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It's a privilege for us this 
morning to have Dr. Stephen Wellam with us to preach God's Word. 
He is a professor of Christian theology at the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary in Louisville, I think they say Louisville, 
right? Louisville, Kentucky. As well, he is associate pastor 
of the Hazelwood Baptist Church, also in Louisville, Kentucky. 
So, brother, please come and preach to us. Well, it's really a privilege 
to be with you this morning. I did live in this beautiful 
area that you probably maybe take for granted, right? With 
all these beautiful mountains and the sunshine today, back 
in 96 through 99. And I was teaching just down 
the road here at the Associated Canadian Theological Schools 
of Trinity Western. So it was great to live in the 
BC area. I grew up, really, even though 
I've been in the United States for many years, and now 12 years 
in Louisville, Kentucky. I grew up in the Toronto area, 
so you have to put up in B.C. with one of these people from 
Ontario, right? The East, that East-West divide 
across the country, but it's a great privilege to be here. 
I was here for the Sola Scriptura conference and got to meet Pastor 
Butler there, and some of you, and that was a good time together 
with some of the area churches and people around us. So I'd invite you to turn in 
your Bibles. We're going to look at a couple 
of sections from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 5. We're going to look at the first 
10 verses, and then we're going to put that together with Hebrews 
chapter 7. Let's go to the Lord in prayer 
and ask him to be with us. We'll introduce this section 
and then look at this wonderful portion of God's words. Let's 
pray. Heavenly Father, it's our privilege to gather as your people. It's our privilege to have your 
word. We confess that we often, too 
often, take this for granted. We can open up the scriptures, 
that we can Read of your great work of salvation. Read of your 
greatness and who you are. And supremely know and understand 
and read of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great mediator of the new 
covenant. The one who is our only hope. The one who meets our every need. The one who is our great high 
priest. He is our great prophet. He is 
our great king. But today we want to focus on 
his great priestly work. That in his life, in his death, 
in his resurrection, all that he has achieved for us. He has paid for our sin. He has 
won for us our salvation. He has brought about our justification. He is the one that has given 
us His righteousness. We have an all-sufficient Redeemer 
who has met our every need. And so, help us to, as we think 
about Him this morning, as we turn to this great book that 
you have given to us by your Spirit, the book of Hebrews, 
that in so many ways unpacks for us this priestly work of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you will enrich 
our minds and thinking on this matter. You will inflame our 
hearts. You will send us from here desirous to know and to 
love and to adore and to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's 
in his name that we ask all of these things. Amen. Now, you know, when you go to 
various churches to speak in that you often have the privilege 
of picking sections of Scripture that are your favorite. Well, 
the entire book of Hebrews, now every book of Scripture is important, 
right, but the book of Hebrews is one of my most favorite books. There's a number of reasons for 
this. One is because when we understand who the book is addressed 
to, right, and think of sort of original audience, we can 
relate to them in so many ways. This original audience, I mean, 
as you sort of think through who this book was written to, 
it was probably written to Jewish Christians. We know that, we 
at least surmise that, because of the kind of content of the 
book. It's dealing with Christ as the fulfillment of the Old 
Testament and unpacking these riches from the Old Testament 
plan of God that's now come to culmination in Jesus Christ? 
Probably. They were Jewish people raised 
in that heritage who have now come to faith in the Messiah, 
and the book is addressed to them. But it's addressed to them, 
as you look inside the book, it's addressed to them who were 
facing a lot of difficulties. They were facing persecution 
from outside of them. You can read chapter 10 in other 
places, chapter 5, chapter 6. where you begin to see that they've 
probably been Christians for a while. They faced trials and 
tribulation. They endured. Probably there 
was more persecution on the horizon. And the author writes them to 
encourage them, to warn them, to face that trials and tribulation 
well. Now, how does this relate to 
us? Well, there's many Christians around the world who are facing 
trials and tribulation. I mean, we don't face it like 
they do, but we do face the ongoing culture around us that tries 
to squeeze us into its mold, that tries to lead us away from 
the conviction that Christ alone is our Lord and Savior. I mean, 
so we face pressures like this, but probably we can relate to 
them sort of, not sort of externally, but internally. They were also 
facing a kind of internal compromise. Many, many places in the book. 
The book is famous for its warning passages. Five different places 
in the book that it warns Christians in the most severest of terms 
that if you don't keep pressing on, you're going to lose everything. If you don't keep looking unto 
the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll be for naught. And we wrestle 
with these warning passages, and we won't be doing that today. 
But that tells us that these Christians were in danger of 
standing still and probably going backwards. I think in today's 
church today, broadly speaking, we face some of those challenges, 
especially in sort of the Western context. We often are those who 
are very status quo kind of Christians. We are often those who maybe 
assume the gospel and take it for granted, and by not realizing 
it, we become more conformed to our world than being transformed 
by the renewing of our minds. And so we can identify with these 
Christians, these Christians who are going through struggles 
from within, from without. And I love the book because of 
our identification with them. But more so, another reason why 
I love the book is not just sort of we can identify with them, 
But the message that the author gives to them, and really that's 
probably the most reason why I love the book so much, is what 
does the author say to people like this who are going through 
trials and difficulties? Well, he doesn't give them a 
kind of fluff message. He doesn't give them something 
just sort of to tickle their fancy and to pull them up by 
the bootstraps and say, you know, think positive thoughts or things 
that people do in our day. What he gives them is a good 
dose of theology. He gives them a good dose of 
biblical exposition. He goes back, and really the 
book of Hebrews is constituted by going back to the Old Testament. 
