Melchizedek

(dramatic music) - Genesis chapter 14 verses 18 to 24. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God most high, "creator of heaven and earth, "and praise be to God most high "who delivered your enemies into your hands." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself." But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "With raised hands I have sworn an oath "to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and earth, "that I will accept nothing belonging to you, "not even a thread or the strap of a sandal "so that you will never be able to say, "I made Abram rich. "I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten "and the share that belongs to the men who went with me. "To a near, eschkall and mam-mum-ray, "let them have their share." This is the word of the word. - Thanks be to God. - The 2025 film, "Edington" is set in the fictional town of "Edington, New Mexico" in May of 2020, right in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic and all the craziness that ensues when the whole world is trying to make sense of an invisible enemy that no one has ever fought before. The plot centers on conflict between the small rural towns, Mayor and Sheriff, who have very different takes on what a responsible, noble response to this airborne virus should be for the town's residents. So this is a movie about shelter in place and masking up and vulnerable neighbors and business closures and the coining of the term immunocompromised, not to activate all of your PTSD from that year. All to say, I was super intrigued and really excited to see it. But while I wasn't entertained by it, I did leave the theater a little bit disappointed because it turned out to be mostly a Quentin Tarantino-esque shoot-em-up action flick. But then later I read news articles about the film and I discovered that its writer and director, Ari Astor, actually lives in rural New Mexico and the movie was largely autobiographical. It is his best attempt to portray what he observed during that year in that place. And then it happened to see an interview with Astor, one where he was asked point blank what the film's message was and he pointed to this one mysterious character who's in the background the whole time. He's the very first person that we see in the film's opening scene, a character who's very obviously in need and one whose needs appear to be quite complex to enter into and engage. And this character just keeps showing up in the background of scene after scene throughout the film though he never has a single intelligible one of dialogue and is pretty irrelevant to the mayor and sheriff and protesters and citizens fighting about what the right response was to the current events. And that said Astor is the film's message. It's a movie about a whole bunch of people caught in the frenzy of winning an argument about virtue signaling and judgment and fear and anger a bunch of people arguing about how to care for their neediest most vulnerable neighbors who can't seem to see the needy vulnerable neighbor right under their noses because they're too busy trying to get their point across. The whole film said the director should be viewed through the vantage point of its most mysterious character. And when you see it through his eyes, you see the message beneath all the action and the noise. And this moment in Genesis that Bethany read for us a moment ago, it's a whole lot like that. We just read the ending and Abram encounters a mysterious character named Melchizedek through whom the whole story preceding it makes sense. But to get to Melchizedek, we've got to wait through a whole lot of Clinton, Tarantino, ask, shoot him up, action. And then return to this moment to see the plot through that character's eyes. So look back with me at your Bibles now. Scan up to the top of chapter 14. And you'll see that this encounter begins this way. At the time when Amra fell, was King of Shinar, Arya, King of Elisar, Keter Lamaar, King of Elam, and Tidal, King of Goyim. These kings went to war against Barra, King of Sodom, Bresha, King of Gamora, Shinnab, King of Adma, Shemember, King of Boyam, and the King of Bella, that is Zor. Let's be honest, that was a mouthful. Let me try to translate that for you. We were just introduced to four kings from the East to have united their nations in a showdown war against five kings from the land of Canaan. That's the region that Abram went to live in chasing after the promised blessing of God. Now, why do these Eastern kings have a vendetta against the Canaanite kings? Well, believe it or not, it all basically boils down to one big tax disagreement. I know. You were hoping for something more dramatic than that. These four kings have been getting rich off the backs of the Canaanite kings, but then the Canaanite kings eventually said, enough is enough. They banded together and they cut off the financial tab. It was more extreme than we think of taxes today, though, and something more akin to slavery. You see, these five Canaanite kings by unifying have emancipated themselves from