Home  |  News & Events  |  Forum Apologetica  |  Church Ministries  |  Study Resources  | Pulpit Ministries

Pulpit Ministry | Sermons - Chronological | Old Testament | New Testament | Subject Index

Hebrews 7:1-10    Such a Great High Priest

Rev. Tim Muse - BPC 5/26//02

Subj:  Christ-priesthood; Christ-Superiority; Tithing

INTRODUCTION

We are continuing in our study on the Book of Hebrews.  It has been a delightful study, an uplifting study, it’s a study we have entitled “Hebrews - New Confidence For The New Order, Responding in Faith to Such a Great Salvation.”  So far, in the series we’ve seen that our confidence ought to be high and ought to remain high for all times.  I say that because we have received such a great salvation; such a great savior; such a great confession; such a great responsibility; such a great mediator; such a great expectation; and such a great assurance. 

I would like to read for you now the first 10 verses of Heb 7.  Let me ask you to stand once again in honor of him whose word we read.

¹This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, ²and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” ³Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. ⁴Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! ⁵Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. ⁶This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. ⁷And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. ⁸In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. ⁹One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, ¹⁰because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.”

This ends the reading of God’s Holy & Inspired Word.  Our full persuasion and assurance of its divine authority and infallible truth comes from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

PRAYER
Our heavenly Father, our desire this morning is not to be entertained through the preaching of your word, but rather, to hear from you the God in heaven above, that our souls might be saved and that we might grow in our understanding of truth…that through obedience and faith we might participate in righteousness and live our lives in both relationship and fellowship with you.  May you bear witness now to this word within our hearts as it is preached, that we might accept it as truth, that we might embrace the truth, & that we might live our lives in accordance with the truth, to the honor and glory of your Holy name.  This prayer we offer in Jesus name.  Amen.

SERMON

This morning’s text deals with a subject that is frequently being brought into question today… not only across the world and in the United States, but even here in the State of Mississippi, and the small towns and cities, even like Brandon, Mississippi.  The past two weeks as I have gone out to do some evangelism in this town, this very issue has been addressed.  You may ask what is the issue?  It’s an issue that is a very weighty one.  It’s an issue that surrounds the questions, regarding both the sufficiency and even the superiority of Jesus Christ.  I was at a home two weeks ago, where a lady here in Brandon, Mississippi, not New York nor Los Angeles, not on the other side of the world, but Brandon, Mississippi, told me her fiancée believes in multiple gods and is trying to convert her from Christianity over to his beliefs.  You see the ultimate question that is being asked by the world today, not just this one individual, but the world today is this question.  Can Jesus Christ meet my needs and can I be sure?  Let me ask you today, can he meet your needs and are YOU sure of that?

What’s interesting here is the writer of Hebrews wasn’t writing to the pagans to convince them of the superiority of  Jesus Christ.  Think about that.  He was writing to believers.  To once again raise their understanding and their belief and their conviction and their steadfastness, in the superiority of Jesus Christ over every other prophet who had ever come and over every other priest who had ever served.  Therefore, he was setting apart Christianity, as SUPERIOR to ever other religion that has ever been proposed.  Can you say that, not just with your mouth or with your mind, but with the conviction of your heart today, that Christ is superior to all others and that Christianity, therefore, is superior.  Not just one among many, for you see you and I live in a day when there is diversity of religions.  The United States has been described as a melting pot, not only of ethnic peoples as they have come here to live together, but even of the religions of the world that have now come in through immigration and other means of propagation and now find there place here among the American people.  Diversity of religions, the ultimate question you and I must answer is: Is Christianity superior to all these others, or is it simply one among many and do the others have something to offer just like Christianity? 

