Psalm 2 (Jesus is the Son of God) | Reading the OT in the NT

Well, good morning everybody.
How are we doing?
I’m good.
I was doing better before I looked at the forecast that said snow later this week
Yes, that’s uh, I pulled my mood down a little bit, but I’m surviving.
It’s good
Marsh just has a way of wine to remind us winter is not over yet
Someday, somehow it will end.
Well, okay today
We’re gonna pivot.
I told you it was gonna be more fun.
So I’m trying to keep my promise to you
I’m curious.
How many of you all have heard the name Melchizedek before?
Oh Wow, you’re all Melchizedek experts.
So what do we know about Melchizedek?
Right
He does anyone know how many stories in the Bible he appears in?
One
totaling
About three verses so it won’t be hard for us to get through it.
And what’s fascinating is
I’m not gonna tell you what’s fascinating.
We’re gonna discover what’s fascinating.
Yeah, let’s do let’s jump into Melchizedek Genesis chapter 14
is where we find
the great Melchizedek and
This is a this is fun.
It’s a fun story
We’re gonna back up just in context.
I’m not gonna read this to you
But what proceeds this story might remember lot is Abram’s nephew
And they have this on again off again relationship kind of thing
But lot gets kidnapped by a band of marauders.
Another king is trying to
Get some property and possessions and so he gets kidnapped Abram comes to his nephew’s rescue and
Immediately following that he’s successful.
He returns lot and his possessions.
That’s him verse 16
And so at the end of this military defeat
Abram rescuing his nephew we begin here
Verse 17 after Abram returned from defeating
Kettlemore and the king’s allied with him the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Shava
That is the King’s Valley
then
Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine
He was priest of God Most High
So I thought turn my page and he blessed Abram saying
Blessed be Abram by God Most High creator of heaven and earth and praise be to God Most High
Who delivered your enemies into your hand?
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything the king of Sodom said to Abram
Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself
But Abram said to the king of Sodom with raised hand
I have sworn an oath to the Lord God Most High creator of heaven and earth that I will accept
Nothing belonging to you not even a thread or the strap of a sandal so that you will never be able to say I made
Abram rich I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and share what belongs to the men who went with me to
Anner Eschol and Mamre let them have their share
now what follows this is the
Very important part of this text where the Lord comes in and makes this eternal covenant with Abram which of course,
you know Extends throughout the rest of the story throughout into the New Testament the promise of God’s faithfulness to that covenant
but we are focused here on
Melchizedek which is Fascinating because for the length of the story itself it gets a very disproportionate
level of interest in the history of Israel and part of that is because of how
strange this story is because Melchizedek is both called a priest and
a king and that may not seem that strange to you but in the
Culture and religion of Judaism throughout its entirety to this day the idea of someone being
priest and king is
Not thought that that’s not a thing that shared you have the priestly line you have the Davidic
Kingly line those two things are both important,
but they’re never combined
And so the fact that Melchizedek is described as the king and that he’s also described as an eternal priest
That is just odd.
And so if you look at Jewish
Literature, if you look at the Jewish conversations around Melchizedek
There’s always some version of trying to reconcile why would these two things be put together?
These are two things that do not go together.
So that’s interesting But then there’s also the modifier of the term priest
Which is how long you see the priest for?
Eternally what?
Who’s eternally a priest because once you die you’re not priest anymore
You’re not a bad person
But you’re not functioning as priests because remember a priest is by definition the person in the middle
The priest stands in between the people and their God
That’s the role of the priest is standing in the middle of those two parties
And so when you are no longer living you are no longer in between
Someone else will serve that role in that function.
So how is Melchizedek an eternal priest odd?
Makes no sense.
So we see the plot thickened.
Let’s turn to Psalm 110.
Gotta love David David makes everything more interesting
Psalm 110 and we’re gonna see a reflection.
This is this is hundreds if not
A thousand years after the the Genesis text
We turn here the verse 4
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind
You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek
Weird and random David doesn’t mention Melchizedek anywhere else
This this is not just a common biblical trope
this just literally gets dropped into Psalms and what is
Innovative about this is the idea that someone could be in the order of priesthood of
Melchizedek and you got you’ve got remember we we as Americans pretty much our culture is dead set against this
But you have to remember in Judaism.
There are 12 tribes and your tribe matters.
It says something about you
Specifically the Levitical tribe,
which is the priestly tribe
So if you’re going to be a priest you’re not from Dan
You’re not from Asher.
You’re you’re not from Judah.
You’re a Levi that that’s your family’s role, right?
