BOOK OF HEBREWS
MELCHIZEDEK
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 22, 1984
HEBREWS 7:1-10
The name was Prester John. He was a god-like Christian priest king who supposedly lived during the Middle Ages. It was said that he was descended from the magi, one of the three kings of the east that came to visit the Christ child. It was said that Prester John had supernatural powers, that he ruled a mystical kingdom in the far east. It was a kingdom where there were no poisonous plants, no venomous snakes, no carnivorous animals. It was a perfect kingdom, and it was said that Prester John lived in a crystal palace, that the ceilings were made out of precious gems, that he slept on a bed of sapphires, that he ruled his kingdom in justice and in peace, that he gave eternal youth to all of his citizens and that he himself was more than five hundred years old. Certainly, the legends regarding Prester John and his mystical kingdom were mythological, and yet for three hundred years, people all over this world came in search of Prester John and his mystical kingdom.
Many people gave their lives in that quest for this God-like priest-king, and incredibly in the year 1277, the Vicar of Rome, Pope Alexander III actually wrote a letter to Prester John. He addressed him as the most magnificent, the most noble John, king of all the indies. And he gave in that letter spiritual authority to Prester John over all the eastern world and he gave him the privilege of building a cathedral in his honor in the city of Rome. He may have been granting privileges to a person who never even existed in the British Museum. There is a letter dated 1265. It was allegedly written by Prester John, and it was addressed to the Byzantine Kingdom. Its authenticity is debated. At the beginning of this century, they found Christian banners and swords passed from generation to generation in Ethiopia, all of which allegedly belonged to John and to his kingdom. Historians do not know what to make of him.
Some regard him as the creation of myth. Others regard him as a historical person whose accomplishments and whose age has been greatly exaggerated. And this confusion is manifested in all the encyclopedias and the history books. Now, there is one God-like priest King who really did live, and we know it for a fact. He has mentioned in the 14th chapter of the book of Genesis he has mentioned in the hundred and 10th Psalm, and he has mentioned in our passage of scripture for today, and he like Preston John is mysterious, his name was Melchizedek. The Bible tells us that he had no mother, he had no father, he was not born, and he did not die. He had no beginning of days. He had no end of life. He continues forever. And 4,000 years ago, Abraham, the patriarch returning from the slaughter of the kings, met Melchizedek in the valley of Shaveh.
Abraham had just defeated Chedorlaomer King of Elam and all the allied forces, but he now stood face-to-face with a God-like priest-king, such as he never thought imaginable. From him, Abraham received blessing and to him Abraham gave tithes as unto God. Who is Melchizedek? Theologian Biblical scholars have given us two answers. First of all, some biblical theologians believe that Melchizedek was actually Jesus Christ, and this is possible for it is Jesus Christ who is out, who is without beginning of days nor end of life. It is Jesus Christ who continues forever. It is Jesus Christ who is the God-like priest King and certainly as the eternal son of God. Jesus Christ could have appeared to Abraham 4,000 years ago in the valley of Shaveh, such an appearance theologians would refer to as a Christophany. Now, other theologians and Biblical scholars, however, suggest that Melchizedek was not Jesus Christ, but simply a type of prototype of Jesus Christ.
They suggest that he was a regular earthly man who ruled a city called Salem. He had a father, he had a mother, he had a birth, he had a death. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, all of these statistics were left out of the Bible in order that this man might provide a foreshadowing of the eternal son of God who is to come or who was to come and now has come in order that he might provide a prototype of Jesus Christ. Now it really does not matter whether you view Melchizedek as Jesus Christ himself or a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. The point is that Melchizedek represents Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who is the eternal son of God. It is Jesus Christ who is the God-like priest-king. It is Jesus Christ who has neither beginning of days nor end of life.
It is Jesus Christ who continues forever, and it is Jesus Christ who is the subject of the seventh chapter of the book of Hebrews. And on that all biblical scholars agree. And from this passage of scripture and through the symbolism of Melchizedek, we learn two things about Jesus Christ. First of all, we learn that Jesus Christ is the king of righteousness. And the Hebrew name Melchizedek means just that: Melchi, meaning king and zedek meaning righteousness. Jesus Christ is the king of righteousness. He fulfills all righteousness. Now, 3,500 years ago, God gave his standard of righteousness to Moses on Mount Sinai. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shall not make for thyself any graven images. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; thou shall remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Thou shall honor thy mother and thy father that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God has given.
Thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, thou shall not commit adultery. Thou shall not bear false witness, thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house nor thy neighbor’s wife nor thy neighbors, manservant nor maid, servant nor ox, nor anything else that is thy neighbors. Those are the commandments of God, the law, and they are His standard of righteousness and in all of history, no one on the earth has ever kept perfectly that standard of righteousness, save one, and that one is Jesus Christ. He perfectly fulfilled the law of God. And that is why the Bible says of Jesus Christ that He is holy. He is blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens and the angels of God numbering myriads of myriads and 10 thousands time 10 thousands fall down before the throne of the lamb, the son of God and they cry out holy, holy, holy art thou He is righteous, so righteous that in His earthly life, even His family who grew up with Him and live with him day after day after day came to worship Him and to regard Him as sinless the eternal Son of God, the hope of the world, Jesus Christ.
He alone is righteous. Now, this is not true of any other person in this world. None of us in this room today are in and of ourselves righteous. None of us are fulfilled perfectly. The laws of God, the story told of three men who were writing in their car, I probably should not tell this story, I am going to tell this story anyway. If you do not like this, please do not write me a letter. First of all, these three men were riding along in this car. They were good friends. Suddenly they had a horrible automobile accident. In fact, they died, and they found themselves at the gate, the gates of heaven. And the Apostle Peter was there checking everybody out, and the first man came up to the Apostle Peter and Peter said, do you believe in Jesus Christ?
The man said, yes, I do. And then Peter then gave him a sermon about faithfulness in this earthly life and how that will be reflected in the measure of heavenly rewards. Peter said, have you ever committed adultery? And he reminded the man that he knows everything concerning that man’s life. The man said, no, I love the Lord, I love my wife and I have been faithful all these years. Peter said, “You see that beautiful brand-new Cadillac over there?” He said, “It is yours to ride around for eternity in heaven.” The second man stepped forward. Peter said, do you believe in Jesus Christ? The man said, yes, I do. Peter gave him the same sermon and then Peter said, have you ever committed adultery? And the man said, well, I love my wife and I love the Lord, but I must confess that two or three times I have transgressed, and I have repented for that, and I am truly sorry I have sought the forgiveness of the Lord.
Peter said, “You see that broken down VW over there?” He said, “It is yours to drive around for eternity here in heaven.” Well, the third man stepped forward and Peter said, do you believe in Jesus Christ? He said, yes, I do. He gave the man the same sermon and asked him if he had ever committed adultery and the man began to weep and he said, the flesh has been the great weakness of my life. I love my wife, but I have transgressed over and over and over again through the years. I do not deserve heaven. I throw myself on the grace and mercy of the Lord. Peter said, “You see that 10-speed bicycle over there?” He said, “It is yours to ride around for eternity in heaven.” Well, the man got on his bike, and he began to ride around heaven and as he rode around, he was alone with his thoughts, and he began to think back to his time on earth.
He knew that he had not been faithful, and he was sorry. Now suddenly looked ahead and on the road, he saw the Cadillac parked by the side of the road. He pedaled his bicycle, and he came up to the side of the Cadillac and there he saw his friend in the car and he was crying. He said, “What are you crying for? You have everything to be happy about. You lived a life on earth that was found to be faithful in the eyes of the Lord and now you have entered into the fullness of your heavenly reward above all people. You ought to be happy man.” He said, well, I was happy. Until a moment ago I saw my wife go by on a skateboard.
Now I do not mean to make light of adultery. In fact, if anyone were to continue in adultery, they would bring into question whether they ever truly believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life because God hates adultery. But it is also true that there is not a single person in this room that deserves to be in heaven. There is not any of us in this room that deserves a beautiful new Cadillac there. We do not deserve to be there in the first place. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, you have heard it set of all thou shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, anyone who even looks upon a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You have heard it set of all thou shalt not kill. But I say to you, anyone who harbors anger in his heart against his neighbor shall be liable for judgment. You have heard it said of old thou shall love thy neighbor, but I say to you, love your enemy. Do good to those that hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you by such standards. You see, there is no person in this place or in the world worthy of heaven. Not one of us is righteous.
The story is told of a Chinese businessman two hundred years ago he traveled to London there, he saw a microscope for the first time in his life and he was fascinated by it, and he began to put things under the microscope. He put the pedal of a flower under there and he marveled at the delicate beauty of that flower. He loved that microscope. He just had to have it. And so he bought it, and he took it back with him to China and a few days later as he was about to eat his dinner, he decided to take some of the rice and put it under the microscope. He did that and he was amazed to see hundreds of tiny living creatures microscopically crawling over that rice. Well, he did not know what to do because rice was his favorite food and all rice in China was like that. He did not know what to do. A couple of days later he decided what he would do. He took the microscope, and he smashed it to bits because it revealed what he did not want to see. Now the law of God is exactly like that microscope. When we look through the law of God at ourselves, we see all the things we do not want to see. When we look through the laws of God at ourselves, we see all of our imperfections and sometimes we might wish that we could just destroy the law of God and get rid of it, but that is not what the laws of God are for.