Not only is there a diversity of views within the United States, but we also see it even in towns like Brandon, …those who would say that there are many ways to get to God.  There are many prophets and there are many priests through whom you might come to God.  The question is does the scripture support that?  What is the truth?  Is there one way?  Is Jesus Christ superior in his eternal priesthood over all others, or can we get to God through many ways?  Some describe man’s ability to relate to God as a mountain with many roads traveling up to the top… is that the way it really is?  Or, is there only one way, the way of God’s own son, Jesus Christ?  The writer of Hebrews is not wishy-washy on this.  He points to the superiority of Jesus Christ and of him, alone.  You might ask why would the writer of Hebrews need to convince believers of this?  I would submit to you the very same reason that there are many believers that need to hear this message today, the very same message.  For you see in the day of this letter’s writing, there were many who were facing persecution in the name of Christ.  They were going out and living their lives for Christ and there were others who were attacking them because of that, and they needed support.  They needed to be reminded of the eternal priesthood of Christ, the one who even now intercedes on their behalf, and of his sufficiency to do that both now and for all the troubles that they would face in the future.  There were those who had grown up in the church, there were those who had been trained and brought up in the Christian faith, but there were those who were attempting to lead them to turn from the Christian faith.  So they were having to ask the question:  Is the Christian faith superior to the others, or am I just as well in these other denominations, in these other religions around me?  The question is: Is Jesus Christ superior?  Today, I hear people say things like “You know these other people, these Mormons (or other non Christians) they look so sincere.  You know they seem to be good people, they are nice, they seem to be so religious, they seem to have something good to offer.  In fact, they are not that much different from Christians.”  The question is: Are they?  It all comes down to how we view the superiority of Christ and of his priesthood.  Then there were still others who due to the dispersion or the Hellenization in which the leaders of the world were trying to make all men speak the Greek language.  There were Hebrews who had not spent as much time in the Hebrew as they needed to and they didn’t know the Old Testament like they should, and so they weren’t built up in the doctrines concerning the priesthood of Christ, even in the Old Testament. What did it result in?  It resulted in them not being steadfast in their convictions when it came to his eternal priesthood, therefore, they needed to be instructed and encouraged even concerning the superiority of the Christ whom they served.  You know there are many of us here today who might fall into one of these categories.  There may be some here today who are asking that very same question.  Is Christ superior to all, or is Mohammed just as easy an avenue to get to God?  There are others who may have grown up in the faith, but are hearing Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons or others begin to say, we offer something very similar, in fact, we preach Jesus Christ.  Is the Jesus Christ you and I believe in, superior to all others or should we give them an ear.  Then, in churches today where there is so much biblical illiteracy …there are those among us today who have had the Old Testament in our homes all our lives and yet we too don’t know the teaching concerning Melchizedek, such that we fail to have that steadfastness and that firm conviction concerning Jesus Christ that we can look at all others and say it doesn’t matter what you bring, it’s inferior to what I know to be true of my Lord.  Do you have that conviction today?  Does the scripture provide us with any understanding, does it provide us with any teachings so that you and I can have the conviction as to what the truth is and where Christ does stand compared to all others, …particularly in his priesthood & his ability to represent us before God?  The good news is it does!

I want to take you to that teaching this morning.  What you are going to find here in this passage is that the superiority of Christ and of his priesthood can be seen in the example of Melchizedek.  You may be asking like many this morning, Melchizedek, who in the world is he?  Well we are not told much in the Old Testament, he is only mentioned twice in the Old Testament, two different passages. Genesis 14 and also Psalm 110, where it only mentions him in one verse.  We read that earlier this morning.  Here in verses 1-3 we read this concerning Melchizedek. “¹This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.”  He was a king and a priest, he held two offices.  “He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, ²and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness,”  Melchizedek basically means, “zedek” is priest or king and basically the full name means king of righteousness, but it also means king of Salem meaning king of peace. It goes on to say “³Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.”  Now, who is he?  There have been a wide variety of suggestions over the years, even among Christian commentators as to his true identity.  There are some who would say that he is an angel that came down, there are some that would say that he is Enoch, there are some that would say he was Shem, who was the son of Noah and if you look to verse 3, probably the large majority of believers would say that he was some pre-incarnate form of Christ, for verse 3 says he was  “without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest, forever.”  The argument would say that if he remains a priest forever, then we would have two priests if he is not Christ, himself.  So he must be Christ in a pre-incarnate form.  The truth of the matter is though his identity may and will remain a mystery for a while this much we can say about him.  He served as a king of Salem, most likely Jerusalem, though Shechem and some other places have been mentioned.  He was also appointed and served as a priest of the true God, those things we do know about him.  He was a historical figure who served most likely in Jerusalem and was both a king and a priest.  Now, I would like to say, I would like to submit to you though I for a good majority of my life, in fact until this week believed that he was pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.  I believe that what we have here is not a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ and I will support it this way:  Two reasons.  First of all, if you understand anything about types and antitypes in scripture, what you find is the type usually points to a higher reality, but is not the reality itself.  For example.  Moses was a type of Christ, himself.  He was not Christ.  When Moses went into Egypt he served as a deliverer of God’s people.  In other words he was like Christ and he went into Egypt and delivered God’s people physically from the bondage under Pharaoh and from the trials and tribulations they suffered.  He delivered them and was like Christ in that, but at the same time he was not Christ.  If you look at the other types in the examples we find in scripture, God uses things of this earth, things common to people like you and me, to point to a greater reality.  For like Moses, what did Christ do?  He came not to deliver God’s people physically from Egypt, but to deliver all God’s people spiritually from the bondage, not of Pharaoh, but from the bondage of sin and of Satan, himself.  So Moses being the type only pointed to the greater reality of Christ, himself.  So to say Melchizedek was like the Son of God, look at the text.  You see at the very same time it says he remains a priest forever and there is justification in that.  According to the description given in scripture there was not an end of his priesthood.  At the very same time the support can be given that he was only “like” the Son of God, not the Son of God, but he points to a greater reality.  In fact that is what the writer of Hebrews says when he says just think how great he was and then think of the greatness of Jesus Christ.  So he may or may not have been a pre-incarnate form of Christ, but either way, we see that he was “like” the Son of God.  What it does is, it provides you and me a great picture and understanding of Christ as he lives and as he intercedes on our behalf today.  In other words, he is a type, he is a picture, he is an example.  We can look at Melchizedek, in his life, in his relation to the people, and we can better understand Christ as he lives and intercedes on our behalf, today.  What the author is not saying, he is not saying this passage is about Melchizedek.  He does say just think of how great Melchizedek was.  But he is not saying our ultimate end is to think about how great Melchizedek was and then go on and live our lives.  He is saying think how great Melchizedek was so that you and I will come to an even greater understanding of how great and even superior, Jesus Christ, the great High Priest is.