But here the psalmist David says in a priest in the order of Melchizedek
Not the Levitical role in the order of Melchizedek.
What are you doing?
You’re making another brand of priests David like this is just almost
Nonsensical,
but it’s a way that the you see the Jewish readers reading that story of Melchizedek
How are you an eternal priest?
What does it mean to be a king and a priest at the same time?
How is it you only appear in one passage and then you disappear?
This is just another Old Testament example of looking back to Genesis and seeing us as far as I’m aware
These are the only two direct
References to Melchizedek in the entire Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament what we would call the Old Testament
So you think whatever Michael way to find the obscure?
How are we gonna make this interesting?
Now we get to go to the New Testament.
So let’s go to Hebrews Hebrews chapter 5
this is where this just gets
super interesting and
You know if we weren’t such avid readers of the Bible,
we might be surprised by the Bible more often than we are
There’s a ton here and unfortunately we don’t have time.
We’re not we’re not gonna read through all of it
But let’s look at a chapter
Let’s start in verse 1 of 5 and it gives us some context
So every high priest is selected from we’re remembering we’re in the New Testament now
Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people and matters related to God
To offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
This is a restatement of what I just said.
Remember a priest stands in between
That’s what this is saying that they are appointed
Between God and the people to do these functions
The priest is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant
We’re going astray since he himself is subject to weakness
This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people and no one takes
This on or on himself,
but he receives it when called by God
Just as Aaron was okay.
We’ll make this very clear
priests are human which is why they make sacrifices not just for the people they represent but for themselves because they’re weak and
They stand in the tradition of who?
Aaron which is the Levitical role, right?
So human priests Levitical role in the same way
Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest
But God said to him you are my son today
I have become your father and he says in another place
You are a priest
forever in the order of
Melchizedek
Okay, now this is where it starts to get interesting
So does anyone know extra credit points are available?
What tribe is Jesus born into?
You can answer the question if you know what tribe David was born into
Don’t feel bad actually I had to look it up to confirm myself Jesus was of the tribe of Judah
Judah so
Jesus is not born into the correct tribe to be a priest
That’s interesting
So the author of Hebrews
Points over to the Levitical tribe
Says isn’t it interesting that they have to make sacrifices for themselves because of their own brokenness and they have to make
sacrifices for the people
So that is the human priesthood,
but he says Jesus is not like them
but he is of the eternal order a priest in the order of
Melchizedek let’s keep going during the days of Jesus’s life on earth
He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears
To the one who could save him from death and he was heard because of his reverent submission
Son though he was he learned obedience from what he suffered and once made perfect
He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God
To be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Oh It changed.
Did you see what just changed there?
We began in verse 6 you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek
But by the end of verse 10
He is the high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
You see what’s happening here
We be we have three layers.
Let’s just build it together
with a marker I lost
There we go.
We got three layers
You’ve got the earthly priest
Which I’m for sake of simplicity,
we’re gonna call the Levitical priests
Then we have the
Melchizedek
Which I’m going to summarize with milk because I’m not gonna spell his name, right?
And then you have
The high priest of Melchizedek
Fascinating you start with the humans you then go to this odd obscure text in Genesis about this
priest who has no
Beginning and no end.
There’s no line and then suddenly you have Jesus Christ who’s called the high priest of Melchizedek
so
essentially what the author of Hebrews is doing
this is where we turn back is he’s reading the Old Testament and
sees what we would consider this very odd sort of off the beaten path text and he says
Jesus is king and
Jesus is high priest
Jesus is the one who is above the Levitical priests.
He ascends beyond them
Because he’s not of their line.
He’s not of the tribe of Levi
He’s not even Melchizedek himself.
He’s Melchizedek’s high priest
He is the eternal priest on behalf of all of us.
All right, well, we’ll see that flushed out here.
Let’s um,
It would be really interesting and we would all love to read chapter six and go through that with a fine-toothed poem
But we don’t have time
So let’s jump right to verse 5 chapter 7 this Melchizedek was king of Salem and 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
First the name Melchizedek means king of righteousness
Then also king of Salem means king of peace without father or mother without
Genealogy without beginning of days or end of life resembling the Son of God.
He remains a priest forever
So fascinating of of all of the Old Testament
I’ve already we’ve already talked together about the fact that in the Old Testament the idea of a soul living on is not a
Concept that is really applied.
It’s fascinating that the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear that he believes that
Melchizedek has been living eternally that he’s a priest who had no beginning and no end
Verse 4 just think how great he was even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder
Which isn’t as big of a deal for us that that doesn’t make a huge impact
But whoever your greatest hero is in life
It’d be like saying your greatest hero showed deference to this person,
right?
