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HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESSGUARANTEED BY AN INDESTRUCTIBLE LIFEHebrews 7:11-22INTRODUCTION “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood… I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama , with its vicious racists, … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Thus spoke Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the occasion of the largest civil rights march in the history of the U.S. Whether Dr. King fully realized what he was saying or not is not for me to judge but by his quoting of Isaiah 40 he connected his dream for racial harmony to a much larger and far more ancient dream than his own. You see God has a dream, a vision for his creation that he is determined to fulfill. Isaiah 40 is one of the hundreds of expressions in the Scriptures of God’s dream for his universe. God’s dream, unlike Dr. King’s dream does not depend upon the cooperation of fallen and fallible human beings. God’s dream is not merely a wish but his purposeful determination to create a perfect people to dwell in a perfect world with him forever. Dr. King expressed a longing for a part of what that world will be like; for in God’s new world there will be perfect harmony between every human being regardless of race or gender or age or any other human distinction. But God’s dream is far bigger than Dr. King’s dream because it includes the reconciliation of the greatest animosity in the universe, the animosity between God and humans. It will be a miracle when the races of men live together in perfect love in the new heavens and the new earth but the far greater miracle of that day will be God dwelling in perfect love with sinful men and women. It is this ultimate end or goal of God to which the author to the Hebrews continues to return as he writes his letter urging these people to not abandon Christ because they are being persecuted. You can see that God’s dream of living with his holy people in perfect love and harmony is the primary concern of the author in vv. 11 & 19. He begins this section by stating, “If perfection could have been attained by the Levitical priesthood…” Then in v. 19 he states “for the law made nothing perfect.” What is this perfection that the Levitcal priesthood and the Law of Moses could not create? The end of v. 19 states the answer by telling us that the ultimate "perfection" is for men and women to be able “to draw near to God.” God’s dream from before the creation of the world has been to make a people who would draw near to him and to whom he could also draw near. It has always been God’s dream to “show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus… to the praise of his glorious grace,” as Paul says in Ephesians. The story of the Bible is the story of how God created the world and is now redeeming the world so that this great purpose of his will become reality. This is the theme that unites the Bible and makes it a coherent, unified story. Our passage today is a key passage in understanding the unity of the Bible and of God’s one purpose. Today we will see how God’s dream for the universe is fulfilled in Jesus, not in the Levitical priests and the law of which they are the foundation. Before I begin, however, I need to ask you, “what is your dream?” I know you have one. Every human being has a dream for the future that keeps them going. What are you hoping for? What are you living for? What is it that you want? Most of us would say that Dr. King’s dream was a big dream and compared to most human dreams it was. However, compared to God’s dream it was very small. Most of us have small dreams. C.S. Lewis was right when he said, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Or to say it another way, we are satisfied with small dreams; the dream of a happy marriage or a fulfilling career or good health or good friends or a better video game or a nice house. If your dream is not to live in a perfect world in perfect fellowship with God and man and all creation forever, then your dream is too small and what this text has to say will be of no interest to you. But if you long to live in the perfection for which God made you and for which Christ came and died then what this text says will be of enormous importance to you. MAIN POINT Jesus alone fulfills God’s dream for the universe because…I. Jesus changes everything (vv. 11-14) As we saw last week, in vv. 1-10 the author showed how Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of Most High God, whose story is told in Genesis 14, was a picture of Jesus. By his receiving the tithe from Abraham and by his blessing of Abraham the author proved that Melchizedek and thus Christ of whom he is only a type is superior to the Levitical priests. While he doesn’t draw attention to it explicitly, a part of his argument is that God revealed Christ through the appearance of Melchizedek to Abraham long before he made the descendants of Levi his priests. Melchizedek is the first priest mentioned in the Bible and therefore is prior to the Levitical priests and therefore superior. But now the author argues for the superiority of Jesus based upon a quote from Psalm 110:4 which was written hundreds of years after the institution of the Mosaic Law and its priests. That is the thrust of v. 11. If the Levitical priesthood was the means by which God was going to fulfill his promises to make a new heavens and a new earth inhabited by his new people, then why did he talk of another priest hundreds of years later who was not in the order of Aaron but in the order of Melchizedek? Christ is talked about before the law is given and he is talked about after the law is given, therefore he must be superior to the priests who are appointed in that law. Now the exciting thing is that beginning in chapter nine he shows that the law itself talks about Christ. The point is that Jesus is before and after