I invite you to turn this morning to Hebrews chapter 7, Hebrews chapter 7, and we're beginning our reflection now today on understanding, as I've titled the message, Melchizedek, as we've been working through the book of Hebrews and preaching through this great book, Hebrews chapter 7 that's found on page 1191 I would just like to read the as you're turning there I'd like to read the verses in Genesis chapter 14 of Melchizedek the short few verses of his record there what we have and this is what it says after his return from the defeat of Kedorlaomer the king and the kings who were with him the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh that is the king's valley and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine he was priest of the most high god and he blessed him and said blessed be abraham by god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and abraham gave him a tenth of everything and now this is hebrews chapter 7 we back up in chapter 6 at verse 19, and we'll read through 7 verse 10. This is the word of the Lord. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 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 and then he is also king of salem that is king of peace he is without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life but resembling the son of God he continues a priest forever see how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils and those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers though these are also descended from Abraham but this man who does not have his descend 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. And there we'll end the reading of God's word. I was walking through the San Diego airport some time ago and I was walking through the hallway that crosses over the highway there or the street and I looked up and it said on the sign the funnest place in San Diego. And I thought to myself, I'm not even sure that's a proper word. the funnest place in San Diego. I think it was a casino that they were telling everyone to go to. I raise that issue because if I'm not sure I could ever designate anything in the scriptures as the funnest thing that we're doing, but if I could, I think to myself, that must have been the emotion of the author of Hebrews as he was expressing what we are studying today. I think he thoroughly enjoyed this. I think this riveted his mind and heart. This must have been the quote, funnest, end quote, thing he wanted to communicate in the book. And what I mean by that today, this is, in my humble opinion, the greatest type of Jesus in the Bible. Maybe someone wants to challenge me on that, but I'm not so sure there's a greater type in the Bible. I think we've come to it today. Something that foreshadows Jesus and his work. And I think this was enjoyable to speak about of Melchizedek today to show that his entire presentation in the Old Testament was meant to show us something and demonstrate something to us about Jesus. And that was intensely enjoyable for him. And he wants that to be for us. But remember what he's already said. because people are dull of hearing this is the kind of stuff they don't come to church for it's just the reality they they don't want this kind of deep exposition i got to say i read an article this week that said the hottest thing that's going on in the church today what do you think it is well don't answer this article made the case it is deep exposition of scripture that is the most desirable thing for people when they come to church today, which is so counterintuitive to how we've thought about the church. This is not the stuff that we think people want to come to church for. Well, I can tell you, this is one of the most important passages today to understand. And yes, it takes the mind. It takes you being focused today. It takes you staying with me. That's the purpose here. because now he's pressing us into some deep truths of the Scripture and he wants us to understand them and he sees these things as intensely practical, which is the other thing we hear today. How are these things practical? Well, in this case, now we move to consider the perpetual priesthood of Jesus. That's where he's moved. That's where he's gone to. That's why I read a little bit of chapter 6 at the end and what it means for us and how wonderful this truth is as the author understood it and wanted to communicate it. It's always been, there's always been in my ministry and with people a great intrigue over the figure of Melchizedek. And today we begin to look into this great figure to see his significance for us, what he means and what he's telling us to understand Melchizedek. And what I want to do this morning is begin briefly with a historical look at Melchizedek and then move to how he speaks of Jesus, foreshadows Jesus, all with the goal in the third point, if you're taking notes, that you would appreciate and much more appreciate the better priesthood of Christ and what that means for us. So we have to really, I think, to set the stage just for a minute, remember the problem in the book. You'll remember in the face of all of this hardship of living in the world and all of this confusion and all this possible persecution which is interesting this is an important book for our time because we're on the brink of that i heard today there were protests over the abortion thing about to happen to the catholic church if we think we're escaping these things we're wrong this may be the future you'll remember that in the face of hardship these christians because they had had it good for a while and had been given a lot they were tempted to regress regress and move away from jesus was what they were doing and that was the particular temptation for these hebrew christians to say you know this christianity thing doesn't seem to have much to it it just doesn't seem very powerful it doesn't seem to have anything that's really making a difference in the world because we don't see jesus so we want to go back we want to revert back to Judaism. And we want to go back particularly to that kind of priesthood where we could see and seem to have more to offer to us that was real, which is our problem. We had a pastor's gathering here not too long ago. Of all the pastors in the community, I hosted it, we hosted it, and it was kind of a ministerial. And they walked in and they were all