their Eastern rulers. So these four Eastern kings by unifying are coming to capture their escaped slaves, so to speak. I am dozing off reading the pages of Lonson Dove at the moment. I put it off forever because this thing is a tomb and it's a Western. And I've just never been a John Wayne enthusiast. But it did win the Pulitzer, so I'll figure, at some point I should give this thing a shot. And what I've discovered is that this book Masquerades as a Western. But that's just the driving force of the plot. The substance of the story, like all great stories, is hidden in the quiet relationships between the characters whose lives happen to be playing out on a Western frontier. It's the little lines of dialogue beneath all the Clinton Tarantino-S, shoot 'em up cowboy action that makes this Pulitzer winner. And that's what Genesis 14 is. It's Eddington or Lonson Dove. It's a film about COVID political conflict. And that'll get the audience and the seats, but all just so the suckers like me can hear the director's message. When you were out there making enemies out of one another, virtue signaling about what it means to love the vulnerable. There were vulnerable people to be loved looking you right in the face, but you were blinded by your need to take sides, to be right. The message of Genesis 14, likewise, is all about love. It's about discovering that I am the vulnerable one pursued by love in the surrounding chaos of a deceived world, and the internal chaos of a selfish ego. But to see love himself staring me right in the face in the circumstances of my life today, or to hear love's whisper in my ear when all of my driven and self-importance or insecurity and self-hatred is already blaring from my ego. Well, that's gonna require that I look beneath the violence and I listen beneath the noise. That's where we're going to get to. But first, the violence rages on. The next six verses of the story are another mouthful. So let me just give you the cliff notes. The four Eastern Kings are making their way to Canaan with their armies and they are on a violent rampage. The whole way there, they are ransacking every nation that they happen to pass through on their way to reclaim their last taxpayers. If we were to read this passage in the original Hebrew, it would be immediately obvious to you that the author of Genesis is trying to draw to your mind an old story to make sense of this new story. But if not Eddington or Lonesome Dove, it is a much more well-known tale from just a few chapters before in Genesis, one commonly called Noah's Ark. And back in Genesis chapter nine, the Bible's cutest and most complex story culminates with a very strange prophecy spoken by Noah over his sons. Noah predicted, "Cursed be Canaan." Now that's a reference to his son, Ham, and all of Ham's descendants. "Cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves, he will be to his brothers." He also said, "Praise be the Lord, the God of Shem." That's another of Noah's sons. "May Canaan be the slave of Shem." Then the story rolls on. It stays really quiet about Noah's sons until five chapters later, when their name's resurface. Canaan is the place that we're told, a ham's dissonance settled, and Ilam is the Hebrew word for Persia, and it was last mentioned in the genealogy of Shem. Canaan is where Abram happens to be living as an immigrant when he chased the promised blessing of God, but Canaan is also the location where these five runaway slave kings live. And who is coming after them? The four kings from Ilam. That's the land of Shem. Is the author of Genesis is tugging on the tragic end to the Noah's Ark story to say this whole international conflict we're reading about is just sibling rivalry all grown up. Noah was right, his prophecy has been fulfilled. May Canaan be the slave of Shem. Well, that's exactly what happened. Ham's dissonance grew into a nation of people who were collectively enslaved by Shem's descendants, but now they've had enough so they've banded together and emancipated themselves. And Shem's descendants have also banded together to go and re-inslave them. So this four kings against five epic battle of nine nations, it's really just a fight between two brothers. Is Shem and Ham squabble all grown up? And when Adam and Eve bought the serpent's light at the very beginning of the Genesis story, Sin infected God's creation. And Sin on the pages of scripture mature very quickly from plucking fruit to sibling rivalry, right? A conflict emerges between Canaan able two brothers that results in violence, the first instance of bloodshed on the pages of our Bible. But then God cleaned the slate and started fresh with a new ad of named Noah until this side of the flood, Noah's sin just like Adam did before him, and Sin matures quite quickly from plucking fruit to sibling rivalry. And that sibling rivalry, now five chapters later, has grown and grown over generations and policies and land boundaries, tribes, languages, economic systems, taxes and oppression, but sibling rivalry expressed as violence is the seed that all of that has grown