NewCity Orlando Sermons

Hebrews: Unshakeable | Hebrews 7:1-28

• NewCity Orlando

Share episode

In his final sermon as Senior Pastor, Pastor Damien Schitter preached from Hebrews 7, reflecting on our deep human longing for status, security, and significance—things we often seek in fragile, earthly pursuits like career, relationships, or achievements. He pointed us to Jesus, our true and better High Priest, who alone offers us a lasting status, unshakable security, and eternal significance.

Unlike the Levitical priests who were temporary and imperfect, Jesus is our permanent and perfect priest. He lives forever, always interceding for us, fully knowing us, and never forgetting us. Jesus not only saves us from our sin but saves us to the uttermost—reaching even the darkest places of our hearts with His redeeming love.

Pastor Damien reminded us that if our status, security, or significance rests on anything shakable, it will ultimately fail us. Only Jesus, the King of Righteousness and Peace, offers us a foundation that is truly unshakeable. In Him, we find rest, assurance, and the freedom to live knowing we are fully known, fully loved, and never forgotten.

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, this is Pastor Damien. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening. Good morning.

Speaker 1:

Well, my name is Damian and while this morning won't be my last words that I share as senior pastor, this will be my last sermon as senior pastor of New City and I want to say how grateful I am to have served here as a pastor for over 11 years and as the senior pastor for eight of those 11 years, and so, as I said, there will be time for me to share more words, but this will be my last sermon. I know those of you who have been around, if you remember, toward the beginning, as we were moving through this transition, we had said that I would be in this role, serving in some capacity through March. I'm actually going to be continuing on until the end of April just to keep helping us in this transition, but then I promise I'm out. So that's just a little heads up of where we are, and this morning I chose my favorite passage to preach as my last sermon. And this morning I chose my favorite passage to preach as my last sermon Hebrews chapter seven. I'll let you decide if that's a joke or not, but one of the things that's interesting about Hebrews chapter seven is that we wouldn't know about this connection with Melchizedek if it wouldn't be for this chapter. In fact, we'll speak. There's only two times he shows up in the Bible before Hebrews. Once is Genesis 14, which is what chapter seven is talking about, and then also in Psalm 110, which is also quoted in our passage.

Speaker 1:

But as we reflect on it, we might miss something very relevant to us. You see, all of us need status, we need security, we need significance. We've been made to experience these things and because we need these things, we actually all, whether we know it or not, build our lives around these desires. We don't just want a meaningful life, we want a meaningful life. We want a meaningful life that lasts. This is where we get the idea of legacy and how we might be remembered.

Speaker 1:

These things are hardwired into us and in the ancient world, people had high priests in order to help them with these dynamics. They had religious mediators who represented them before God to give them, among other things, status before God, security before God and significance before God and if you were with us last fall, is this? What is this? This spring? Yeah, last fall, the Jewish people had the Levitical priesthood, which we talked about preaching through Leviticus, and, if you remember, that's a system designed to make it possible for God to dwell with his people, and a high priest was the one who made atonement, who offered sacrifices, who stood between God and the people. And while that seems like a bygone era, we have our versions today. Now, we may not bring sacrifices to temple, but we still look for someone, we still look for something to mediate our status, to mediate our security, to mediate our significance. We still have high priests, we just don't call them that. Instead of offering animal sacrifices, this is what we do we offer our time, our energy and our devotion to these modern high priests, things that we believe will give us status, security and significance.

Speaker 1:

Maybe for you, like many of us, it's your career or your job. More specifically, how do you know? Well, do you feel worthy only when you succeed? Or, to say it another way, do you feel less worthy when you know? Well, do you feel worthy only when you succeed? Or, to say it another way, do you feel less worthy when you fail. What about?

