Priest of the Most High God

All right, we're gonna be in Leviticus 1 via Hebrews 7 if that makes any sense. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Hebrews. Oh Man Fagerlund you're becoming worse than Stengram. All right, we will pray and get started Lord Jesus Christ giver and perfecter of our faith.

We thank you and praise you for continuing among us the preaching of your gospel for our instruction and edification. Send your blessing upon the word which has been spoken to us by your Holy Spirit increase our saving knowledge of you.

That day by day we may be strengthened in the divine truth and remain steadfast in your grace. Give us strength to fight the good fight and by faith to overcome all the temptations of Satan the flesh and the world.

So that we may finally receive the salvation of our souls for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen. All right last week. We began our study of Leviticus and we're doing some review work in the book of Hebrews first and last week we talked about a topic that was very complex and That has to do with what's called the hypostatic union.

The Hypostatic Union and Christological Errors

That in the one person who is Jesus Christ There are two natures and they're not two Jesus's and you cannot split him in two. Important to note that there are two major Christological errors when it comes to the hypostatic union and one of them is what's called eutychianism.

Eutychianism. Basically, it's where you take the two natures the divine nature and the human nature and you smoosh them together in such a way that It creates a third compound a different thing altogether.

He's no long. Jesus is no longer the God man. He's the God man, you know, you kind of smash it all together so eutychianism is is one of the errors and then the other error and this is one that people easily fall into and Kind of unsuspectingly and I would even say oftentimes innocently and it's called the Nestorian heresy.

Well in the idea behind the Nestorian heresy is that the two natures in Christ is divine and human nature. Do not really come together in a true union. And so the idea then is is that the the the the way it's described is is that the human nature is like a wooden board and the divine nature is like a wooden board and The incarnation is just basically taking glue and slapping it on one side and then smashing the boards together and voila you have Jesus and Then the idea then is is that the Nestorian heresy will have you talking in these terms?

So while Jesus was walking on the water, that was his divine nature doing that. Well, no, I beg to differ his feet were wet. You know or you sit there and say well when Jesus was hungry and he was thirsty.

That was only his human nature. No by virtue of the fact that in Christ There are two natures that are divine in the human. That means that God himself got to experience hunger pains. You see what I'm saying?

And so and then this is where it gets really interesting is That in a proper sense then of understanding the hypostatic Union you can say God died. It's a breathtaking statement, but it's absolutely true by virtue of the hypostatic Union Nestorian would say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no only the human nature died.

You see what I'm saying and so then the story and basically we would make fun of the Nestorians when I was in Pre-seminary at in Concordia University, Irvine. We'd get sit there and we'd make the sign of the cross.

But we do it this way for the Nestorian heresy basically takes Jesus and cuts him down the middle and then pulls him apart.

You know.

It's it's a bad joke, but you get the idea it was funnier back then so. But you so you get the idea so we must understand then that in the same way we have two Things that comprise us a soul and a body.

That and there's not two of us. There's one of us and they come together in the make the personal union to be the makes you the one person that you are Same with Christ and important to realize this also Christ has a human soul.

Christ has a human soul. So the soul of Christ is not the divine nature so within Christ then you have a human flesh you have a soul a human soul and you also have the divine nature and Then we talked about how then they kind of intermingle and then the passage we were looking at last week in Hebrews 7 Really kind of fleshes out this kind of this concept of the hypostatic union because you can see it then prior to Jesus's incarnation in the person of Melchizedek who is the priest who shows up in Genesis 14 that Abraham tithes to and We'll review again the passage and then keep kind of moving forward a little bit, but I wanted to talk a little bit about What are called Christophanies or Theophanies and this is an appearance of Jesus prior to the incarnation, so the the appearance of Melchizedek in Genesis 14 is one example of a Christophany or a Theophany and Then there's another one.

