Hebrews 6:13-20 Last Week Joey Talked About Salvation, Which Is A
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1 Hebrews 6:13-20 Last week Joey talked about salvation, which is a theological term that’s about being saved from the wrath of God - and that’s something we’ll get into a bit later in the sermon. But for today I’d like to start out by revisiting Joey’s main question from last week... Can someone lose their salvation? Well, my family and I listened to Joey’s sermon while we were at the beach, and I completely agreed with him… Can someone lose their salvation? Absolutely not! It’s impossible for a believer to lose their salvation because... Salvation is a gift from God. You cannot lose a gift that God gives you. However, you can reject that gift. [pic of I Kissed Dating Goodbye] I think of Joshua Harris. He’s a former pastor and Christian author who last year publicly admitted that he’s no longer a Christian. You might remember that I talked about him and his faith deconstruction during our 1 Timothy series back in November. Josh no longer believes in the gospel of Jesus. There were years where Josh did believe. And God’s word gives us a certainty that those who believe will inherit the gift of eternal life. Does this mean that because Josh believed at one point in his life that he’s still good to go even though he doesn’t believe now? No! Josh decided to reject the gift of salvation. He didn’t lose the gift - he’s rejecting it - and, I’m not here to pick on Josh… It’s just that he’s a good example because he’s rejecting the gospel publicly, and I know his books had an impact on many of us, including myself. So again, Josh didn’t lose his salvation. He rejected it. And that’s what the writer of Hebrews is getting at… 2 A believer cannot lose their salvation. Their eternal destiny is secure because of their loyalty to Jesus, who is our High Priest. Now, what if Josh were to put his faith back in Jesus? Well, the earlier chapters of Hebrews shouts from the rooftops that God’s promise still stands! It remains open for anyone to come and receive the gift of eternal life by putting their faith in Jesus. It’s all about a believing loyalty in Jesus. But what about the popular saying: ‘Once saved, always saved’, as Joey mentioned last week? ‘Once saved, always saved’ is true of the believer who doesn’t reject Jesus and His gospel message. If someone is rejecting Jesus’ gospel message… in other words, if someone rejects… ● That Jesus is fully God and fully man ● That Jesus died for your sins ● Your own inability to be good enough for God ● The fact that Jesus is the only way to God If someone rejects any or all of that, then that person doesn’t have the gift of salvation. Because to reject the gospel message is to reject the gift of eternal life with God. But if you believe the message of Jesus… If you are only loyal to Him, then yes, you were once saved at the moment you first believed, and you are always saved, so long as you remain a believer. That brings us to Hebrews 6:13-20. The main idea here is that God’s promise of eternal life is clear, it’s unchanging, and it’s confirmed with an oath. Those of us who believe in 3 Jesus can be confident that our promised eternal life with God is a certainty. We will enter God’s rest. The writer says in verse 19 that the hope (assurance) we have in God’s promise is like an anchor for the soul. [The boat is our soul, anchored on stormy waters that lead us away from our belief in Jesus] Our anchor of hope is firm and secure. It’s not moving! It’s unchanging! Why? So that we don’t make a shipwreck of our faith. And we can be certain of our eternal security because we have a High Priest who went behind the curtain on our behalf. Remember, we learned in previous sermons that going behind the curtain is just talking about being able to approach God. Jesus approached God on our behalf and became our High Priest. That means He’s now our go-between, our mediator, between us and God. And interestingly, Jesus became our High Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. So that brings us to chapter 7, a chapter that Joey so desperately wanted to avoid teaching! Why? Because bible scholars say that the topic of Melchizedek is the most complex topic in all of Scripture! There are so many rabbit trails to go down, and most of them only lead to more questions. And, as much as I would love to just give you an information dump, I decided it would be wise to focus on the writer’s main idea for chapter 7. So, that means I’m not going to go through this passage and try to explain everything that’s there. I’m just going to do my best to give you a general idea of what’s going on and why all of it matters for us today. Let’s start by looking at chapter 7, verses 1-10 4 The writer of Hebrews is referencing an Old Testament story from Genesis 14 where Abraham defeats some armies and rescues his nephew, Lot. So then after the battle, Abraham and the allied kings celebrated their victory in the Valley of Shaveh (Kings Valley). One of these allied kings was Melchizedek. He was the king of Salem. Now, there are varying theories on this but the one that makes the most sense to me is that Melchizedek was the king of the area that we now call Jerusalem. Jerusalem wasn’t always Jerusalem as we know it. In fact, before King David conquered the city, it was under the control of the Canaanites. [Diagram in Notes] That’s important because the people of the ancient world would often name their kings after the gods they worshiped. So look at the name Melchizedek - Melchi means ‘king of’, and zedek means ‘righteousness.’ But Zedek is also at the same time the name of a main Canaanite god who was worshiped during the time of Abraham in the city of Salem (pre-Israelite Jerusalem). So the author of Hebrews is right - Melchizedek means ‘king of righteousness’, but at the same time Melchizedek also means ‘my king is Zedek’. Now, even though Melchizedek was most likely named after the Canaanite god, Zedek, the Scriptures tell us that Melchizedek worshiped Yahweh, the God Most High. In fact… Melchizedek (He) was a priest of Yahweh God! And that’s really significant! Let’s talk about priests for a couple minutes. In the minds of the original readers of Hebrews, priests of Yahweh God only came from one people group. [display the chart below as I walk through it] It goes all the way back to when God made a promise to Abraham. The promise was that Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the stars. That meant that God’s promise would continue on through Abraham’s lineage. 5 So then Abraham had his son Isaac, and Isaac had his son Jacob. Then God renamed Jacob as Israel. And Israel had 12 sons, who then became the 12 tribes of Israel. Abraham → Isaac → Jacob (Israel) ↓ 12 Tribes of Israel [add divided kingdom image] At one point in history, those 12 tribes split so that there were the 10 in the North (called The Kingdom of Israel), and 2 in the South (called the Kingdom of Judah). [add Levites to chart] One of the 10 tribes in the Kingdom of Israel were the Levites. They were chosen to be the priests of Israel. Abraham → Isaac → Jacob (Israel) ↓ 12 Tribes of Israel ↓ Tribe of Levi (Priests) So, the reason that the writer of Hebrews brings all of this up is because his readers were thinking that for anyone to be a true priest of God, you needed to descend from the tribe of Levi. The problem in their minds was that Jesus descended from the tribe of Judah, so how could He be a real priest? Well, look at Melchizedek! He was around LONG before the Levites, and yet he was a priest of God. And Melchizedek wasn’t a priest because of his family line. Look at verses 14-17... 6 “For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 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. 17 For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”” The writer of Hebrews is saying that Jesus is our legitimate High Priest because He ordained Himself with an oath, and He can do that because He is God! It doesn’t matter what lineage Jesus came from, God declared it, and that’s that! So that’s what it means when the text says that Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. He’s a priest in the same way that Melchizedek was made a priest. Their priesthood was ordained by God and not man.