Speaker 1:

For some of you, it's romantic love. Maybe you believe that if you just found the right person, or if your spouse would finally change like you want them to, then all of a sudden you'd be secure, then everything would be okay. For some of us, it's religion, or our moral performance. If this is true, it could feel like this we believe that we're acceptable to God and others as long as we're doing everything right, and when we do something wrong, guilt crushes us. Maybe for you, it's self-improvement. Maybe you believe that if you just fix yourself, whether it be through therapy or health or discipline, then you'd finally have peace. Well, maybe, finally, another great high priest that we seek in our culture that gives us status and security and significance would be technology and progress. Maybe you look to science, medicine or wealth to solve the deepest problems of your life. Well, now, none of these things are bad. So what is the problem? Well, the problem is that everything we typically build on is fragile. It can be lost, and if it's fragile, you are fragile. If you build your status and your security and your significance on anything that can be or will ultimately, at death, be taken away, you are very fragile.

Speaker 1:

This morning. You see, the audience in Hebrews was tempted to go back to a system that had been replaced. It wasn't that they wanted bad things, but they wanted security in something too weak to hold them. And that's what we have in common with them this morning is that we try to find our status, security and significance in things that are too weak to hold us. What we need is a status, a security and a significance that can survive death. And so Hebrews chapter 7 tells us where we find this. So this morning I have three points. The first one is a priest who gives us a better status. The second is a priest that gives us a better security and finally, a priest that gives us a better significance. So, first, a priest who gives us a better status.

Speaker 1:

If you listen to the scripture reading, you know that this is the part in the letter where we, as modern readers, start to find it a little difficult. This is an obscure character with an obscure type of argument. It's almost like you need a cheat code to understand what in the world he's talking about in the sermon. While that's true, we're not going to dig into it deeply. I'm going to synthesize what I think the argument is, but it is important to know that the original audience this wouldn't have been as lost on them, right? This is a sermon and the preacher is preaching to a people, and this would have landed in a way that spoke to their fears that they were experiencing. And so for us where we need to start to synthesize, it is just a reminder that the entire point of the Old Testament priesthood was to provide a way for God to dwell with his people. This is what God was after. If you remember our exploration of Leviticus, god wanted to dwell with his people, he wanted to be in relationship with them.

Speaker 1:

And so, as we think about that, what's interesting in our text today is that Melchizedek is called a priest of the most high God before the priesthood is initiated, but not only that he's a priest and a king, which is a no-no. You do not do that. There's a separation of powers in Israel. You do not have a priest king. But all of a sudden, this crazy guy shows up in Genesis 14, as we just read. So let's look at it chapter seven, rather verse one, for this guy, this king of Salem, priest of the most high God.

Speaker 1:

There it is met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. So here's the basic argument. At first is that we all know he says that those who are superior bless those who are inferior. And so here you have Abraham, who, by the way, is the goat. Until Jesus, moses has nothing on Abraham. Moses is only who Moses is because he's a child of Abraham. Even you and I, if you're in Christ, you are still not children of Moses. You're children of Abraham, though this is what Paul says in Galatians, chapter three. And so Abraham's a big deal.

Speaker 1:

And yet here you have Abraham as inferior, giving a tithe to Melchizedek. And then not only that, not only does he receive it, which is scandalous, but then he has the audacity to bless the nation, blesser himself. That he the one who the blessing was supposed to come through to all the nations, that this man blesses Abraham. And so this is the basic argument that the author to the Hebrews is trying to make, and the reason this is important is because he wants to show that there is a better priesthood, one that doesn't come by descent, in other words, you're not born into it, but rather comes by divine appointment. That's the argument that he's making, and the author then points out that this idea that the Aaronic priesthood, this Levitical priesthood, was going to go away, was always a part of the plan. And then he makes this convoluted to us. Argument by showing how this happened in Genesis 14,. Argument by showing how this happened in Genesis 14, how David brings it up again in Psalm 110, and then how it is a type of Jesus. And so what is interesting, then, about chapter seven is that we wouldn't know any of this without this chapter, and so it is a big deal, but we're going to move on. So what he does show is that Melchizedek is a type of Christ.