and in the law and therefore he is superior to the law and the fulfillment of it. The entire OT, including the entire Law of Moses is about Christ. The point in vv. 11-14 is that Psalm 110:4 which was written hundreds of years after the institution of the Levitical priesthood and was written about the Son of God promises that another priest who is of the order of Melchizedek and not of the order of Aaron is going to come into the world. So v. 11 points out that God, in the OT itself indicated that the Levitical priesthood was temporary when he said that another priest in the order of Melchizedek would appear. It was always God's plan to end the ministry of the priests in the temple and replace them with his own priest, the Son of God. Whereas v. 11 shows the end of the Levitical priesthood based on the promise of Psalm 110:4, verses 13-14 describe the fulfillment of that promise. They describe the historical reality in the appearance of Jesus who was the son of David, a member of the tribe of Judah, not of the tribe of Levi. Throughout the entire OT not a single member of the tribe of Judah ever offered sacrifices in the tabernacle or the temple. In fact, Moses never said a word about any descendant of the tribe of Judah serving as a priest. Yet, it is clear that our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the priest in the order of Melchizedek is a descendant of Judah, not Levi. He is a priest but not in the order of Aaron. God said that he was going to send another priest who was not a Levite and in the coming of Jesus he did what he said he was going to do. The conclusion that the author draws from this fact is in v. 12. However, what he says in v. 12 cannot be understood without what he says in the parenthesis in v. 11: “for on the basis of it (the Levitical priesthood) the law was given to the people.” What does that mean? The point is that the entire Law of Moses with all of its commands and regulations and the Levitical priesthood are inseparably linked to one another. The Levitical priests were the basis of the law in the sense that they are the ones who are to teach the law to Israel, who judge the people in accordance with the law, and who offer the sacrifices and perform the rituals given in the law that keep God from destroying the nation. Repeatedly the Lord says to the priests that they are to perform their duties so that he does not destroy Israel but dwells in their midst. Exodus 29:44-46 makes this plain, “So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his son to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” God promises to dwell with Israel by means of the priests fulfilling their duties according to the Law of Moses. Verse 12 then draws the necessary conclusion from what v. 11 says and vv. 13-14 prove historically. Since the priesthood has changed with the coming of Christ; since he is a priest in the order of Melchizedek and a descendant of the tribe of Judah, not in the order of Aaron or from the tribe of Levi, and since the Law depends upon the priesthood, then the law must of necessity also be changed. Christ does not promote and teach and judge by the Law of Moses but a different law which is variously described in the NT as “the law of faith,” “the law of the Spirit of life,” “the law of love,” and the “law of Christ.” The Law of Moses with all of its commands and regulations has been changed for a different law because the coming of Jesus has changed the priesthood upon which it is based. Thus Jesus as our priest teaches us his law and judges us by his law and performs all the priestly duties prescribed by this new law so that we can live with God and he with us. We now live by faith in Jesus through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables us to serve one another in love to live a holy life like Jesus. As we will see his ministry as our priest accomplishes what the Levitical priesthood and the Law of Moses could never accomplish. Professional football coaches are often replaced. When a team gets a new coach, as the Green Bay Packers did a year and a half ago, the team rules change because the coach changes. When Mike McCarthy replaced Mike Sherman as the head coach, the rules that govern how the Packers practice and play the game changed. He brought in his own offensive and defensive plans and strategies, his own practice procedures and personnel policies. The Packers still play football and they still have the same goal, to win games. However, a lot changed when the coach changed. It is the same with coming of Jesus. He is a priest of a different sort than the Levitical priests and while he still is a priest and the goal is still the same, to redeem a perfect people to live in a perfect world with God forever, yet the law that is based upon the priesthood has changed. He has brought with him a different way of life than that lived under the Law of Moses. This change of the priesthood and of the law that is based upon it was always God's plan which can be plainly seen in the person of Melchizedek and the promise made in Psalm 110:4. Jesus is not plan B who had to come because God's plan A, the Levitical priests and the law based upon them failed. God has changed the priesthood by sending Christ who is from the tribe of Judah and a priest in the order of Melchizedek and therefore the law based upon the priesthood has changed. Jesus alone fulfills God’s dream for the universe because…