The New Testament is just being written. The only Bible they 
have at this time really is the Old Testament. And he goes back 
to that Old Testament, and in passage after passage after passage, 
he unfolds to them the plan of God. how that plan leads them 
to Jesus Christ, how he is far greater than all that preceded, 
so that if they are in danger of thinking, let's go back to 
the old ways, the author says, if you go back to the old ways, 
the old ways really drive you forward to the coming of Christ. 
And so he presents Christ in all of his splendor and all of 
his glory and all of his majesty. That's why the great theme of 
the book is that Christ is greater, Christ is better, Christ is superior. A whole number of ways that we 
can say it. And that's why I love the book 
so much, because it helps us focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. And who else can we focus on 
that's greater than that? And then thirdly tied to this, 
and this is related to the theme of focusing from the Old Testament, 
leading us to Christ, is the book of Hebrews is a wonderful 
book. for helping us understand how 
the whole council of God fits together. The book of Hebrews 
is a wonderful example of, I think, what Jesus gave on his famous 
sermon on the way to Emmaus. Remember that famous sermon that 
Jesus gives to those two downcast disciples? They don't fully understand 
after the resurrection. They're sort of trying to put 
together the pieces of how it is that their concept of the 
Messiah could suffer. They just didn't have that kind 
of seeming understanding. Peter didn't seem to have that 
either, right? Earlier in the gospel accounts, you know, when Jesus 
speaks about his going to be crucified and is going to die, 
he says, what are you talking about, right? We understand you 
to be a great king and a great Messiah anointed one, but this 
idea of a kind of priest and sufferer, I mean, that's hard 
to figure out. And so Jesus, as He takes these two downcast 
disciples on the way to Emmaus, what does He do? Well, He opens 
up the Scriptures, doesn't He? And He opens up the Scriptures 
and He says, you know, ought not. Wasn't it of necessity? Wasn't it of God's plan? That's 
what He's saying. That the Christ had to suffer. And He had to suffer and die 
and enter into His glory and from the book of Moses, from 
the prophets, and from later on in Luke 24, the Psalms, right? 
From the whole canon of the Old Testament. He unpacks all that 
which pertains to himself. And sometimes we say to ourselves, 
boy, I'd love to have heard that message. Well, if you read your 
New Testament, you'll hear it. If you read the book of Hebrews, 
you'll hear it. And that's another reason why I love this book so 
much, right? So we can identify with these people. They are an 
example to us. The message of the book drives 
Christ home to us, and it helps us understand the whole counsel 
of God, the plan of God, and how all of that plan centers 
in Jesus Christ. Now, what we want to do this 
morning, and I've asked you to turn to Hebrews chapter 5, what we 
want to do is begin to just think about how the book of Hebrews 
unfolds from the Old Testament. the great priest theme applied 
to Jesus Christ, our Lord. One of the major contributions 
of the book of Hebrews, when you think of all of the books 
of the New Testament, it really alone develops in more detail 
than any New Testament book. It develops this theme that Jesus 
Christ is our great high priest. Now, it's not as if this theme 
is not found elsewhere, in the Gospels, in Paul's letters, and 
elsewhere in the New Testament. But, I mean, if you took the 
book of Hebrews out of our Bibles, what would be lost? Well, it 
would be this great truth, unpacked for us in great detail, that 
He is the fulfillment of the priests of the Old Testament, 
that He is a greater priest. that in his work he brings about 
a salvation that is full and complete and finished, that he 
meets all of our need. I mean, all of that is the way 
this is developed here. So we want to think of the priestly 
work of Christ in Hebrews now in three steps. You have to have 
a three point sermon, right? Three steps here. One, we want 
to think just a little bit about sort of step back from the book 
because we can't look at the entirety of how this priestly 
theme is developed, but I want to set for you how the book of 
Hebrews develops this theme of Christ's priestly work, how it 
sort of fits together, sort of giving the big picture, right? 