Speaker 1:

Now, do you know what I mean when I say he's a type of Christ? There's this thing, there's this way of understanding a text in the Bible, in this case in biblical theology, called typology, and so in this case he is. Melchizedek is a type of Christ in that he's a real guy, this is a real event in history, and that, in God's sovereignty, he's orchestrating this figure to foreshadow Jesus. And anytime this happens which it happens a lot from the Old Testament into the New Testament is that that type resembles Jesus in specific ways, but it's always incomplete. Ultimately, they always end up being flawed, it always falls short, but the New Testament authors bring it to the surface to show the final thing, which is that Jesus is the true and better fulfillment of this type and that this type is pointing forward to them. What this is, is this a theologically intentional way to show the storyline of scripture and to show that Jesus is the center of the Bible.

Speaker 1:

Now, for our purposes today, I want to point out two things that bring together Melchizedek as a type and Jesus as the fulfillment. The first one is this His status as a priest was not by descent or ascent, but by divine declaration. Look with me. In verse three he is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginnings of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God. He continues a priest forever In Genesis 14,.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't say what verse three does, it just doesn't mention it. It doesn't say he didn't have father or mother, it just doesn't mention that. Well, why would this be important? And it's because in the Old Testament, priesthood, your status came by descent. And in this case we don't know his descent. And that's the whole point he's saying his status didn't come by descent, it came by divine declaration. Okay, well, when you think about this, think about our life right.

Speaker 1:

What we're talking about here is what are his credentials? What are his credentials? What are Jesus's credentials? What are Melchizedek's credentials? Well, in more traditional cultures, your credentials came from descent. That is, who's your daddy, who's your mommy, where did you come from, what's your last name, those types of things. In more modern culture, we haven't entirely lost that. Of course, it's not nothing, but the narrative has shifted really to you making your own credentials right From wherever you started. Have you ascended to a higher status? So in a more traditional culture, it's your status comes by descent. In our more modern culture, it's more ascent, but in this case it's neither. It's actually divine declaration.

Speaker 1:

So for Melchizedek and ultimately Jesus, god is doing something different. That's the first thing he wants to show. The second thing is that he is a king of righteousness and peace. You see, even the other priests in the Levitical priesthood needed to make sacrifice for their own sin before they could sacrifice for the people. But here we see that in Jesus, ultimately, a king of righteousness and peace does not have the same need, and the order always matters. Things have to be made right before there can be true peace. We know this in our own life.

Speaker 1:

In fact, I was talking this week. I reached out to some friends and said hey, how does this show up in your life, this principle that in order to have true peace, you first need things to be made right, you first need righteousness? And one of them sent back a message to me and he was describing how, in his workplace sometime in the recent past, he saw this dynamic working and he told the story about how there was this one team that was underperforming. And when you investigated, the reality was is this team did not trust their leader. They didn't like their leader. They didn't feel he was a good leader and because of who he was, he wasn't going anywhere. There's no way that they were gonna find another leader. And so what they did is they just made false peace. They just stopped engaging, they disengaged right, they were evasive, they just ignored it as though it didn't happen. So what suffered? Well, among other things, their productivity suffered.

Speaker 1:

They begin to be a very underperforming team in the organization and then, through some events, they actually that leader moves on. They bring in a new leader, a leader who was a good leader, a leader who built trust with the team, who made things right relationally again between them. And then, guess what happened? They started to flourish. There was this idea of peace in the team and then, from peace, there was flourishing, and from this flourishing there was teamwork, and this team now is one of the highest performing teams. It's performing way higher than it ever had before. Right, you see, there was nothing that that team could have done to flourish more until relationships were made right.

Speaker 1:

This is how the principle always goes and, of course, biblically speaking, you and I cannot have peace with God until we are made right. This is how the principle always goes and, of course, biblically speaking, you and I cannot have peace with God until we are made right with God. That's the idea. He is king of righteousness first and peace. You see, we have a leader in Jesus who is also our priest. He is a king priest. He secures our status of righteousness by giving his own life on our behalf.

Speaker 1:

And so, before we move on, the question is where are you getting your status? Is it by descent, is it by ascent? Is it by your achievements, or is it by God's divine declaration, through faith in Jesus? Remember where we started. If your status comes from something that can be taken away from you. You are fragile, you will always live in fear, you will never be able to rest. But it's Jesus who gives us a better status. But status alone isn't enough. It's not enough in the argument, it's not enough in your life.