II. Jesus is indestructible (vv. 15-17) These verses describe one of the primary ways that this new priest, in the order of Melchizedek is different from and thus superior to the Levitical priests and the law based upon them. In these verses the author is fixing his attention on one word in Psalm 110:4, the word "forever." He draws attention to the fact that Jesus did not become a priest in the way that every Levitical priest took his office. The Levitical priests became priests because they were related to Aaron. Levitical priests are such because they are in a long succession of men who have been born and who have died. They serve as priests for only a short time because they die and then another Levitical priest takes their place. However, the Son of God who is a priest in the order of Melchizedek is a priest forever. He is the only Melchizedek priest because he is always alive. There is no need of another priest because his life is indestructible. In other words the author understands that word "forever" as referring to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of God where he always lives. Unlike every Levitical priest he never dies and cannot die and cannot be harmed in any way. His life is indestructible. He will always be the priest that God appointed in the order of Melchizedek. Do you remember the story of Cinderella? The beginning of the story is passed over quickly and most of us don't give the reason that Cinderella is in such difficult circumstances much thought. Remember that Cinderella's mother died and then her father, who was quit wealthy, married a widow who had two daughters of her own. While her father was alive we can be quite sure, Cinderella's life was not difficult, even if, as we might suspect her stepmother was always nasty. However, it was when Cinderella's father died that her life took a definite turn for the worse. She became a slave in her own home because her father was not present to defend her against the power of her stepmother and step sisters. What difference would it have made in Cinderella's life if her father had an indestructible life, if he didn't die? She would have always been safe and would never have lived in the misery that came upon her by the wickedness of her stepmother and stepsisters. It is the same for everyone who is trusting in Christ. His life is an indestructible life. He is always present to defend us from both the evil designs of demons and men and from the righteous anger of God against our sins. Because he can never die and nothing can ever diminish his power, we are safe in every way that matters. We do not need to be afraid of anything, not because we are indestructible but because he is indestructible. He will bring us safely into that perfect world that the Father has planned for us because he is indestructible. Jesus alone fulfills God’s dream for the universe because…
III. The law could not deliver what it promised (vv. 18-19) When you read through the Law of Moses in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy there are amazing promises of God's presence, protection and provision for the Israelites. Listen to Deuteronomy 7:12, "If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land--your grain, new wine and oil--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The Lord will keep you free from every disease." That chapter goes on to also describe how Israel will dominate all its enemies and destroy them. However, as you read the history that accompanies and follows the giving of the law you find one story of misery after another. They do not destroy all the Canaanite tribes. They regularly experience famine and barrenness. Even in the best of times as when David and his son Solomon were kings in Israel there is trouble from enemies and family. There is barrenness and disease and famine. In short the promises that are connected to the law never are realized. Why is that? It is because the promises in the law all come with a condition. The condition is perfect obedience. In the passage I read you could hear it. "If you obey then I will bless." Verse 18 says that the law was weak and useless because it could not give the perfect world it promised. It could not deliver on its promises because the law depended upon the obedience of men. The law is weak and useless because human beings cannot fulfill the condition, which is perfect obedience. This is exactly what the apostle Paul says about the law in Romans 8:3, "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature…" The law cannot give us what it promises because the promises are only given to those who perfectly obey and no mere human being has the ability to obey because none of us believe by nature that obedience to God is the best way to be happy. The law cannot deliver the perfect world it promises because it is based upon the performance of imperfect men and women. In addition, the law is not only weak and useless and thus annulled and replaced because humans cannot obey but also because it is based upon sinful and mortal human priests. The priests could not make a way for anyone but themselves to draw near to God. In fact, this was stipulated in the law itself. Only the descendants of Levi could enter into the courtyard and only the sons of Aaron could enter the Holy Place and only the high priest could draw near to God in the Holy of Holies and then only once each year. Access to God was not really gained for anyone when the Levites were the priests. The Levitical priests and the law they administered actually were barriers to the people's ability to draw near to God. Thus they and the law that was based upon them had to be replaced by a better hope. That better hope is our Lord Jesus Christ who is the priest that David talked about in Psalm 110:4, who is in the order of Melchizedek. The language is very strong in v. 18. The former regulation is annulled and that a better hope replaces it. Hope here as earlier in 6:18 &19 is not a feeling or subjective experience but the fact that Jesus is a priest forever, not descended from Aaron but in the order of Melchizedek. It is through him that we can now and forever draw near to God. Access to God is not limited to just him but to all who belong to him through faith. The priesthood that Jesus exercises does not limit our drawing near to God as did the Levitical priesthood, but is the means by which we draw near to God. Imagine that my youngest