So I'll put on my sort of teaching hat here, try to get some sense 
of the whole, of how the book develops this theme. And then 
secondly, we want to see how that theme is developed and illustrated 
in Hebrews chapter 5 and then in Hebrews chapter 7. And in 
fact, really, Hebrews 5 through 10 is probably the most detailed 
development of this great truth. So let's look at those three 
areas, thinking about how the book of Hebrews develops the 
theme of priest, turning then to Hebrews 5, secondly, Hebrews 
7, thirdly, as an illustration of that. Now let's think of how 
the book develops this theme of great high priest. When we 
say, and when the book of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is our 
great high priest, Automatically, that connects you to the Old 
Testament, doesn't it? Automatically, you begin to think of Levites, 
the Book of Leviticus, the Old Covenant, the priestly role that 
takes place there. When it says that Christ is the 
fulfillment of the priesthood, what the Book of Hebrews introduces 
for us, as in many places in the New Testament, it's introducing 
the notion of what we would say typology. or typology of how 
you want to say it. Now, what's typology? Well, typology 
is a God-given pattern. And usually we talk about typology 
in terms of persons. God-given persons that He brings 
into the world that point beyond themselves. God-given events 
that point beyond themselves. God-given institutions that point 
beyond themselves in God's eternal plan. He has planned the end 
from the beginning, and part of that plan is to lead us to 
Christ. And as he unfolds his plan on 
the stage of history, he gives to us various persons, events, 
institutions that function in their context to say a lot of 
things, but they point beyond themselves. That's what typology 
is all about. So what kind of persons do we 
see? Well, all kinds of examples of this. The first man that is 
created is Adam. Now, Adam, you could say, what's 
the significance of Adam? Well, he's the first man. But 
he's more than that, isn't he? He's the first man that points 
forward to a greater one to come. That's typology. So you have 
a kind of pattern, type, ultimately leading to its fulfillment in 
what we call the anti-type. So what's the kind of promise 
theme? promise to fulfill. You think of other persons that 
are significant in the Old Testament. Moses. Moses not only is a great 
leader and ruler and mediator and prophet, but he points beyond 
himself and And we know that he does that because in the Old 
Testament text there's anticipations of a greater Moses and there's 
themes of Moses that have developed in the Old Testament canon. We 
just don't make anything a type. There's certain exact people, 
persons that the text develops that point beyond themselves. 
David is another good example of this. The great King David, 
the Davidic covenant, all of this in terms of prophetic anticipation 
leads to The coming of a greater David, greater than Solomon. 
That's typology. Events. Well, probably the greatest 
example of this would be the great act of redemption in the 
Old Testament. The exodus. The nation of Israel 
is delivered from their bondage. They take place in an exodus. 
They enter into covenant relationship. And we're not to think that that 
event was just, oh, that's just a nice, interesting historical 
event. As the Old Testament scriptures 
are unfolded, the exodus event becomes picked up in prophetic 
anticipation. God then says, just as I redeemed 
my people in that great exodus of old, so there is coming in 
the future a greater redemption, a greater exodus. And, of course, 
that's picked up and applied in the cross of Christ, in the 
coming of Christ, in this cross, and so on. So that event points 
beyond itself. Institutions. The entire priestly 
institution, the entire, you know, you think of the tabernacle 
and temple. I mean, these various things are patterns that God 
has deliberately designed to speak beyond themselves. They're 
not just randomly put there. They're part of an overall plan. 
Now, the priest functions that way as well, right? often prophets, 
priests, and kings. And it's interesting we see if 
Christ's work in that threefold way. And all of that is a typological 
pattern. Now, the priestly theme. How 
does the Hebrews develop this priestly theme? Priests are a 
kind of pattern type of that which is to come. It develops 
it in two ways, and that's what we'll illustrate here from chapter 
5 and chapter 7. As each priest is laid down for 
us in the Old Testament. And, of course, that priest in 
the Old Testament is tied to the Levitical priesthood. That 
priest and those Levites that come from Aaron, they eventually 
point beyond themselves to Jesus Christ. And in how they carry 
out their work, how they represent the people, how they do the various 
roles that they have, Jesus Christ fulfills that role yet greater. And so there's lots of Levitical 
themes that are picked up in the New Testament. Christ is 
the fulfillment of the Levites. He does what they do, but greater. Chapter 5 will develop that, 
and we'll illustrate that in just a moment. Chapter 9 and 
Chapter 10 develop that. But there's also another way 
the book of Hebrews develops the priestly theme. And this 
raises, and it is the only place in the New Testament where this 
issue is raised, which is a crucial theological issue, and we would 
say a defense of the gospel issue, or we would say an apologetic 
issue. If you begin to think and begin 
to proclaim, right, if the Christians begin to proclaim that Jesus 
Christ is the Great High Priest, there's a problem. You say, what's 
the problem? He's not a Levite. He comes from the tribe of Judah. Now of Judah, we know all kinds 
of anticipation that's Davidic. What do you do with priests? 
So the book of Hebrews develops this theme from the Old Testament. 
That the Old Testament not only anticipates the fulfillment of 
the Levitical priesthood, but the Old Testament also anticipates 
that there is a priest who's coming who will come from an 
entirely different order. That if Christ was a Levite, 
he wouldn't fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures. And it's those two 
themes that are put together, and it's developed in this kind 
of typological pattern. So Christ fulfills everything 
that the Levites did, anticipated, carried out in their work in 
the tabernacle, temple, and so on. He fulfills all of that. 
Yet he also comes from an entirely different order, which is what 
the Old Testament anticipated as well. So that the Jew, in 
hindsight, obviously, right? 2020 hindsight. If you play with 
the stock market, 2020 is always better, right? Than trying to 
do it while you're in the midst of it. But hindsight, right? 
You know, if you look back, the Jew should have been able to 
see that there is coming a priest, 
who will fulfill all of what the Levitical office did, but 
will also come from a different order. They should have been 
able to see that. That's part of what Jesus says in the way 
to Emmaus. You ought to have known these things. You ought 
to have seen these things. Again, we can't be sometimes 
too hard on them, because 20-20 hindsight is always 20-20, but 
it's there. And that's what the book of Hebrews 
develops. So let me illustrate that in terms of chapter 5, 1 
through 10. This really is picking up the 
first element Levitical priests carry out a certain role. Jesus 
fulfills all of that, yet greater. And then we'll turn to chapter 
7 to see how he comes from an entirely different order. So 5, 1 through 10. Now, the 
priestly theme has already been anticipated before you get to 
chapter 5. It's there in chapter 1, verse 3. It's there at the 
end of chapter 2. It's there at the end of chapter 
4, verses 14 through 16. So it's already running through 
the entire book. But then he picks up to develop 
this theme in detail in verse 1 of chapter 5. If you want a 
one-verse summary of the entire work of priests, here you go. 