We'll take a look at in the book of Judges. But let me when we kind of flesh this out just a little bit Pun-intended for this Melchizedek the king of Salem priest of the Most High God. He met Abraham 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 that's what Melchizedek Zedek is the deck is righteousness. That's what that means. And then he is also king of Shalom or king of peace and he is without father and this is the important thing here.

So we can we can this gives us a little bit of theological understanding then of Christophanies or Theophanies in the case of Melchizedek, he is without father or mother or Genealogy neither having beginning of days nor end of life in other words Melchizedek is eternal.

But.

Resembling the Son of God he continues as a priest forever. So you'll note then that when Melchizedek shows up what we know about him is that he's eternal. He has near the beginning of days or end of life, but he resembles the Son of God so in the pre-incarnate Appearances of Jesus when he makes cameo appearances in the Old Testament this is only the divine nature and He's he's manifesting in a way where he resembles the Son of God.

Which is why I'm convinced based on this that if you take a camera crew back in time, you know. And there's Melchizedek showing up with bread and wine and then and CNN is there to report it, right? The fellow who they film as Melchizedek.

If you could go fast forward then to Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount you'd sit there and go. Man, those two guys look like they're the same. Because yeah, you kind of get the idea, right? Yeah, exactly so he resembles the Son of God, but he is not the incarnate deity.

That does not happen until In the womb of the Virgin Mary Jesus is concerned as conceived by virtue of the Holy Spirit. You have a puzzled look on your face. I don't know. Let's just let's just pretend that he take.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Now I want to give you another example. If you are familiar with the story of The conception of Samson in the Old Testament, and I don't know why my Bible program does this sometimes I'm looking for the word Samson not the book Samson.

Okay, and I'm looking in the Old Testament. There we go judges 13 judges 13. And let me put this back on Hebrew 7 real quick. So I have that tab ready to go judges 13 you know, I come to think I've never done an extended teaching on On Samson a lot of people for whatever reason think that Samson failed at his mission.

And he didn't he didn't but Samson is a biblical character that I think typifies the scandal of The fact that on Christ was our sin. Okay, this this is a fellow who morally is Just a mess and yet he's a Savior.

He's a judge. He's one who saved Israel that but that's that's for another time I'll have to do extended teaching on him, but let's talk about his conception. So the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh?

So Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. Huh sounds a lot like wilderness wanderings kind of stuff here pay attention to the numbers 3 40. Yeah, 7, you know, these are kind of important biblical numbers.

All right, so there they are the children of Israel they're sold under the they're into the slavery under the Philistines and There was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the Danites whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and had no children and the angel and That here's kind of an interesting, you know, this is the the Malak Yahweh and.

So so we got the angel of the Lord. And so oftentimes when you see in the Old Testament the phrase the angel of the Lord not always but oftentimes We're dealing with the appearance of Jesus. He's making a cameo appearance and This is going to be one of those times so here's the angel of Lord and I'm confident of this because of How this will play out at as we get to the end of this little portion of it.

But he appeared to the woman and he said to her behold you are barren. You gotta admit you had some of the ways conversations start in the Old Testament are kind of weird. Like the one we read today in 1st Samuel 8 behold you are old.

Thanks.

Behold you are barren.

Yeah, Oh.

Ancient what? Yeah, Oh ancient one, yeah.

That's right. Okay. I'll forgive you. Anyway.

All right.

So the angel Lord behold you are barren and you have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful drink. No wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean for behold you shall conceive and bear a son.

No razor shall come upon his head for the child shall be a Nazarite To God from the womb and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband I love this description.

A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God. Very awesome. So we kind of know what's going on in her head here. Just the mere appearance of this fellow is made a very striking Impression upon this woman and she says I did not ask him where he was from and he did not tell me his name.

But he said to me behold you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

So then a dope Manoah prayed to Yahweh and said Oh Oh Lord, please Let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be Born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah.

Good theology here by the way of prayer. Good theology when God when you pray God hears. Just keep that in mind. This is a recurring theme in Scripture. So God listened to the voice of Manoah and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field.

