Jesus and Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-10)

The major theme in the middle of the book, where we are now is that Jesus is our High Priest. He is our representative, the best representative there is. He sits next to God the Father in Heaven and represents us before Him. After last weeks interlude, where the author encouraged his readers to grow and be mature Christians, tonight we’re back to the main point, Jesus is our High Priest, our representative, in heaven.

And tonight, we meet one of the most mysterious, but helpful people in the Old Testament. As we continue our study of Hebrews we are constantly being reminded that Jesus is better. Jesus is a better King, a better prophet, a better offering. Jesus is better than anything else anyone else can offer. So we need to come to Him for salvation, for holiness and for hope.

That person is Melchizedek, and the author is going to use him to help us understand more about Jesus. Melchizedek is a ‘type.’ The OT is filled with ceremonies, events and people that are pictures of Jesus, or types of Jesus. King David is a picture of Jesus. So is the Passover, so are Abraham and Isaac going up the hill to make a sacrifice. So, what we learn about Melchizedek is what we learn about Jesus. what we see in Melchizedek, we’ll also see in Jesus.

These verses of Hebrews 7 tell us more about Melchizedek than the rest of the Bible. Melchizedek only appears in three places. Genesis 14, where Abraham meets him, then in psalm 110, when David tells us that Jesus will be like him, and here in Hebrews 7. This, incidentally is another great argument for the divine inspiration of the Bible. There’s no way that Moses, writing Genesis, and David, writing the Psalms and whoever wrote Hebrews thousands of years apart could have all imagined this same man with this same role. But here is Melchizedek ready to teach us about Jesus.

The first thing we see in verses 1 and 2 is that Melchizedek is righteous and royal. Four times in these two verses Melchizedek is said to be the King of something. He is King of Salem, mentioned twice, king of righteousness and king of peace. M was a priest and a king, just like Jesus is. Zechariah 6:13 says that ‘there shall be a priest on the throne,’ and M is a great picture of Jesus the priest-king. Melchizedek is also righteous. This doesn’t mean that he has never sinned, unless we think that Melchizedek was Christ Himself but it means that when he sinned he sought forgiveness before God, and asked that God would help him to fight against his sin. He was righteous in that he could be trusted, he could be respected, he could be looked up to.

M is a great picture of Jesus, who is the righteous and royal priest and King. Just think about that for a moment. The one who you pray to is the righteous and royal priest King. No one else get that. No other system of religion or belief gets to have access to God though Jesus, and yet we so often take it for granted. This knowledge should flood our heart with joy. We have Jesus, who loves us, who represents us. He’s righteous, so He will never let us down, and He’s royal, which gives Him every right to ask for things on our behalf.

The next thing we’re shown in verse three is that Melchizedek is personal, and perpetual. Read those verses with me. How did you get to be a priest in the OT? You had to be a Levite, and then you had to be the right kind of Levite. This is a problem for us, because Jesus wasn’t born into the tribe of Levi, He was born into the tribe of Judah. And no priest comes from Judah. But His priesthood is like Melchizedek s priesthood. Melchizedek wasn’t a priest because of his parents, he was a priest because of who he was. His priesthood was personal, just like Jesus’ is. Jesus is a priest because of who He is, not because He was born in the right place at the right time. Jesus is a priest because He was appointed by the Father, not because of who His parents were. Just like M.

And just like Melchizedek  Jesus will be a priest forever. Melchizedek's priesthood is perpetual, it never ends, just like Jesus’ priesthood is. He will never stop being a High Priest. In the Old Testament, this must have been a constant problem. You’d get a good High Priest, one who loved God, and was sympathetic to sins, but then he’d die, and who knows what the next guy would be like. This is never a problem with us. We know that Jesus has conquered death. As Jesus tells John in Revelation 1:18, he died, and now he is alive forevermore. So repent, and pray and share your faith, and read your Bible, and be faithful to church, and grow, and mature, safe in the knowledge that Jesus, your priest, your representative, will never die. He is always there for you.