We continue our sermon series, Simply Irresistible, where we are just shy of halfway through.
We are looking at an interesting group of texts today.
We'll be in Hebrews 4, we'll be in Psalms, we'll be in Hebrews 7.
As we look at a pretty unique, and for a lot of us, we just kind of blow past some of this,
especially in the Old Testament, when it comes to this person of Melchizedek, as again, we
continue the sermon series on Simply Irresistible, the irresistibleness of Christ, as we every
week have looked at, hopefully, adequately, as why Jesus reigns supreme, why He is better,
why He is reliable, having the evidence in not only Scripture, but in history.
And as we've seen the writer of Hebrews write in such a way, as he is putting Jesus on this
pedestal that Jesus should be on in all of our lives.
But the question I posed very early on, the best version of yourself, or if someone were
to ask, who are you when you're at your best?
If we think about it, it's kind of an odd question, but it's something that we get asked
all the time, something that the culture asks us, right?
What does it take for it to be the best version of yourself?
Any brave souls that want to share kind of what thoughts or feelings come to mind when
you get asked that question?
Up in the balcony, Tina.
Gratitude, okay?
The best version of yourself is when maybe you're sitting in a place of Thanksgiving.
Now, we're not talking the holiday, but having gratitude for D, all of the above, absolutely.
Others, Nikki.
Efficient.
So the best version of Nikki is an efficient version of Nikki.
Okay, absolutely, sure.
Yeah, in the back.
When I'm doing something for others, more of a giving spirit, okay?
Absolutely.
Yeah, anyone else?
Humility, right?
So when I'm finding myself in more of a humble place, right?
Not saying I'm the most humble of all people, right?
Because that's usually not that.
But that's, ooh, Jesse.
There's an underlying thing there.
The best version of myself is a humble self.
We're going to talk about that at the farm today, or this week, not today.
I'm not coming over today.
But this week, when I go to the farm, we're going to talk about that.
So I hand over here.
Yeah.
Being happy and productive, okay?
Sensing a theme, Jesse's aside, because that one wrecked my week, thank you.
Anyone else?
In the back, too.
Anytime I'm hanging with kids, right?
Spoken from someone who directs an entire youth baseball league.
Absolutely, yes.
And those are kids with bats.
Yeah.
Yeah, Jim, in the back.
Oh, he's pointing to her.
Oh, okay.
Anyone else?
Yeah.
Love?
Yeah.
When I'm in a loving place, absolutely.
We'll go two more.
In the back.
Best version of yourself is when you're visiting someone in the hospital.
Yes.
Anyone else?
You guys, hook, line, and sinker.
You guys did exactly what I was hoping you were going to do, and that is great.
Yes, Alicia?
Having kids, what did you say?
Oh, okay.
The best version, never mind.
Okay, what did you say?
Christ-like?
Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah.
Christ-like.
If you're here this morning and you want to know why everyone laughed when I said having
kids, just see who all stands up when the Schleichers leave, and you'll make more sense.
You all went to really positive things.
You all went to doing something or having a state of mind that was positive.
No one said the best version of myself is when I'm depressed.
The best version of myself is when I'm lazy.
The best version of myself is when I hold on to these negative thoughts about people.
Yet, if I were to press a little bit in a conversation one-on-one, I would ask, well,
then why don't you do that all the time?
If that's the best version of yourself, why don't you do that all the time?
Ron, you know I love you.
Why aren't you at the hospital all the time?
Because Chris wouldn't let you.
I get it.
But is that if we think about it, okay, the best version of myself, no one said is right
now.
Now, I won't take that personally, but none of you said the right now.
10.01 on October 8th, 2023 is the best version of myself.
You all went to a different time, a different place, a different characteristic of yourself.
And if I were to ask, is that achievable 51% of the time during your weeks, I wonder what
kind of hands would be raised.
But you all went into reflection mode, which is good, it's a reflective question, that
the best version of myself, no one said is being a daughter or son of the king.