daughter Jaimee, who is eight, and I were at a fair that had a bunch of those carnival games. She wants to get some stuffed animal she spotted and asks if she can play the game to get it. Let's say it's one of those "toss the rings over the coke bottles" games. The rules of the game promise that if you put all five of the rings over the center bottle you win a stuffed animal of your choice. Anyway she has a go at it several times and keeps winning those Chinese finger trap things, but not the stuffed animal. The promise is great but the rules of the game are weak and useless because she cannot meet the condition set by the rules. So she asks me, an adult with much longer arms and better hand/eye coordination and I put the rings on the center bottle and thus she wins the prize. That is what has happened between us and God. The law requires perfect obedience and limits access to God to only a few, not to all. We cannot meet the conditions or overcome the law's stipulations and so another priest comes who obeys the rules for us and establishes a new law, the law of faith by which all can draw near to God through him. He annuls the previous priesthood and law and replaces them with himself and a new law that is not weak and useless because it is not based on human performance but on his performance and the power of the Holy Spirit who gives the faith that we exercise to be joined to him. Jesus alone fulfills God’s dream for the universe because…
IV. God took an oath (vv. 20-22) The author now draws attention to another contrast between the Levitical priests and our Lord Jesus based upon Psalm 110:4. The first clause of that verse says, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind…" In other words, God took an oath regarding his Son becoming an eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek. We talked about God's oath taking two weeks ago when we were examining 6:16-18 where we are reminded that God swore an oath to Abraham in regards to the promises he made to him. We recognized that humans take oaths when they are testifying to the truthfulness of statements they are making in a court of law. An oath is made in order to verify the trustworthiness of statements we make as witnesses in regard to a matter of controversy. God has no need to take an oath because his word is the most trustworthy thing in the universe. He cannot lie. Yet he takes oaths in the Scripture as an act of grace towards us so that we can be absolutely convinced that what God has said he will do. In this case it is as if God has said, "May I, the eternal God cease to exist and be treated as the worst of all creatures if I do not make you, the Son of God, an eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek." The contrast in this verse is that none of the Levitical priests became such by an oath. They became priests because they happened to be related to Aaron, the son of Levi. They became priests by a purely human thing, the identity of their dad. However, Jesus became a priest by a divine oath. God pledged his own reputation to establishing his son as the eternal priest for his people. This oath makes Jesus the guarantor of the new covenant. This is the first time the author mentions the covenant. He uses this word another 14 times in his letter. A covenant is an agreement between two parties, usually between a greater, more powerful person and a lesser and weaker person. In a covenant the greater person promises to provide for and protect the lesser person if the lesser person will fulfill certain stipulations. God made a covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai wherein he promised numerous benefits on the condition they obey him and not worship other gods. That was the old covenant. Jesus is not the guarantor of the Old Covenant but of the New Covenant. We will be seeing in the coming weeks what the new covenant is and how he guarantees it. Right now the author is merely introducing us to this new covenant and telling us that the oath that the Father swore in Psalm 110 establishes Jesus as the one who guarantees that we will receive what is promised in the covenant. In other words God enters into an agreement with us to bless us which is not guaranteed by our fulfilling of the covenant but rather on Jesus fulfilling the conditions of it. He pledges himself as the guarantee that the stipulations will be fulfilled so that we can receive the presence, protection and provision of the great and powerful Yahweh forever. After my daughter Julia graduated from college and got a job as a nurse at UW Hospitals she bought her first car. However, due to the fact that she had never borrowed money prior to this purchase, the bank would not give her a car loan unless I co-signed the loan with her. I became the guarantor of the loan which means that the bank gave her the money to buy her car on the condition that I promised to pay off the loan if she did not. She experienced the benefits of getting a new car because I guaranteed that the purchase price of the vehicle would be paid. That is but a small illustration of what Christ has done for us. I only had to sign a piece of paper to guarantee the loan. Jesus pledged his life and then gave his life to guarantee that all who trust in him will experience the benefits promised in God's new covenant. He now lives for the purpose of guaranteeing that all of God's people will receive all the benefits of the covenant; eternal life with God in a perfect universe. Jesus' purpose now and for all eternity is to make sure that all of God's people experience the fullness of all of God's promises forever. We know this is true because God swore and will not change his mind that Jesus, the Son of God, is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Jesus alone fulfills God’s dream for the universe because…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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