And you got to be thinking about this here for a second. I mean, why didn't Manoah just Say well, all right. That's what God said. Cool. All right. No, he has to get involved and he's just not understanding guys are a little thick-headed, right?

But I'm kind of glad that that played out this way because of what happens next. So but not Manoah her husband was not with her. So the angel the Lord came again to the woman as she sat in the field. Manoah her husband was not with her.

So the woman ran quickly and told her husband behold the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me. So Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him Are you the man who spoke to this woman and he said I am You right.

And all of a sudden all of our Jesus radars are going being being being. He's on the radar folks. There's he's right there. He's right there. They don't recognize it. Yeah, right. So he said I am.

Right.

So, all right, let's see here. So Manoah said now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life? What's his mission and the angel of the Lord said to Manoah of all the things that I said to a woman?

Let her be careful. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine neither let her drink Wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her letter observe. You'll notice he doesn't add a single thing.

In other words Manoah, she'll listen to his wife. Okay.

And.

That's the moral of the story and we'll end right there. Let's pray All right, so he doesn't add a thing. So Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh Well, please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you in the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah If you detain me, I will not eat of your food.

But if you prepare a burnt offering then offer it to Yahweh. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of Yahweh. And so Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh What is your name? So that when your words come true, we may honor you in the angel of Yahweh said to him Why do you ask my name.

Seeing it is wonderful. And it'll be called.

Wonderful.

Counselor the mighty God you see what's going on here. Yeah, it's kind of obvious when he's put it like that. So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering offered it on the rock to Yahweh to the one who works wonders.

And Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar. So, I mean that's just cool. So there's the flames going up there a sacrifice this is their sacrifice.

It's being burnt up because it's a burnt offering. And the angel of the Lord kind of steps into the flame and.

He's gone.

Now watch what happens next. Great act of worship here. All right. Now Manoah and his wife were watching and they fell on their faces to the ground.

Boom.

Why.

Because they recognized they were in the presence of God and you'll see this. So the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife we shall surely die for we have seen God.

Now again note who is the sensible one in this couple? His wife said to him if Yahweh had meant to kill us He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things or now announced to us such things as these.

Practical yes, so we can kind of see how that relationships playing out right so just a little glimpse. Hi. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you can see here they truly recognized that was God and They were absolutely right.

That was God. So here you have an appearance of God and I'm going to argue an appearance of Christ Prior to the incarnation and this is not the same as the incarnation because although he appears in a form that they can see and recognize at the same time we also see that well, he's still God and so you'll note then this also teaches us something very important about the incarnation because remember the Mount of Transfiguration.

There's Jesus Peter James and John they're up on the Mount and then whoosh out comes the glory and Jesus's appearance has changed to Brighter than the whitest thing that you know and it just amazing right and so they're you know Kind of stunned they're sitting in the glory of God and you'll note then that Jesus could at any time as God mute or hide or.

Hold back.

His glory and here when Jesus when when God appears to Manoah and his wife he doesn't show up Shining in the glory that we saw in the Mount Mount of Transfiguration here. We see God muting his glory Hiding it or holding it back so that he can communicate with his creatures and then you know, and then he ascends up into heaven and Disappears again, right?

So you can see that God is clearly capable when and where he chooses to Put his divine powers on ten or dial them back to two or one, you know have a conversation with you and then Go back to you know, his full glory.

So this is an important aspect of it because We then see how Christ is operating. So within the one person who is the Messiah Jesus Christ in the hypostatic Union He has a human nature and a divine nature and he is withholding or hiding or muting his Divine powers and prerogative in the same way that he did then with Manoah and his wife.

Does that make sense and.

We see that ability to mute or to cover or to dial back. We're not sure how it is. That's why I kind of throw all the options on the table. Maybe this fourth or fifth option I don't even know because I don't know I have no idea how how what it's like to be God or to have that kind of power ability, right?