Speaker 1:

Even if we know where we stand, we'll still wrestle with a deeper question Is it secure? Can I trust it? Will it last? You see, if the priests of the old were temporary, then our security in them was temporary. But Jesus is not only a priest who gives us a better status, he's a priest who gives us a lasting security. Let's look in verse 20. And it was not without an oath, for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath. But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

Speaker 1:

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. You know, security in a world where everything changes is by nature fragile. And this verse I kept reflecting on. I'll say it my own way verse 723. My translation is and the priest kept dying, they just kept dying. Then a new one came in and they died. And then another one, and they died. They kept dying. So we have to slow down for a second. Well, you see, what we need is we need not only a status, but we need a security that outlasts death, or it's not secure, right? No matter how well we execute our roles in life, no matter how well those priests, that Levitical priesthood, executed their role, they just kept dying, and so will you, and so will I. You ever thought about that? If you put your status and your significance any way in your performance, even your legacy, it doesn't matter ultimately, because you die and, as the old Baptist preacher said, after they bury you, they're all gonna go back and have a potluck. This is the way it happens, this is reality, and on this point, I just kept thinking this weekend about someone in all of our lifetime most of our lifetime, I guess, if you're alive, the last three years, this would count for you that seemed like they lasted forever and it seemed like they executed their role so well, and it was Queen Elizabeth II.

Speaker 1:

She served through 15 prime ministers, 14 US presidents and seven popes. Think about that. She visited more than 126 nations. And get this, as one author said, in 1953, on a single royal tour, she traveled 40,000 miles, many of which were by boat. 40,000 miles, many of which were by boat. She shook 13,000 hands and received tens of thousands of bows and curtsies. She gave and listened to over 400 speeches, and this was just one of more than a hundred of these royal tours during her reign. In all, she traveled more than 1 million nautical miles by sea and many more by air. She met more than 4 million people personally and had more than 2 million over for tea. She gave more than 100,000 awards and, perhaps most impressive out of hundreds of thousands of engagements, events, appearances and meals, which were often preceded by long distance travel and time zone changes, she fell asleep in public only a single time, and it was at a lecture about the use of magnets in biology and medicine. And, by the way, by the way, she was 78 years old.

Speaker 1:

So which one of you is going to have that type of status? Which one of you is going to have that type of security? Which one of you is going to have that type of significance? I'll wait. Answer no one, none of you, not me. And yet she died. They didn't sing or say forever live the queen. They said long live the queen. And guess what they say now? Long live the king. You will die. And they died. They kept dying. They kept dying. We need a security that outlasts death. How can a priest remember to intercede for us when he's dead? What about the next one? Well, he's gonna. What about the next one? Well, he's going to die too. Jesus is a permanent priest. The author to the Hebrews is saying because he's alive forever, he's always interceding for us. More on that in the final point. Here's one more illustration in this point, just to sort of bring this home what this looks like.

Speaker 1:

I know that you've all had this experience so recently. This happens in any customer service experience, but this happened to be with a health insurance company which shall remain nameless, even though oh, I wanna say it so bad. But basically, any customer service reality. You call in because you have something that you need to report and you call in. A lot of people aren't helpful, not because they're not helpful, they just don't know how to help you. And then, all of a sudden, you get someone who goes the extra mile, as we know, and they're so helpful. And you're on the phone for a long time and you finally feel like you're getting traction and then all of a sudden you get to that dreadful time, which is okay, I've done everything I can do for you. Now you have to. And you're just like no, don't say it. Just you finish this and they give you the assignment. And then you know you got to hang up the phone now and this is why you're worried, because you don't know who you'll get next time when you call back. So then I've, I've, I've been through this. I'm sure you do the same thing.