You can often find that, right? A one-verse that summarizes what's 
a priest in the Old Testament? Well, here it is. Every high 
priest is selected from among men, is appointed to represent 
them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices 
for sin. Now, in that one verse, you have 
a nice sort of threefold summary of what a priest does. What's 
a priest? Well, a priest comes from among the men. selected 
from among the men. In the Old Testament context, 
that means comes from Israel. And specifically, it comes from 
the tribe of Levi. He comes from among us. He picks 
up his humanity and picks up the fact that he will now come 
from among them and represent them. You have the representational 
role emphasized as well. He not only comes from among 
them, but he's appointed. He's appointed to represent them 
in matters related to God, right? There he is the go-between. He 
is the mediator. He stands on behalf of the people 
before God and for a specific purpose. He's not just there 
to say, hello God, how are you doing today? What's going on? 
Let me get some information from you. But he does that in relation 
to gifts and sacrifices for sins. A prophet is a kind of go-between. He takes the word of the Lord 
to the people, but the priest is the one who stands between 
the people and God on behalf of sin. He has to offer something. He has to offer a sacrifice. 
Obviously, this is tied back to the whole truth of Scripture, 
that God is the Lord and is the holy God, and us is sin. We cannot 
come into God's presence in our sin due to His holiness. And 
so there needs to be an atonement. And the priest now functions 
in that way to bring the people before God, to allow God to be 
present among the covenant people, and there to be forgiveness of 
sin. And so that one verse summarizes. He comes from among the people, 
to go between. He is the one who offers that 
for sin. It goes on to then describe this 
priest as well. He is able to deal gently with 
those who are ignorant, who is going astray since he himself 
is subject to weakness. Now, this will be an area where 
he identifies with the people. He's in solidarity with them. 
He understands that he's able to deal gently with them as a 
fine balance between Not being apathetic, but not being angry 
because he knows he's one with them. He's a fellow sinner with 
them. Now, of course, when we get to Christ, this is where 
he's going to be far greater. He's still going to be able to 
have solidarity with us, yet he is not a sinner. And that'll 
pick up the difference between the Levitical priest and Christ 
priest. But he is able to, the Levitical 
priest, deal gently with those who are ignorant, who are going 
astray. He is subject to weakness. Weakness there not only in terms 
of I think there's sin, but also just physical infirmity This 
is why he is able to offer sacrifices for this is why he has to offer 
Sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people 
Go back to the Old Testament the Day of Atonement was a good 
example of this Before the priest could ever offer for the people 
He first had to deal with his own problem He first had to deal 
with his own sin And here, the author is saying this priest 
now comes from among the people. He's in solidarity with them. 
He understands them. Verse 4 picks up the idea that 
people just can't take this role to themselves. They have to be 
selected. They have to be appointed. And 
in fact, in the Old Testament, they had to come from a specific 
family, a specific tribe. You came from Benjamin. You say, 
hey, I want to go to college and university and be a priest. 
You've got to lie. You can't just, you know, in 
our society say, hey, I want to be this and I want to be that. 
And my parents did this job, but I'm going to do something 
else. Well, you didn't have that luxury under the old covenant, 
right? It came from a certain family, a certain tribe. And 
that's where verse four is getting at. No one takes this honor upon 
himself. He must be called by God just 
as Aaron was. Now, in those first four verses, 
you have a description of the Levitical priest. You have this 
idea that he is in solidarity with the people. He is able to 
sympathize with them and deal gently with them because he knows 
his own fellow weaknesses. And he is that which is chosen 
by God, selected and appointed. Now Christ, to be the fulfillment 
of this, has to in all those ways fulfill this yet greater. He too has to be chosen. He, too, has to come from among 
us. He, too, has to be able to sympathize 
with us. Yet, in all those areas, he will 
be chosen, he will be sympathetic, he will be in solidarity in a 
far greater way than any Levitical priest could ever be. And that's 
what verses 5 through 10 is picking up. So, Christ. See, there's the comparison. 
Just as these ones were like this, so Christ also did not 
take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. He just 
didn't say, well, I'm just going to be a high priest. No, God, 
the Father, God said to him. And now you have two very, very 
important quotations of the Old Testament. One from Psalm two 
and one from Psalm 110 already earlier in the book, they've 
been quoted and they've been developed. Psalm 2, you are my 
son. Today I have become your father. 
And he says in another place, he's combining these texts together. 
You are a priest forever. In the order of Melchizedek. 
Now interesting there, when he mentions Melchizedek, he'll eventually 
develop that in chapter 7. But here are two passages that 
are crucial Old Testament Messianic passages. that pick up this theme 
that the son is appointed to this task. We speak of this in 
terms of God's eternal plan. The father is the one who initiates. 
The son is the one who comes to redeem. He is the one who 
is given a people. All of this ties to his appointment. 