from until there's weeds sprouting all over God's garden world. So we are reading a story right now about nations who can't get along, who have disagreements about economics and land ownership and old conflicts unresolved and who was really at fault all the way back then anyway, and other nations who get involved that get into the middle of the conflicts of others in order to protect their own interests, you should have current events effortlessly rushing to your mind here, right? I mean, our world might have new weapons and new ways of warfare, but are we anymore civilized and enlightened? Are we anymore whole today? The neighboring ancient world? Genesis is claiming that the explanation for conflicts is complex as nuclear warfare and the egos of leaders and the way they get all tangled up and the actual lives of the people that they lead, the way that the careless speech of the powerful can throw gasoline on an already burning fire. Genesis is claiming that all of that has its roots in the serpent, the tree, and the deception that blessing is something I can reach out and snatch from God's hand myself. Oh, in just in case you've missed this reference back to Noah's ark through his children, there are also three other direct links in the ancient Hebrew language tying this story we're reading today back to Noah and the flood. I'm gonna spare you the linguistics and just cut right to the chase. In a multitude of ways, this clan of Eastern armies making their way across the earth in violent pursuit of their own interests, they are biblically depicted as a flood. The author of Genesis ties this story in an obnoxious number of ways back to the Noah's ark story to say, "This thing is a flood. There's a flood washing over the earth, destroying life, just like there was back then. Only this isn't a flood of water, it's a flood of human violence." And in the next couple of verses, these four kings square off against the five and then make quick work of them, winning the battle decidedly, the human flood, sweeping away the king night kings too. But what on earth does any of that have to do with our boy, Abram? So glad you asked, let's pick up in verse 12. They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot in his possessions since he was living in Sodom. I think I'll have a second here because we haven't referenced Lot in a while. Who is this guy again? And why is he here? Well, Lot, you might remember, is the nephew of Abram. He came with him when Abram left home in that leap of faith. It got this whole journey started in the first place. So why on earth is Lot now in Sodom? One of the cities that just got ransacked by this flood of human violence. Well, we ended a week ago at the end of chapter 12 and we picked up today in chapter 14. That means we skipped a chapter. And in chapter 13, Abram and Lot split up. They broke camp. Abram made a whole bunch of money really quick in Egypt, if you remember. And that ended up splintering the family, which is classic, right? Classic family conflict, prosperity, that is not equal across family members. It's still the most common thing splintering families today. The security that Abram reached for in provision turned out to be pain of the most personal variety. Again, we're called from last Sunday. Everything Abram gets by his own control, produces pain in his life that sticks around much longer than the famine did, that sent him searching for control in the first place. Lot decides to go his own way. Abram gives Lot his pick of the property and he says, I'll take Sodom because it was the best land. Only now Sodom has gone from the best land to a battlefield over which a human flood of violence just swept, washing away everyone in its path, including Lot, who just got carried off as a prisoner of war, verse 13. A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mom Ray, the Amorite, a brother of Eschol and Anor, all of whom were allied with Abram. As if this story hasn't been confusing enough, we finally get a scene with our familiar main character, Abram, and he's got a whole group of new roommates who we've never met before. Mom Ray, the Amorite, a brother of Eschol and Anor. Now recall the story, the old flood story that the author is using as a lens through which we interpret this new story, Noah and the flood. In this new version, the flood is the violence of Shem's descendants and the victims it's washing over all of Ham's descendants. But who in this new version of the story is Noah? Abram is Noah and all who go with him back in the original story. They are saved from the flood waters of the rain by what? God, this is a layup. (audience laughs) By what? What saves them? An ark, right? Because God told Noah to build an ark out of wood. That's what you think Genesis says, wood. Because you're a modern American who has a Bob Vila imagination for boat building. But Genesis actually doesn't say wood. It says trees. Go and make yourself an ark of go for trees. Said Yahweh back in Genesis 6. And Abram was safe from this flood of human violence who swept over everyone else because he took shelter where. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Montenegro. Literally speaking, Abram's in an ark. He's safe because he is in an ark of sorts and so his life has preserved from the violent flood. And it's not just Abram who stays safe from this flood of human violence, but all who go into the ark with him. And this time that wasn't different kinds of animals, it was different kinds of people. Living with Abram are members of the surrounding nations. The people Abram keeps safe from the violence is not just future Israelites. The cast of characters bunking up with Abram in his ark is as diverse as an after school special. Bob Dylan wrote this stinging satire of a folk ballot called with God on our side. And it is a lyrical manifesto. Exposing how violence between nations is so often uncomfortably bound up with religion. How violence gets justified is righteous or even backed by God himself. It's a song about how the name of God is weaponized to attack the people. to a political agenda and then used to justify national leaders and moral behavior and decisions. Justice and righteousness so we easily get wrapped like a cloak around ego and self-advancement. And if that sounds a little bit too close to home and a little bit too on the nose, I'm just a guy teaching the Bible here. And I mean that exactly like I said it. Genesis and the Hebrew Bible in general for that matter is sometimes grouped together with other ancient texts and thought by some to be yet another story of a religious tale and a national God. Another with a God on our side story elevating one people group over others and justifying all sorts of grotesque human wrong but the Bible never once condone national superiority or the oppression of people groups. From the very beginning of the biblical story, redemption is about the blessing of one family to become a nation through which all nations will be blessed. And other nations are written into that story of blessing not just through Jesus but on every page that leads up to Jesus. It is so hard for us to explain today just how revolutionary the people taking shelter with Abram in this ark would have been in the ancient world into which Genesis was written. The cast of characters here would have been eye popping, provocative, even off-putting to some. But this is not a with God on our side story of one divine nation. This is the furthest thing from that we're reading. The Bible in spite of what you might have heard is a neither June or Gentile man or woman slave or free new humanity story that dignifies all people as God's image bears and redeems us all into one unified family. Genesis was way ahead of its time and radically countercultural in the way it brings all nations, tribes and tongues under one God who is for all and blesses all. And this little wrinkle in the story, this ark that Abram and the others find family within, it points us back to Noah, sure, but even more it points ahead to Jesus and the founding of the church, an outpost of new humanity in the midst of a world still awash with greed, ego and violence. But now I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. First, the most rad Bible story you don't know about because it didn't make any of the felt boards of children's books. First 14. When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went and pursued as far as Dan. So Abram has just put together a militia of 318 guys and they are chasing down the human flood of four national armies that just ransacked nation after nation after nation. But they're not doing it in the name of revenge, but because they've taken lot. Abram is going to rescue his nephew because he will not trade people for his own personal security. During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hoban, north of Damascus. Abram organizes a night raid, brilliant military strategy. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative lot and his possessions together with the women and the other people. So Abram's militia comes riding back into the promised lane like a group of heroes. They've even rescued lot, all of his stuff and every other prisoner of war and brought them home. It's a miracle. I mean this is like the original David and Goliath. This is the very first biblical, the week overcomes the strong kind of miracle. We just read a story about an otherwise unknown guy with nothing going for him except God who takes on the corrupt oppressive powers of this world and in the face of certain defeat overcomes them even making a way for new life to the one who was rebelled against him, left home and was lost alone and as good as dead. Hang on a minute. It's Jesus, right? Don't you see Jesus in that description? Jesus, an otherwise ordinary guy who seems to have nothing going for him except maybe God who takes on the corrupt and oppressive powers of this world and then in the face of sure defeat overcomes them making a way even to new life for those lost alone and as good as dead. But here I am getting ahead of myself again. For now we have finally made it to