Jesus – The Perfect High Priest

Q: What does the Bible say about Melchizedek?

Melchizedek is a figure in the Bible who served as both a king and a priest, representing a superior priesthood to that of Aaron. Melchizedek, described in Hebrews 7, is introduced as both the 'King of Righteousness' and the 'King of Salem.' His priesthood is considered superior because, unlike the Levitical priests from Aaron's line, he has no recorded genealogy, thus symbolizing an eternal priesthood. This is crucial for understanding the priesthood of Christ, as He comes from the order of Melchizedek, affirming a greater and eternal covenant established by His sacrifice. The Book of Hebrews emphasizes this distinction to illustrate Christ’s role as the perfect high priest who ministers for us eternally.

Q: How do we know Jesus is our perfect high priest?

Jesus is our perfect high priest because He offers a once-for-all sacrifice, unlike the repeated sacrifices of the Levitical priests. The priesthood of Jesus is established in Hebrews 7 as fundamentally superior to the old Levitical system. While the Aaronic priests offered sacrifices repeatedly for their own sins and the people’s sins, Jesus, being sinless, offers Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Hebrews 10:11-14 highlights that His single offering perfected forever those who are being sanctified. This indicates that His high priesthood, linked to the eternal order of Melchizedek, brings about a better covenant and a permanent reconciliation with God, allowing believers to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence.

Q: Why is it important that Jesus is from the order of Melchizedek?

Jesus being from the order of Melchizedek emphasizes the superiority and permanence of His priesthood compared to the Levitical priests. The significance of Jesus arising from the order of Melchizedek lies in the eternal nature of His priesthood, as detailed in Hebrews 7. Melchizedek is portrayed as a priest who has no lineage or end, symbolizing a priesthood that does not change and is not based on genealogy. This contrasts sharply with the Aaronic priesthood, which was subject to succession and death. By establishing Jesus as a high priest like Melchizedek, it underscores His unique qualifications to mediate a new covenant that does not require continual sacrifices, offering believers direct access to God through His once-for-all sacrifice.

this evening, really the first part, but this man Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.

The Book of Hebrews seeks to set before us the superiority of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostle seeks to set before us the way by which the old covenant, the old ceremonial law was in some senses weak, by the which it was continually changing and that those who were in the line of Aaron and in the tribe of Levi were born into that office and they died in that office.

They did not continue forever and ever and the sacrifices that they offered were just mere shadows of the perfect sacrifice that would come. They never actually took away any sin, just made people ceremonially clean for worship and so the sacrifice system continued. The Levites and the priests and the high priests were are continually changing and he seeks to set forth before us then this the superiority of Christ.

And although Christ did not come from the tribe of Levi, he came from the tribe of Judah, which enabled him to be a king. Yet his priesthood comes from a far greater line, the line of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, the king of Salem, the king of righteousness, without father and without mother, without beginning of days and end of life, who was like the Son of God. Throughout the Scriptures, there has always been a need for a priest and for a sacrifice to take place.

If you remember when Adam and Eve sinned against God and they were chased from the garden, the Lord clothed them with coats of skins. And it was, as it were, the first sacrifice. And it sets before us the picture of what the sacrifice system did, the substitutionary death of another, making the one offering those sacrifices right in the sight of God. They were clothed just like by faith we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

Those who offered the sacrifices to God were clothed in or they were deemed righteous before the law having offered up these sacrifices and so the sacrifice system was set up right at the very beginning and we see and we know that because of Cain and Abel. they were aware that God needed sacrifice for them to approach God and one of the problems with Cain and Abel is that Cain refused to offer the blood sacrifice and was just offering the fruit of the land. so God clothed Adam and Eve with the skin of the animal that was slaughtered and then from that point we see this sacrifice system being worked out throughout the Scriptures. So even before the ceremonial law even before the Aaronic priesthood, there were sacrifices that took place and it was the elder male of the families that would offer up these sacrifices on behalf of himself and his family. If we look at Cain and Abel in chapter 4 and verse 4, and Abel also, he brought the first slings of his flock. and the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering.