No one said being a Christian.
No one said being a member of Munster Church.
And there are things that we look at, being productive or being efficient, being happy
and productive, that, okay, the best version of me comes out when these things are happening.
So then why aren't you like that all the time?
Because I know a lot of you that answered, you're not like that all the time.
Right?
And Jesse, you know I love you.
Jesse's not humble all the time.
None of us are.
Humility is hard.
Now, we hope to give off a humble spirit, but there are times that we have those thoughts,
like man, I'm better than them.
Now, we probably never say it out loud, you know, we probably never put it out on the
interwebs, but we think that, that we all struggle at times to be the best version of
self.
When people come into my office, it's rarely, they're on the spiritual high, they're giving
all their money to the poor, and they are just living a John the Baptist life.
I rarely see that in my office.
But the best version of self, if we're not engaging that through the lens of Christ,
then we're probably not doing it right.
And for some of you, that might be, you know, because of my faith in Christ, I could see
Ron saying, that's why I go visit people when they're sick in the hospital.
But non-Christians can do that too, right?
Being efficient, right?
I'm efficient because Christ is in me and that is what I like to do.
But and you'll receive this well, sometimes Christ says, Nikki, rest.
Nikki, stop.
Stop moving, stop running, stop talking, right?
Because he says the same thing to me, right?
I'm owning that one as well.
I think my wife just shook her head, amen.
But understand that who we are, the best version of self comes from Christ.
And some of you are looking at me like, you said Melchizedek, when are we getting there?
This is how we set up the understanding of who or what Melchizedek is.
That we have this individual in the Old Testament, right?
So let's jump to Hebrews 4, starting with verse 14, where we're talking about this level.
Now, the writer of Hebrews is talking about Jesus being better than the high priests.
The high priests had an amazing place in the temple, right?
The high priests were seen as the religious authorities of their day.
They were, some seem kind of in cahoots with Rome, but really there was a lot of tension
between the high priests, right?
The Pharisees, the Sadducees with Rome, because it had to do with spiritual power.
The Romans could care less about what the Christians, or what, not Christians, the Jews
were doing as long as they paid taxes.
So you had this religious system that was getting a part of that.
It was corrupt.
They were getting the money, right?
The Romans were getting the money.
They were kind of like, the temple was somewhat giving their tithes or their taxes to Rome
for protection, but there's that constant struggle, right?
If you've ever loaned somebody 20 bucks and you were only 50% sure you were going to get
that back, is there not a tension there, right?
Especially when you guys go out to eat and then they don't offer to pay, and they're
like, but I only ordered $15 worth.
You owe me 20.
Like, not only should you pay for my meal, you should give me $5, right?
There's that tension there.
The same kind of was happening between the church and Rome in the first century.
So the high priest, the writer of Hebrews, needed to make sure that they spent some time
with talking about Jesus as not only the high priest, but the highest of all priests, and
we'll get to why.
Hebrews 4, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus the son of God.
Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Remember that.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
For every high priest chosen among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation
to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin.
He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
Because of this, he is obliged to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those
of people.
And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
So Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest.
He was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you.
As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
Now in scripture, you have these things called archetypes.
So these are imagery, these are phraseology, this is maybe a story or some aspect of a
story that points us to the archetype of Christ, good reformed scholarship, everything in scripture
accomplishes what it sets out to do and points everything to the person of Jesus.
You can buy books on Amazon that talk about all the different books of the Bible pointing
to Jesus.
That Jesus is the grand hoopla of the narrative that is all of scripture.
You have situations where Moses, right, with the iron snake holding it up on the pole in
the desert to heal the diseased and the complaining Israelites.
That is an archetype of Christ, that Christ, right, will be put on a stick, will be put
on wood, on a cross, that all who lay eyes on him would not be quote unquote healed like
they were with Moses, but they will be freed from sin because of his death and his resurrection.
There are these archetypes of Christ.
You see an archetype of when Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit descends on him like a
dove that he is bringing peace through the baptism of fire like John the Baptist prophesies
about.
