A Superior Priest (Hebrews 7:1-10- Jeff Kliewer)

So free raises for compassion so amazing. Oh, we've come to give you thanks. Cause of your love.

Kind of a distorted Not many people can say that they would put their lives. His love was so deep for us He decided to come from a perfect heaven To this little speck of dirtiness To save us. A lot of times we'll see that verse John 3 16 And we say it sometimes so fast It's just not something that we really settle in our mind That God loved us so much That he sent his son into the world To die for us Because we're sinners And there was no other reason For us to get his gift Because he loved us.

How deep the Father's love for us Forgive his only son Fetch his treasure Fade the pain of searing loss. The Father turns his face away As wounds which mar the chosen one His soul until it has brought This faith is regiven.

Lord Jesus we welcome you here this morning. It was your wounds that paid our ransom. It was all at Calvary. On that hill.

But Lord we.

We are grateful that. That wasn't the place that we remember you. But you did rise again. And you're seated on the throne.

Like an anchor within the veil.

You have secured our salvation there At the Father's right hand Where you are seated. So this morning we look to you as our high priest. We ask that you would help us to understand better Who you are and what you've done.

That we would look to your word. And that you would transform us by the hearing of your word. In Jesus name, amen. There is a Buddhist temple In Kyoto, Japan That has a million dollar priest. Now you might be thinking that's a pretty good salary for a priest, right?

A million dollars. But no, that's not his salary. That's how much it costs to build him. He is a robot. In this Buddhist temple in Japan They built a robot. And this robot serves as their priest. The guy who runs the temple said Buddhism isn't a belief in a god.

It's pursuing Buddha's path. It doesn't matter whether it's represented by a machine A piece of scrap metal Or a tree. Their priest is a robot. He goes on to commend this robot priest With these words.

This robot will never die.

It will just keep updating itself and evolving Said Tensho Goto, the temple's chief steward With artificial intelligence We hope it will grow in wisdom To help people overcome even the most difficult troubles.

It's changing Buddhism. They really love their robot priest. And one of the things they love about their priest is that it will never die. Reminds me of Hebrews chapter 7. We have a priest who ever lives Not a robot.

They even say that in hospice settings. So when somebody is dying. Elderly Buddhists who don't have people on hand to recite prayers On their behalf Use robot priests. And devices known as Nyanfo-ji Which essentially recite the name of Buddha endlessly.

That to me sounds like someone singing. It's a small world after all. In my dying moments It would be no comfort to hear the name Buddha. Or some mantra repeated endlessly To bring comfort. We can laugh at robot priests.

But in truth it's sad, isn't it? That some have no hope. And they look to vain man-made Obviously man-made robots. Man-made religion To get to God or Just whatever sense of Of the metaphysical they have.

The first place in the Bible That we see man-made religion of course. Is Genesis 11 The building of the Tower of Babel. And notice in the building of the Tower of Babel. The people did precisely the opposite Of what God commanded them to do In the creation when man was made in God's image.

He said what? Spread out, fill the earth and subdue it.

Instead.

The people at the Tower of Babel Decided to join together Centralize power and build up To make a name for themselves The exact opposite of what God said to do. And there was the beginning of all the Babylonian mystery religions And the fake religion that comes from The mind of men.

Right now in Washington, D .C. Or just outside of Washington, D .C. There's plans to build a new Amazon headquarters For the East Coast. And I would say If you get a chance to Google this and look at it It looks eerily close To the Tower of Babel.

It's like A cone-shaped ziggurat of some form But it represents I think The concentrated power of big tech Babylonian mystery religion Lives on even today In aspects of the Roman Catholic religion. Now sadly, the Roman Catholic religion has Elements of the truth of Christianity The trinity and the message about Jesus dying and rising.

And those things are good. And many people can come to saving faith through That aspect of the Roman Catholic faith. But there is also within it Babylonian mystery religion Man-made religion. And it's seen especially In transubstantiation In their version of the Eucharist At the Eucharist The priest Uses certain words Words from which we get the term Hocus Pocus.

That's where that term comes from In order to transubstantiate The elements of bread and wine Into the body, blood, soul And divinity of Jesus Christ In other words Rendering him in body, soul, blood and divinity Really present on the altar.

Now we know.

Biblically.

That the altar of God is the cross A man-made altar Where a priest is said to make propitiation for sins Is a human device. For the Bible tells us that propitiation was made Once and for all In the precious blood of the Lamb.

This aspect of Roman Catholicism Is just one example Of a world Full of man-made religion. The first priest Was Aaron. And Aaron had two sons His oldest Nadab and Abihu. As soon as they were given the task Of officiating at the altar of God Nadab and Abihu Rather than doing as prescribed by God Invented their own man-made religion.

