The Superior Priest

If you have your Bibles, turn with me, if you would, to the fifth chapter of the book of Hebrews. We're looking at verses 6 through 10.

As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do pray for Tracy's dad. I ask, Father, that you be with Mr. Bobenchek and great power.

We're not sure exactly what it is that's causing his problem, but I ask, Father, that you have mercy on him and help him. We pray for our other sick this morning. We pray for Lynn Nicholas's mother, Carol Starkey, who's struggling with kidney failure. I pray for Jim Henson's family as they grieve over Jim's passing. I pray for Bernie Loos and Lisa Menzel, who are suffering and going through surgeries in the very near future. I pray for Betty West and Jeremy Carriker and Jim Belkin, Renda Torrance and Kim Oudy.

Kathy Lawrence, I pray that you would heal them. I also pray for Peter Marine, who is suffering right now with a very bad concussion. Heavenly Father, it's difficult to consider what a great and glorious thing Jesus did for us by shedding his blood on the cross and then entering the presence of his Father in heaven, presenting his own blood to make a substitutionary atonement for our sins. All the other priests offered the blood of bulls and goats. Jesus offered his own blood. So Jesus is the superior priest. Jesus was sinless. Jesus was perfectly righteous. Jesus' blood was the perfect propitiation. So Father, help us to worship this Jesus, not just as our King and our prophet, but as our sinless high priest.

Please keep my lips from arrow this morning. Help me to exalt Christ, for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that I pray. Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. I want you to put yourself in the shoes of a Jewish Christian in Israel, let's say in the year 60 AD. You have submitted your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. You have believed with all your heart that Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood and died in order that he might purchase your salvation. You have believed that he was truly resurrected from the dead and that breaking the power of death. You have become a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away.

All things have become new. You have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit of God is empowering you to defeat the struggles that you're having against the world, the flesh, and the devil. You believe very strongly that Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone are Lord.

You believe that Jesus is coming back one day, and he is coming back and will judge the quick and the dead when he returns. Now, this transformation in your life is coming at a great price. It is coming at a very high price. You are being criticized. You are being ostracized. You are being persecuted. Your orthodox Jewish friends have rejected you. You have lost your job. They have plundered your property.

Your children are being made fun of, and you and your wife are being laughed at while you're there in the marketplace. A priest of Israel comes walking up to you very arrogantly, very haughty, gets right in your face, and he says to you, who is your high priest? Who mediates between you and God?

Who offers sacrifice for your sins? You say that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant. How can that be when you don't even have a high priest? How are you going to answer that? What are you going to say?

I think you would say this, oh, no, you're wrong. I have a high priest. I have the great high priest, the superior high priest, the perfect high priest. And he didn't just offer a sacrifice. He is the sacrifice.

And where is he now? He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is interceding for us. And he will continue to do that until he comes the second time when he will judge the quick and the dead.

Who is he? He is Jesus. Brothers and sisters, that would be a great answer for a Jew back in 60 A.D. in Israel.

I want you to know it's the same answer that you should have today in 2023 in Harrisburg, North Carolina at Grace Church. I got four points that I want to share with you today about the superior priesthood of Jesus. My point one is, who is this Melchizedek?

Look with me, if you would, at verse six. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Well, the name Melchizedek comes from two Hebrew words, Melchim meaning ruler and king and Zadok meaning righteous. He was the king of righteousness. And it's very odd because he was a priest, a king who was also a priest.

That's very unusual. But where's the first time that we see Melchizedek in the scripture? We see it in the 14th chapter of Genesis. And Lot and his family had been taken captive by the king of Sodom and four other kings. And they had had their property stolen from them and they were going to make slaves out of Lot and his family. Abraham found out about this and Abraham and his men went after these five kings and they defeated them. And they recaptured Lot and his family and they just set them free. Now, Abraham is coming back after this great victory and someone comes up to him and meets him there on the road. Who was it? His name is Melchizedek.

Now, let me read you the account. Genesis 14 verse 17 through 20. Who has delivered your enemies into your hand? And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Genesis 14, 18 refers to Melchizedek as the king of Salem.

Now, the word Salem is the Hebrew word shalom. In other words, he was the king of peace. Very interesting, over in the ninth chapter of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah has given us a prophecy of the Messiah to come and what does he call him? He calls him the prince of peace.

Folks, that is not a coincidence whatsoever. Now, Melchizedek met Abraham and what did he give him? He gave him bread and wine. What was this? A picnic lunch?

No. This was a covenant meal and the covenant meal was always done to seal the covenant. It meant that the regulations and the qualifications and the steps of the covenant had been met and this covenant meal would seal the covenant. Now, what were steps in the covenant?