When you see Jesus coming in to the roads of Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, we've
talked about that.
It was not a statement of war, but it was a statement of conquering through peace.
That you see all these different archetypes, these are different than prophecies about
Jesus because these are kind of more specific imagery, if you will, that point to the person
of Jesus.
But one area that Jesus fulfills not only in the Old Testament, New Testament, and our
lives today is this idea of being the perfect prophet, priest, and king.
That that was the Messiah.
That the Messiah, capital M, the guy, the Messiah was going to come and fulfill all
of those roles that we see somewhat grouped together in the narrative of the Old Testament.
You have your prophets, you have your major prophets and your minor prophets.
Anyone know why prophets got the title major or minor for a cup of coffee and a conversation
with Pastor Jim?
What?
More writing.
So you're saying bigger books?
Absolutely.
Mr. Mack, you and I, we'll do coffee.
It's nothing really big, nothing super spiritual.
They just had a bigger letter than the other ones.
I know some of you are like, oh, I've got to go deep.
It's a deep question.
It's not.
But major or minor prophets pointing to the person of Jesus.
Isaiah prophesying about Jesus.
And the government will be upon his shoulders and he will be called wonderful, almighty,
everlasting, prince of, when do we sing that?
Christmas.
Very good.
But that's the prophecy of Isaiah.
You have Jeremiah, stand and look at the ancient paths where the good way is.
Follow it and find rest for your souls that Jesus is the messianic prophecy for our lives.
Then those little minor prophets, right?
Smaller books that talk about, oh, Bethlehem, pointing to his birth.
That these archetypes and prophecies of Christ really set a foundation as to why Jesus is
greater.
The biggest one is Jesus, the new Adam.
Right?
Because the old Adam, and here at Monster Church we believe in historical Adam.
That Adam and Eve lived.
Adam and Eve were in the garden together.
They were duped by the snake.
Sin entered the world.
And just as it says, through one man brought death, Adam, the second Adam, Christ brings
life.
Eternal life.
But then we got this guy.
We got this guy.
We see it in Psalm 110.
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek.
That there's this one story that we see where this guy shows up, right, named Melchizedek
and has an interaction with Abraham.
And then we don't see him again, yet in Hebrews, three different chapters talk about this.
And if this is, the writer of Hebrews showing us, this is why Jesus is the great high priest
forever.
No other priests, high or otherwise, are better than Jesus.
He is the high priest because he conquered, or he fulfilled the religious system of the
atonement sacrifice.
Right?
Jesus died on the cross, imputed his righteousness onto us so we don't have to spin our wheels
trying to work our way into heaven.
We don't have to try to, you know, notches on our belt and say, well, I had, I did a
trunk for 20 years at Munster Church so I'm going to get to heaven.
No.
That his righteousness was laid on us so God sees that and sees the son.
The priest was that.
And we saw in the beginning set of scriptures, the priest, right?
In the order of Aaron, the Levites, the priest, they had to make sacrifices for themselves.
So they had to make sacrifices for their own sin.
Jesus, the perfect priest and sacrifice, were for the sin of all of us.
That is good news this morning.
That the perfect sacrifice died for you and for me so we can be forgiven of our sins.
Spoiler, that's the gospel.
That Jesus died for you out of love for you.
I love you regardless of what you've done but go and sin no more.
The sins that were, the sins that are, the sins that will be, the great priest sacrifices
himself for you.
But this Melchizedek thing, let's dive into it.
And so, April, I think this is our longer text, right?
One through seven.
For this, Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning
from his slaughter of the kings and blessed him.
And him, Abraham, appropriated a tenth part of everything.
He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness.
And then he is also the king of Salem, which is the king of peace.
Hold it.
Go back.
There you go.
So not only the king of righteousness but the king of peace, okay?
So that's a big deal.
So we have this king.
He does some conquering.
He meets with Abraham.
Let's keep going.
I don't want to give it away yet.
King of peace.