The Bible tells us they took strange fire Before God.

We don't know what that looked like.

It was some kind of hocus pocus. Something they invented.

That they were doing with fire.

Maybe putting on a show Trying to impress the people With some fiery display. And God looked at their offering And sent fire from his altar To consume them. Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu Were killed that day From fire From God's altar.

You see the issue Was man-made religion Versus what God has prescribed. The issue is not sincerity. The world is full of sincere people Practicing their religion sincerely. The issue is not what makes a person feel good.

Many people feel satisfied In their man-made religion. The issue is none of those things. The issue is revelation.

What has God prescribed?

This is what God expects to be done. Psalm chapter 19 verse 9 to 11. Read like this The fear of the Lord is clean Enduring forever. The rules of the Lord Are true and righteous altogether More to be desired are they.

Than gold.

Even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey. And drippings of the honeycomb Moreover by them. Is your servant warned In keeping them. There is great reward. See. The Bible says in Psalm 19 That God's word is pure gold.

And there is great reward When we keep his word. Everybody here would like to be blessed of God.

Wouldn't we?

I would like to be blessed. And the method The means to being blessed According to Psalm 19 Is in keeping his word. In keeping them There is great reward. So today as we go to Hebrews chapter 7 We need to first of all Establish a little bit of context Regarding the Levitical priests.

You see although it was God Who established a priesthood From Abraham's descendant.

Namely Levi.

God always had a superior priesthood Which was shown to be greater By Abraham's interaction with Melchizedek. So we're going to get into Hebrews chapter 7 10 verses today. But we really can't understand What the author is saying to us By his inspired word Unless we have context.

The context of Hebrews 7 Is really with reference to The Levitical priesthood. What is the Levitical priesthood? This is a system of sacrifices Officiated by a certain tribe of Israel One of the 12 tribes.

The Levites.

Were set apart to be priests in Israel. So I ask you How did the Levites become The priests of Israel? It's kind of a complicated answer. But it's very interesting. Here's how it came about After the Passover.

The very next chapter. Exodus 13 When Israel has come out of captivity The first thing God says to them Is consecrate to me.

The firstborn.

The firstborn are to be consecrated. So the firstborn cow Should be offered as a sacrifice. The firstborn lamb Should be offered as a sacrifice. The firstborn human Should be consecrated unto God For a lifetime of service.

Every firstborn Should be devoted and consecrated.

To the Lord.

Exodus 13. Fast forward a little time. And Moses goes up on Mount Sinai. You know the story. He gets the Ten Commandments. There's a whole Charlton Heston movie about it When he comes down.

What does he discover?

That Aaron. It's kind of like when the Moses is away. The Aaron will play. He just does whatever he wants. He says here's what I'm going to do.

Everybody give me all your gold.

And he takes the gold of all the people And he puts it into the fire And as he describes it to Moses Out pop this calf.

He makes a golden calf.

Out of all the gold of the people. So now here comes Moses down the mountain With Joshua as his assistant. And in the distance They can hear this great sound.

And he says what is that?

Is that a war cry? Are we at war? Or are they celebrating the victory from war? Or are they mourning defeat from war? What's going on? The closer they get Moses and Joshua are talking. And they say no.

That sounds like a party. Some kind of party going on. And when Moses gets down the mountain Aaron had figured Moses was gone. He had been up there for like 40 days And 40 nights. Been up there a long time.

So Moses rebukes Aaron And says what have you done? And he grinds that golden calf Into powder And he puts it in the water And he makes all the people drink it. Like to make a point. You don't just do things your own way.

You need to listen to God And worship the way he prescribes. And then an interesting thing happens. God is not done judging. And Moses says Okay whoever is on the Lord's side in this Come to me. And right away.

One of the 12 tribes Rallies to Moses' side. Now it makes sense that it would be the Levites. Because Moses comes from the tribe of Levi.

As does Aaron.

But all the Levites rally to Moses And God puts swords in their hands Meaning they are to take their swords And they kill 30 ,000 Israelites that day.

By God's decree.

As an act of God's judgment God is able to do that And has the authority to execute judgment. But that day The Levites were recognized As consecrated to the Lord. Fast forward. Next couple chapters. Well into the next book Numbers chapter 3 We see that God chooses then.

The Levites.

To replace or substitute for The first born. Remember? After the Passover The first born are to be consecrated. He says okay now The Levites are going to stand in the stead of The first born of every family.

The tribe of Levi.

Will represent me at the altar. So the Levites become God's representatives among the people They are given this blessing They will be the priests.

That's important.