stunned. That's all you have up there is a pulpit? It was a great discussion. It was a really good discussion. And yeah, this is our struggle today, isn't it? I mean, you have to look at Chris Gordon for a while. That's a struggle, but you're looking and hearing the word. That wasn't very satisfactory to them. There's not enough show. There was not enough power. There was not enough. This has incessantly been the problem in the church. And the author has been challenging this. It just seemed to them a safer and better way to go, to go back to the Levitical priesthood and to answer the problems that they were facing. It's something they were more familiar with, they thought, and they couldn't really connect Christianity in the present moment of persecution. And the author's directly challenging this, saying to them, you've missed everything the Levitical priesthood was about. We'll explore a lot more of that as we go. But for now, what he does is draw a great comparison to the most mysterious and enigmatic figures in the Old Testament. He's just mysterious. He was meant to be in the record. And what a figure he was, this Melchizedek. Set the context. We read in verse 19 of chapter 6, Jesus has become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, why that is important as an interpretive help is to remember that what he's doing here is still engaging Psalm 110. It's implicitly there. He's been working. It's one of the most important psalms to the New Testament writers. Where in Psalm 110 was made the statement that we looked at last time with promise and oath I have sworn forever you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek last time we looked at what God did for Abraham is that when he had all these hardships he would continue to come back to Abraham even in his failures and encourage him and one of the greatest encouragements to Abraham was this I have sworn Jesus is forever your high priest according to the order of Melchizedek whom you saw Abraham and I think this is God's great way of encouraging us today what did I read in the assurance of pardon he's a sympathetic high priest who continues to minister to you and he's not unsympathetic. He became one of us, right? He took on our human nature and then he went back up into heaven and sits enthroned and exalted over all for you. You have no idea the benefits and blessings you're receiving because of that. But remember, this is what God did for Abraham. He promised and then he swore an oath and at this point he now begins to explain this as this was the greatest encouragement for Abraham, we should appreciate what Abraham believed. We should understand what Abraham believed. So that's meant to be a huge encouragement. So looking at historical Melchizedek, verse 1, And for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. The author is inviting us here. He's teasing us to go back to Genesis 14, and he wants us to consider this brief narrative. And remember where it was embedded and what happened. It was right in the story of Lot's deliverance. Remember? Lot had parked his tent and set his tent up near Sodom and then ended up in Sodom. But you'll remember before all of that, he had been taken captive by a band of raiders and Abraham armed his 300 soldiers and went and defeated them and recovered Lot and his family and defeated all these kings. The king of Sodom comes out to Abraham and he offers him persons and goods of the victory. Abraham shows no regard for the king of Sodom. In other words, he was trying to bargain and play a game with Abraham and Abraham saw right through it. The regard had nothing like what was regarded, how he regarded Melchizedek. In the middle of the story, Seemingly out of nowhere, this strange king shows up named Melchizedek. Here's the entire record of him. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of the Most High God and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High who's delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. That's it. That's all we get. The author is mesmerized by this. In fact, he's also mesmerized by what's not said. For the author of Hebrews, he's so captivated by that story. What's remarkable here, obviously, is that this was some great king in the dynasty of kings in the region. Genesis said he is also a priest of the Most High God. and king of Salem. He had a great lineage that he belonged to, but nothing is said of it. So this king comes out of nowhere, this royal figure. He must have been impressive to behold. And Abraham gives him a tithe of everything from the spoils of the war, And then Melchizedek disappears out of the scripture and we never read about anything historical of him again. He's in and he's out. Just like that. You get the sense. This was one impressive priest king. That was not a common thing in Israel to put together those two offices. When the king of Sodom came, Abraham didn't show the regard. and we stop with this great question and we are all plagued with this great question. Well, how many times I've heard it over the years? Who is this? We're captivated by him. Abraham pays a tithe. According to Philo and the early writers, what they understood is that Abraham, and it says the spoils here, Abraham gave him all the weapons of war, bowed at his feet and gave him all the weapons of the war. it's kind of like given with David and Goliath, Goliath's sword to the feet of Melchizedek. Who was he? Well, there's been a lot of views throughout history. Some of the early writers said he was Shem, but that's mere conjecture. There's nothing in the scripture that says that. The very popular view is that he is the pre-incarnate Christ that has shown up. But the problem is the author of Hebrews specifically says something else. He doesn't say that about Melchizedek. All we know of him is he comes in and he goes out. That's it. Calvin said something interesting. Amid the corruptions of the world, he alone in that land, Think about this statement. He alone in that land was an upright and sincere cultivator and guardian of all religion. He's a king. He's a priest. He's an amazing figure. What's all this about? Well, the author of Hebrews explains it for you. 