He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life but resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever.
See how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch of the Israelites, right, who
the writer of Hebrews is writing, gave a tenth of his spoils and those descendants of Levi
who received the priestly office as a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people,
that is, from their brothers, though these are also 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.
Can you put that last slide up, April?
So you have this situation with Abraham and this king, right?
So Abraham just conquered over Charlamander and he has all, he's got a bounty.
When you take over a people, you get everything.
Nothing that is worthy of value is left.
You get everything.
He meets Melchizedek and offers a tithe.
Growing up, how were you taught about tithing?
And no, this isn't going to be a money grab, don't worry about it.
How were you taught about tithing?
10%.
All right, what others?
What other things?
Maybe it was that simple, but I know it's not.
What else did we learn about tithing?
That God gets everything, right?
Say that last part.
He gave us everything, right?
A flip side of that, Kathy, right, is everything belongs to him, but he gives us 90% back, right?
Okay, someone over here.
The first fruits, yeah, right?
So when we do that, right, if we were in first century time and we were at, Smedberg said
in some kind of Jewish way, that was terrible, but we were at their farm, right, and they
were giving their offering, they would take their first row of whatever it is and the
good stuff, not the stuff that was rotten, not the stuff that didn't make the last storm
and say, that'll be our tithe.
No, they give the good stuff and they tithe to it.
So a tenth, right?
Anyone ever hear we give of our time, talents, and treasures, right?
All of my deacons should be shaking their head.
Yes, you have heard of that.
That that is how we can give of that.
One of the biggest questions is, but pastor, I can't give 10%.
Okay.
Like, I don't know what you want me to say.
You give as God has given to you, so you give.
Just as God has forgiven you, you also forgive.
So this idea of tithing, this idea of 10% has not been established yet.
This system has not been established, right?
The Levitical code was still getting figured out.
This understanding of sacrifice, this understanding of when to do it, the day of atonement, all
of those things are still being figured out, but our great, great, great, great, great,
great grandfather of the faith, Abraham, recognizes something in Melchizedek and makes it very
holy.
And he tithes.
Melchizedek didn't demand it, right?
How do you think that would go if every Sunday we had our offering, but the deacons just
stood up there and said, it would be super awkward, right?
I don't think we'd ever have anyone want to be a deacon ever again, because that takes
metal to stand up and just point.
Now, Melchizedek didn't do that, right?
Something was recognized by Abraham, and this is someone that God conversed with.
He went to Abraham and had conversations, yet he recognizes the holy in Melchizedek
and says, of all of this, I tithe, I give, I offer this to you, and Melchizedek blesses
him.
But, remember, this is a prophet, this is a priest and a king, so this is an archetype
of Christ.
It is poor theology to say, well, Melchizedek was Jesus.
I understand where you're going with that, but you can't necessarily do that, because
scripture doesn't go that far.
Yet in Hebrews, right, in this Heroes of the Faith, which we'll get to in two weeks, he
gets lauded as just like this, but Jesus is better.
So where do we draw from this?
What do we do with this?
In that last sentence, it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.
I don't know about you, but Abraham was held as the superior in Israelite conversation,
right?
The people of God, they're from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he was from the start.
He was never left out.
We sing a song about Abraham, don't we?
Father Abraham and many sons.
Right, let's just stop.
We don't have to keep going.
I said stop.
But Abraham holds a place.
Abraham in a lot of ways can be the best version of ourselves.
But if we think about the life of faith, the journey that Abraham had with Yahweh, the
ups, the downs, the inside and out, that Abraham was counted as holy and God used him as imperfect
and as dirty as he was, he was still used by God.
And not only does Abraham tithe to Melchizedek, Melchizedek blesses him.
He doesn't just take it and run.
This is a king.
Abraham wasn't a king, yet he recognized his kingship.
He recognized his lordship and so does the writer of Hebrews.
So what do we do with Melchizedek?
What do we do?
How do we understand this individual in our lives?