He is one like the Old Testament priest who is selected and appointed. His appointment here is tied 
to eternal relations. It's tied to his work as Messiah. He is the one who is given appointment 
that eventually, in verse 6, picking up from Psalm 110, will 
be an appointment forever. That forever will be really important 
as you develop this theme of priest. This priest here will 
have a forever priesthood. Those Levitical priests came 
and went and died, and the next priest showed up, but this one 
here now is forever. So he's appointed. Similar, yet, 
of course, there's some massive differences here. Verse 7 picks 
up the idea that he is the one who is in solidarity. He is sympathetic. But his sympathy 
is not tied to the fact that he is a sinner. You and I can 
sympathize with one another because we know our own failings and 
shortcomings and sin before God. But this one here is the one 
who is sympathetic because he, in chapter 4 develops this, he 
is tempted like us, yet he is without sin. He is the one who 
knows what it's like to obey the will of God, but to do so 
in a way that you and I never bring about. He brings about 
eternal salvation. He brings about obedience to his Father's 
will, where he understands what we go through, but he does so 
as the perfect Son of God. That's what's emphasized here 
in verse 7. During the days of Jesus' flesh on earth, He offered 
up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one 
who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his 
reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned 
obedience from what he suffered and once made Perfect that perfection 
language here is is priestly language It's it's made by his 
obedience by his living his life and ultimately what's being described 
here in terms of this Prayers and petitions is probably a reference 
to the Garden of Gethsemane through his whole life he obeyed and 
We have that right from the very beginning. He comes to do his 
father's will temptation at the beginning of his ministry through 
his entire life. He is the obedient son and uniquely 
so at the Garden of Gethsemane, where he faces. He knows what 
is before him. He is going to have to go and 
bear the cup of God's wrath. He is going to have to go as 
our priest. And he says, not my will, but your will. I would 
prefer that I did not have to do this, but I have come. To 
obey your will, I have come to save a people." And he then says 
here he learned obedience. He was made perfect. He was made 
the all-suitable Savior. And he becomes then, and this 
is where you have the major contrast with the Levitical priest, he 
became the source of eternal salvation. No Levitical priest 
can bring eternal salvation. The priest himself needs to be 
saved himself. But he now becomes, through that obedience, through 
that submission, Through that act of obedience, which is reflected 
in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is epitomized on the cross. Think of Philippians 2. He becomes 
obedient even to death. Death of a cross. That obedience 
is what now brings eternal salvation. He now brings with him a priesthood 
that is forever. Now, there's solidarity here, 
isn't there? He can understand, you say, who can we go to to 
understand what I'm going through? He understands not as a sinner. He understands because he faced 
temptation. He understands what it means 
to live in this cruel, hard fallen world. He doesn't understand 
as a fallen creature. He is the Lord of glory who now 
opens up eternal salvation for us. But he understands we can 
go to him. He can sympathize with us. Yet 
his sympathy isn't just sort of, oh, I feel sorry for you. 
His sympathizing actually brings a result. His sympathy brings 
with it forgiveness of sins and salvation. No Old Testament priest 
sympathizes with us all we wanted, but they could not bring with 
us this eternal salvation. So here you have in this chapter 
here, you have this kind of comparison and contrasting. Levitical priest, 
chosen, he's chosen yet greater. Solidarity with us, he's in solidarity 
with us, but all far greater. Sympathy, he sympathizes, but 
greater. And this is the basis, then, 
for his priestly work, which accomplishes now an eternal salvation 
in the order of Melchizedek. Now, we're going to turn to chapter 
7 here. He breaks off. You know where 
he's going to go with his arguments. But he, as a good preacher, teacher, 
he probably is thinking of those who he's addressing. And he says, 
I'm going to introduce here a theme of Melchizedek. But these people 
are so dull, they're so slow of hearing. I've got to I've 
got to now revert here a little bit and warn them. And then he, 
after doing that, returns to this great theme. And this is 
the secondary where he develops his theme of priest. Christ isn't 
just the fulfillment of Levitical priests, but he ultimately transcends 
them. He comes in an entirely different 
order. Now, that's the burden of chapter 
seven. And in chapter seven, it's really broken down into, 
you know, four sections that will walk through here. very 
quickly. 7, 1 through 10 introduces from 
the Old Testament this very, very interesting figure named 
Melchizedek. Melchizedek only shows up twice in the Old Testament. Two passages that speak of him, 
and this author reflects on both of them. Genesis 14, Psalm 110. That's the only two places that 
he's found. And what the author is doing, 
because of course he's got Psalm 110 in his mind, you are a priest 
in the order of Melchizedek. And also tied to Psalm 110 is 
the great theme that this priest is David's Lord, that he is the 
one who is Messiah, he is the one who is coming. So obviously 
this author is thinking of Psalm 110 and he's connecting it back 
with this historic figure named Melchizedek in the Old Testament. 
In the first 10 verses of chapter 7, you basically have, really 
in the first couple of verses, you have a summary of what is 
given to us in Genesis. And then you have his commentary 
on it. In this context of Genesis 14, 
you remember that situation where Abraham, Abraham and his nephew 
Lot, Lot wasn't the most wisest, you know, sharpest tack, right? 
He picks the wrong land to live in the city and everything else. 