Here's why. Because recognize It's God himself Who sets up the Levites As the priests And every time they offer These sacrifices on the altar They are doing the right thing. God made this system. So now we go To Hebrews chapter 7.

With that as the context We can understand What happens next.

Where are we?

In Hebrews 7 Well really we're in a book That explains that Jesus is better. He's better than angels He's better than Abraham He's better than Moses He's better than mankind He is the new representative humanity.

And here in chapter 7 Jesus is a better priest. He is a priest that's better than Any Levite ever was. Better than Aaron He's a better priest. That's the big context. Now I said That Hebrews.

Is really.

Summarized With two words Session And intercession.

Session meaning.

To be seated on the throne Intercession meaning To stand in between God and man Jesus is presented in the book of Hebrews As the king Who sits on the throne And he's presented as the priest Who goes between God and man.

Both of those concepts are explained In Psalm 110. And the book of Hebrews is an unpacking.

Of that idea.

So here in chapter 7 We get into this idea Of Jesus as a priest. That's the big idea. That's what the author needs to prove. Why is that so important? Well if you are a Hebrew In the first century And you've left Judaism Behind because you saw in Christ That he is a miracle worker.

And he rose from the dead.

You've come to Christ. And you're gathering with the Christian community. There's a lingering question In your mind. Well what about the sacrificial system?

What about the.

Offerings being made in Jerusalem?

And where is our priest? Okay we get it.

Jesus from the tribe of Judah Is the king, he's the Messiah. But where's our priest? It can't be Jesus. Because God said that the priest Has to come through.

Levi.

And so now Jewish people Are coming back to their brethren And saying look You got excited about this Jesus idea But I don't think it's consistent With what God revealed Throughout time You have no priest Come back to Judaism.

The water is better here Come back. And many Begin to do that because of the persecution. So how.

Is it then.

That we do have a priest?

That's.

The question and for us here In the kind of 21st century it's hard For us to see why that's such a big deal. But that was a big deal. They needed that question answered. Otherwise God isn't consistent with his own word.

Let's read it.

Hebrews 7 we're doing 1 to 10 today. For this Melchizedek King of Salem Priest of the most high God Met Abraham returning From the slaughter of the kings.

And blessed him.

And to him Abraham apportioned A tenth part of everything. He is first by translation of his name King of righteousness. Then he is also King of Salem that is King of peace. He is without father or mother Or genealogy having neither beginning Of days nor end of life.

But resembling the son of God He continues A priest Forever. See how great this man was. To whom Abraham the patriarch Gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants.

Of Levi.

Who received the priestly office Have a commandment in the law To take tithes from the people That is from their brothers.

Though these.

Also are descended from Abraham. But this man Who does not have his descent from them Received tithes From Abraham And blessed him Who had the promises. It is beyond dispute That the inferior is blessed By the superior.

In the one case tithes are received By mortal men but in the other case By one of whom it is testified.

That he lives.

One might even say that Levi himself Who receives tithes Paid tithes.

Through.

Abraham.

For he was still in the loins of his Ancestor when.

Melchizedek met him.

Now, admittedly.

This is one of the more complicated Passages in the Bible. Which is why, again We were commanded To pay more close attention, to really dig in And to become mature and eat the meat Of God's word. So let's do that.

There are.

Four words here that I think. Summarize the argument.

King.

Priest Blessing and tithe Those are The issues Kings, priests Blessings and tithes. And as we understand how those things relate To one another, we will see in it An exaltation of Jesus Christ.

First.

Chapter 7, verse 1 And the first part of verse 2 This we call the recounting.

Of events.

This is a recounting of the story Of Genesis 14. The necessary and relevant Elements are kings, priests Tithes and offerings. See this, for this Melchizedek, king Of Salem, that's number one Priest Of the most high God.

That's the second important thing Met Abraham returning from the slaughter Of the kings and Blessed him. The blessing is third here and to him Abraham apportioned A tenth, that's a tithe.

Of everything.

So we have a recounting of the story That focuses on Those four things. So store that in your mind because now the author Will unpack those From king to priest. He'll do tithe first and then blessing.

And then he'll wrap it up with a couple Other thoughts that ties it all together. So you'll follow the train of thought If you see the structure that he lays.

Out at the beginning of the.

Chapter. I'll tell you why I love teaching on Melchizedek. It proves that the Bible is true. This is why I love this subject so much.

Because.

If the Bible is just a collection Of books written by men Moses wrote Genesis And some unknown author Wrote Hebrews Then you would expect to get disparate Thoughts and ideas Merely the whims and intentions of a human Mind but if there is A common author to every.

Book of the Bible.