Is what he tells us about the priesthood of Christ.
That this priesthood then, the temple was a national thing.
It was the national religion.
It's like when Constantine became emperor in Rome, Christianity became the national
religion.
They went to all the temples, to all the Roman gods, slapped a cross on it and made it a
church.
That was the national religion.
Had nothing to do with the relationship with Jesus, but had everything to do with national
bow down.
I'm the emperor of Rome, now we're going to move it, we're going to go to Constantinople.
Everyone's going to be Christians.
That's not how Christianity works.
That's not how Jesus works.
The priesthood that Melchizedek shows us is that Jesus' priesthood is universal, not national.
It's not tied to any specific country.
It's not tied to any specific group.
That Jesus is above all of that, all of the crowns are paper mache to Jesus' that everybody,
every leader, every elected official, every person sitting in a pew or a chair will all
bow down at the name of Jesus one day.
The priesthood of Jesus is universal and personal, not national.
Melchizedek's priesthood was royal.
He himself was a king, as we have talked about.
We look at Psalm 132, for the Lord has chosen Zion, Jerusalem.
He has desired it for his habitation.
This is my resting place forever.
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
That Jesus, what we can pull as the archetype of Christ is that Jesus is the royal priesthood.
We do prophet, priest, and king so he can connect to every part of who we are.
We're always looking for someone to follow.
We always are looking for someone to critique as a leader.
We're always looking for someone, oh, we've got to vote in the best person, or we've got
to vote, all this, that, and the other thing.
We've got elections coming up in Munster.
That's why you see signs all over the place.
You see debates.
You see winning.
You see losing.
You see sore winners.
You see sore losers.
Thank God Jesus didn't come up through that system.
We wouldn't know what to do.
Jesus is royal.
Elected officials are not royal.
They're elected.
Jesus is the high priest.
I love that Melchizedek does not have, he does not have a lineage.
That's a big deal.
That Jesus has no lineage.
His priesthood is personal to us.
It's an understanding that there is a king that loves you, that wants you to be a part
of his kingdom.
He is telling us that the kingdom of God is personal.
The kingdom of God is active.
The kingdom of God welcomes sinners like you and me.
That the king is working in the kingdom.
And the last thing is the tithe and the blessing.
That we talk about tithing as in money.
We talk about tithing as in time, talents, or treasures.
Treasure is just a church fancy word for money.
That's not what Jesus wants first and foremost.
And he doesn't want a tithe of your life.
Alright I'll give 10% of my life to Jesus.
Well friend if that's the case, what is the 90% going to?
Because it's not of Jesus that it's not going to be the best version of you.
That first and foremost Jesus wants everything, always, all the time, 100%.
And that this is a king that demands that you give up your life.
That you die to the things you think, you die to the things that you believe you need,
that you die to the things and the successes that you've had.
That if you are putting those before Jesus, if you're allowing those to define who you
are and not this king, this priest, this prophet of Jesus, then you are given 10% because you're
keeping the other 90% for yourself.
That's not how that works.
Go to that last slide of the last section.
It is beyond dispute the inferior is blessed by the superior.
So friend how do you receive the blessings of God?
You lay down all that you have, all that you are at the foot of the cross.
To the royal high priest forever.
Last point, all kings lived and died.
All prophets lived and died.
All priests lived and died.
That's formal chesedec, but if he is pointing us to Christ, then when a king dies his reign
is over.
Jesus' reign is never going to be over.
And we get to be a part of that reign on this earth.
One day we'll be there.
One day we will see it, we will experience it, and we will be in kingdom and glory forever.
But until that time you are part of the kingdom now.
The kingdom of God at work here at 214 Ridge Road.
The kingdom of God at work at whatever your address is.
So what kingdom are you showing?
Are you showing a kingdom that lasts forever?
Are you showing a kingdom that pines after all these other things?
Because if we are pining, if we are following, if we are wanting to show a kingdom that lasts
forever, I'm pretty sure that is the best version of ourselves on this earth.