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This is The Gathering Surf City’s podcast for weekly messages.
The Gathering is a passionate worship community in Surf City, North Carolina that strives to Love God, Live Jesus, and Walk together in the Holy Spirit. We hope you enjoy worshipping and drawing closer to Jesus with us!
Al right,
well, welcome.
Glad you're here.
Excited we get to hang out
together this morning.
You know,
I always point out the fact that we get
to hang out with Jesus all week
long. We come together on Sunday mornings
for family reunion because this
is when we get to hang out together
and make Jesus the priority.
All right,
so we gather this morning
to do that.
And we've been talking our way and reading
our way and studying our way
through the book of Hebrews,
which I've titled the
Messages this year,
the object of our faith.
And I'll be honest with you,
I was sort of,
I wasn't happy with that title initially
because I didn't like calling
Jesus an object.
And yet I realized there are a lot
of things in this world that we
worship, a lot of things that
we pay attention to,
that we give honor to,
that we give our time to,
we even give our resources to,
that are objects of worship
and faith sometimes.
And it is Satan's greatest priority
to distract us from Jesus.
Right? That's what he wants to do.
He doesn't want you paying
attention to Jesus.
Well, the whole book of Hebrews
is about Jesus.
Even though it quotes its way all the
way through the Old Testament,
it just keeps pointing to Jesus.
All right?
And in the New Testament,
obviously, we see the gospels
and the life of Jesus,
and then we see the letters of the,
the New Testament body of Christ,
all about Jesus.
And the book of Hebrews points
us specifically to Jesus.
And I look at it and I go,
all right,
let's work our way through it and understand
the priority that God's
establishing right here.
And so today's message is simply
entitled Melchizedek who.
Okay. And to be honest with you,
this is one of those things that going
all the way back to the 1980s when
I was in Bible college,
and there was a great professor
that I loved and enjoyed.
His name was Doctor Scott,
Doctor Raymond Scott.
And he actually served as a pastor
here in North Carolina,
up around Fayetteville,
somewhere up in that
area for a time.
And anyway,
Doctor Scott,
one of the textbooks for his class,
was entitled to understand
the Old Testament,
look for Jesus.
And so he mentions in that book,
he mentions in the textbook,
and he mentioned in the class what
we refer to as christophanes,
these appearances of Jesus prior to
his incarnation or priority to his
earthly life or his,
as the writer of Hebrews put it,
his days in the flesh.
Right now I'm going to go ahead and
tell you that the conclusion of
today's message is,
I don't know okay,
can I just go ahead and just tell you
all that honestly and hope that you
will accept that from me?
You know,
I tend to take a very simple approach
to understanding what God is
revealing. And what I mean by that
is not that I'm simple minded,
though there are those who
have supported that idea.
I like to take the simplest path
to understanding what God is
prioritizing, what God
is pointing to.
Okay, so today we're going to consider
Hebrews chapter seven.
So we're going to look at the last verse
of six because it points to the
chapter seven,
and then we're going to pray.
So here's,
here's chapter 620,
which I didn't give them to them into
the booth because we did it last
week. But it says Jesus has entered there
on our behalf as a forerunner,
meaning the holy of holies
through the veil,
all that sort of thing,
because he has become a
high priest forever,
according to the order
of Melchizedek.
For this.
Melchizedek. Ready?
This is Hebrews 7110.
King of Salem,
priest of God most high,
met Abraham and blessed him as he returned
from defeating the kings.
And Abraham gave him a
10th of everything.
First his name means king
of righteousness,
then also king of Salem,
meaning king of peace
without father,
mother or genealogy.
Having neither beginning of
days nor end of life,
but resembling the son of God,
he remains a priest forever.
Now consider how great this man was.
Even Abraham the patriarch gave
a 10th of the plunder to him.
The sons of Levi,
who received the priestly
office have a command,
according to the law,
to collect a 10th from the people,
that is,
from their brothers and sisters,
though they have also descended
from Abraham.
But one without this lineage collected
a 10th from AbrahaM and blessed
the one who had the promises.
Without a doubt,
the inferior is blessed
by the superior.
In the one case,
men who will die receive a 10th,
but in the other case,
scripture testifies that he lives.