And so, although we do not read of how God instituted or made the early people aware of this sacrifice system, the blood that needed to be shed, it is evident that they knew what they had to do. And that is why Cain is punished because he refused to do what God had commanded. him to do.

We look at Noah, as Noah comes out of the ark in chapter 8 of Genesis, we read there that he offers sacrifices unto the Lord and so he acts as a priest for his family, If you remember what the priest is, the priest is bringing the people to God. It is making the people acceptable in the sight of a holy God by acting as a mediator, by acting as a go-between, by standing the gap, by bridging the gap and offering these sacrifices. And so the priest brings the people to God. And it's the prophet that brings the word to the people. And so in the Old Testament, we have the priesthoods and we have the prophets. And so we see here Noah bringing the people to God, bringing his family to God by sacrifice. in chapter 8 and verse 20. And Noah built in an altar unto the Lord.

And he took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done. while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, summer and winter, a day and night shall not cease.

And so Noah here is then bringing his family to the Lord through this blood sacrifice and the blood sacrifice finds acceptance in the sight of God as we know that the soul that sins it must have died yet through the shedding of blood there is acceptance found in the sight of God as they offered up this sacrifice by faith that this one that had been promised right there in the Garden of Eden, the seed of the woman, that he would come to reverse this curse. And so they offer up these sacrifices in faith to God.

Think of Job also. Job, when his family were celebrating the birthdays of one of their brothers and Job says that maybe they have sinned in their heart and cursed God in Job chapter 1 from verse 4. It says, and his sons went and feasted everyone in their house, everyone his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. So it was like a family party, a family gathering. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sacrificed, sanctified them. And he rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This did Job continually.

And so although Job was not set apart as a priest, yet in the patriarch society, He acted as a priest for his family, offering up sacrifices to God, sanctifying his children by having this substitutionary animal or these animals sacrificed and found acceptance in the sight of God.

And he says this did Job continually. if you look at Abraham, Abraham built altars, Jacob and Isaac, they all built altars unto the Lord and then when they are taken into the land of Egypt and they become captives there, it is not until they are released that God appears and sets Aaron aside to become, as the tribe of Levi, the line of the high priests and the line of the priests that would work in his temple.

So if we go back to Exodus 28, it tells us there of when God sets aside Aaron and his sons to be his priests and to be the line of the high priests. Exodus 28, 1 and 2, and take thou unto the Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister unto me the priest's office. This is now the Lord setting out the ceremonial law that was going to be marked until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This priesthood was going to roll out continually through the line of, through the tribal of Levi and then especially with the family of Aaron were going to be the high priests. they minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron and Manab and Abihu and Elisa and Isamar, Aaron's sons. And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.

And so the Lord sets him aside for this work. But this work that the Lord was putting him in was not a perfect priesthood. And we know that because not far down the line, heirs and sons, they sin against God. They offer up this strange fire to the Lord.

If you remember that Moses is told, as he sees the vision in heaven, and he's told that every single detail that the Lord gives him regarding the temple and the tabernacle, and every detail that he is to do exactly as the Lord tells him. right down to the colours of the robes and the curtains and the shapes and everything that he used to do exactly, even to the making of the oil that flowed through the candles. And these boys took it upon themselves to do something that was contrary to what God had said. And because they did what was not right in the sight of the Lord, the Lord struck them down and killed them immediately. we read, we've just read of these two sons of Nabda and Abihu in Leviticus chapter 10 verse 1. The sons of Aaron took either of them in his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not they went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord and Moses said unto Aaron this is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified.