Let me illustrate the magnitude of the greatness that is referred to here, before we look at the example of Melchizedek and the reality of Christ.  There is a small phrase here in verse 1 where it says he, or Melchizedek met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings.  You and I can quickly go over that little detail, but I think Dr. Simon Kistemaker, from Reformed Seminary, opens it up well.  I think he really hits on something significant when he says this.  He says “Abraham had reached the pinnacle; he had reached an apex in his leadership career in the southern part of Canaan.”  What do we read, and you may want to turn to Genesis Chapter 14 and look at verses 12-24 in that passage.  While you are turning there I will give you a summary of what took place.  There were several kings in the southern part of Canaan, including Sodom and Gomorrah, who had been subjected to Kedorlaomer, the king of Elam as well as other kings in the northern part of Canaan for twelve years and they had been suppressed and forced to pay taxes.  In the thirteenth year they quit paying taxes, so what did those other kings do when they weren’t getting their tax revenues?  The came down and began to set up their battle lines, they began to take over some other countries and then the kings in the south realized, they are going to take us as well, we might as well set our lines in the sand as well.  So you have four kings against five.  What do you find?  Those kings who previously had the victory came down and they wiped them out.  Not only did they take all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they also took Abraham’s nephew, Lot, along with his wives and his family and all of his possessions.  Then what do we find in the story?  Abraham hears about this news from one who had escaped and Abraham takes 318 men that he had trained and he goes up and defeats those victorious and formidable kings, who had just defeated many kings and many nations and carried off all the booty.  Abraham goes up by himself with these 318 men he had trained and he defeats them and he comes back a victorious king.  You may still not be there.  Let me put it in everyday language of today.  Let’s suppose the situation in the Middle East begins to heat up and all of the Arab countries begin to form an alliance.  Take Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  They form an alliance and they decide they are tired of taking the mess off of the western world, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and Australia and they decide they are going to fight us.  I know it is hard to imagine, but let’s imagine that the Arab countries go to war against our alliance against terrorism and they win.  It’s hard for us to imagine, but imagine that.  Then I want you to imagine, if after having suffered that defeat to the Arab world, as powerful as it is, there was one man, Bill Gates, who took about three thousand men that he had spent some time training along with a lot of good technology that we had and he went over and he defeated that victorious Arab world.  He came back to the United States, how great would he be?  How great would he become?  It’s that level of magnitude that we are talking about when we talk about Abraham, the great victorious king who has come back victorious in battle and yet he submits tribute to another king.  Keep that in mind as we look at what this text says. 