And in a sense,
Levi. In a sense,
LevI himselF,
who receives a 10th,
has paid a 10th through Abraham,
for he was still within his ancestor
when Melchizedek met him.
Hmm. Let's pray.
God, we thank you and praise
you for your word and God,
that you have indeed spoken.
That's where we start in
the book of Hebrews,
is that in these days,
God, you have spoken through
your son Jesus.
And so,
God, we really want to pay
attention to Jesus.
God, we want to make
that our priority,
make that our focus.
And so,
God, my prayer today is that
in considering Melchizedek,
we'd not get distracted.
We'd not get sort of off point
in fixing our eyes,
as it will eventually say in Hebrews
eleven on the author,
the perfecter,
the finisher,
the completion of our faith.
We pray it in Jesus name.
Amen.
So I have grown very comfortable in
my latter days of ministry here to
saying, I don't know,
there's just some things I don't
think we understand,
some things of God that I think we just
need to really go ahead and go,
you know what God.
I don't know what that means.
I do know what you're pointing to.
I do know what the priority is.
I do know where you want me to fix
my heart and eyes and light.
So this whole passage right here,
I want us to just answer
the question.
Melchizedek who?
I mean,
if you look at it,
God doesn't even have a last name,
but we do know that the word melech
in Hebrew means king.
So Melchizedek is sort of a derivation
of the word melech.
Sadek, sadak,
sadek, however you want
to pronounce it,
means, in Hebrew,
justice or righteousness.
So Melchizedek's name means
king of righteousness.
It says so in the text.
First, his name means king
of righteousness.
It also identifies him
as a king of Salem.
That's not in Massachusetts.
So, you know,
it says he has no father
mother genealogy.
Why is it that God is highlighting
and prioritizing for us,
a man with no genealogy and
a book of genealogies?
Everybody in Genesis
has a genealogy,
but now Melchizedek,
okay, I don't know.
All right,
he has no beginning of
days or end of life.
What is that?
Is that a reference
to an eternality?
It could be by some people's
estimation,
or it could just mean that we're not
told it resembling the son of God.
It doesn't say he is the son of God,
but it says he's resembling
the son of God,
and he's a priest forever.
All right,
so in the text from Hebrews,
we've got this identification of
this guy named Melchizedek,
and he's on the scene in Genesis,
chapter 14.
And we see him mentioned in
a couple other places.
One is,
is psalm 70,
psalm 110.
We also see him in the book
of Hebrews right here.
And we see him mentioned
two or three times.
And it references according to
the order of Melchizedek.
Can I just go ahead and tell you that's
a translation that simply means,
like, okay,
it's a simile.
He's saying Jesus is high priest,
like Melchizedek so one of the commentators
I listened to this week,
now, back in Bible college,
I loved Doctor Scott so much.
When he said,
melchizedek is Jesus.
I said,
okay, melchizedek is Jesus.
But the more I study it,
I start reading into this,
going, all right,
if Melchizedek is Jesus,
why aren't we worshipping
Melchizedek?
Why isn't there a temple
to Melchizedek?
Why aren't God's people worshiping
Melchizedek?
Well, can I just tell y'all,
and I didn't know this till after the
first gathering this morning.
I had a lady come up to me and said,
you know,
I used to be involved in this kind of
a worship setting which is not of
God. And she said,
you know,
that in that particular
kind of worship,
there's an angel called Melchizedek
that they worship.
I was like,
don't pay as much attention to
Melchizedek as you do Jesus,
please.
Okay? That's what I know we're
getting out of this passage.
Pay attention to Jesus.
Melchizedek is here for a reason,
but he's here to point to Jesus.
Everything that God is bringing to our
attention in the book of Hebrews
references the Old Testament,
and the Old Testament points
to the anointed one of God,
which is the messiah,
which is Jesus.
Okay? Matter of fact,
one commentator I listened
to this week said,
if this really,
we're really supposed,
if this is Jesus,
then what he's saying is that you
are a high priest like yourself,
right? That's some funny
wording there,
right? So I'm gonna go
ahead and tell you,
I don't know.
Melchizedek might be Jesus
and might not be.
There are some really,
really smart people that
believe it is.
I'm kind of like,
okay, I'm going to pay more
attention to Jesus.
Genesis 1417 to 20.