Speaker 1:

So then I say is everything we talked about in my file connected to this claim number? Yes, sir, yes, sir, mr Sheeter, although that's not what they say. But yes, sir, mr Sheeter, it is, it's in, it is in. Sorry, sorry to you guys over there, it is in your file, it's there. And I say, with very little confidence thank you. And guess what? What I do doesn't work. I had their email address. No email back. I had their personal extension. Yeah, that doesn't exist. So then I finally get a hold of the next person and then I say to them well, can't you see it in my file and they say, yes, but because I wasn't the one who said that, I can't do anything about it. It's like, yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. Okay, what, why? Why do I belabor this?

Speaker 1:

Well, we know that feeling right, but with Jesus, we don't even we don't need to start over. We have a permanent advocate who always pleads our case before the Father. We don't have to worry. Well, is that going to be forgotten? What about that? Is that in my file? No, jesus is our permanent advocate who always pleads our case before the Father. We can trust him for security. What are we trusting in A bank account, an email address, a phone number, a relationship, a job? Jesus gives us a security that can survive death. But security alone also isn't enough. We have a status. That's not enough. We have a status and security. That's not enough. It's possible to be safe but still be unloved, unseen, unknown. We wonder, does anyone truly know me? Does anyone love me completely, even in my worst moments? You see no.

Speaker 1:

Priests, the priest of old. The problem wasn't just that they kept dying, it was that they couldn't offer that kind of intimacy. But Jesus does. He's not only a permanent priest, he's a personal one. He saves us not just to the minimum but to the uttermost, and that's our final point today a priest who gives us a better significance. Why? Because he saves us to the uttermost. Look with me in verse 25. Consequently, I love that word. I love when people say it in actual conversation. I know some people that way. They'll say and they'll say consequently, I'm like yes, that's awesome. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost.

Speaker 1:

I got a little footnote here in my ESV. I'm gonna go down to the bottom. Uttermost, that is completely or at all times, those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Now, many of us aren't really afraid of losing status because you feel really good in your status. You're not afraid of losing security because you feel really secure. But what you are afraid of is being forgotten. You're afraid of not being known. Who knows me? Will I be forgotten? You see, the priest of old lived and died and were forgotten. But Jesus, on the other hand, he lives forever and he saves to the utter most. Jesus never forgets you. He intercedes for you personally before the Father. And this is where we're going to slow down for the last few minutes we have together.

Speaker 1:

What does it mean? What does verse 25 mean? That he's able to save to the uttermost, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Listen to the uttermost means completely, comprehensively, exhaustively. Jesus doesn't save halfway. He doesn't lose interest halfway, like me and you. He doesn't grow cold like me and you. He doesn't forget you halfway. Think about you. Know, jesus, some of us are like this. It was his joy and his love for you that took him to the cross and he completed it. But it's not like he's lost that zeal now in the ascension, at the right hand of the father, that somehow he's cooled on you. He doesn't think of you with the same love and intimacy. Jesus doesn't merely help you, he saves you. He's a very particular kind of savior. So what does it look like right now? Well, to answer that phrase, like Ben last week mentioned Dane Ortlund's book, there's a chapter in Dane Ortlund's book, gentle and Lowly, where he expounds upon this verse, following John Bunyan, who wrote a whole book on this verse, and so some of these things I'm about to say are me synthesizing what Dane said. Okay, he always lives to make intercession for them. Listen, this is not Jesus trying to change the father's mind. As Ortland says, intercession applies what the atonement accomplished. In other words, jesus isn't wringing his hands hoping the father will listen. No, he's the beloved son. The father loves to listen to the son.

Speaker 1:

I think sometimes when we think of intercession Jesus is praying for you it feels really abstract. But this is personal. Jesus is interceding for you right now. Dane Ortlund has this very simple question, this little illustration.

Speaker 1:

In that chapter he says imagine if you and I, right now, were in a room and in the next room we could hear Jesus praying to the father for us. What if you heard Jesus praying to the father for you, because he is? What if you heard what he was saying? Listen, this happened to me one time. I was in a room and someone I cared about deeply was in another room and they didn't know that I was in that room and they were praying for me and I heard them praying for me and it was so powerful. What if we could hear Jesus praying for you because he is praying for you? Wouldn't that fear begin to melt, whatever it is? Wouldn't that burden that feels unbearable begin to be lighter?