And Aaron held his peace. And so although the Lord set this family aside for priesthood, Yet they were sinners. They were still sinners before a holy God. And if they stepped out of line, if they took it upon themselves to do what they felt to do in their own heart, they disrespected the commandments of the Lord, the Lord came and he struck them down. We might say this is harsh. Maybe to our modern mind it is, but when we understand the holiness of God and the severity of the commandments of the law, they knew exactly what they should do and they acted in willful disobedience to God. God laid it out very clearly as to how they should offer up their incense before him and they took it upon themselves maybe to make another blend of incense and therefore the Lord struck them down and so this Levitical line was not perfect So the book of Hebrews tells us of another priesthood, a greater line of priests, and this is the the priesthood of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was of a different order to Abraham, to Job, who acted in their patriarchal position as priests of their family. He was in a different position to the Aaronic priesthood. He comes into scripture mysteriously. And so that's why the apostle writes here, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.

And in Genesis chapter 14, we read, after Abraham had rescued Lot from captivity, after the kings had come and taken Sodom and Gomorrah, and taken him captive, and he comes and delivers, and after he gained a victory, this Melchizedek suddenly appears in scripture. verse 18, and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the Most High God.

So here is Abraham having won this great battle, is now blessed and provided for by this king, this king of peace. he blessed him. And so this king comes and he blesses Abraham. Blessed be Abraham of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God which has delivered thine enemies into thy hand. and he gave him tithes of all, and so after Abraham receives this blessing from this king and from this priest, the priest of the Most High God, he responds in giving him a cut of all that he has, and the scripture tells us in Hebrews that the less is blessed by the greater, and so this king of Salem, this Melchizedek was greater than Abraham.

If we look at the Jews, where did their pride lie? We are the children of Abraham. And yet this Melchizedek comes and he blesses Abraham and Abraham gives to him and responds to him in that tithe giving. so he says he's without father and without mother.

Some people have said this is a pre-incarnation of Christ but it doesn't, the scripture doesn't say that. The scripture says that he was the king of Salem, that he was the king of peace and he was like unto the son of God but he is a type of the Lord Jesus.

And what is amazing is that the Lord specifically writes this right at the beginning of scripture, that this Melchizedek suddenly appears out of nowhere. We have three verses of scripture about him, and then he suddenly disappears again. And so Paul comes along a few thousand years later and can write that this Melchizedek has no father and he has no mother. He has no beginning and no end.

He is made like unto the Son of God. that his priesthood, his lineage, is of a greater lineage than the Aaronic Levitical priesthood. It was of a greater type. It is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14, it says, for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.

And yet it is far more evident that after the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest. In Psalm 110, it tells us there, In verse 1, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. verse 4 it says, the Lord had sworn and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And so he says that he is sworn by himself and he will not change his mind, that there is going to be another priest that would come after the order of Melchizedek, not in the line of Aaron, but another one, a superior line, a line without beginning and without end, a line that would continue forever, a line that would have no birth and would have no death. And that was, the Lord said to my Lord, sit down at my right hand, as the Lord spoke to his Lord, as God and the Father and the Son, and would bring about this priest after the order of Melchizedek, a perfect, a perfect priesthood, a better priesthood.

In verse 19, it tells us there that as the old priesthood faded away, that this new one would come that would have a better hope. The law made nothing perfect. And so all that Aaron did, all the sacrifices that he offered, all the blood that was shed, would never make anybody perfect. But the bringing in of a better hope did. by the which we draw near unto God.

And so it was a better hope made of better promises in this New Testament, in this new covenant that Christ made as he offered up himself as the High Priest, as he offered up himself as the Lamb of God. and as much as not without an oath, he was made priest.

And so without an oath, the old ceremonial system through the line of Abraham, they were born into it by birth. At the age of 30, they were brought into the temple and began their temple work, yet Christ It is priest by the oath that the Lord would swear by himself. And in that Psalm 110, it says, the Lord has sworn and will not repent. If you remember Eli, Eli, because of the sins of his children, his family line was cut and he was not able to have a priest serving in the temple after his death because of his sin. his failure as a father to discipline and deal with his children but this new one would come and the Lord had sworn and will not change his mind that this priest would come, this great priest after the order of Melchizedek and this he would continue with a better hope from a better line He says, the Lord has sworn and will not repent.