And the four Canaanite kings come and capture Sodom and Gomorrah, 
take Lot off. And old father Abraham here, 
he must have been a pretty plucky fella, you know, he's fairly 
old at this time, he takes his 318 trained men and he goes to 
war with these kings, recaptures Lot, brings him back. And as 
he's coming back, he is met with the king of Sodom and the king 
of Sodom says, oh, thank you, Abraham, thank you. Can I give 
you something? And Abraham says, hit the road. I don't want anything 
from you." And then he meets up with this man named Melchizedek. He just pops onto the scene. 
He's described, as we'll see here, as a priest, and he's a 
king, and he's the priest of the God Most High, the name for 
God. And Abraham then gives him a tenth of time. And then he 
disappears, and you never hear about him again until Psalm 110. 
Now, this is what the author is reflecting upon. Let's just 
read the text, and we'll see how he mentions this. This Melchizedek 
was king of Salem. That's what we find in Genesis 
14. Salem here is another form of 
the word peace, probably the forerunner to the city of Jerusalem. 
This Melchizedek was king of peace, priest of God most high. 
He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed 
him. And Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. And that's pretty 
much what happened in Genesis 14. Now, the author begins to 
reflect upon Genesis 14. He's doing what we would call 
a kind of inductive Bible study, right? He's looking at the text 
and saying, hmm, I wonder what God's teaching me here. First, he says, 
and these are just observations that he draws from the Bible, 
what does Melchizedek mean? Well, literally, it means king 
of righteousness. He's also from Salem, king of 
Salem, which means king of peace, comes from Shalom. All of those 
things just simply are where he's from, his name, and so on. 
Now, verse 3 is an interesting comment. Without father or mother, 
without genealogy, without beginning of days and end of life, he's 
like Jesus. He's like the Son of God. who 
remains a priest forever. Priest forever. He's a forever 
priesthood tied to Psalm 110. He's like him. Now, this has 
raised all kinds of questions in the history of the church. 
Is this a pre-incarnate Christ? Christophany? Is this just a 
human figure? What does it mean? He has no 
genealogy and all that. Well, there's a lot of speculation. 
It's hard to nail it down perfectly. But I do think that this probably 
is just a man who lived in, who's a priest-king, who lives in the 
time of Abraham. So you say, well, where do you 
get this without father or mother, without genealogy? Well, if you 
read the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis has all kinds 
of genealogies in it. In fact, the entire structure of the book 
is genealogies. Maybe this afternoon at lunchtime you can flip through 
those genealogies and you see if you can find Melchizedek's 
name in there. Not in one of those genealogies. So what the 
author of Hebrews is doing is he's reading Genesis, He's observing 
the fact that everyone's tied to a genealogy, but this Melchizedek 
figure, there's no genealogy. There's no recording of his birth, 
there's no recording of his death. He's light, just a kind of comparison. He's like the Son of God who 
lives forever, right? So he's observing these things 
from reading the passage that is there. Now, he also then reflects 
upon how great he was. Think of how great he was. Even the patriarch, Abraham, 
gave an attempt at the plunder. Now, that's amazing, right? In 
Scripture, Abraham, Father Abraham is a pretty important fellow. 
In Abraham, all the hopes of the world are found, right? Through 
him, through Isaac, through the promised seed, will come the 
promise to the nations. He will bring ultimately, you 
tie Abraham back to Adam, he will bring God's promise of salvation 
to the world. But then you see Abraham, Giving 
this king priest, interestingly enough, he's a king priest. He 
gives him a 10th. And when you give a 10th to someone, 
it really signifies that the one who gives it is a little 
bit lesser than in importance than the one who receives it. 
But then who is this Melchizedek? That's it. Why? Why would father 
Abraham be doing that? You see, that's what he's referencing 
on. Just how think how great he was. Even the patriarch Abraham 
gave him a 10th to plunder. Now, 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. This man, however, did not trace his descent from 
Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him 
who had the promises. Without doubt, the lesser person 
is blessed by the greater. Now, he's reflecting on the fact 
that later, and everything you know about Levitical priests 
under the Old Covenant, how were they paid? Well, they were paid 
by the other tribes. There was no land allotment for 
Levites. They served the Lord. The other 11 tribes, they paid 
them money in order to live and to carry out the priestly service. 
Everything from the brothers paid them. But now he's observing 
the fact that Abraham, who is the patriarch of all of the brothers 
and all of the Levites, now is giving this man. certainly speaks, 
at least in Genesis, of Melchizedek's greatness. Without doubt, the 
lesser person is blessed by the greater. In a case, the tenth 
is collected by men who die, but in the other case, a man 
who's declared to be living, just man whose no genealogy is recorded. 
One might even say, this becomes very important, one might even 
say that Levi who collects the tenth, right? Levi's brothers 
pay him, but in Abraham giving the tenth to Melchizedek, Where 
does Levi come from? Well, Levi eventually comes from 
Abraham. It's as if Abraham, in giving Melchizedek a tent, 
it's as if Levi, and that's what he says here, it's as if Levi 
pays the tent through Abraham. That's a kind of Old Testament 
way of thinking, right? If the great-great-grandfather 
is the one who you come from, then what he does has an effect 
on you, so it's as if Levi now is paying Levi doesn't exist 
yet. He's paying the 10th through Abraham to Melchizedek. In some 
sense, isn't there already a hint in Genesis 14? Isn't there a 
hint that eventually that Levitical priesthood that comes is already 
something lesser than this man's priesthood? That's the point 
that he's observing. Now, if all you have is Genesis 
14, it's probably not. I mean, that may be a legitimate 
conclusion, but how do you know? I mean, are you sure about that? 
