The Better High Priest

Exegetical Idea: The Messiah came after the order of Melchizedek, rather than after Levi because the priesthood of Melchizedek offers a better priesthood and thus a better salvation.

Theological Idea: In order to bring us the better salvation, God planned that Christ would come from a better priesthood.

Homiletical Idea: Christ came as the better priest to bring us a better salvation.

Outline

Introduction: Why did Christ have to come as a high priest from Melchizedek?

Why couldn’t Christ come in our world today in ways that are more tangible to us. Why couldn’t he come as a politician, or a talk show host, or a sports star? Why was it important that he came the way he did, as a priest of Melchizedek?

I think sometimes when we’re reading the Old Testament, it seems very foreign, very different, very off. Maybe we wonder, why did Christ have to come in this way? In particular, why did he have to come from the order of Melchizedek? Well our Scripture this morning is going to make the case that Christ came the way he did to bring us a better salvation.

A Priest by the order of Melchizedek (1-3)

Who is Melchizedek - Recap from Genesis 14

He is the king of Salem - Peace

He is the King of tsedeq - righteousness

He is the priest of Most High God - He has a priesthood biblically that precedes the priesthood of Levi

He is tithed to - Abraham tithes to him a tenth of all his spoils.

He has no father or mother or genealogy - All that he is doing is pointing out that Melchizedek is known for being himself.

He has neither end nor beginning of days - We don’t know where he came from or what happened when he died. He’s just kind of there randomly.

He resembles the Son of God - In other words, it was in God’s good plan to have Melchizedek be a predecessor, to give Melchizedek as a “figure” or a “shadow” or a “type” of the Christ who was to come. Because like Melchizedek, Christ is the king of peace, he’s the king of righteousness, he is the priest of the Most High God, he is tithed to, he doesn’t have a father or mother or genealogy in the way humans do, he has neither end or beginning, but “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

It is fitting that we should have such a high priest (vs. 26) - It is fitting and right and good that we should have Christ as our high priest. It is right, in other words, that Christ should come from Melchizedek and not from Levi.

In fact, it is clear that Christ did not come from Levi. Look at what it says in vs. 13-14, it says it is evident that our Lord descended from Judah, not from Levi.

You see, what vs. 12 points out is that for God to have Christ come from Judah rather than from Levi, he would have had to reroute the Priesthood. In other words, he would have to include in his plan a halting of the Levitical priesthood. And indeed, if you look in Hosea 4:4-6 and in Malachi 2:1-9 you see that God told the Levites they had disqualified themselves from teh priesthood and he was cutting them off. But why doesn’t he just find his way to restore the Priesthood of Levi? Why does he ahve to destroy it? Or to put it this way, what is it about the priesthood of Melchizedek that would be so much better than the preisthood of Aaron that it would be better for Melchizedek to come from Melchizedek than Aaron?

Melchizedek was the priest to Abraham, the ancestor of Levi (4-10)

Abraham tithed to Melchizedek - It is really important to the author that Abraham tithed to Melchizedek. This is because in Genesis 14, Melchizedek performed priestly duties for Abraham. (Heb 7:2, 4)

Now, like Melchizedek, the Levites also receive tithes (7:5)

But this man received the tithes of their father, Abraham (7:6)

In return this man actually blessed Abraham. And we all know that the superior blesses the inferior (6-7). If you’re not the inferior, you don’t need to be blessed.

In Abraham, Levi tithed to Abraham - But here’s the further point, it’s not just that Melchizedek is superior to Abraham and Abraham is superior to Levi, and therefore by the transitive property Melchizedek is better than Levi, but that Levi himself actually need Melchizedek as a priest. In Abraham, Levi actually tithed to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek actually blessed Levi.

You see, Melchizedek was the priest sof both Abraham and Levi, and therefore, it is better for Christ to come from him.

Melchizedek’s Priesthood has indestructible life (11-19)

Perfection - A second reason that we see is in vs. 11, he says “if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood” and he assumes that we know it’s not. And we’ve already seen in Hebrews that the word perfection often refers to the resurrection, so for example, Hebrews 2:10 says…

But the author points out in vs. 17-19, that even the Old Testament promises that a priest is going to have to come from Melchizedek. Why? Because the law can’t provide perfection, the law can’t give resurrection.

But in vs. 19 we see that a “better hope” is introduced through which we can draw near to God. What is that better hope? It is the hope of resurrection, the hope of life after death.