Now, the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, as he quotes from that Psalm 110, and a part of a better covenant. But so much was Jesus made a shorty of a better testament or a better covenant, a one that was effective. a one that actually took away sin, a one that made people just before the law of God, a one that made people righteous before a holy God, a one that actually brought reconciliation between God and man. And so it was a better covenant. It was an eternal covenant, a covenant that ushered people into the kingdom of God.

And it was by a better sacrifice. not by the blood of bulls and of goats or of any birds, but of his own self. He needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's, for this he did once when he offered up himself. the high priests first offered that sacrifice for themselves, not the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because he is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. He didn't have to offer a sacrifice for himself because he was the perfect Lamb of God. and he was the bringer in of a greater covenant, being a greater high priest.

Hebrews 4 tells us, although he is this great high priest, although he is spotless and holy and undefiled, higher than the heavens yet, Seeing them, we have this great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so throughout the Hebrews, he's pressing the superiority of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the line by which he came by. Yes, he didn't come through the normal priesthood, through the tribe of Levi, but he came through the greater lineage, as it were, through the order of Melchizedek, that Christ can be our great high priest, as the Lord has promised that there's going to be one that would come. And he swore by himself, saying that there would be this one that would come that had no beginning and no end, who is not dead, whoever lives to intercede for us, who's right at the Father's right hand, even this evening, so that when we come to the throne of grace, we can commune with the true living mediator and high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

He is without sin and it is by an irreversible decree that God has sworn that Christ would come and he would abide forever.

So this is a great comfort for the Lord's people that if you think of the time of Eli and all those women that came to the temple and were abused there by these so-called men of God, and the sin that was committed there at that time and the sin that took place in the temple because of the sinful nature of those in the office of priesthood. Yet we come to one without sin and even though he is without sin he is able to accept us because he took our sin upon himself and paid the penalty as our great high priest. He paid the penalty for our sin and we're able to come to him and he remembers our frame, he remembers that we are dust, he remembers the temptations that he endured, he remembers all that we passed through. Therefore we have this sympathetic high priest. the right hand of the Father who intercedes for us. And so we can come boldly this evening to the throne of grace knowing we have this high priest who is consecrated, the Son of God who has been consecrated and he is there for evermore at the right hand of the Father, offered up himself for the sins of his people. May the Lord bless us and help us to understand these doctrinal truths that run through the scriptures, that appear, Melchizedek appears for a little while, disappears, comes again in Psalms and this beautiful promise that God has sworn by himself that this one would come from the line of Melchizedek as this great high priest that would not continually change but would be fixed at the right hand of the Father and is seen in his perfect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is there at the right hand of the Father, even this evening as we come to him.

Well, let's sing of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hymn 542. Jesus is my great high priest, bears my name upon his breast, and that we may never part, I am sealed upon his heart. Hymn 542. ♪ As I live upon this earth ♪ ♪ And that we may never part ♪ ♪ I am still the only son of God ♪ ♪ Sing the glory long ♪ ♪ Before them great walls were torn ♪ ♪ Behold the death's discharge ♪ ♪ And the sad one's soul was born ♪ ♪ God is love at all in love ♪ ♪ In high goodness giveth God ♪ ♪ O should pain be white as snow ♪ ♪ And be well from time to time ♪ Through his flesh I enter in, And with him forever rest In the Lord's blood His holy name. Here I have fought within His light, Here comes out my soul to fight. Make me beat the glory truth, And will break me disdainfully.

Jesus – The Perfect High Priest

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about Melchizedek?

How do we know Jesus is our perfect high priest?

Why is it important that Jesus is from the order of Melchizedek?

Sermon Transcript

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Jesus – The Perfect High Priest

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about Melchizedek?

How do we know Jesus is our perfect high priest?

Why is it important that Jesus is from the order of Melchizedek?

Sermon Transcript

About James Gudgeon

Comments

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