We know for sure that's the correct conclusion to draw, that the 
Levitical priesthood is subservient to Melchizedek, because later 
in Scripture, Psalm 110 tells you that, doesn't it? It's very 
interesting what the author of Hebrews is doing, he's unpacking 
Genesis 14, And then Psalm 110 that comes many, many, many, 
many, many years later, right? David writes Psalm 110 and it's 
written way down after Levitical priesthood are already functioning 
and up and running. God then says many, many years 
later, after the Levites are functioning, hey, there's coming 
a priest in a Melchizedekian order, which is going to overturn 
this Levitical order. And when you go back to Genesis 
14, you say, boy, it's already sort of hinted at there because 
Abraham is showing that he's lesser than Melchizedek. God 
is teaching us that there's going to be a priest not only to fulfill 
Levitical role, but it's going to be greater. It's going to 
come of a different order. That's how the argument is going here. 
Now, verse 11 is a crucial sort of hinge, a hinge between Genesis 
14 and Psalm 110. This is a kind of very, very 
important sort of question. If perfection could have been 
attained through the Levitical priesthood. And then there's 
a very, very important parenthesis here. On the basis of it, what's 
the it here? Well, the it is the Levitical 
priesthood. On the basis of it, the law, what's the law here? 
The law of covenant, the Mosaic covenant. On the basis of the 
priesthood, the law of covenant was given to the people. Why 
was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order 
of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? Now, he's already thinking 
of Psalm 110 here. This is very, very important, 
and the author uses this kind of argument throughout the book. The Jew in the Old Testament, 
they thought, wrongly, they thought that the Old Covenant was an 
end in itself. They thought the Levitical priesthood was an end 
in itself. They thought that as long as you had the temple 
of the Lord existing and the priesthood was functioning in 
some fashion, God will bless them and that's all you need. 
That wasn't the point. The Levitical priesthood, as 
important as it was, was never intended ultimately, those are 
important words, was never intended ultimately to bring ultimate 
salvation. That's what this notion of perfection is getting at. 
Another way of speaking of perfection would be saying, ultimate salvation, 
full forgiveness of sins, all of justification, all these things 
here. If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical 
priesthood, then you wouldn't need another priesthood, would 
you? If the Old Covenant could have 
brought full forgiveness of sins, full relationship with God restored, 
all of God's promises had passed, you wouldn't need another covenant. But the very fact that the Levitical 
priesthood could not bring ultimate salvation as anticipated in the 
Old Testament because there was, after that priesthood, an announcement 
in Psalm 110 that there's coming another priest. And the other 
priest is not coming in the Levitical order, he's coming in the Melchizedekian 
order. If the Levitical priesthood was an end in itself, God wouldn't 
be saying and promising another order. That's the point. And 
then verse 12 picks this up, which he'll develop in chapter 
8. We won't really look at 8. You're probably thankful we won't, 
right? Verse 12, when there is a change 
of priesthood, there's also a change of law, right? When there is 
the change of priesthood, there must also come a change in the 
covenants. And that's precisely what chapter 8 develops with 
the promise from Jeremiah 31. Now, what this author is doing 
here is he's saying, look, if you're reading your Old Testament 
carefully, priests are very, very important. I mean, you can't 
have any relationship with the author of the priest. Yet already 
in the Old Testament, Going back to Genesis 14, there's hints 
of it. Father Abraham is lesser than the whole Melchizedek in 
the order. And then when the Levitical priesthood 
is established, it's very, very important. Yet later, God says, 
there's another priest coming. The Jews should have said, I'm 
looking forward to a day when there will be a better priesthood. 
I'm looking forward to another day when there's a better covenant. 
I'm looking forward to a future day when there will be full forgiveness 
of sin and eternal salvation, a perfection that could only 
be anticipated in the old covenant, but was never brought about. 
That's the point that he's making. And so he goes on in verse 13, 
he of whom these things are said belong to a different tribe, 
right? Jesus belongs to Judah. No one from that tribe has served 
at the altar. It's clear that our Lord descended from Judah. 
In regard to that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. What 
we have said is even more clear. If one has become a priest, not 
in the basis of regulation of his ancestry, but in the base 
of an indestructible life, he quotes Psalm 110, you are a priest 
forever. And the conclusion he draws for 
them is the former regulation, that's the covenant, priesthood, 
is set aside. It was weak and useless. And 
they say, what do you mean weak and useless? God-given, wasn't it? Well, of 
course it was. But in God's plan, it was pointing beyond itself. 
If Christ never comes, you would never be saved on the Old Covenant. 
So that it's weak and useless in that way. The law makes nothing 
perfect. The law doesn't bring ultimate 
salvation. It points forward to it. And a better hope is introduced 
by which we draw near to God. It's not without an oath. I'll 
just become a priest without an oath. But he became a priest 
with an oath. Psalm 110, the Lord is sworn, will not change 
his mind. You are a priest forever. Because of this oath, Jesus has 
become the guarantee of a better priesthood. But it says here 
a better covenant because they're so intertwined together, right? If you have 
a change of priesthood, you can have a change of covenant. This 
better priesthood brings a better covenant. We now have the finality 
of salvation in Jesus Christ. That's where he goes in verse 
twenty three. There have been many priests, Levites, since 
death prevented them from continuing in office. But because Jesus 
lives forever, remember, we saw that already in chapter five. 