God has given us his laws in order that he might now lead us to Jesus Christ in order that we might see that in and of ourselves. Our situation is hopeless. We are not righteous in order that we might now turn to a better hope. There is one king of righteousness, and he alone can make us righteous. And the Bible tells us that when we come to Jesus Christ as Lord and savior of life and we invite him to come into us, to forgive us of our sins, to be our Lord, in that moment we are declared righteous, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ is actually imputed to us. And in the courtroom of heaven, we are judged not guilty. We came under the umbrella of the cross and we viewed through the perfection of the sun. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no righteousness.
All of our righteousness is like filthy rags. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, but Jesus Christ and he alone can make us whole and can make us clean. There is a grave, it is the northernmost grave in the world. It is near Kate beach near the Arctic region. Hundreds of years ago on the Nares expedition, a man died, and he was buried there. It is on the top of a hill and the hill 12 months of the year is covered with snow. There is a tombstone, and, on the tombstone, there is a metal plaque. And the metal plaque simply says, wash me and I will be whiter in snow. That is what Jesus Christ offers to do. For every person in this place and in the world, wash me and I will be whiter than snow. The moment we come to him and receive him as Lord and savior of life in that moment he wipes our sin As far as the east is from the west.
So far has He removed our sin from us. And by the power of God we are declared righteous for He is the King of Righteousness.
Now secondly, and finally in this passage of scripture, Jesus Christ is called the King of Peace. He is the King of Salem. Through the imagery of Melchizedek, He is the King of shalom. He is the King of Peace. Until the year 1853, a silver star hung over the birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the town of Bethlehem. But in that year, the Eastern Orthodox Church said that they wanted that silver star removed. The Latin church said they wanted the silver star to remain. The Russian government supported the Eastern Orthodox Church, but Turkey’s government who had control of the holy land sites supported the Latin church. So the Russian government declared war on Turkey. Turkey was then supported by Britain, by France, and by Italy. And so it was that five world powers begin to battle and a skirmish that has been known to historians as the Crimean war. That war lasted three years in length. More than one million lives were taken. The war cost more than one billion, five hundred million.
And after the war when Russia had lost, they sold the charred incinerated bones of 28,000 Russian soldiers as fertilized and all because of a skirmish that arose over a silver star that hung over the birthplace of the prince of peace. This world knows very little about peace. 92% of this earth’s history has been filled with national and international war. There are 3,100 years of written history on this earth and only 286 of those years have been free from national and international war. In those 3,100 years, there have been 8,000 broken treaties. The average treaty on the earth has not even lasted two years in length. There have been 14,531 recorded wars on this earth and those wars have cost 3,640 million lives. The financial cost of those wars is estimated to be so much that they could pay for a ring of gold encompassing the earth one hundred miles wide and thirty-three feet thick.
Decades ago, Dwight Eisenhower returned from Europe, and he told the American people that the world hungers for peace. That was true in his generation. It is true in our generation. It has been true in every generation. The world hungers for peace, but the world does not know the pathway to peace. There is only one hope for peace in this world and that is the king of peace, Jesus Christ. And God wants us to understand that the peace that Jesus Christ offers is first of all an inward peace. It is an inner peace; it is an internal peace. It is a peace that comes from being restored to fellowship with God for is God that has made us, and we have no rest until we find our rest in him. It is a peace that comes from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It is a peace that comes when we know that we have eternal life.
It is a peace that comes when we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and that all things will work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. It is a piece that comes when we know that we are taken care of. It is a piece the world cannot understand. Jesus said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. He gives a special peace that the world could never comprehend. Henry Drummond tells us the two English artists were commissioned to paint a portrait of Christian peace and the first artist came back with a beautiful mountain scene from the realm of nature, a picture of a mountain lake with a green metal before it and pine trees surrounding it and a majestic snow covered peak behind it.