So we are just describing it and paying attention to how God operates and so which is actually kind of thankful because I think it would have been a really difficult for Mary and Joseph to sleep at night if Jesus was glowing in the dark.

Jesus can you dial it back to Jesus? We're trying to sleep here, right? So you get the idea.

Now all of that being said that that kind of gives us, you know a picture and then I want to come come back to this real quick. So when we talk about The divine when we talk about the hypostatic Union hypostasis, by the way, it just means person.

So the person of Jesus Christ the hypostatic Union is the personal union. So within the one person who is Jesus Christ human nature divine nature. Straight up. They had come together in the one person and nothing Jesus does nothing Jesus does he does he do?

Without both natures. So he does not sneeze. He does not brush his teeth apart from the divine nature. The divine nature is participating in Jesus's brushing of his teeth of him tying his sandals. And of course, it's participating in him walking on the water knowing the thoughts of men preaching the very words of God and.

So nothing that he does he does by laying aside one nature or another. And so the idea then is is that in the personal Union the divine nature has muted itself now. You want to see what you know get a picture of Jesus with full?

Full divine power out for you to see. Well when Jesus appears to the Apostle John while he's exiled in the Isle of Patmos. In the the in the revelation that will become the book of Revelation Jesus shows up shining as a son sword coming out of his mouth.

Awesome terrifying all of that. That's a picture of Christ in all of his glory divine nature out on full display. For us to see that's an example of it, but in Christ's humiliation. We only see glimpses of that because the divine nature is muted by his own choice.

But it's still there everything he does he does with both natures and then the idea then is is that? By the way, this just this description talking about the hypostatic Union. This is the theological term that is used for this if you want to know the technical terms what's called the genus idiomatic um genus idiomatic um the next Aspect of this when we talk about Christology.

This one's called the genus myostatic um genus myostatic um and the idea then is this is. That because of the personal union of the divine and human nature in the one person who is Christ. Because God is immutable the attributes of humanity don't flow back to the divinity only the attributes of the divinity are Added then to the human nature in a way that human that has you know then the one person he's able to do things he.

Can't.

Okay, kind of an inner penetration of the two natures so that this person Jesus Christ He can walk on water. He can give sight to the blind. He can do all these things and he's doing that and you'll notice he's doing that with both natures.

But the you know it's his human nature. That's truly benefiting from that connection. Does that make sense and. And that's called the genus myostatic um and the last one this one's called the genus apotellus maticum and.

This is kind of the point that I've been making all along is that everything that Christ does from brushing his teeth To tying his sandals that every work is done, but using both natures. And that's what's called the genus apotellus maticum.

That's the idea and I know it's a little complicated. But the more you work with it and consider it and the more you're looking for it in Scripture. You can see examples of it all over the place where just the human nature of Christ is doing things that no human nature can do and.

The signs that he does are for the purpose of Everybody knowing that he is God that he is truly the Son of God. His signs tell us who he is. The miracles that he performs. Does that make sense.

Now.

Yep, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, she said. Speak for yourself.

Okay, okay.

No no big make your point. I don't understand how this works. Yeah, it sinks. Right, yeah. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh no, no, no, no.

Yeah.

At the end of the day. I have no clue how this works. I have I haven't I haven't got the foggiest. Yeah, I all I can say is is that this is what Scripture reveals regarding Christ. So it Jesus truly is then a human being in all of the right respects.

He's not some third substance. And so he truly is a descendant of you know, and he's a human being like just we are descendants of of our first parents and made like like us in all of these same ways and The connect in and then the unity of the one person with the divine nature doesn't negate that.

So that we you know, you can't sit there and go. Well Jesus really wasn't a man. So maybe we're not saved. No, he really was and so Oftentimes real I mean dangerous heresies that can send you to hell will dink with and mess with and you know this the the hypostatic Union and one of the deadliest ones I mentioned last week is a very rapidly growing Christological heresy in the new apostolic Reformation and it's called and I call it the canonic Christ and the idea is is that they claim that Jesus laid his divinity aside and He did all of the miracles that he performed by virtue of the fact that he was a Holy Spirit baptized charismatic and so Jesus becomes the ultimate example of what we are capable of doing and signs and wonders if we yield Ourself to the power of the Holy Spirit.