Speaker 1:

Jesus is pleading on your behalf, and here's the thing he doesn't stop why? Because you and I continue to fail and he continues to intercede. Jesus doesn't stop. You're never forgotten. Your name is never dropped. You don't get transferred to another representative. You have a permanent priest, a personal advocate, a perfect savior.

Speaker 1:

This is the argument of Hebrews, chapter seven, and it's not just that, your sins that draw him in to you, it's also your shame, it's your darkest parts that Jesus is praying to. He's speaking to To the uttermost means God's redeeming touch reaches down into the darkest crevices of our souls, dane Ortlund says those places where we are most ashamed, most defeated, and he loves us there. If that's true and it is it means that your life matters, you have significance. Your life, your cause, your status, your security. Your name is on the lips of Jesus right now as he's praying for you. You remembered in the place that matters most, in the throne room of heaven. And so here's the question Do you believe that Jesus' love for you extends into that one part of you that still feels too dark, too messy, too intractable?

Speaker 1:

Dane Orland says it this way His heart is most strongly drawn to those crevices, end quote. Listen, he knows you to the uttermost, he says you to the uttermost. So what would that look like this week? Not just to say yeah, I believe that, like I believe that it's true. Maybe for you, what would it be like to believe it for yourself? Maybe believing it this week looks like going to someone in your circle or community and saying something out loud that you need to to confess, and all I mean by that is just tell the truth. Hey, I feel really locked up in fear because, hey, I've been hiding this, because, hey, I need encouragement and prayer here. Because what does that look like for you? Maybe it's as simple as sitting still with this truth this afternoon that Jesus is not disappointed with you. He is advocating for you and so often your mind and heart thinks he's disappointed. He's waiting for you to come back and actually what he's doing is he's busy advocating for you, praying for you, interceding for you right now.

Speaker 1:

And so Hebrews 7 forces us to ask what are we trusting in for status, security and significance? If we're putting our hope in anything shakable, it will ultimately fail us. But Jesus is not shakable, he is indestructible verse 16. Permanent verse 24. A guarantee verse 22. Forever verse 17,. Eternal verse 25, and perfect verse 11, verse 19, verse 28. You need a status. You need a status, you need security, you need significance. You are made for these things, but you need a status, security and significance that can outlast death, and there's only one person who's outlasted death, who can give that to you, and it's Jesus Christ, the King of righteousness, the King of peace and the great high priest which we'll get into in the further weeks and so Jesus alone can offer you these things. This is good news. You can rest in that.

Speaker 1:

Let's pray, father, we are grateful and we also know that, as true as these things are, they don't always feel true, and so, right now, we choose to rejoice that, while we experience ourselves and are fickle, you are not Lord Jesus. You are permanent forever. You always live to intercede for us. You saved us to the uttermost, and so, in just a moment, as we go into this short time of reflection, I ask that you would, holy Spirit, quickly bring things to mind to both confess and to rejoice in. And it's in Jesus' name we pray amen. The Lord's called us here and he's formed us here by word and sacrament, and now he sends us with his spirit and also with our names forever on his lips as he intercedes for us. Go now receive the blessing from our Lord. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace. Go now in that peace. With that peace, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you are sent. Thank you, hold on a second. Hold on a second.

Speaker 1:

For the first time in my life, I feel like a baseball player wondering. I was gonna say it. I was gonna say it. For the first time in my life. I feel like a baseball player wondering do I step out of the dugout now or do I not step out of the dugout? But thank you, thank you all, I love you and I you know thinking about this.

Speaker 1:

This role is not the role that's made me feel like I had status, thinking about this sermon or security or significance, but it was significant because it was a serious role that I always loved and was so grateful for to serve you all in this capacity, and I'm so grateful. Leah and I will continue to be a part of this church as members and I'll be a part of the future, and I'm so grateful, which is why my language is always. It's my last sermon in this role and so, lord willing, sometime in the distant future I will be up here again and preach, but I don't know what else to say except thank you, thank you, and you really are sent this time.