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 of part of everything. And then he goes on to define that as the spoils of the war. He is first, by translation of his name, King of Righteousness. And then he's also King of Salem. That is, king of peace. He's without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. Beginning of days nor end of life. But resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever. The key to all this is the last statement. That he resembled the Son of God. That's the clue to the whole text. That's the importance of the whole text. God appointed Melchizedek to illustrate and teach and resemble Jesus. He prefigures Jesus. He foreshadows Jesus. He preaches Jesus. He shows us the character of Jesus as the king and the priest, as a king and a priest. He's the ultimate type in the Bible. He's meant to be presented in such a way so that we would study him and that Abraham saw him and his character and would understand Jesus. How did he do this? Notice the fourth thing said about him carefully. He was king of Salem, priest of the most high God. That's remarkable. He is both a king and a priest. As I said, those offices were not joined together in one figure in Israel. he ruled the people of the Most High God, and he made atonement for sins. Then number two, he blessed Abraham. Genesis tells us he brought Abraham bread and wine. Hold that thought. I have more to say about that. Third, he is called the king of righteousness, and then also the king of Salem. The man was a king who was righteous and the king of Salem, who the traditional view here, meaning that he was the king of, I take this traditional view, of Jerusalem, which means the city of Salem, the city of peace. Number four, he's without father or mother. No genealogy, having neither begin of days nor end of life. Beginning, that is what has stumped people throughout history as if the author has presented to us some kind of superhuman figure or some kind of eternal figure. But it's not that hard. There were, in Israel, strict rules for lineage in the Levitical priesthood. There was always a record of lines for who became priests for descent of the priests. They always had a record that was kept. The Jews were meticulous about this, and this was very important to them. And, I mean, you know something about this. Most of you know who parents are, and we trace family names, and we know where they're from, and we know where they came from. I mean, of all the people, I mean, I'm amazed here in this church how many families you know in Michigan and Iowa and in Linden. It's kind of overwhelming. You know all the people. You know where they came from. You know your ancestries. You know your backgrounds. But you don't know anything about me. Well, you know my mom. She's here now. Came from Scotland. Right? The Gordons in Scotland. There's a bunch of Gordons buried over there. You wouldn't have the faintest clue. of who my great-grandparents were. All this is saying that. He had no lineage of descent entered into the record. He was never traced. Nobody knew where he came from. And nobody knew where he ended up. It was never recorded. And that was completely not done in Israel. no mention is made of his father and his mother. There's nothing in Genesis that we can find. There's no record that we can find. It's total silence on this matter. All that is recorded of him, listen carefully, is he was living. No record of death, no record of beginning. And the author says, see, he was made to resemble somebody. I can't help but to think that when Jesus said the gospel was preached to him that this was on his mind he's the greatest type the author of Hebrews wants you to be stopped fixated with Melchizedek and to be fixated with Jesus. Melchizedek is simply the greatest witness to Jesus. Let me put it together. What did Abraham see in Melchizedek? He saw the king of peace. He saw Jesus Christ. He's the priest of the Most High God. He's the king of Jerusalem. And from there, that Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, where he resides right now and where he's seated. Hebrews is going to say that. He is our king. Do you know what that means for you? Well, you could take the words of the Heidelberg, which are pretty wonderful. What does Jesus do for us? As our eternal king, he governs us by his word and spirit. and he defends us. Wasn't that the great problem that these Hebrew Christians were struggling with? Are we really being defended in this world? And he preserves us. Listen, if Christianity could have been put out, it already would have been. Here you are, 2022. No kingdom, no nation, no people has ever stamped this out. Why? Because he's the king. he preserves us in the redemption that he obtained for us and he's our priest who by the one sacrifice of his body has redeemed us and who, what the Hebrews has been telling us continually intercedes for us before the father that's what he's doing right now every day, beloved and you don't think like this and I don't think like this. He's defending you. You're here, aren't you? You're believing? He cares for you. He watches over your life. He's got a perfect plan he's enacting. And the most marvelous truth is this king gave his life as the eternal high priest to atone for all your sins. And he ever lives to do this for you. Intercede. The author keeps going. Melchizedek blessed Abraham. The author's overwhelmed by this. He says the lesser is blessed by the greater. The whole time, God's promise and oath had to do with blessing Abraham, right? It was all about blessing. And what have you received? You're the answer to Abraham's blessing that was promised. stars in the heavens, sand on the seashore. Here you are. Here you are gathered, Isaiah 61. You're gathered. The sons and daughters shall come from afar. Abraham, the blessing. Here, notice that the lesser is blessed by the greater. He is blessing Abraham. That's how the whole Abraham narrative began. God blessing Abraham. And then he gave him what? Bread and wine. The great scholar F.F. Bruce once said, what typologist could resist the opportunity to draw a direct connection to the supper? What does Jesus give us? Bread and wine. In Luke 24, at the resurrection, when he came in the room, remember the first thing he said? The king of peace said, peace to you, I give to you. the king blessed them. He raised up his hands, right? Aaronic benediction. And he blessed them at the end of Luke 24. He blessed them with peace. And then he rehearsed the formula for the supper and he broke