This is to give for Abraham to do something is is a huge deal
Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who became priests to collect a tenth from the people that is from their fellow Israelites
Even though they 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 and without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater in other
Words who was blessing who in this story who was giving what to who?
Abraham was being blessed by Melchizedek and Abraham was giving Melchizedek a tenth.
So who’s greater in the story?
Melchizedek Melchizedek is greater than Abraham and if Abraham is the top top if he’s the one who God made the covenant with and everybody
Has been looking to Abraham for that promise throughout all time Melchizedek is above Abraham.
That’s the the point
simplified
Eight verse eight in the one case the tenth is collected by people who died
But in the other case by him who is declared to be living
One might even say that Levi who collects the tenth paid the tenth through Abraham
Because when Melchizedek met Abraham Levi was still in the body of the that of his ancestor
By the way, that should strike use a very odd comment.
May I remind you that the idea of
That birth of the child is the idea of that
Forbearer living on so the idea that Levi had not yet born because he comes way down the story through many generations
Right, but the idea is that everyone comes from Abraham
So somewhere down the line Levi will exist because he’s Abraham’s descendant.
So that’s the idea
That Levi is even represented in Abraham because he’s not born yet
All right, we’re getting to the interesting stuff first 11 if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood
And deed the law given to the people establish that priesthood
Why was there still need for another priest to come one in the order of Melchizedek not in the order of Aaron?
I love it when the text asks questions.
It’s telling you what it’s about to answer.
So why is the question?
For when the priesthood is changed the law must be changed also
He of whom these things are said belong to a different tribe and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar
For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah
There you go Jesus descended from Judah and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests the
Judas not supposed to have priests and what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears
One who has become a priest on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry on the basis of the power of an
Indestructible life or it is declared again.
What is the second time third time?
We’ve quoted this you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless
For the law made nothing perfect and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God and it was not without an oath
Others became priests without an oath
But he became a priest with an oath when God said to him the Lord has sworn and not changed his mind
You are a priest forever
Alright verse 22 because of this oath Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant
Now there have been many of those priests since death prevented them from continuing in office
But because Jesus lives forever
He has a permanent priesthood
Therefore he is able to save completely
Those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them
Such a high priest truly meets our need one who is holy blameless pure set apart from sinners exalted above the heavens
Unlike the other high priests
He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people
He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself
For the law appoints as high priests men and all their weakness
But the oath which came after the law appointed the son who has been made perfect forever
Love this chapter 8 verse 1 now the main point of what we’re saying is this okay.
She tuned out.
Here’s the main point
We do not have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven and who serves
In the sanctuary the true tabernacle said the Lord not by a mere human being boom.
There we go.
All right
So
What just happened here?
Obscure text in the Old Testament about this king priest that no one really understands
here the writer of Hebrews wants to make the case that Jesus Christ is the ultimate high priest and
so he doesn’t do that by
Pointing to Jesus’s heritage or genealogy.
In fact, he says if Jesus was a Levitical priest
Then it would be useless because the Levitical priests their time and rule ends when they die
They’re priests with a weakness
But Jesus is a priest without a weakness because he’s not a priest in the order of the Levites
He’s a priest of the eternal order of Melchizedek
and if he’s a priest of the eternal order of Melchizedek Jesus can be king and priest at the same time and
He is the one therefore who no longer needs to make a sacrifice for you
it’s been done eternally and
This was maybe the craziest statement of all of them
Not only is he the high priest of Melchizedek,
but did you notice he offered himself as the sacrifice
Pause on that for a second.
The priest offered himself as the sacrifice
so
You may not know this
And this may not seem to be as radical as I am thrilled to think that it is
But you have to realize in a world in which everybody believes
Here’s you
Here’s God There’s this inescapable chasm between you and God right that’s taken for granted
You don’t get to God by yourself.
How do you get to God?
We you get to God by building a bridge
Through someone else and that someone else in the Old Testament
Conception is the priest and what does the priest offer?
What is that?
What is this bridge that gets made for you?
It’s the lamb.
It’s the sacrifice It’s the innocent thing that dies for you without the lamb
You don’t get to God and without the priest offering the lamb.
You don’t get to God.
That’s the arrangement.
That’s the deal
Imperfect people can’t get to God without this accommodation made by the law
We’re on the same page.
So this is the framework
What the author of Hebrews just wrote is?