You see yeah, you see the danger there, right? Yeah, and it's not just the twelve it's all of us too it's so that all of us can relate to it. I love the fact that on the last day you see remember this we have human eyeballs and we have You know flesh and we have the same limitations as everybody.

Okay, like and I have never seen a spirit, you know. There's not seeable. You know, this is not how this works. And the idea then is is that there's something truly Magnificent in the sense that the the all-powerful Almighty God has Condescended to relate to us by becoming one of us so now on Into eternity after the after the new heavens in the new earth.

We will be able to see our God face-to-face and That's Christ. Yeah, that's after we pass right, right. We'll be able to see him face-to-face for eternity. We'll know we'll know How bushy his eyebrows are we'll know what color his eyes are.

We'll know whether he has a big nose or a small nose. We'll know what he sounds like when he laughs or when he is teaching us. We will see the love in his eyes and he knows each and every one of us by name I mean, this is an amazing thing.

No longer is God some weird abstract spiritual concept. But he is now one of us and he Jesus will sit on the throne of David forever.

This is cool.

This is a God I can relate to. Because he is he has done this so that he relates to all of us and not only that by virtue of the incarnation. We learn in Hebrews 4 that Jesus is tempted in every way we are.

Yet without sin. And so we do not have a high priest who cannot relate with us. He understands our weaknesses and he knows exactly what it feels like to be tempted in all the ways. Every one of us have been tempted and yet he's without sin.

Yeah.

Now I would say no, but I like where you're going with this. So here's the idea is is that you're you're dealing with you've you've opened up the doctrine known as the sacramental Union.

All right.

And so there is a sense then when we talk about we just had the Lord's Supper today. That the true body and blood of Christ are present in with under. We don't know how it works. It's there you receive it in your mouth at the at the rail, right?

And so the sacramental Union is going to be different than the than the hypostatic Union. And Here's we also have to make another distinction. Don you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you and you have since the moment you were baptized and That is an amazing thing because your body is the temple of God and so you have God dwelling in you.

And so there is a sense in which now you are united with God and Christ by virtue of baptism and despite the fact that God dwells in you. That Union is not the same type of Union as the hypostatic Union.

But.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's similar in that way. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah Yeah.

Now interesting Kind of what goes around comes around this strange how they like heretical cycles ebb and flow I mean They're kind of storm tossed seas in the early part of the Christian era in the first few centuries after Christ's ascension into heaven People did not have a problem with the deity of Christ at all.

The thing they had a problem with was his humanity and so the Gnostics who were into a Platonic philosophy and platonic worldview believed that matter was evil. Matter was Was created by accident. It shouldn't even be here.

It's a it's a mess up, you know God barfed by accident and made matter, you know, that's kind of the idea and so the the goal is to get away from all of this and so for them the scandal is That God became flesh and that our hope as Christians is not that we are Disembodied spirits up on a cloud, you know playing harps to Jesus on a you know Day by day basis instead.

Our hope is that Christ is going to return and raise us from the grave In-physical bodies and we will live in a new heavens in a new earth material for all of eternity the Gnostics sits there and pulls their hair out and goes.

No.

Right. And so they had a problem with the humanity of Christ and the Gnostics some of them actually taught that that it Jesus only looked like he was a man and That when Jesus walked on the ground like if you were following around Jesus while he's teaching and preaching and stuff like that He didn't even leave any footprints.

That's what they claimed. But nowadays It's the divinity of Christ that people are struggling with. It's the divinity of Christ. It's fascinating. So is one error or another you hold these things in tension kind of like law and gospel.

You know, which of them is the Word of God law of the gospel? Yes.