Namely the Holy Spirit who carried along The human authors. Then you Will have material like this. Because the hallmark Of truth is consistency. Consistency is the Hallmark of truth. A good liar Is hard to.

Peep.

His story will be Largely consistent. But you find certain points of Inconsistency that reveal That a person is lying. The hallmark Of truth is consistency. And from beginning to end The Bible is consistent.

There is no type of Christ In the Old Testament that receives more Treatment in the New than the story of Melchizedek. An entire chapter showing that Jesus was Foretold in those three Verses of Genesis 14.

In other words the New Testament finds this to be very Important. I think it's important for us In the 21st century.

As obscure As it all is.

Some people might find it boring.

But then again.

Our culture finds The Bible not only boring But untrue. They think it's riddled with myth They think That it's.

Invented by men.

But if what we see.

Today is really there and not just The invention of men.

Then.

Everything that this book says to us Is true.

And it is.

In three verses of Genesis 14 we have now Unpacked an entire chapter.

Of meat.

Important teaching that comes from God. So that's the importance. Of the recounting of the tale. Focus us on verses One and two. Look at the second part of verse two. That's a joyful noise to the Lord.

That's what I call it.

He is first By translation of his name King of righteousness And then He is also king Of Salem that is King of peace. Repeated three times. You guys know What we're focusing on here right.

The king.

The story of the Bible.

Is the story of a king.

Genesis chapter one When God makes man in his image He says fill the earth and.

Subdue it have dominion.

That's kingdom language. And notice this turn with me really quickly. Back to Genesis chapter five Verse twenty nine. When Noah was named It was with the expectation And the hope that he might be The promised king.

After mankind Fell into sin God made a promise in the Garden of Eden That a seed of the woman A descendant of the woman would crush The head of the serpent. The serpent represents more than a snake. Crawling on the ground it represents Satan and the kingdom of evil That seeks to overthrow The rule of God.

God will send a ruler a king.

Who will crush the head of the serpent.

And look now.

Genesis five twenty nine.

Notice that Lamech is looking For the king.

He's waiting for the coming king. Because when he names his son.

Noah he does that.

For a reason He called his name Noah Saying out of the ground That the lord has Cursed. That's Genesis three language. Now look at the Genesis three Fifteen language. This one shall bring us relief From our work And from the painful toil Of our hands.

Lamech is looking for Noah To hopefully be the promised seed.

Of the woman.

The one who can reverse the curse. A coming king. And likewise when Abraham comes He's told that through your seed All of the nations will be blessed.

Again and again.

As you follow the story of the Bible It is the story of a kingdom.

And the great.

Expectation of the entire Old Testament is that there is coming.

A king.

The scepter will not depart From the tribe of Judah. The scepter is the ruling Staff between his knees. A coming king. And each successive covenant Expressed in the Old Testament Every promise of God Unfolds more and more Information about this coming king.

Finally.

The Davidic kingdom The Davidic covenant promises that The king will come from the line.

Of David.

David will always have a ruler Seated on the throne And so the descendants of David Are eligible to be potentially The king who will reverse the curse. Of course Noah didn't Turn out to be the one did he.

After saving the world in a sense. Coming off the boat He gets drunk And falls in that way. All have sinned and fall short.

Of the glory of God.

But there's coming a king Who can reverse this curse. Back to Hebrews 7 Verse 2 Melchizedek pictures this king After kings go to war Five against four This bloodbath of a war. And picture Abraham Coming back, he's not coming.

Dressed in fine clothes He's coming back bloody and holding a sword. Here comes another king A mysterious king.

And the kingdom.

That he represents.

Is righteousness.

His kingdom is peace. You see Melchizedek pictures.

The king of the world.

Jesus alone Fits this description He's pointing us To the coming king. Look at verse 3. The second word we have today is Priest. And this answers The Jewish question Where's your priesthood. Our Levites are still offering Sacrifices in the temple.

Where's your priest Christian. 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. This Melchizedek Not only pictures the coming king But what I called last week The beautiful parenthetical.

That little phrase.

Hidden in Genesis 14 18 to 20. It says in parenthesis He was priest Of God most high. I think that's also why he brings Bread and wine In those three little verses. And if you weren't here last week. Or you might have missed that sermon.

In fact we had some technological error. So that's okay if you missed that Go back and spend some time Reading Genesis 14. Because this is what we're talking about. Three little verses in Genesis 14. With so much.

Gold treasure.

Hidden in that passage.

Some of that gold. What I called is that he is a priest He brings bread and he brings wine. Of course when Christ comes And he's the true and final priest He brings the bread of his own body And the wine of his own blood Which we will represent In communion After this sermon Why do we take communion?