This is the,
let me give you the setup for this.
Genesis 14,
Abraham, you know,
has followed God's leadership.
He's stepped out on faith.
He's left his family and his land,
his people.
He's moved into the Canaan area.
He's taken all his flocks
and his SHEEP,
and he's got a bunch of folks
that work for HIM,
part of his family,
sort of,
sort of tribal KIND of Thing.
And they're Just farmers,
they're shepherds.
And anyway,
his nephew lot is not as
bright as he should be,
and he hasn't received the promises
of God like Abraham says,
but he likes the lights and
the excitement of Sodom.
And he says,
I'll go live in Sodom.
And so lot moves to sodom.
And the kings of the north,
up in the Damascus area,
we'll call it North Canaan.
Like north CAROLINA.
South Carolina,
North Canaan,
South Canaan.
The kings of northern Canaan are
sort of powerful rulers.
And the people of South Canaan being
led mostly by the king of Sodom,
which you really don't want
to follow that guy.
But anyway,
the kings of South Canaan
are together,
and the kings.
And they've been paying tribute
to the kings of North Canaan,
okay?
And so they decide one day,
say, well,
maybe we'll just stop paying tribute
to the kings of North Canaan.
So the kings of North
Canaan get together,
the five kings,
and they come south and they just.
They just trash the kings
of South Canaan.
They haul off the plunder and slaves
and all this kind of stuff.
Guess who gets caught up
in the south kingdom?
Slavery. That's lot.
Well, Abraham says,
no, I can't let these guys
take my nephew off,
so I'm going to go and get him back.
So he takes his 318 shepherds and goes
and tax five military kings and
they win.
Notice I didn't say
Abraham beat them.
Cause Abraham didn't beat them.
If you read the text from Genesis,
what you find out is God beat him
because God tells Abraham,
I am your shield.
So Abraham goes up and he takes
all the slaves back,
and he takes all the plunder back,
and he comes back south,
and he's met in the valley of the
kings by the king of Sodom,
who says,
thank you for bringing my people
and all my plunder back.
I want to reward you for it.
I will take the people,
you keep the plunder.
And Abraham says,
I don't want it because I don't want
anybody in history forward saying,
the king of Sodom made me wealthy.
Right? I don't want anybody
to be able to say that.
However, you got Melchizedek
over here,
whose name means king of righteousness
and he's a king of Salem.
And so we're just going to pile up all
the plunder and we're going to
take the top 10th of all the good stuff
and we're going to give it to
God, who's priest.
Melchizedek is here.
You understand yet that there's no priesthood
established yet there's no
levitical priesthood.
The Levites are still in Abraham.
That's what the text says.
I didn't make this up for y'all.
Says he's still a part of his ancestry
because he's not born yet.
So there's no levitical priesthood,
there's no command to tithe.
But Abraham gives a 10th to Melchizedek
to honor God for God's victory in
his life and in the thing.
It's a cool story.
I love it.
It says,
after Abraham returned from defeating
Sheddolaomar and the kings who were
with him,
the king of Sodom went out to meet him
in the sheva in the shave valley.
That is the king's valley.
Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought out bread and wine.
Hmm. Think that's pointing
to something?
More than likely.
Brought out bread and wine.
He was a priest to God most high.
Now, this God most high reference
is a hebrew word that references
creator God.
Okay, God most high.
He blessed him and said,
abraham, abram is blessed
by God most high,
creator of heaven and earth,
and blessed be the God.
Blessed be God most high,
who has handed over your
enemies to you.
And Abram gave him a
10th of everything.
So, so that's sort of the synopsis of
the history that I've just given
you. And so we look
at that and we go,
well, who is this Melchizedek
guy representing God?
Who is he?
Be honest.
If God wanted me to know
more specifically,
he would have told me.
Here's what I recognize in here.
His name means king of righteousness
because the text tells us so.
He's king of Salem.
Anybody know where Salem is?
Psalm 76 ten says God's
tent is in Salem.
Where did they establish God's tent?
Jeru Salem.
Okay, so this is a king of Jerusalem
before it's Jerusalem.
All right,
so God's pointing us to some things,
but I don't think God's telling
us to elevate Melchizedek.