today's teaching text. So Abrams on his way back from this miraculous heroic military rescue when two kings come out to meet him on the way. One of them is the king of Sodom, of Sodom that's one of the five surviving Canaanite kings after the flood swept through. And the others, this mysterious king who makes just a one-scene cameo in the entire Bible. The character through which if you see the film you realize that this is not a "quit and turn" you know, asks shoot him up thriller it is a poetic masterpiece. That king's name is Melchizedek and I want to introduce you to this guy from four angles as we close the scene, the theme, the person and the promise. So first the scene. So Abrams on his way back with his chest puffed out from a heroic rescue when these two kings come out to meet him on the way. Both of the kings have something to offer him. First there's Melchizedek who comes out to greet him and sets a table right in the middle of the valley and invites Abrams to eat with him which he does. There's no charge for this meal, there's no catch, it's just purely a gift. And after Abrams encounters the generosity of this mysterious king he instinctively responds with generosity of his own. He gives to Melchizedek 10% of everything he has. Right after that the king of Sodom rolls out, not with a gift but an exchange. Melchizedek gives the king of Sodom negotiates. Verse 21, "Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself." So here's the trade. "Give me people and I'll give you provisions." It's a deal targeting Abrams personal pattern of weakness failure and control. Don't you remember the story from last Sunday? In the face of a famine Abrams trades people, his wife Sarah for provisions, security in the form of food and loot from Pharaoh's palace. And now here comes another king like Pharaoh offering the exact same deal. I'll take the people and you can keep all the goods. Trust me and I will help you feel secure under your own control. Listen to me and I'll help you feel secure in just the way you love to seek security. It's a replay of the crossroads that Abrams found himself out in Egypt, trust or control because remember in the biblical story both scarcity and abundance put us at that same crossroads, trust or control either trust in the promise blessing of God or try to take blessing in some way that I can control. Now, because of that comes out giving with demand for nothing in return. Who does that sound like to you? The king of Sodom comes out negotiating. Give me what I want and I'll give you what you want. Let's pause for a minute. This is really important. One of the most frequent questions I get is well how do I know it's God speaking? When God speaking to me, how do I distinguish his still small whisper from the lies of the enemy and the tug of my ego and just my own imagination? But if we're reading the Bible then I can trust that this is God's word passed down through history. But I'm talking about like when I'm praying and receive a prophetic picture from a friend or I'm in a conversation with a coworker midday or when I'm on my way home from my own version of heroic success. How do I know it's God stopping to talk to me on the way? How do I know it's God speaking? That's a really important question. And the story that we're reading today gives us a really important clue. Ask yourself what does the voice I'm listening to motivate in me? Because like no, because of that God is generous and when I listen to him I become generous. When I listen to God's voice I want to open my hands, share what I have, give my life away. And like the King of Sodom or the Serpent back in the garden the deceiver is crafty, he negotiates. And whenever I listen to him I I become crafty, I become strategic, stingy, insecure, exacting selfish. I start negotiating, making deals with my life about what I'm owed and what I give. In our Bridgian communities right now, we're gathering midweek around tables throughout the week, and we are practicing community through the weekly exercise of confession. And every time there's a confession from one member of the community, it's always followed by an absolution from another member of the community. Absolution is the term for when one person takes on the role of a priest temporarily in the life of a confessor. Meaning you speak the words of God over someone else right in the midst of their vulnerability, failure, and potential for shame. And those promise words of absolution, you'll notice they're always generous. They are never a negotiation. There is no exchange, pure gift. And when I receive the generous forgiveness of God, the most amazing thing happens. I find the capacity to offer the same grace to others. God's generosity effortlessly motivates my own. Confession is not just the practice of naming and exposing the lies that I've believed most recently. It is also how I learn to hear and be formed by God's voice amid all the competing noise. So that's the scene. You guys tracking? I know. This is a dense story, isn't it? But I can see you're into it. And so am I. Let's keep