and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died
38:43
I mean really how devotional is that and he died and when you study it remember what
38:50
Satan said you will surely not what die and the accent and the exclamation point in chapter 5 is
38:59
Satan is a liar and when it comes to the first lie in the Bible you're not going to be judged for your sin
39:06
Genesis 5 in the genealogy you know what and he died and he died and he died and you'll die everything in the
39:15
Bible is important including Genesis chapter 14 and Melchizedek there are reasons that God has for everything in the
39:25
Scripture before there were computers a man named Bengal counted how many little dots on a particular
39:32
Hebrew letter how many yodes it's like the dot of our I or the crossing of our
39:38
T how many of those were in the Bible and Bengal hand counted 66 ,420 yodes and Jesus says not one of those is going to pass away
39:50
Matthew chapter 5 everything is important I got up this morning thinking there are churches across the country that cancel their services and I'm going to get up and tell everybody about Melchizedek and then
40:02
I thought I can't wait Melchizedek Jesus is a priest that's right he can be my priest he's not from Levi he's from Judah but he's better than Abraham because he's better than Melchizedek and that means he's better than the
40:16
Levitical system and by the way we're going to learn next week and he doesn't die and stay dead all these other priests dead, dead, dead, dead and then lastly
40:28
I want you to consider that key word in the book of Hebrews 7 in that chapter and that is forever
40:36
I want you to regularly and often think about forever I don't think we do that often enough congregation forever sometimes we think forever in that direction in the future but if you also include forever that way in eternity past when there was one
40:55
God three persons the
41:00
Father, the Son, and the Spirit perfect communion perfect harmony perfect love and they made a decision to go rescue sinners the
41:09
Father loved sinners and the Son loved sinners and the Father said to the Son go rescue my church go rescue the elect go rescue sinners that all happened in eternity past among other things we don't think about that enough because we're thinking now we're thinking today we're thinking tomorrow work and to think of forever that way no matter what your trials are now it's not forever it helps when you're talking to unbelievers they rarely think of forever can you imagine forever?
41:40
I'll tell you what I think hell is since God is omnipresent it's not like hell is run by Satan and God is just not there you know what makes hell, hell?
41:51
God is present in hell and you have no mediator and Jesus is not there interceding for you you think
42:00
God's not present in hell? He's present in hell that's exactly what Revelation talks about but what makes heaven, heaven is what?
42:09
God is present with all His attributes but you have Jesus as your advocate, as the mediator no wonder when
42:17
Jose read by the way on Christmas Eve, Revelation chapter 5 I felt like I was getting pulled up into the heavenlies and thinking no wonder all of heaven is is just shouting worthy is the lamb who was slain forever and forever and forever you have to regularly think forever for security, for hope, for wonder, for awe for I can't lose my salvation because I have a high priest who is one forever so my assignment congregation is to read
42:49
Hebrews 7 this week because we only touched upon the beginning the first 10 verses and now in verses 11 through 28 the writer is going to tell you why this is important theologically why this makes any sense why
43:04
He's better that He's better verses 1 through 11 1 through 10 why
43:09
He's better what does it matter? verses 11 through the end of the chapter what you believe about Jesus makes a difference
43:22
Jesus asked the question to the man around Him who do you say I am? and the answer must include
43:27
He's my great high priest let's pray Father in heaven I thank you for your word
43:33
I'm thankful for Hebrews 7 the riches found in there about the mediatorial work of Jesus that we would be able to stand blameless in your presence with great joy is amazing because we know what we've done we know how sinful we are and yet you cleanse us you wash us and you see us as perfectly obeying the law because you see us in Jesus who did and you see us as forgiven people because Jesus our high priest has paid for our sins and now makes intercession for us so I would pray for 2019 for this congregation
44:13
Father would you help us to live by faith Paul said that in Galatians 2 and honor you as the one who gave your son because you loved us and he loved us and he gave himself up for us
44:30
Father this last year with cancer with all kinds of issues at the church you're still faithful and whether you slay us or give us cancer or whatever you do you're still faithful you're good and worthy to be praised and I pray that would happen this year this is a fallen world and things will probably happen and yet I'd ask that your spirit attend to us that we might think about our