Okay? I mean,
remember when Jesus went up on
the mount of transfiguration,
as we like to call it,
and Moses and Elijah were there,
and Peter and James and
John were like,
whoo, let's build a temple
to all three of you.
And Jesus was like,
you've missed the point.
Moses and Elijah aren't the point.
Right? Jesus is the point,
folks. That's what we're supposed
to be paying attention to.
So why does Melchizedek
show up on the scene?
Well, psalm 110 points to this because
we've already kind of considered
it in Hebrews that psalm
110 is this messianic,
prophetic psalm that points not only to
the hebrew kingship as a stand in
for God,
but it also references Melchizedek
and his priesthood.
So this is not about pointing
to Melchizedek.
This is not about emphasizing
or prioritizing Melchizedek.
This is about Jesus.
This is about pointing to Jesus.
This is about we owe.
And I'm not y'all.
You folks know I don't
preach on money.
I never do.
And here's the reason.
Anybody ever want to know the reason.
Here's the reason.
Because I don't want somebody to walk
in here and hear the preacher say
something about money
and walk outside.
Hey, preachers always talk about money
because then they might not hear
the name Jesus.
And I always want people
to hear the name Jesus.
Okay?
This passage is about Jesus,
folks. Melchizedek is pointing
us to Jesus.
The bread.
The bread and the wine
point us to Jesus.
Righteousness points us to Jesus.
Peace points us to Jesus.
Everything about this
points us to Jesus.
Yes, Melchizedek is a figure
in history like no other.
We don't know him.
We don't know who he is.
Indeed, if we take literally
and some do,
no genealogy,
meaning he doesn't have father,
mother, or descendants.
He doesn't have a beginning
of life or an end of days,
okay? He's somebody that God placed in
time in Abraham's life to point us
to the messiah,
the anointed one of God.
Pay attention to Jesus,
folks. That's what this is all about.
So I sit back and just get to the most
comfortable place in ministry that
I found a at 61 years old.
I don't know.
There's some things about God that
I just am not gonna know.
God didn't.
God didn't.
He didn't call Melchizedek Jesus
before Jesus was born.
Okay? So I'm not sure.
I don't know.
Now if I get to heaven,
they go,
oh, Bobby,
by the way,
Melchizedek was Jesus.
I'm gonna go.
Cool. Great.
Okay. I'm not going to get my feelings
hurt because I was wrong,
all right?
But when I look at this,
I go,
all right,
God, what is it you want me to see?
Well, now,
consider how great this man was.
Melchizedek was a great man.
Even Abraham,
the patriarch gave a 10th
of the plunder to him.
So Abraham gave a 10th of everything
he brought back from the battle to
Melchizedek.
The sons of Levi,
who received the priestly
office have a command,
according to the law,
to collect a 10th from the people.
All right,
so the priestly office hasn't
been established yet,
right? It's in Genesis 14.
There's no Levi.
Yet there's no levitical
priest to it yet.
So did y'all know Jesus couldn't have
been a priest in Jerusalem?
Y'all know that because only
the Levites can be priests.
Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah.
Judahites were never priests and
by law cannot be priests.
So Jesus is our high priest.
According to what order?
The priesthood of God most high.
See that?
That's why this is pointing
to Jesus.
He goes on to say,
though that is,
they receive a 10th from their
brothers and sisters,
though they have also descended
from Abraham.
But one without just lineage collected
a 10th from Abraham.
This is Melchizedek,
blessed, the one who
had the problem.
Gee, Abraham has already met with
God in the wilderness of Ur.
And God said,
leave your people,
leave your family.
I will make of you a great nation.
I will give you land,
and I will make a name for you.
He's already given him these promises
to Abraham that develops through
Isaac, obviously,
Jacob being the father of Israel,
also named of the twelve
the tribes of Israel.
You see?
So before we even have a Levi,
we have a priest and we have a tent,
and we have bread and wine,
and we have these promises.
And Abraham's the one that
received the promises.
But it actually says to us in this passage
that Melchizedek is greater
than Abraham.
Do you know you didn't say
that to a jewish person?
First of all,
remember I told you a few weeks ago that
you didn't say Jesus was better
than Moses to a hebrew person because
Moses is the greatest prophet ever.
But Jesus is greater than Moses,
right? Jesus is greater than angels.