Let’s look first at the superiority of Christ as it’s seen in Melchizedek’s relationship with Abraham (this is the lengthier point).  We know that Abraham was a mighty man and he still is today in the minds of so many, even in our minds.  Those of you who were here when Bassam Chedid of Children of Abraham Ministries spoke, he told us that not only Christians but the Jews, the Arabs, and even the Muslims are much prouder than us in saying we are sons of Abraham.  In fact he uses that very slogan, “Sons of Abraham” to draw them to his magazine to lead them to Christ.  They are so proud to be called sons of Abraham.  Why?  Abraham was a great man, he received the promises from God, and he had just come back from winning this great battle.  What would you expect?  You would expect that with such a powerful and great man, one who had heard and received from God the words that he would become great and would become a great nation.  That the kings of the earth, in seeing this great victory, would come and bow down and pay tribute to him.  What do we find?  What we find in verses 2 and 4 is when Melchizedek comes on the scene it is Abraham, it is Abraham who gives Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder as the Greek says.  Consider now how great this one was to whom even a tenth whom even Abraham gave out of the spoil gave the best of his booty, gave the best of all that he had brought back from these kings.  You see Abraham recognized the dignity and the honor, the greatness of Melchizedek, as far exceeding that of his own.  He saw him as priest who represented God most high.  He gave to him recognizing that his own victories were not his own, but came about by God’s good hand.  The point being even when Abraham was at the very height of his power he readily acknowledged, there was one greater than him and this greatness is even clearer when we don’t just consider the time, but when we consider the blessing that Melchizedek bestowed upon Abraham.  There was a maxim in that day.  You find it in verse seven: “without doubt the lesser would be blessed by the greater.”  You know in the same way that Isaac when he blessed Jacob instead of Esau, it was the father, the greater one, who blessed the inferior one.  The superior one blessed the inferior one.  When Abraham came to Melchizedek, who blessed who?  It wasn’t Abraham blessing Melchizedek.  Abraham as great as he was, on the face of this earth, was blessed.  He submitted himself to be blessed by Melchizedek, the greater one.  Here is my question for you this morning.  If Abraham saw in Melchizedek, one who was so much greater than himself, and Melchizedek was only the forerunner, the foreshadow of Christ, whom you and I serve, then how great should you and I see Christ who serves as a priest forever, in heaven above?  If that is not enough, it wasn’t even required by law for Abraham to give a tithe to Melchizedek.  If you think about it, when the priest came back from exile they had to prove their genealogy or they weren’t allowed to serve in the temple.  We see that in Ezra and Nehemiah.  We read in this passage, Melchizedek was without genealogy, he had none to prove, he was not in the tribe of Levi.  Yet at the very same time, at the same time he could not serve in the Aaronic priesthood, those that served under Aaron in the temple and could not require others to give him tithes.  Yet at the very same time, Abraham comes and he recognizes in him the glory and the greatness that he represents in foreshadowing Christ.  He gives him not just a little, not just some, but he gives him a tenth from the very best of his best.  You may think this is all about Abraham.  What has it got to do with you and me today?  The point is even though the Jews and the Arabs and the Muslims claim Abraham to be such a great patriarch, even Abraham himself points to the fact that there is one much greater than himself and that one is found in Jesus Christ.  If Abraham recognized the superiority of Melchizedek and he looked forward to Jesus Christ, then why would you ever follow those who call themselves “Sons of Abraham” but look to Mohammed or look to someone else.  You see, you shouldn’t!  You shouldn’t Christians!  Christ is superior!  Hhe rules from heaven in righteousness and peace and he deserves your full allegiance.  Don’t ever turn from the Christian faith to join the Muslims or to join the Buddhist or the New Agers or any other religion that worships and depends on an inferior leader.  In verse two of Hebrews 7. we read his name first means “king of righteousness” also “king of peace.”  Isaiah in Chapter 9, prophesying concerning Christ says he shall be called “Prince of Peace” and “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”  Three times Melchizedek refers to Christ as a king who sits on the throne.  Is that the way you see him today?  You see if Abraham acknowledged Christ forerunner as greater than himself then how much more should you and I consider the greatness of Christ?  Here is the question: Do you?  Do you?  For the evidence is seen even in the way you and I tithe.  The question is: Do you withhold your tithes from the Lord because you do not find positive commands in the New Testament, to give tithes to Christ, or do you recognize the greatness of his majesty like Abraham did Melchizedek, because of the greatness of his majesty, render your tithes unto him freely?  You see the superiority of Christ is not just an apologetic in which we win others to Christ, it is a very motivator by which we set our allegiance and we honor him whom we have come to know is far greater and far more deserving than ourselves as well as any other one who has ever lived on the face of this earth.  What are you and I doing with our tithes?  Christ is superior and he is able to meet all your needs. 