bread. And when he gave the original supper, remember what he said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you. every time you partake of the supper you're partaking of his body and blood by faith and Hebrews says he's the king of righteousness what has he given you? he's your righteousness the big point today in the book of Hebrews he's eternal he has no beginning or end he has neither beginning of days nor end of life you see we're so too curious about melchizedek when he was only meant to resemble jesus and not being put in the record that's all abraham saw abraham saw the gospel and the author wants you to marvel over the fact that he's your king priest forever years ago i preached out of hebrews and i preached everything that jesus would do for us and how he's bringing us to glory in heaven. And I had, and this was in a church long, far back, 2003. He walked up afterward and he said, what does that do for me today? I was appalled. How much worldliness has come into our minds? What do you mean, what does that do for you today? Do you know what's been done for you? Why does it matter? It means everything. Why would you ever go back to the law? Why would you ever go back to Moses? Why would you go back to the Levitical priesthood? Why would you go to something that only foreshadowed the things to come All those priests died. And the blood of bulls and goats didn't forgive sins. Who could say this today? Why do people look anywhere and everywhere else to find fulfillment and happiness other than Jesus? I could record a million things here today that people turn to besides Jesus. He draws this last brief point here. with tithes he wants you in all over the superior priesthood to the levitical priesthood abraham tithes to him and the author says listen levitical priests those descendants of levi who receive priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers though these are also descended from abraham in 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 that Levi himself who received tithes paid tithes through Abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor Melchizedek when Melchizedek met him here's the point it's really simple tithes were commanded to mortal men and they died but what Abraham understood in giving a tithe to Melchizedek was that he was responding in faith in seeing Jesus through the figure of Melchizedek and that the tithe looked to the better priesthood. See, I think that's important because if I stood up here today and whipped you over your giving, what would that do? Well, a lot of you would then close your pockets. Who are you giving to? Why are you giving? Isn't there something really beautiful about the New Testament coming along and saying, God loves a cheerful giver because we're giving in response? Not because Jesus needs it, but because it's a ministry, his ministry to people who need it. There was a lot of abuse of Old Testament priests, weren't there? Read the story of Samuel and Hophni and Phinehas, who abused the people. See, he was commanded in the law. Abraham represented something that was to come of the new covenant people. I was struggling with how to preach this. I was really struggling because it's heavy stuff. And then Psalm 110 dawned on me. I have sworn you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. But in the heart of that psalm, he says something that I've never taken to heart before. I think that's behind this. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments from the womb of the morning, the dew of the youth, It will be yours. Abraham was giving himself in faith, believing the promise to Christ in response to the gospel. A free will offering. I'm yours. You are my king. You've paid for my sins. You're my priest. I am the offering. I believe. I look to who you represent, Melchizedek. The whole passage is saying to us today, Jesus forever is our priest who continues to defend us and to watch over us and who ministers righteousness to us so that to say in him you have everything, beloved. This is the best news that could be given. Talk about a Mother's Day gift. This is what Abraham saw. And you see how important this is for a people who are tempted to drift away, To harden their hearts. To think that the ministry is not very powerful. To come for all the wrong reasons. To be disengaged. That's not the response of a people who know their high priest. John Newton once said, How unspeakably wonderful to know that all our concerns are held in the hands of him who bled for us. Let that set in. There's a reason the author keeps saying, don't lose heart in the struggle. And will remind us that Jesus himself never leaves us nor forsakes us because he has the power of an indestructible life. He can't die. He died and when he died, he rose. you see far more than what Abraham saw. I close with that. Believe him and trust him. He's a merciful and compassionate high priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses and is ready and able to give aid to the children of Abraham, which is exactly what the author says. The world is falling apart before our eyes. There's no hope. Who can dispute that? It always has been. It's just brought fresh to us as of recent. Jesus has spoken everything you need to know for salvation as your prophet. He's your priest in laying down his life to pay for your sins. And he's your king who rules over you, numbering the hairs of your head with a gracious, tender hand and a gracious kingship over you. So trust him. Pray to him. Come boldly to the throne of grace. And don't ever look back to Sodom or the world or anything else inferior. Beloved, you have everything in Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word today to us and helping us to understand a complex passage. And yet really in the big picture, not, for this is all that we have enjoyed through Jesus Christ. Thank you for feeding our souls with bread and wine that speak of the wonderful sacrifice made for us. Thank you for a king of righteousness who governs Salem, the city of peace, and who is eternal, and whoever lives to make intercession for us. What confidence we should have and how this should stir up our hearts to response in faith. Thank you for instructing us in the good word of faith and the doctrine which should be carefully followed. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.