Guess what?
Jesus is greater than Melchizedek.
All right,
pay attention.
Pay attention to Jesus.
Without a doubt,
the inferior is blessed
by the superior.
In the one case,
men who will die receive a ten.
But in the other case,
scripture testifies that he lives.
And in a sense,
Levi himself,
who receives a 10th,
has paid a 10th through Abraham.
So Levi is getting credit for paying
a tithe through an ancestor,
and he's not even born yet.
Do you see the testimony
of faith in a family?
You see where fathers lead
families and children?
And then it plays out
generationally.
For he was still within his ancestor
when Melchizedek met him.
You know what?
I like Melchizedek.
I like saying Melchizedek.
I just think it.
Melchizedek.
You know,
and people walk up to talk to me
after I preach on Melchizedek,
they'll come up and they'll go,
well, it's hard to pronounce Melchizedek
just say it ten times fast.
But here's what I want
to point out to you.
The world Satan wants to distract you
from Jesus wants to get you off on
a tangent.
Want you to be thinking about things
that are not as important as Jesus.
Okay?
For instance,
bread and wine.
Anybody asked yet whether
it was unleavened?
Remember bread and wine?
Passover bread was unleavened
cause it represented sin,
right? I mean,
eleven represents sin.
Melchizedek. Did you have
the right bread?
Melchizedek. Was it
red wine or white?
Only the red represents the blood.
You see,
Satan wants us to get distracted
away from Jesus.
God wants to focus us.
And remember,
it's in eleven,
chapter eleven.
Fix your eyes on Jesus,
the author,
the finisher,
the completion,
the perfecter of our faith.
Don't get caught up in Melchizedek.
You know what?
One of these days maybe
we'll meet the guy,
right? You go.
Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
You know,
I don't know.
I can't tell you definitively.
I know there are scholars who believe
that this guy is Jesus,
okay? I'm not gonna argue with him.
I've told y'all before,
I just don't argue.
Here's what I know.
I know I'm supposed to pay
attention to Jesus.
Can I just go ahead and tell
you as a guess what I know?
I know you're supposed to
pay attention to Jesus.
You're supposed to pay
attention to Jesus.
So here's the way I'm
going to ask it.
When you get up in the morning,
do you consider Jesus.
When you go to bed at night,
do you consider Jesus?
All throughout your day,
do you consider Jesus.
That's where God's pointing us.
Okay?
So don't lose that focus.
If you don't know Jesus
this morning,
we want you to know Jesus.
We want to introduce you to him.
We want to tell you
about the gospel,
the good news that God has provided for
your redemption and salvation and
regeneration through the shed blood
of his own begotten son,
Jesus. And if you don't know him,
we want to introduce you to him.
Maybe you know him.
And you know,
you're distracted by the world.
You're distracted by all these little
tangent belief structures and
things out there that
people want to.
Want to distract you from Jesus.
I'll be honest with you.
We've got it in the body of Christ.
There are distractions in the body of
Christ when we're supposed to be
paying attention to Jesus.
Okay, we're gonna sing
one more song.
Gives you the opportunity
to respond to God,
not me.
You're not responding to me.
I've told you over and over again.
And some people get offended by it.
I'm a clown and I know it.
I mean,
what other pastor gets up and talk about
doing a worship service around
electric slides?
Nobody.
Nobody does that.
Okay? But here's what I know.
I know that God called me to pay
attention to Jesus in my life.
God's calling you to pay attention
to Jesus in your life.
Okay. If you don't know him,
we want to introduce you to him.
Pray with me already.
Father, we thank you and praise
you again for today.
How today that we get to
hang out together first.
But, God,
we have a first opportunity
to hang out with you.
God, we wake up in the morning
and you're there.
God, do we even acknowledge that?
Do we stop and say,
hey, good morning,
God. Thank you for your love for me.
God, help us when we wake
up to consider Jesus.
And when we go to bed
to consider Jesus.
And when we walk through our day,
when we drive down the highway,
when we meet other people,
God, help us to consider Jesus.
Bible nowhere says consider
Melchizedek.
Check.
So God,
help us to think first on Jesus.
God, we thank you this morning that
we get to spend this time paying
attention. Help us to do it well.
We pray it in Jesus name.
Amen.