Bread and wine. Because of the body and blood of our priest. He is the priest and the sacrifice He brings is his own body. But Melchizedek Pictured that because when Abraham Comes back bloody from war Tired and hungry And thirsty he's met with a feast.

It wouldn't be this.

Little cracker.

It would be.

Bread and wine To refresh him After the war. So verse 3 he is a priest forever. Now we're getting into the final two Areas that help us understand The greatness of Melchizedek.

Over against the Levites.

That the Jewish people celebrate I know it's a little hard to follow. But just think in terms now of tithing. Verses 4 -6a. See how great this man was To whom Abraham the patriarch. Gave a tenth of the spoils.

Abraham.

Abraham's the greatest. He's father Abraham.

The Jews Consider him.

Unequaled.

Except maybe Moses. But Abraham as great as he was. Abraham gives the tithe. To Melchizedek.

So what does that make Melchizedek Even greater.

This is what we'll see. And those descendants of Levi Who receive The priestly office Have a commandment in the law To take tithes from the people That is from their brothers Though these also are descended From Abraham.

But this man Who does not have his descent from them Received tithes from Abraham. So again we need context Again part of what makes The bible so beautiful. Is that it's consistent with itself.

It all fits together.

And weaves a story that Leads us to Christ. Well why do we say That the Levites received tithes Numbers 18 God tells the Levites I give you Your priesthood as a gift And now let all the people of Israel The brothers the 11 other tribes Bring their first fruits.

Every.

First fruit of your Crops and of your animals. 10 The first 10 Will go to the.

Levites.

You come and you Offer your tithes To God through the Levites. So notice the direction here. The direction is what really unlocks this for us. Notice the direction. The lesser Humbly comes to the.

Greater.

God is great. And here we are sinners. But because we seek him and we want his blessing We come to him. And the lesser offers the tithe To the greater. And there between The great God and the Sinner bringing the offering stands a Priest.

So the priest is above.

The man the brother.

He comes and he offers his tithe.

Up to God.

That's the direction it's moving.

From the.

Inferior to the superior. You see that. So the Levite stood in that position.

As a gift.

Because he had rallied to the side Of Moses Because God chose him for that role He would stand and be blessed To be a priest As an intermediary between God. And man this was a very privileged.

Place for the Levite.

To take tithes from the people. So what does that say To us about tithing.

Well.

We don't have Levites. The New Testament Understanding of offerings.

Is.

Very much from.

The heart.

The key passage of all of this Is 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 And out of the generosity Of a willing heart Even the poverty of the Corinthian church. Welled up in giving As a response.

To God.

The tithe is not taught in the New Testament. The last place we see The tithe taught Is the second to last chapter of the Old Testament Where God says Test me in this Bring the full tithe into the storehouse.

See if I don't pour out blessing on your head. So in the Old Testament In Israel's economy God would bless The obedience of tithing. If somebody comes The Israelite comes and obeys God By bringing the 10

Then there will be physical.

Blessing.

Their crops won't fail Their children won't die in childbirth. Disease won't run Through their city. They will be physically blessed. In the New Testament We do not have that same Kind of promise. We are promised Blessing for obedience.

Blessed is the man Who perseveres under trial. Our physical Circumstances may not.

Improve.

But we will be blessed With the crown of life. This is James 1 12 to 17 speaking Where James says every good And perfect gift comes from the father of lights Who does not change like shifting.

Shadows.

We are to bring our offering To God because we Are a kind of First fruits we're told. So the New Testament equivalent To tithing is not that we have To set 10 aside. Although if the Israelites did that I always find that's a good benchmark.

But God doesn't care How much money you bring. Even percentage wise.

He is after the heart.

And in the New Testament God loves a cheerful Giver. That's how, that's what he looks for. So there is A New Testament equivalent that we come And we bring our offerings to God. It's part of our religion That God accepts A pure heart, big idea.

Four through six. Is that the tithe is offered.

Up.

We come and we offer that tithe to God And the priest Is above the one.

Offering it.

He stands as an intermediary To usher your gift to God. Now, let's see how this all ties together. The last of the four is blessing. The second half of the sixth Verse. And blessed him Who had the promises.

So Melchizedek Blessed Abraham Who had been given the promise of descendants. Like the sand on the sea Or the stars in the sky. Abraham had these great promises To be the patriarch Of a nation that God was creating To mediate blessing to the whole world.

He had these wonderful promises.

And yet.

It was Melchizedek Who blessed Abraham. Not the other way around. Do you see the big idea here? And well, if you didn't see it Look at the next verse. It establishes it. Clearly, this is the big idea.