going. You got the scene, then the theme. Emerging in Abram's life, now just a few chapters in, is among the most accurate, honest pictures, spiritual formation that I think we see anywhere. Because on one page of Genesis, Abram multiplied pain into his life and the lives of everyone around him by doubting that God would keep his promise and trying to take the blessing of God. He tried to bless himself. And on the very next page of Genesis, Abram multiplies blessing in his life and to everyone around him by cooperation with God, by trust. And in the events ahead, as we keep tracing Abram's story, he's going to do more of both of those. There's going to be more control that multiplies pain in him and through him in the lives of the people around him. And there's going to be more trust that multiplies blessing in him and through him in the lives of the people around him. This is such an honest, accurate picture of the two steps forward, one step back dance that we call spiritual formation or apprenticeship to Jesus. So if Abram grasped for control on the last page, why was he able to trust on this page? Well, only because of the person. And look, we don't have time for a full deep dive on the mysterious, profound identity of Melchizedek. So if you want more, here's a QR code right behind me for a podcast from Bible Project where our friend Tim will take you all the way down the rabbit hole. For today, let me just say this much. Melchizedek is revealed to us as a prophet, priest, and king. Melchizedek is a prophet. He doesn't say a whole lot. He just has a few words to speak. And his few words of blessing, they're not actually original to him. All he does is repeat the very blessing that God promised to Abram when the whole journey got started in the first place. What's prophetic about that? Well, I really like Ronald Rollhizer's definition of prophecy. He says, a prophet doesn't foretell the future. A prophet properly names the present as God is seeing it. Melchizedek repeats the past blessing of God, but he does so by interpreting the present events of Abram's life in light of that blessing. He says something like, can you see the events of your life today from God's perspective for a minute? Can you see that what you're experiencing today is exactly what God promised you all the way back then in the shape of the circumstances that you're in today? He's revealing God in Abram's ordinary life. He's showing Abram the very way that God is keeping his promises to him and that is prophecy. So Melchizedek is a prophet, but he's also a priest. He was the priest of El Ion in Hebrew, meaning Melchizedek is the priest of the God Abram knows. But check this out. The story that we're reading right now is pre- Exodus, meaning later, like hundreds of years and many, many generations later, God will explain to Moses what a priest is. And then he will commission Aaron as the very first biblical priest. But Abram doesn't have any of that context here. There's no reason that Abram would have any idea what priest even means. Melchizedek is the very first person in the Bible ever called a priest, and he offers no explanation to Abram of what his title or qualifications are. But what he does is interpret Abram's current life in light of God's past promises. He says something like, hey, Abram, I can see that you're feeling really confident in this moment. So make sure that you don't think that you just accomplish something great on your own strength. This miracle is your inheritance, Abram. It's from God only because God can be trusted to keep his promises. Oh, and just so you don't forget this day, so that you can build a life on the trust you're experiencing right now instead of on the futility of the control you're experiencing yesterday, here, take this bread, eat it, and have some wine, drink it. This will remind you. Is this starting to remind you of a guy you know? He is a prophet, a priest, and a king. More specifically, Melchizedek is the king of Salem. And you're thinking the terribly underwhelming capital of Oregon, where I occasionally get stuck in traffic. Nope. That's not the place we're talking about. He is the king of Shalem. That's how it's pronounced. Short hand for Jerusalem. He is introduced as the king of Jerusalem. The one currently occupying the throne, that the guy he's been reminding you of, is going to one day occupy for all of eternity. And this king, he's not like the others. He wants nothing from you and offers everything to you. And when you taste of his generosity, you cannot help but respond with your own. Here's 10% of all I have. That's what Abram gives. The tith won't be instituted for hundreds of years. Abrams not tithing. Tithing is the codifying of what Abram did instinctively in the presence of a generous king. Oh, and just so you don't forget, this is the truth. Just so you can remember me when you feel alone, afraid, and tempted to reach for control again. Here, eat this bread and drink this wine and let the taste of it be a remembrance of when I met you here and what I told you today. That's the promise. And so that's where we'll land. Malkizadek is a mysterious one-scene actor who never shows his face again, but he is referenced again. Later, much, much later, all the way at the other end of the Bible in a New Testament letter called Hebrews. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverent submission. Some know he was. He learned obedience through what he suffered. And once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Malkizadek. Jesus, like Malkizadek, is a prophet, a priest, and a king. Jesus is the fulfillment of every prophecy. He is the king to whom every knee will bow. And he is a priest in the order of Aaron and the Levites, right? No. This is a priest in the order of Malkizadek. Jesus is the high priest who went into the temple and turned over its tables and expanded its walls. Meaning Jesus turned the temple into the church and that means at least this much. Everybody's welcome. Nobody's perfect and anything's possible. That's how a friend of mine summed it up. Everybody's welcome. Jesus opened up the temple, a house of worship for one nation Israel to the church, a multi-ethnic, multicultural family breaking every social rule about hierarchy and belonging. The guests in Abrams Oak Grove Ark were offensively broad and diverse and so is the family of Jesus Christ. We are in every tribe and tongue kind of people that does not ever have a family. to race our ethno-cultural difference, but celebrates it, ever aware that together, we are most reflective of the face of God. Everybody's welcome, nobody's perfect. The Nation of Israel was set up by the law given to Moses when God wrote on Stone tablets a gift to set a community apart as God's image-bearing people. But that was a law that everyone felt short of. It was a law that universally convinced humanity that even though we are God's image-bearing community, we cannot restore creation by our willpower and best intention alone. So then Jesus comes along, writing righteousness, not on Stone tablets, but on the hearts of human beings. Even the Passover feast before Jesus, the meal that celebrates God's deliverance of His enslaved people in Egypt, it required cleansing rituals and preparation, just to take part in it. But here stands Jesus over a Passover table with bread and wine, a meal marking a new covenant, one that frees all who take a need from the lives of the serpent, freedom from shame and life beyond the grave, and that meal Jesus was the only one to complete it, but he wasn't the first one to serve it. Bread and wine is what Melchizedek brought to Abram. Also, he'd remember the promise blessing of God in the context of the peaks, valleys, and unfolding days of his life, and that meal Jesus served it to the 12, and then they passed it down to us, and he said, every single time you take and eat and drink, remember me? Because you're gonna have to remember that you're forgiven again and again and again, every force in this world. We'll try to deform you into the belief that you are the sum total of your merit, accomplishment, and shame, that you are defined in my eyes by your most recent performance in yours. Every other force in this world is gonna try to define you by your ego, but I know you by your soul. So every single time you gather together, eat this meal, drink this wine, and remember me. Everybody's welcome, nobody's perfect, and anything's possible. Jesus promised he would come even closer by going away, because he would fill us with his spirit, the indwelling conduit of his life and power, and when that happens, when God's people are filled with God's spirit, you'll do even greater things than you've seen me doing, said Jesus. Anything is possible. Anything, like loving your greedy nephew enough to go and rescue him, even when he gets exactly what's coming to him, not so you can tell him like it is or gloat over him or whatever, but to forgive him, to redeem him, to buy back the consequences of his greed and to bring him all the way back, home, healthy, and whole. That's what the spirit within all who call Jesus Lord does. He fills us with the capacity to become like Jesus in the world, to love like Jesus, die like Jesus and live like Jesus, to redeem like Jesus, forgive like Jesus, heal like Jesus, deliver like Jesus, restore like Jesus, because if God is with you, if God is even within you, then control is the only condition that limits possibility with trust, anything is possible. Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, and that means at least this much, everybody's welcome, nobody's perfect, anything's possible, come Holy Spirit. (dramatic music) Thanks for joining the Bridgetown family as we engage in this teaching series. To learn more about the life of our church and how you can get involved, visit Bridgetown.church/Welcome. If you're interested in contributing financially to Bridgetown Church and to our ministry, you can do that at Bridgetown.church/giving. Wherever you're joining us from, we hope this resource blesses you and encourages you to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.