Melchize-Who?

There was a man that I knew named Ken. He has since gone to be with the Lord. I was talking to him one day a couple of years ago and he told me that Jesus was Melchizedek. I wanted him to clarify, asking him if he thought Melchizedek was a "type" of Christ. He said, "no, Melchizedek was Jesus."

He asked me to pray about it and see if I didn't discover that truth out for myself. I never had the opportunity to speak with him about it again. I am though reading Hebrews chapter 7 this morning and can most assuredly understand why Ken would have thought that. But the author of Hebrews is arguing from the Old Testament that Melchizedek pre-figured a type of Christ.


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.
(Hebrews 7:3 ESV)


Ken surely knows now the truth of Melchizedek way better than I do. Yet I can know that Melchizedek was not Jesus. Melchizedek resembled Jesus. He resembled Jesus is the way that he appears to be eternal. He has no beginning (recorded in Scripture) and no ending (recorded in Scripture). It appears his priesthood has no end (that is recorded in Scripture).

Verse 11 and following will argue that Jesus is comparable to Melchizedek. Maybe I'll read that tomorrow morning.

May Jesus Christ, who's Priesthood continues for ever, offer his eternal once and for all sacrifice for you to God the Father. May you be eternally forgiven because of your Great High Priest.

A Fruitful Plant or a Thorn Bush?

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
(Hebrews 6:4-8 ESV)


There is much debate that goes on in christendom regarding texts like this. Whether a Christian can actually loose his salvation or not. So my aim this morning is not to explain the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, but to ask what kind of plant are we?

The illustration the author of Hebrews uses is a simple one. When rain falls down and waters a field, what type of crop comes up? Is it a good crop that is useful, or a bad one that is not? The rain is a symbol of the good and nourishing things mentioned in the text. The Holy Spirit, the goodness of the Bible, the power of God, a taste of what the gift of heaven will be like.

The question for us is this...have you had a taste of these things? Have you drank some of the rain that has fallen on you? If you have, what is the fruit that has come up from it? What's in your field?

The text is challenging us to look back over our lives and see if there was a time when it was producing good and useful fruit. Then to examine our lives now and see if the fruit is more mature, or has it become thorny and full of thistles? If it is thorny now, what you have done is picked up a hand sickle and sliced Jesus to death again. Instead of cutting down the thistles in your field, you have killed the Messiah with it.

I would suggest that a good field is a field good for God's use, one that builds His kingdom. And a bad field would be a field that might be good for you and your kingdom, but bad for God and His kingdom. You and He cannot both sit on the throne at the same time, there's not room enough for two.

Milk or Solid Food?

In Chapter 5 of Hebrews, the author is exhorting his readers that they should be teachers by now, and not need so much basic instruction. But something that is helpful for us in that exhortation, is that the author tells us in chapter 6 what the elementary doctrines are of the christian faith. Just like I can not feed our newborn steaks and eggs, I can not feed a spiritual baby the deep and more profound doctrines.

I came across this text afresh a couple of years ago and decided to teach these basic and elementary doctrines to my family. You have to start somewhere and these "milk" doctrines are a great place to start.

I would like to encourage you to begin here as well with your family. Begin here with yourself if you have never studied these doctrines. A baby can not handle meat, and a toddler will starve if they don't begin to have something with more substance.

The elementary doctrines of the christian faith are...(Hebrews 6:1-2)
1. Repentance from dead works
2. Faith toward God
3. Instructions about washings (baptism)
4. The laying on of hands
5. The resurrection of the dead
6. Eternal judgement

Scripture

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
(Hebrews 4:11-13 ESV)



All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

(2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV)

knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

(2 Peter 1:20-21 ESV)

Where is the Rest of my Rest?

My wife gets up with our newborn at night. I get up with my son when he needs some nighttime assistance. We go to sleep at the same time, but I get up 2 to 2 1/2 hours earlier than her, so I would guess we get about the same amount of sleep each night. (She actually gets more because our newborn is rarely awake for 2 hours during the night.) Last night I fell asleep at 11:11 pm. My son woke up at 3:05, and I have been awake since.

During my prayer time this morning I was not praying with much faith when I was thanking God for the rest He did give me. Though the words out of my mouth to my Father were ones of thankfulness. I just finished reading Hebrews Chapter 4 and there is much talk about "rest." And I thought I would share a view I hold of rest, being an "already" and "not yet" kind of rest.

The Author of the book of Hebrews is arguing in chapter 4 from the Old Testament. He is using the illustration of the Israelites entering the Promise Land. The Israelites followed Moses out of Egypt. They were headed for the Promise Land. That generation of Israelites did not enter their rest though because they did not follow and obey by faith. So God had that generation die off in the wilderness, along with Moses. Their children then entered into the Promise Land through their new leader Joshua.

Hebrews is arguing that their remains a rest for the people of God. It says in verse 8 and 9, For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Yet verse 7 seems to be emphasizing today.