This priest is not a human this priest
Jesus but it’s not just that is that Jesus offered Jesus as
the sacrifice So the priest is the sacrifice and the priest is eternal and the sacrifice is eternal
So therefore because Jesus stands in the middle
There is now no one between you and God himself because Jesus is God
The author of Hebrews just made the argument that we look to the Old Testament to see how we were
Separated from God and how we now come to understand that because Jesus is God
No one stands between you and the Savior of the world
The only thing in between you and God is the sin that separates you from God which is
Solved eternally by you receiving the grace of Jesus Christ
so You all have believed if you’ve been the Reformed Church at all for any amount of time you believe this idea that Jesus Christ is
The Savior you believe this idea that the pastor is not in between you and God that there’s not a church body or elder
Or that you believe that it’s between you and Jesus
But here this really odd off-the-wall
Old Testament story is laid out as the example par excellence to define and make the case
Why that is true,
which I think is awesome
All right, that’s questions feedback Who builds the bridge between me and God this Jesus build the bridge and why build the bridge I can’t build the bridge
What you think Jesus built the bridge right not no,
I’m just I’m asking mm-hmm
Yeah, I mean
I think you get the God that the case the case I think the the writer of Hebrews is making is
That there was all that that God’s
accommodation for our sinfulness in the Old Testament was all of these formulas and
Agreements about how things would go that that the sinners had to do all of this stuff
If we were going to get to have access to a righteous God,
right?
I think what the writer of Hebrews is making the case for is
That if you look at all of that stuff that they were doing all of that
Actually is fulfilled in Jesus that it did it at this level and Jesus did it at this level
And if that’s the case then might then ultimately
Jesus is the answer to all of the questions of the old order
It no longer has anything to do with what you do.
It’s about what he did
It no longer has to do with about how well you enact the practices of the law
It’s about the one who kept the law for you
It’s not about you sacrificing the lamb it’s that the lamb sacrificed himself because he’s the ultimate eternal high priest
This is the thing.
Maybe I’m trying to make a case.
You should be more excited about the high priest
That’s what I’m trying to do.
I’m trying to get you on the team here No
Because we don’t we don’t grow up with that framework,
right?
You don’t you don’t believe in the high priest
There’s not some high priest presbyterian in Louisville who like we all hope goes in and shakes some incense over an altar
I mean that’s not we are beyond that right?
We’re on we’re on this side of the historical equation
but you’ve got to think of the early church try to put yourself in their sandals or
No shoes, whatever you want put in their footwear.
Just try to for a moment
Figure that you grew up believing in the priesthood that these are your pastors
They if they go sacrifice and they do it,
right?
They let you be okay with God
This is it.
There’s no sinners prayer.
There’s no you having a conversion
They believe somebody else needed to do the thing if you got to make it to the other side of God
And now here the writer of Hebrews comes to that and says you’ve always believed this priesthood stuff
Let me introduce you to the priest who
Offered himself as the sacrifice who is eternally your priest and you never have to have someone in between you and God ever again
Now you’re gonna be like the Pentecostals and dancing down the center aisle
That changes everything It absolutely changes the entire equation and we
learn it in Sunday school,
right?
That we’ve learned I’m if we had if our Sunday school teacher was you know worth half a penny
They told us that there’s nothing in between you and God.
Thanks be to God
but the earliest church was looking in their
Scriptures to understand who Jesus was and when they turned to their scriptures
They turned to this weird story of Melchizedek and they found that weird story to be the example
To give them an understanding of who Jesus was
Eternally
and that became for them what they taught in their Sunday school so that the previous order
Might understood to be wiped out by Jesus’s work
There go I raised my voice I got passionate are you excited about it now?
I Other thoughts question I didn’t I didn’t answer your question
No, you said we build a bridge and I Jesus is the bridge Jesus is a bridge to God,
right?
Well not without Jesus.
I couldn’t get to God.
I mean I like that
So can I build a bridge to God?