How do we get that? Because another priest has arisen (a play on words, because the word arisen in teh NT usually refers to the NT) with the power of an “indestructible life.” The Old Priesthood could never give us resurrection, it wasn’t equipped for that, but a priest who is from Melchizedek, who has neither “beginning nor end” can.

Melchizedek’s Priesthood is established by the oath of God (20-22)

The earlier priest were made without an oath. Now what does he mean by that? After all, doesn’t he swear in Numbers that the Levites were priests? But the difference is that there was a built in covenant, that they would only remain priests if they continued to uphold the law. But they did not uphold the law. SO very clearly in Malachi 2 and Hosea 4, God revokes the covenant, not because he failed the Levites, but because the Levites failed him.

By contrast, the oath that God makes to the priesthood of Melchizedek will go on forever. It will never be revoked, because Christ will never fail to keep it.

This is why it says in vs 22, that Christ is the guarantor of a “better covenant.” Because Christ will enver fail to uphold it. The covenant that we have with God is as unwavering, unchanging, unfialing as the person of Christ is. In the Old Covenant, everything was dependent on the priests’ keeping of the law. But they were utter failrues. In the same way, in the new covenant, everything is dependent on our priests’ keeping of hte law. But uynlike the Levites, he will never fail us and let us down.

Melchizedek’s Priesthood is forever (23-25)

Thus, we come to the fourth way in which the priesthood of Melchizedek is better, it is simply that it is “forever.”

The simple fact is that the Levites were themselves mortal (vs. 23)

But Christ is “immortal” (vs. 24). He has the power of “indestructible life” which we saw in vs. 16.

Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, why? Because he always lives so that he might make intercession for him.

Melchizedek’s Priesthood offers a better sacrifice (26-28)

Listen to this description of Christ, he is “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” (vs. 26). He is high and exalted, high and lifted up. He is over all thigns. And he has ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty. As we saw already, he is like us in every way, “yet without sin.” ANd in this way he shuts a sharp contrast with the Levitical priests.

Those priests offer sacrifices daily, both for their own sins and for the sins of the people. (vs. 27)

This is because the “law apoints men in theri weakness as high priests” (28)

But Christ offers up a “once for all sacrifice.” (27)

ANd he doesn’t need to offer another sacrifice for himself, but because he is sinless, offers the sacrifice of himself. In other words, he doesn’ thave to go looking for another sacrifice because he is the sacrifice. ANd he doesn’t have to keep making it, because he is it.

Application

God has spared no expense to save you. God is a masterpiece artist, a careful craftsman. And he knew what would be the best way to give you the best salvation. God didn’t do a cruddy job in saving you. God went all out in trying to save you.

Everything in the OT is like a tapestry fitted together carefully. You see the Old Testament is like long river that runs thousands of miles and it picks up steam as little rivulets and streams and tributaries flow into it and at the critical moment, it releases all its steam in the cross and resurrection and ascension and we are all freed, each and eveyr one from teh burdens of sin.

Which means he is able to save you to the uttermost. You don’t have a high priest who is faulty and broken. You have a high priest who is whole. You don’t have a high priest who is sinful himself, but one who is sinless. You don’t have a high priest who will die, but one who, having died for all, will live forever. In other words, the reason that God has this elaborate plan to provide a high priest for you that is even better than Levi is so that he can provide a greater salvation for you.

So don’t desert this high priest. So endure. If he is your priest, if this is the best salvation, stop looking anywhere and everywhere else for salvation. Remain with him.

This is what Hebrews has said all along. He hasn’t deserted you, he hasn’t forgotten about you, he hasn’t neglected you, so don’t neglect you.

Story of Polycarp’s martyrdom...

“as he was brought forward, the tumult became great when they heard that Polycarp was taken. And when he came near, the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On his confessing that he was, [the proconsul] sought to persuade him to deny [Christ], saying, “Have respect to thy old age,” and other similar things, according to their custom, [such as], “Swear by the fortune of Cæsar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists.” But Polycarp, gazing with a stern countenance on all the multitude of the wicked heathen then in the stadium, and waving his hand towards them, while with groans he looked up to heaven, said, “Away with the Atheists.” Then, the proconsul urging him, and saying, “Swear, and I will set thee at liberty, reproach Christ;” Polycarp declared, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour? ”

Roberts, A., Donaldson, J., & Coxe, A. C. (Eds.). (1885). The Encyclical Epistle of the Church at Smyrna. In The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 41). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

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