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.
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