We saw this several years ago. We were studying through the life of David and we saw that David entered into a covenant with Jonathan, his great friend, the son of Saul. And what did they do when they entered this blood covenant? The first thing they did was they exchanged their coats or their robes.

What was that about? Well, it said our identity is now the same. I belong to you and you belong to me. And then the second thing that they did was they exchanged money belts. And that was a way of saying what you have belongs to me and what I have belongs to you. And then the third thing that they did was the exchange of weapons.

And they were saying, I will protect you and you will protect me. After that, they ate the covenant meal, bread and wine. You remember that the night before the crucifixion of Christ, Jesus went in the upper room, He took the disciples with Him and He instituted the Lord's Supper. Was that something strange to the disciples?

Oh, no. They knew exactly what Jesus was doing. He was entering with them into a covenant and He was sealing the covenant by this covenant meal.

He took the wine in His hand and He lifted it up. And He said to them, this is the new covenant in My blood. Folks, the sealing of the new covenant was a promise from Jesus Himself that He was going to redeem for Himself a people from every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. Well, Melchizedek is called the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed Abraham and he set a blessing over him. What was the blessing?

Listen. Blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. So Melchizedek blessed Abraham by sealing the covenant. Now, Abraham is one of the most beloved characters in the entire Bible. The Arabs call Abraham father.

Why? Because they all came from Ishmael and Abraham was Ishmael's father. The Jews called Abraham father.

Why? Because Isaac was Abraham's son and they are all descended from Isaac. We as Christians sometimes call Abraham our father.

Why? Because he was the ancestor of the chosen seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is our father. Now, Melchizedek blessed Abraham and then Abraham paid tithes to him. This is the first time that the word tithes is used in the Bible. What is a tithe?

It is 10% of your gross income. In Leviticus chapter 27 in verse 30, the scripture says that the tithe is the Lord's. When you paid your tithes this morning and you offered your tithes in the offering plate, who did you give it to? Did you give it to the preacher? No. Did you give it to our elders? No. Did you give it to the deacons?

No. Who was it for? Not even to the church.

Gave it to the Lord. Folks, Melchizedek blessed Abraham and Abraham paid tithes to him. Could it be that Melchizedek was not just some run-of-the-mill priest? Could it be that Melchizedek could have been what's called a Christophany, which is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ? Scholars are divided over the person of Melchizedek. Some very godly scholars who believe that Melchizedek was just a type, a picture, a symbol of Jesus the high priest to come. And then there are other scholars that I have great respect for who believe that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus himself. Now, do we have other Christophanies in the Bible?

Oh, yeah, we do. In Genesis chapter 18, Abraham met with some angels. And in verse one of that chapter, the scripture says that the Lord appeared to Abraham. Who was that that appeared to Abraham? It was a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. In Genesis chapter 32 tells us that Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord. And the Lord changed his name to what?

From Jacob changed it to Israel. Who was that angel of the Lord that he wrestled with? It was a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Joshua chapter 5. We are told that the captain of the host of the Lord came and appeared before Joshua.

Joshua realized who this was. He fell at his feet and he worshiped him. And the captain of the host of the Lord accepted that worship because he was not an angel. He was the Lord himself. It was a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. So could Melchizedek be a Christophany?

I can't say for certain, but I think maybe, just maybe, this was Jesus. Turn with me to Hebrews 7, just a minute, verses 1 through 3. It says, For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. And to him Abraham apportioned the tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness. Then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, resembling the Son of God, he continues, a priest forever. Now what does he mean without father or mother, without genealogy? Well, it could be that Melchizedek was a perfect type, symbol, or picture of who Jesus was. And this scripture goes on, because no one knows the father or mother of Melchizedek.

And no one does know that. So that might just be a type. And then the phrase, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. That could just mean that we know, we don't know when he was born, or we don't know when he died. So it could be a type.

But I would like to suggest to you today that it's not just a type, that it was more than a type. If this is a Christophany, if this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, then we know that Jesus is eternal. And the scripture refers here to this Melchizedek as being eternal.

How do we know from the New Testament that Jesus was eternal? We have the statement from the Apostle John in his gospel. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him, and without him was not made anything that was made. All right, Hebrews 7, 4 through 7. See how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers. Though these also were descended from Abraham.

But this man, who does not have his descent from them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. Well, this debate is not going to end here at our church this morning.

Theologians have squabbled over this the last 2,000 years. But whether Melchizedek was just a type or a picture, or whether he was actually Jesus himself, we know this for certain. Jesus is the great high priest. Jesus is the superior high priest. Jesus is the perfect high priest. Jesus is the priest that is seated at the right hand of God and is interceding for us.