In this life we get little glimmer's of the future Sabbath rest. Every time I lay my head on my pillow, cease from work, and get some rest; it is a small picture for me of the future rest to come. The 4 hours of sleep I got last night was a little rest. I do not feel very rested this morning. If I get 8 hours of sleep tonight, I will probably feel more rested. There have been times when I have been sick, and have slept for many more hours. Ideally the more sleep I would get, the more rested I would be.

So I think the "rest" the book of Hebrews is speaking of is an "already" and "not yet" sort of rest. I have rested from working to gain favor with God to earn my salvation. I have rested in the arms of Jesus, who alone saves. Yet I still strive in this life, to press forward toward my future rest in heaven.

I "already" have rest, though there remains a rest I have "not yet" obtained.

An Attempt to Understand Unbelief

I am reading Hebrews Chapter 3 this morning. If you have not read my post (Ungodly?) on ungodliness, maybe you should read that first. Because I am going to build something on top of that understanding of ungodliness.

I mentioned that in Jerry Bridges book "Respectable Sins" he uses an illustration to help us understand what ungodliness is. His picture is one of a tree. The roots below the ground are roots of ungodliness from which the trunk of pride springs forth. The branches growing forth from the trunk, he says are unrighteousness. 

1. Root = Ungodliness (an attitude of the heart that is either indifferent to God, or an outward rebellion that says, "there is no God!")

2. Trunk = Pride (he says all sin grows out of the sin of pride)

3. Branches = Unrighteousness (these are the visible fruits of the tree, which are sins)

I want to build off of that understanding as I read Hebrews this morning and you can comment whether you think it fits or not.

(Hebrews 3:12) Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

(Hebrews 3:19) So we see that they (the Israelites) were unable to enter (the Promise Land) because of unbelief. 

I have learned from theses texts, and the structure of Chapter 3 that disobedience (sin) flows from unbelief. Here is what I would like to add to the illustration of the tree. That the roots are ungodliness, and from that springs forth the trunk of pride, but it comes through the ground, or soil of unbelief. 

I say that because I think that unbelief comes after revelation, either natural or special. Natural Revelation is the way in which God communicates to His creation without the Bible (Romans 1). And Special Revelation is how God communicates with His creation through specific words, concepts and ideas. 

So I think that in order for unbelief to occur, someone must communicate with me. I must have something to disbelieve. The creation screams of a Creator. The creation is communicating to me that there is a God. I can choose to believe or disbelieve that. The Bible screams to me that there is a God. I can choose to believe or disbelieve that as well. 

Out of the root of ungodliness comes the budding tree of pride, but it must first break the soil of unbelief in order to see or hear something above ground. 

Whether you agree with my argument or not there is a strong warning for all of us. That unbelief causes us to fall away from God. And falling away from God has eternal consequences. 

Tying A Rope Around The House

I love to tie knots. I am not talking about the kind of knot that uses a rope, but tying together concepts. We live in the realm of ideas and concepts. When we study the Bible, we are concerned about what each particular word means. But more than that, we are concerned about the concepts behind the words. We do this all the time during the day. We use many different words to speak of the same concept. If we are trying to explain a concept to a person, we will use an array of words to do so. Somehow we come to the Bible and get all weird about it.

I am reading Hebrews 3. The author says that Moses was faithful IN all of God's house. Then says that Jesus is faithful OVER God's house. Then he goes on to explain that the builder of a house has more glory than the house itself. The house is glorious, but is meant to point to the builder and designer of the house. The builder is the one who is glorious.

Then verse 6 it tells us that we are God's house. I am God's house? I remember that the text just got done telling me that the builder of a house is to have more honor than the house itself. I am the house itself (this should keep me somewhat humble because I am not the builder).

This concept is in other places in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells me that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 6:16 tells us that we are the temple. Jesus in John 2 is standing in the Jerusalem Temple. He tells the Jews standing there that if they destroy this temple, He will raise it up again in three days. The text tells us that Jesus was not talking about the rock temple building, He was speaking about His body. His body is the temple.

Lets pull the knot tighter. There was a literal rock temple. There was no longer any purpose for the rock temple once Jesus came. Jesus says He is the true temple. Jesus dies. The temple is destroyed. Jesus did what He said He would do and raised Himself up three days later. Jesus ascends to heaven. He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell inside other humans, His brothers and sisters. They become Christians. The Holy Spirit makes a sinful person into a temple, or a house of God. When Christians gather together, they are the together the temple. Jesus is faithful over the house of God. We are the house of God. Any glory the house of God has is meant to point to the builder of the house, which is God. God built us. The Spirit dwells in us. Jesus is the faithful high priest over us.

That's all the tighter I can pull the knot this morning. I am not a dispensationalist. I am not looking for another rock temple to be built that Jesus will reign over. We are the temple of the living God. Jesus is our Priest!