REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 11 MAY 2003: MORNING SERVICE

Our help is in the Name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Psalm of praise: 68:13.

The Nicene Creed

  I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
  And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all the worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
  Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
  And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.
  And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN

The Law : Ex. 20:1-17.
Psalm 119:63.
Prayer.
Psalm 138:1.

Scripture reading:  Hebrews 7 
Scripture text:  Hebrews 7:1-2a

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils...

It happened on a day that the Lord came upon Abraham and checked him on his way.

• Abraham was at a high point in his life: He had just won a war.
• After that he had also soundly defeated a heathen king. He was truly someone of note.

Then the Lord brought him up short - and made him humble and lowly.

In everyone's life there comes such a moment when we must give thought to ourselves and our relationship with the greatest King of peace of all ages: Jesus Christ.

• It is a moment of honesty and truth.
• It is a moment of surrender.
• It is a moment when you must render your dues to God.

It is the moment each of us must undergo before we may seat ourselves at the Table commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus Christ.

We read about Melchizedek for the first time in Genesis 14:18-20.

• This passage is the history of how Abraham pursued the king Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him as far as Dan, and then defeated them.
• That was done in order to set Lot free.

When Abraham returned from his victory, Melchizedek came to meet him with bread and wine.

• He was the king of Salem.
• And he was a priest of the Most High God.

When one reads this passage rapidly for the first time, it might seem as if king Melchizedek could have feared that he, too, would be attacked, so he came to meet Abraham with bread and wine.

• The truth is, however, that Melchizedek did not fear an attack.
• He went to meet Abraham in the Name of the Most High God.

This sermon will consider the position of Melchizedek in the Bible in respect of two considerations:

1.The place where the king lived.
2.The government and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and us.

1.The place where the king lived.

The king lived in a city named Salem.

• The name means "city of peace".
• It is the same place we know as Jerusalem.
• In the Amarna documents we read that Jerusalem was already an ancient city when the Israelites entered Canaan.

In a sense it is as if Abraham here attained a high point in his return journey, because he was at Jerusalem, the capital city of the country to which the Lord would take his people!

• The "city of peace", which implies that the peace reigning here was the peace of God.
• That is why the meeting between Abraham and the priest-king of this city is indicative of the peace of God.

Melchizedek is king and priest of God.

• Melchizedek's name means "servant of the King".
• Even though he is a king, he is a servant of a King greater than he himself - the Lord.

The meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek changed Abraham.

• He had attained this point in his life through war and victory.
• Now he would no longer fight.

His mode of life underwent a sudden change.

• He did not subjugate the priest-king of Salem.
• He bowed before him, and bestowed on him a tenth of everything as due to the Lord.
• Abraham thus accepted the overlordship of the Almighty.

In Melchizedek we have the fusion of two areas of authority: he is both priest and king.

• In other words, we have in him the foreshadowing of both the atonement and the sovereignty of the Lord.
• The atonement is related to his priestly function.
• The sovereignty is related to his kingship.

The Lord thus reigns over us so that we may be reconciled with Him in order to abide in His presence.

If we look again at Abraham, we see him returning from war as victor.

• Yet, although he was victorious, he did not have true peace.
• True peace he attained only after he had humbled himself before his God in the city of peace.
• He gave his tithes.
• He sacrificed.
• At his side stood God's priest-king as reconciler and ruler.

2.The government and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and us.

We do not have an earthly city of Salem, but we do have the eternal city of God, the New Jerusalem which will descend out of heaven from God.

• We also have a Priest-King, Jesus Christ.
• He is different from Melchizedek and also different from every other high priest who ever lived on earth.
• He is God's eternal High Priest.
• He is also the eternal King of all that exists: King of the Church, and King of the universe.
• He is King of all that was and is and will be.

This High Priest is Jesus Christ. He reconciled us with God so that we may have eternal peace.

• He accomplished this differently from Melchizedek.
• He not only asks our humility and our tithes, as was the case with Abraham.
• He asks all that we have and are!
• He gave His own body to be crucified.
• That was His sacrifice by which He bore all the punishment and pain that separate us from God so that we could receive the eternal peace of God.

That is why the peace we receive from Him differs so greatly from the peace Abraham experienced.

• In his meeting with Melchizedek Abraham experienced the peace of victory.
• He also experienced the peace that God sought him out and again returned him to humble thankfulness.

We have in Jesus Christ much more than that.

• Jesus Christ gives us all the peace of God's love.
• He grants us acquittal from all our sins!
• The Priest-King of God is also the Judge who will judge all who have died and all who are yet living when He arrives on the clouds.
• In this judgement the power of God's love will be manifest when we are justified on the strength of His meritorious sacrifice and exempted from the punishment due to us, and declared righteous, so that we may enter the Kingdom of God.

The peace we receive through the Redeemer is of a very special kind:

• It is the peace of God's grace - that He forgives us our sins.
• He grants us the peace of life eternal in which we shall live in God's Kingdom, perfectly re-created and with our body and soul again united.
• It is peace which grants us admittance to a city of abiding peace: the New Jerusalem: a City in which the true Priest-King dwells: Jesus Christ.

While we are all prophet, priest and king of Jesus Christ, let us for a moment consider again what these three church offices are, and what is expected of us.
Let us begin by considering Melchizedek.

• It is written (7:3) that he was "without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life".
• Of course he was a human being who also had a father and a mother.
• But they were neither priests nor kings - and therefore he also had no genealogy in which he could demonstrate his descent as priest-king.
• In this respect he was without father or mother - but he was called by God.

In this the Lord already foretold the coming of His Son, our Priest-King.

• He would also become Priest-King in an extraordinary way.
• He would perform His duties in just as unique a fashion as Melchizedek.
• But He overshadows Melchizedek in every respect, because after His ascension He is still Priest and King.

This Priest-King has called all of us to His service.

• Some of us, not merely to believe.
• but also to serve as elders,
• deacons, and
• ministers/preachers.

In this Melchizedek set an example regarding how we should perform our service or ministry.

• He went out to meet Abraham, the victor in the war, without fear.
• He blessed Abraham in the Name of the Lord and assured him of God's grace.
• In the Name of the Lord he received Abraham's sacrificial offerings of thanksgiving!
• This is the way in which we must perform our services: wholeheartedly and fearlessly.

There is also something in Abraham's response which we should emulate, and that is the honest dedication with which he places himself and his possessions at God's disposal. The true peace you can also only experience if, in your service or church office, you put all you have at God's disposal.

One of these days we shall again celebrate the Last Supper.
This is a festival of peace. The content of this peace is that every celebrant of the Last Supper who believes in Jesus Christ as the High Priest of God will one day be a citizen of the city of Salem, the city of God: the New Jerusalem.

But, before that, there is a need for self-examination. In your worship come to the point where you

• are completely honest and truthful before Triune God;
• surrender and subject yourself wholly to God;
• feel the compulsion to give your offerings to God - that which is due to Him, not that with which you fob Him off.

Prepare yourself to come to the Last Supper in complete dedication to the Lord God. Listen when He there assures you that He reigns over you so that you will, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, be His possession for ever.
AMEN.

Closing prayer.

Closing Psalm 71:1,2,4.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
AMEN.

Rev. Dr. M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville
11 May 2003.
Scripture quoted from NASB.