Rev.  Seaton
Peace United Church of Christ
Loyal, OK
Leon Seaton, Pastor
Sunday, September 30, 2001

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There Is A Reason!
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Abraham Lincoln was out at the back of his store one day rummaging through an old barrel.  He was almost done when he reached in and felt a couple of books.  When he pulled them up, he saw they were Blackstone's commentaries.  He read those and became a lawyer, and he got into politics.  Of course, we know the rest of the story:  he became the President of the United States and the healer of the sore of the Civil War.  It may have all started with his rummaging in a barrel.
-- John Maxwell, "God's 'Troublesome' Timing"

Some of the things that happen to us may make little or no sense at the time. If we learn to trust the Lord, some amazing things may happen. The Lord watches over us. Psalm 37:23, 24 states, “If the LORD delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand.” God is going to take care of you! Let Him! If your desire is to serve Him, He will get you where you should be when you should be. Of course it takes our cooperation, so we must be in tune with God.

Before David became king he had some pretty tough times because his father-in-law was jealous of him and wanted to kill him.  And his father-in-law was the king!  David wrote the following verses when he had fled from Saul into the cave.  “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in You my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings until the disaster has passed.  I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me.” Psalm 57:1, 2

“Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19: 21

God has a purpose for you and me.  Some of the problems we encounter are to test us and prepare us for higher service.  Are you ready?

Hebrews 7:1-28

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.  He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.  First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace."  Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.

Just think how great he was. Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!  Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people--that is, their brothers--even though their brothers are descended from Abraham.  This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.  And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater.  In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.  One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.

If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come--one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?  For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.  He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar.  For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.  And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, One who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to His ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.  For it is declared: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.  And it was not without an oath!  Others became priests without any oath,  but He became a priest with an oath when God said to Him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: 'You are a priest forever.'" Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.  Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.

Such a High Priest meets our need--One who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.  Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people.  He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

The longer I live the more I appreciate that old song, “We will understand it better by and by.” I have been a Christian for 52 years and am still discovering how little I understand God and His ways! Oh! If we could only understand the depth of His love for us… and the power of the covenant that we have with Him!

This morning we want to talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our High Priest.  Jesus is the only person ever that gave His last will and testament, died to put it in action, then returned from the grave to administrate the will!  In His will, He provided for:

1.      Our salvation – through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. The sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament only put off the punishment for sins. The work that Jesus did eradicates our sins when we repent and confess them to God. The sins will never be remembered against us again! The Old Testament sacrifices looked forward to the cross. Removal of guilt is not included in the meaning of atonement as used here. These references are to the peace offering of a ram and bread, and the sin offering of seven bulls, by which atonement was made at the ordination of priests, setting the priests aside as holy and prepared to enter God's presence.

2.      Our transformation – God has begun twice--the old creation in Adam and the new creation in Christ. Adam chose to become like God rather than serve God. By doing that, Adam separated the human race from God, creating a race serving itself rather than God. Through Adam’s sin, each person became inclined toward sin. This does not mean sin is biologically transmitted from one generation to the next. Rather, sin sits on the throne ruling the world.

Christ, on the other hand, offers a new way of God's grace and human obedience. With grace on the throne we can be set right with God and participate in eternal life. We do not chose to be “like Christ”, but we chose to invite Christ into our lives and live through us.

Melchizedek is clearly a type of Christ.  Everything that we know about him from the Old Testament is found in Genesis 14:17-20 and Psalm 110:4.  He was a great king-priest, and Christ belongs to his order of priesthood.  He was without father . . . now this does not mean that Melchizedek had no parents or that he was not born or did not die, but only that the Scriptures contain no record of these events.  Thus he more perfectly represents Christ. Melchizedek was a “type” of Christ – that is, he introduces us to Christ by helping us understand the role of Christ as a high priest.

As St. Paul said, the events of the Old Testament help us understand the New Testament. Joseph, for instance, is a type of Christ.  He was able to redeem his family during a terrible drought because of his faithfulness through suffering.  His jealous brothers had sold him as a slave into Egypt.  Even though he suffered much, he still wanted to save his family – even the ones that caused his suffering.  In theology, this is called “types and shadows.”

Hebrews 7 looks back to Genesis 14.  There Abraham recognized God as the:

1.      Most High God

2.      Possessor of heaven and earth

3.      Deliverer from all our enemies.

Once we understand WHO God is, we will better understand “who” we are.

God is the creator and sustainer of the universe.  He is the ultimate boss and authority.  [Which is why He gets the blame for everything that happens even if He had nothing to do with it.]  God is a great delegator.  He assigns responsibilities, turns us loose to do our work, then calls us to account for our actions.  That is why Jesus told parables of landowners that gave their servants responsibilities, then went to a far country.  On his return, he called them to account for their actions.  Some were rewarded, some were relieved of their responsibilities, and others were punished.  

So we ask a difficult question: “Who (or what) is god to you?”  Is Jesus Christ your Lord?  Do you see God as the “most high God” or just someone to call upon when you have problems?  Do you see God as the possessor of heaven and earth, or do you see Him as unable to do anything about the problems of the world?  Many people are very anxious these days, apparently unaware that God is able to deliver us from all of our enemies.  God works through people... are we willing to be the people through whom He works?

The book of Hebrews uses the worship practices of the Old Testament as a picture of Christian life and worship. The priests had to be washed with pure water before they exercised their religious duties. Christians are all priests and ministers of God. Baptism is similar to the washing of the Levitical priests in that it publicly symbolizes cleansing and dedication for service. Having their "hearts sprinkled'' and their bodies "washed'' is a parallelism such as we have throughout the Bible, showing that both the inward cleansing (heart) and the outward washing (of the body) must take place in valid Christian baptism. Only full immersion can be called "having our body washed.''

You and I have been cleansed from sin… we are now children of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ of all that God has. We have a covenant with God and He has promised to take care of us.

Does that make us perfect? No… we still have problems. But we have a God who loves us and will help us out of, over, around, or through each and every one of them. Just call on Him for help!

Why do we have problems? There are a lot of reasons. But they can help us by bringing us back to the source of our answers! Problems often set us free from thinking that we have already arrived in heaven! Brothers and sisters, “heaven is better than this!”

Do Christians have periods of doubt and confusion?  Yep!  But we have a high priest in heaven, sitting at the Father’s right hand, praying for us!  And Jesus has the Father’s ear! 

As I bring this message to a close I want to encourage each of us to take a close look at our own, personal life.  God wants to use us, but we must be a clean vessel, yielded to Him for whatever purpose He has in mind.  We are not perfect – not even close.  Bruce Larson makes a thoughtful statement when he says, “The church, unfortunately, has become a museum to display the victorious life.”  Folks, we are all struggling saints!

But we are saints, not sinners!  Get in touch with God daily and allow your role model to be Jesus Christ!  One of my pastor friends is a very hard working man – and has a growing church to prove it. His people love him and are concerned about how hard he works.  One day he was talking to the widow of a retired official in his conference.  He said to her, “Well, the devil never takes a day off, so I don’t see why I should.”  (Sounded pretty spiritual, don’t you think?)  She responded, “Hmm… I wasn’t aware that the devil was our role model!”

May I ask who you are modeling your life after?


 
Please feel free to contact Pastor Leon by e-mail.
He will be pleased to hear from you!
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Scriptures taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV).
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.