Greater than the Levitical priest, greater than the Aaronic priest, Jesus is eternal. Moving on from that, one of the requirements for the priest is that he had to be a man. He could not be an angel. Now, the priest had to be a man, so why? So that he would have an understanding heart. He had to be a man who would understand people, who would understand the hurts that they go through, who would understand sorrow, who would understand grief, who would have an ability to reach into their heart and to help them through times of hurt, times of grief, and times of sorrow. Just think of the ways that Jesus could relate. He could relate to minorities.

You know why? Because he was one. He could relate to those who were being persecuted because he was persecuted. He could relate to those who were going through physical pain because he himself went through great physical pain. He could relate to those who did physical work and physical labor because he himself did that. He could relate to being rejected because to those who were being rejected because he himself had been rejected.

The list goes on and on. All right, point two, the proof of his humanity. Look at verse seven. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplication with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence or godly fear. So when did Jesus do all that?

I think perhaps the most obvious time when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane. Before I go on there, let me say this. In the early church days, there was a heresy that had arisen by some heretics called docetists, and these docetists were saying that Jesus was never truly fully man, that his body was just an apparent body, that it was a phantom, it was a ghost, but he was not truly a man. You know what that is?

That's garbage. That is absolute junk, and Gethsemane and Golgotha proved to us that Jesus was an actual man, that he had a body just like the body that you and I have today. Let me read you this from Luke 22, verse 39 through 46. And he came out and he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. There appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood. Falling to the ground, and when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.

And he said to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. It is hard to imagine what Jesus went through in Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane means olive press. Let me share with you very quickly what olive press was. An olive press was two round stones that were flat. On the bottom round stone, they had ridges in it all the way around it and a hole right in the middle. And those ridges started shallow. They went, got deeper and deeper as it went to the center where the hole was. They put a huge jar up under that hole. Then they would cover the entire top of that bottom stone with olives. And then they would bring the large stone, a flat stone that was above it, and they would lower it down and the olives would be pressed.

They would be crushed. And the olive oil would run into the ridges, go right down through those little ridges and settle in the bottle in the middle of that olive press. I had the privilege of going to Gethsemane when I was in Israel several years ago. And it was absolutely amazing. They shared with us at that time that the olive trees can live to be between 2,000 and 3,000 years old. So in all probability, some of the olive trees that I was looking at right there in the Garden of Gethsemane were there when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the word Gethsemane describes the experience of Gethsemane for Jesus. He was being crushed. He was being pressed out. He was laying his heart out before his Father. What did Jesus say? Jesus said, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will be done, but Lord, let your will be done. I think Jesus had on his mind at that point in time, Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, where he knew what kind of death was coming. It was going to be a cruel death, a crushing death, a pressing death. It was going to be a death that would be humiliating, a death that would be excruciating and horrible.

Let me read you what William Hendrickson had to say about it. Luke 22 43 relates that there came an angel from heaven to strengthen him. This may well be considered an answer to his prayer.

For though the cup was not taken away, he was given strength to take it to his mouth and drink it until it was empty. The same evangelist in the next verse also states that being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Never shall we, who do not even know how our own soul and body interact, be able to grasp how the human nature of Christ in these solemn moments related itself toward the divine or vice versa. Though it will never be possible for our minds to penetrate into the mystery of the horror that Jesus experienced in Gethsemane, we cannot be far amiss if we state that it is probably included at least this, that he was given a preview of the agonies of the fast approaching crucifixion. He had a foretaste of what it meant to be forsaken by his heavenly Father. And is it not reasonable to assume that during these dreadful periods of anguish, Satan and his demons assaulted him with the intention of causing him to turn aside from the path of obedience to God?

The best commentary on what Jesus experienced in Gethsemane is surely the inspired statement of Hebrews 5-7. He offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears. He prayed that this cup, this terrible impending experience, climaxed by the cross in the sense of complete abandonment, might be spared him, as with his entire human nature, he recalled before this terror, he knelt down, fell on his face, he was as if it were being torn apart by agony, and submitted his will completely to the Father. This verse 7 says that Jesus offered up prayer and supplication.

You'll see the English word supplication in several places in the New Testament, but the Greek word supplication is found here and only here in the New Testament. It means one who's lifting up an olive branch asking for peace. What was Jesus lifting up? Not an olive branch, he was lifting up himself. And the Scripture says that he was praying with vehement cries and tears.