It was a beautiful portrait, and it was serene, and it was tranquil, but it was not a portrait of Christian peace. The other artist came back with a painting of a raging waterfall, thundering over a cliff, crashing onto jagged rocks below and the water rose from those jagged rocks like steam from the earth. And next to the water there was a solitary tree and a branch that went out over the steaming water. And on the end of the branch there was a bird’s nest. And in the nest, there was a bird sound asleep. You see that as a portrait of Christian peace. It is not a peace that is dependent upon our circumstances or our surroundings. The peace that Christ has to give as a peace that is given in spite of our circumstances and in spite of our surroundings. It is a peace the world cannot understand.
No matter what you are going through in life, you can have peace if you trust Jesus Christ and truly believe that he has taken care of you and that all things will work together for good. And the year 1,979, I was watching a Bronco game. The Denver Broncos were playing Seattle. It was the fourth game of the season. It was a game that was hard to forget in that game in the third quarter. Now I am a Bronco fan. I really get into the games and Barbara could tell you that in the third quarter, Denver was behind 34 to 10. You might remember that game. And I was angry, and I was mad, and I did not have much good to say about the Broncos and the situation seemed absolutely hopeless. But then in the middle of the third quarter, coach Red Miller sent Craig Morton into the game for Norris Weeks.
Norris Morton could not possibly have imagined that he was going to throw three touchdown passes in a span of two- and one-half minutes. After the first touchdown, he walked off the field. After the second touchdown, he ran off the field and after the third touchdown, he almost flew off the field and Denver scored a fourth touchdown, and they won that game 37 to 34. Now a few days later I saw the game on videotape, and it was amazing how my emotional reactions and my view of the game were different. In the middle of the third quarter when Denver was behind 34 to 10, I was not mad, I was not angry, I was not frustrated. The situation did not seem hopeless at all.
I knew he was going to shred the Seattle defensive secondary, and he was going to score touchdown after touchdown after touchdown after touchdown. And the Denver Broncos were going to win that game. I knew it. And as Christians, God wants us to have that kind of perspective in this world and in this life, He wants us to know that no matter what we are going through in this life, you might seem like it might seem like you are down 34 to 10, but you see God is omni mission and he is already looked into the future. Indeed, he has predestined the future for the Christian and he has already told you that you have eternal life, you are going to win the victory. And he has already promised you that all things in this life will indeed work together for good. And if you believe that early, we you have peace.
That is why we were able to sing this morning “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; because He lives all fear is gone, because I know He holds the future. Life is worth living just because He lives.” If you really know He holds the future and you have trusted your future into His hands, you have peace. Jesus Christ came into the world that His people might have peace and he will one day come again. And when He comes again, He will bring another sort of peace to this world, a peace that is not simply inner, a peace that is not simply inward or internal, a piece that is external, a piece that is given to the earth itself. He will rid this world of war when He comes again because He is the King of Peace.
On the United Nations building in New York, there is a plaque. And on the plaque, it says they shall beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Now that is a quote of a Bible verse. It is Isaiah chapter two, verse four. Incredibly and perhaps ironically, that plaque was donated to the United Nations by the Soviet Union. They could not possibly have known that that was a messianic passage of scripture, that it describes the peace that the king of peace, the Messiah will one day bring to the earth. It is Jesus Christ who will beat our swords in the plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. He will keep the nation from lifting up sword against nation and we will learn war no more. The kingdoms of this world, it says in the book of Revelation, will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall rule and reign forever and ever before Him, every knee will bow in the heavens and on earth and under the earth.
And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because He is the King of Peace. President Woodrow Wilson once said that the league of nations was the only hope of the world for peace. What a tragic hope it proved to be the league of nations was never the hope of the world and the United Nations is not the hope of the world today. The only hope of the world is Jesus Christ. And there is a beautiful passage of scripture and with this will close as found in the book of Isaiah in the 11th chapter, it is a messianic passage, and it describes the peace that Jesus Christ will one day bring to this earth. And this passage of scripture, Jesus Christ is called the root of Jesse because Jesus Christ is descended from Jesse, the father of David. The Bible says there will come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of its roots and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what His eyes see nor decide by what His ears hear; but with righteousness, He shall judge the poor and he shall decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of his lips, He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the girdle of His loins and faithfulness the girdle of His waist. And on that day, the wolf shall dwell with a lamb. The leopard and the kid shall lie down together, the calf and the lion and the fating together and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed, and they are young shall lie down together.
The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The suckling child shall play over the hole of an asp, and the weaning child shall place his hand in the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy all My holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. Even as the oceans cover the sea on that day, the root of Jesse will stand as an inside to the nations. Him shall the nation seek, and His dwellings shall be glorious. He is the king of righteousness. He is the king of peace. Here is Jesus Christ and He is the hope of the world. Shall we pray?