We see this in terms of Psalm 110 because he lives forever. He has not a temporary priesthood. Not a priesthood that, you know, 
you live for 30, 40 years, you die and it's handed off to your 
son and then they live. No, this is a permanent. Therefore, 
and this is where it begins to now, what was the implication 
for us? Well, verse 25, he's able to save completely. He's 
able to save completely those who come to God through him because 
he always lives to intercede for them. He not only in his 
work as priest on the cross accomplishes a full and final salvation, it 
has finished. But he now, as priest, continues 
to live forever and ever and ever as the one who is the interceder 
for his people. Verse 26, such a high priest 
meets our need. Our need is great, isn't it? 
Our need is to be made right with the Holy God. Our need is 
to be found righteous in Him. Where do you find that? You go 
to a Levitical priest? You offer your lamb? That was 
prescribed. That was important. But it was 
to teach the people, wasn't it? You can offer the lamb all you 
want, but it's only an animal. What solidarity does the animal 
have with you? We need one who can represent us. We need one 
who is perfect. We need one who is sinless. We 
need one who can stand on our behalf. as not one who offers 
sin for himself, and then for us, we need one who is sinless. 
All of this is what Christ has now brought. He meets our need. He is holy. He is blameless. 
He is pure. He is set apart from sinners. 
He is exalted from the heavens. He fulfills all the Levites did, 
but He, thankfully, is not a Levite. If He were a Levite, we are in 
serious trouble. He comes from a different order. 
He comes with an indestructible life. He comes because He is 
God the Son. who has now taken on flesh, he 
now brings with him holy, blameless, pure salvation with him. He's 
exalted above the heavens, unlike other priests. He does not need 
to offer sacrifices day after day." Which is the heart of the 
New Covenant, isn't it? The heart of the New Covenant 
is ultimately full forgiveness of sin. And full forgiveness of sin comes 
because there's a once for all time death sacrifice. That sacrifice accomplishes One 
for all time sacrifice. These other priests, day after 
day, first for their own sins, then for the sins of the people, 
but He sacrificed for their sins once for all time when He offered 
Himself. What makes His sacrifice greater? It's Him. He is better than any 
priest. He is one who is the Son incarnate. For the law appoints as high 
priests men who are weak, Levitical, but the oath which came after 
the law, which God anticipated already in the Old Testament, 
appointed the Son who has been made perfect forever. Now, what's 
the implication of that for us? Talking about priests, talking 
about salvation here in terms of this great priesthood, the 
implication is, if you want forgiveness of sin, but you need before God, 
otherwise you stand under His condemnation and judgment, there's 
only one place you can find it. And thank God there is a priest 
who can take our sin, pay for it in full. We don't have to 
go to him and say, please sympathize with us, but can you do anything 
for us? No, he not only can sympathize, he can empathize, he can do something. 
He can actually accomplish for us eternal salvation. He can 
bring a full and complete forgiveness. He can declare our sins removed 
from God. He can bring us into right relationship 
with Him, adopt in His family, pour out the Spirit of Him. All 
of that is tied to the priestly work of Christ. His work is final. It is all sufficient. It meets 
our need. And sinners need that kind of 
Redeemer. Otherwise, I mean, that's why 
the warning passages come. If you think you can find anything 
else outside of Him, you're fooling yourself. If this is what's required 
to save us, then if you think you can save yourself, You're 
a fool. And so the Lord Jesus Christ 
then is presented here to these Hebrew Christians, who are probably 
in danger of saying, well, you know, should we continue on with 
him? He says, you better continue on, because there's no other. 
And he's a glorious Redeemer. He's a glorious priest. He can 
meet your need. He can sympathize. He can help. 
He can save. He can do all of that for you, 
and you turn to no one else. I trust this morning that He 
is our priest. He is our Savior. He is our Lord. 
That we see in Him, in all of these patterns, beautiful patterns 
of the Old Testament, that He is the One who meets our need. Go to Him today and find in Him 
your salvation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Thank you for the book of Hebrews. 
We thank you how. It lays out for us. This anticipation 
from the Old Testament that we now can clearly see. In light 
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we think of 
the giving of your son. He's the one that makes all the 
difference. He is greater than Levites, because he is not just 
a Levite. He's not just human, as important 
as that is to be our representative and Savior. He is the Son. He 
is the Lord. He's in a category all by himself. 
He is the one who has, in obedience to your will and out of love 
for you and out of love for his people, has come. He has died. He has obeyed. He 
has died. He has been raised. He is now the ever-living, forever 
priest that meets our every need. May we be found in Him. May we 
leave this place knowing that Jesus Christ the Lord is our 
Savior, our Lord. And may we find in Him all of 
our delight, all of our salvation, all of our satisfaction, May 
we be people who are spurred on, as these Hebrew Christians 
were to be spurred on, to live for Him, to proclaim Him, to 
seek to know Him daily, to look to Him, to delight in Him. Hearts cry today, and may that 
be the result of seeing Him who is life eternal. And we ask this 
for not only our goods and for the good of the church, but for 
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we ask all of these 
things.