No, I can’t but Jesus gets me there
But they a hundred percent believe you did yeah,
like I mean that that was what the sacrifices were about
I mean that that was yeah,
I mean the law
represented the human We forget this that this idea of Abraham and the covenant covenants are by definition by
Transactual agreements the irony of the covenant with Abraham is God has always been faithful to God’s side
But Abraham and his people have always screwed it up but that
We know that we not our head to that cuz we’re Presbyterians and we like to revel in the sinfulness and brokenness of humanity
But the reality is the Israelites took that covenant seriously
I mean they would be humble enough to admit
Yeah, we mess up sometimes but they they tried to keep the law
I mean they believed it was their job to build the bridge
They really believed that and so the Christians who believed that Jesus Christ made the bridge for you
And he’s invited you to walk it was a brand new idea
They
simply had never thought that before which is by the way
I’m preaching next Sunday next Sunday’s poem Sunday
So, you know just be aware if that changes your attendance
I understand but I would say like think about that for just a moment
The one who’s coming the one who’s coming to to change everything
Is Going to be received as the high priest and and he’s gonna be received with all this acclaim and all this joy and the people
They’re going to kill him a few days later
When Jesus says he offers himself for us
He doesn’t mean he’s gonna kill himself
He means the people he came to build the bridge for are going to kill him
And I think that’s that’s the really interesting turn here is if Jesus Christ is the high priest of Melchizedek
Not only does he do a thing for us that we can’t do by ourselves
But he actually in doing that shows us how deep our brokenness goes because we’re the one who ultimately
Kill him the people he comes to save or the very people who kill him
And that that’s If you think that our job is if you think of that from the ancient Hebrew perspective
Our job is to keep our part of the covenant with God
We killed God’s covenant
Literally the covenant is Jesus and we killed him and so ultimately we all stand
This is part of that idea of original sin
We all stand guilty of killing the one who came for us
And and since we’re guilty of that, it’s only
him who is the power to forgive us
And the great news of the gospel is he’s chosen to do so
The fascinating is just to say that we hung on to that idea
That the vehicle idea
For 1500 years we did that after Jesus
I mean we we said there has to be somebody in between can’t be just me go to God
We don’t know what Luther was all about.
Yeah, you don’t have to do that anymore
Hey guys a long time ago.
This guy came into the world here to save us.
We don’t need that anymore
We don’t need somebody in between us and Jesus,
right?
Well, I mean we hung on to that thing for a long long time
Yeah, I may be more pessimistic than you might.
I mean, I think we continue to do that.
I mean, I think
the one of the greatest I think one of the most
Excuse my use of this word,
but I mean this as a technical use of this word
One of the most damning parables that Jesus offers is the parable of the vineyard and the workers
Do you remember that parable the idea that some people show up at 6 a.m
They work all day long
Some people show up at 9 some show up at 12 some show up with an hour left to work
And at the end of the day,
they show up and the owner of the vineyard has the gall to pay them all the same
Amount not the same rate the same amount
That is offensive
It is it that’s an offensive economic transaction and
I’ll be honest with you might
Every Christian is tempted to think I’ve been doing it longer
I’ve been doing it better than you or you or you and we like to think about putting more jewels in that crown and
When we do that,
I think we we may not be doing it on purpose by but we’re trying to build our own bridge
I’m gonna make God happier with me.
I’m gonna do the right thing and the
the crazy
Part of the gospel is that person who lived a wild crazy not church life
approved life
Can get the same rate the same wage
That’s how crazy grace is
And to somebody who grew up in the church and is a perfectionist and cares a lot about the faith.
I think that’s flat wrong and
Jesus confronts me over and over and over again because he says hey,
I’m the bridge I get to do what I want
He’s lower than I’m not and and he and I
He’s patient with my arguments about that
Right, but I really mean that we should we should be convicted when we come to a story like this cuz
You know, I grew up in a holiness tradition in the church where people believed,
you know If you go to bowling alley and you drink a beer and you swear when you miss
You’re you better make sure you say some prayers tonight or you’re going the opposite direction
and
That gets really close to that mine
Right.
If I if I miss
I have a bad bowling night and I said some words I get hit by the
snowplow on the way home
There’s real questions in those communities of faith about are you saved or not?
I don’t want to I’m not trying to miss them and make us out as if that’s not important
Please don’t hear me in that tone.
What I’m saying though is I think we
Cooperatively
do question this all the time
Because we we as humans want to take credit for what we do for salvation
And if you hear Jesus rightly,
I think if you hear the author of Hebrews rightly
You don’t build the bridge
He did so at the end of the day if you and I show up to Peter’s gate
By the way, all of my hope and faith is built on this completely honest with you
I hope that there’s not a register of how Michael go like he did
In life, I hope that’s not it because if that’s the account
I’ll be seeing you on the other side.
I Hope that at the gate.
I hope that in that judgment day is another image that the scripture uses
I hope they judge me by Jesus’s account
Because he is the one who consistently
Had forgiveness for those who didn’t deserve it and that’s that’s the hope of the gospel um
But I think it’s worth remembering that
Maybe our basic human temptation is to think they need Jesus’s grace,
but I have a
Lifelong faith behind me.
So I’m probably good and
That needs corrected
Whenever we slip into that we need reminded Jesus is the sacrifice.
He is the priest
And he’s your access to God
Thanks be to God.
Thanks for being here friends