Why was that? I think we get an understanding of this in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, when Paul told us what was going on. He said this, for God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus was not just going to endure physical suffering on the cross. Jesus was going to experience unbelievable spiritual suffering, and it would be so great upon him that his heart would actually rupture in his chest cavity. When Jesus hung on the cross, Paul tells us that he became sin for us.

How did that happen? God the Father took every sin of every child of God who has ever lived, from Adam to that last person who would come to know Christ before the second coming. He took all of that sin and transferred it into the person of Jesus Christ. And when he did that, then God poured his wrath out on Jesus, and it was so powerful that his heart literally ruptured in his chest cavity. No wonder his heart ruptured when we think of what he went through. Jesus experienced the full force of the wrath of God, and guess what? He had to do it alone. The presence of God the Father could not even be with him.

Why not? Because Jesus had become sin. And God, who is too holy to even look upon sin, had to turn his back on Jesus, and Jesus had to experience the wrath of God, what we call hell, poured out on him like no one has ever or will ever experience before. No wonder Jesus was praying with vehement cries and tears. The next phrase says this, and Jesus was heard because of his godly fear.

He was heard. That means he was accepted and that he was approved by God. His prayer was not a wrong prayer that he was praying. It was a prayer, it was not a prayer that was out of God's will. It was not a prayer that was out of God's will, in fact, it was perfectly in God's will. What is prayer? Is prayer just what we say out of our lips to God?

Absolutely not. It's much more than that. It is communion between God, who is spirit, to our spirit, our regenerated spirit. It is communion, not just the words we say. Romans 8, 26-27 says this, likewise the spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Prayer is a two-way communication. It's the believer pouring his heart out to God, and it is God speaking to the innermost depths of the believer's heart. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus' prayer was heard because of his reverence or his godly fear. All right, point three, Jesus learned obedience.

Look at verse eight. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And what does it mean he learned obedience? Does that mean at one time he was not obedient, and then suffering came and he got straightened out, and he quit being disobedient, started being obedient? Absolutely not.

Not at all. It means that he was able to sympathize with the hurting people because he had gone through that kind of hurt himself. Second Corinthians chapter one, verse four, explains that. It says, sometimes the Lord allows us to go through a time of suffering in order that we might be able to comfort and minister to others who are going through that same kind of suffering. I'll tell you, suffering is a very skilled teacher, isn't it? You can read about the pain that a person experiences when he's been in a fire and his whole body has been burned.

You can read about that, but you can't really know what it's like to be in a fire. But you can't really know what it's like until you've experienced that kind of pain yourself. How comforting it is for me to be able to go to the Lord in prayer and to say, oh Lord, this problem, this loss, this grief, this suffering, this anguish that I'm going through.

Oh Lord, this is breaking my heart. And then to know that he puts his loving arms around me. And he says, Doug, I know, I understand, I know, and I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Brothers and sisters, I don't know about you, but that means more to me than anything that he's right there with me, that he suffers with me, that he's experienced what I've experienced, and he hurts right along with me. All right, point four, the source of eternal salvation, verses nine and ten. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. John MacArthur said it well, he was eternally perfect in righteousness, holiness, wisdom, knowledge, truth, power, and every other virtue and capability. Neither his nature nor his person changed, he became perfect in the sense that he completed his qualification course for becoming the eternal high priest. In offering his sacrifice, however, Jesus differed in two very important ways from the other high priest. First, he did not have to make a sacrifice for himself before he could offer it for others. Second, his sacrifice was once and for all, it did not have to be repeated every day, or even every year, or every century. After the first coming of Christ, all the priests could do was to offer the blood of bulls, goats, and lambs that they had slaughtered, and all that could do was temporarily cover over those sins. And they could only temporarily cover them sins for a very short time. They were waiting for something else to happen, and that was when those sins were repeated. That was when those sins would be completely, totally, and gloriously washed away.

And when did that happen? It couldn't happen by the blood of an animal, it happened by the precious, perfect, sinless blood of Jesus, when he died for us on the cross, when he gave his life, and not only covered our sin, but washed it away forever, and ever, and ever. Who did he die for? He died for all those who, by the sovereign grace of God, would believe.

He died for me, and he died for you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Jesus Christ is our superior high priest.

There could not be a better one. He is absolutely perfect. He died for us. He not only offered a sacrifice, he was the sacrifice. Praise God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we looked at these verses in Hebrews today, we were reminded once again of the temptation to give up and quit. Father, you never said that the Christian life would be easy.

You said all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. Help us, Lord, to learn from suffering, but never to run from suffering. Give us still spiritual backbones so that our lives will count for Christ's sake. For it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. In the holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.