Secondly, the superiority of Christ is found in Melchizedek’s relation to the Aaronic priesthood.  We see that in v. 8.  It is real simple.  In the one case the tenth is collected by men who die but in the other case by him who is declared to be living.  There were two priesthoods mentioned in the Old Testament.  The Aaronic or the temple or tabernacle priesthood and that of Melchizedek, which would replace it.  In one, the Levites, they all ended up dying and yet Melchizedek, according to the record, basically did not, in scripture where you see the other serve so long and then they died we never find a record of that with Melchizedek.  Here is the point.  If you were going to court next week, would you rather entrust your well being, your whole being with a lawyer who was alive and is able to represent you next week, or would you entrust yourself to a lawyer who has been dead for seventy-five years and will not be worth a hill of beans to you next week.  Yet so many people today look to Joseph Smith whose bones are lying in this ground.  So many people today look to Mohammed who is no better than you and me, whose ultimate end is that he would be dust to dust and ashes to ashes.  So many people look to those who the Jehovah Witnesses would look to.  They look to every other person in this world besides Jesus Christ.  You and I are not immune to this either.  We look to the god’s of this world, we look to finances and we look to health and we look to human ingenuity, we look to simply trying to live right ourselves before God.  We look to ever other type of priesthood besides Jesus Christ who reigns in the heavens above.  If you are looking to a priesthood here upon this earth, if you are looking to any other besides Jesus Christ who lives in heaven above, not only today but forever, who is able to make you righteous before the God of gods who requires justice of you and who is able to reconcile you to himself, if you are looking to any other, you are going to find yourself sorely disappointed.  Don’t do it.  Look to Christ, he is superior to every other priesthood including those who came before him, even in the Aaronic priesthood here upon this earth.  The truth is all of these are passing, only Christ lives forever, that he might represent you and me and meet our needs. 

Finally, the superiority of Christ is found in Melchizedek’s relation to Levi, we see that in v. 9.  In v. 9 we read: “⁹One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, ¹⁰because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.”  He was still in the body of his ancestor, but somehow he paid the tithe.  How did he do that?  It is a concept that is foreign to the western mind.  We see ourselves as individuals, we see ourselves as independent of one another, even from our parents.  The Hebrew mind was not that way.  You see they saw families and family solidarity as a continuum.  So what we find here is a federal or a representative principal, such that when Abraham paid the tenth to Melchizedek, he represented his family and those who would come from him, such that even Levi, who would not be born for over a century after that, while he was still within the seed of Abraham, within his very body.  Abraham paid the tithe even on behalf of Levi.  I like the way one pastor put it.  He says the solidarity of the family tribe or race of people is bound up in the representative.  Though Levi didn’t pay it himself, he did pay it through Abraham.  What’s interesting is this refers to not only all the priests, meaning the tribe of Levi, but Abraham paid the tithe to Christ for all his descendants, including you and me, as believers today.  The point being this.  If a person is a true child of Abraham, he does not have the choice to serve other gods or multiple gods and so forth.  But the superiority of Christ has been displayed in the allegiance has been set, even for us, through the tithe of Abraham, and ultimately through the tithe of Christ in giving his very self.  The truth is all those who are in Abraham acknowledge the superiority of the priesthood of Melchizedek over the former priesthood.  The question is: Where are your affections, where are your hopes and where are your trusting and leanings today?  Are you open to other faiths?  If you are you need to ask the question: Am I indeed a true child of Abraham and do these promises belong to me?  Then again, if you are a son of Abraham, if you are a child of Abraham, then your ultimate allegiance must look to the superiority of Christ, and to him alone.  No other!  In Psalm 110:4 David writes: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind:” concerning Christ, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”  You see Christ is able to meet your and my needs.  Melchizedek met Abraham and he blessed him with bread and wine, to refresh him when he came back from battles and when he came back from his journey and the Lord, Jesus Christ, will do the same for you and me if we will only look to him and him alone, today.  For you see not only is he superior to Abraham, he is superior to all the priesthood who came before him.  He is superior to all others and he alone is able to represent you and me in the inner sanctuary of God.  He alone is able to represent you in the future.  He alone is able to render you acceptable before God.  He alone is able to reconcile you to the Father.  He is the “king of righteousness” as well as the “king of peace.”  The righteousness you need to stand before the Father, the peace you need as you stand in union with him.  He alone combines the offices of prophet, priest and king.  Won’t you believe?  Won’t you believe those who have not turned to him?  Won’t you believe and look to him even this day, for he is such a great High Priest!  Would you bow with me in prayer.

PRAYER

Pulpit Ministry | Sermons - Chronological | Old Testament | New Testament | Subject Index