Right now.

Another analogy, by the way, Don because you were looking for something kind of symbolic that kind of works along those lines. Our understanding of the Bible itself is close to the doctrine of the hypostatic Union because here's the idea every single Bible book every letter every you know historical narrative they were written by human beings and.

Yet every single one of those books are the Word of God. They're inspirated by the Holy Spirit so the Bible itself is a product of God and man together and I dare you to pull it apart you can't. You can't and it's really funny because like when you spend time in the original languages.

There's something very fascinating that you immediately see when you start translating different parts of the scripture. And that is is that some guys had a really good command of grammar other guys didn't.

It's fascinating to watch so when like you when you're reading your your ESV Bible with the gold leaf on the side and the little onion skin paper and you're making your little notes and all this kind of Stuff you'll notice that the voice in the Bible is consistent from Genesis to Revelation.

That's because the same translators kind of hammer that all together and worked it out when you read it in the original languages. No way. I mean seriously I mean Peter has this run-on sentence in this for in the first Peter that you just want to rack your brain Paul.

Oh. The opening of Ephesians, oh Man, it is tough to slog through then you read the book of Revelation you go. Did this guy graduate third grade? I'm not making this up.

All right.

Then you get to Hebrews and you're thinking professor so-and-so put this together because this is the hardest Greek I've ever Translated in my life and don't even let me get started in the Hebrew. You can totally see the different.

There are different authors that have put this together and it's not as easy to see when you're reading your English Bible and yet every single one of those authors wrote the Word of God and God the Holy Spirit is living and active in that and what inspired them to pen those very words and.

So the Bible itself is a product of God and man a flesh and spirit together. It's very akin to the hypostatic Union in that way, but it's only by way of analogy. Does that make sense? You have you have that look on your face.

Michael that you're just sitting there going. Oh Yeah, oh.

Yeah, oh, yeah, and it's don't you think it's scandalous. I mean seriously thing. I want you to think about this. Don't you think it's scandalous? That a murderer. A Guy who was on Egypt's most wanted list for 40 years pen Genesis.

I mean, how about Peter? He denied Christ not once not twice, but thrice.

All right. All right, Paul.

How many people how many Christian Saints? Lost their lives or were beaten or flogged in a synagogue because of that guy. In fact every single author of Scripture Literally were sinners and then the stories they write.

You'll notice that the Bible makes no effort whatsoever to whitewash The the people's whose lives are chronicled in the Bible. I mean Abraham the great man of faith. He put his wife twice in a situation where she could have easily been sexually defiled and he did it because he was a complete.

Coward.

Don't even get me started on Jacob. You see you see the point I'm making. The only one in all of Scripture who's sinless and it really shows is Christ. It's the only one now all of that. That we've discussed this hypostatic union all this kind of stuff.

The question on the table which we kind of put on the table last week, which we'll pull back into the moment now is.

How.

Can Jesus be prophet priest and king if nobody from Judah is permitted to do priestly duties? Ah, well cuz he's God that was that's a little cop-out ish. Hint it has something about what we talked about Last weekend early part of this lesson this week.

Okay, so Jesus isn't a Levite. He's from the tribe of Judah. We already took a look at the fact that King Uzziah when he all he wanted to do is offer incense in the temple. God struck him with leprosy.

So that's not gonna work. So, how is it that Jesus can perform his priestly functions as the lion of the tribe of Judah. Answer he's of a different priestly line or say order. So you can say the order of Aaron the Levites the Levitical order Was established by God and kept Jesus from being performing any of the duties on earth.

But there's a different temple remember when we were reading Exodus that the tabernacle Moses make sure to follow these instructions very Carefully. Why. Because you are making a copy. So we were talking about the the idea that Christ is a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

The question came in regarding how how you how you reconcile that with the concept that John the Baptist is the last prophet. John the Baptist is the last of the Old Testament prophets. And so the idea then here is this is that when you when you look at Scripture?