Pay Closer Attention to What It Says

In one paragraph

This message worked through Hebrews 7:1-10, the passage about Melchizedek, as part of an ongoing series through Hebrews. Pastor Ray's central concern was that the original readers, and we ourselves, tend to let our settled theological categories keep us from seeing what Scripture is actually saying. The communion service that closed the morning tied the whole argument together: every background in...

Read together

1. 1 Timothy 1:17 opening verse read before worship: 'all honor and glory to God forever and ever, He is the eternal king, the unseen one who never dies, He alone is God'
2. John 3:16 referenced in prayer: 'loving the world so much that you would give your only son that whoever believes in you wouldn't perish but have eternal life'
3. Colossians 3:3 cited after prayer as the source of 'you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God'
4. Hebrews 7:1-10 the main passage preached through the entire sermon, concerning Melchizedek
5. Genesis 14:17-20 the Old Testament source text the writer of Hebrews draws from, describing Melchizedek meeting Abraham after the slaughter of the kings
6. Psalm 110:4 cited as the source of 'the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek'
7. John 8:31-59 read at length to show the Hebrews' audience clinging to Abraham as their father while Jesus pointed them to a greater truth
8. John 14:6 quoted in the benediction: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me'

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray kept coming back to the warning from Hebrews about paying closer attention to what we have heard so we don't drift away from it. Where in your own life have you noticed yourself drifting from something you knew to be true, and what pulled you back?
2. Pastor Ray said that where scant biblical evidence is available, heresy is apt to happen, and he was careful to stay with what the text actually says about Melchizedek rather than going beyond it. Can you think of a time when a theological assumption you held turned out to go further than what scripture actually said? How did you discover that?
3. The original audience of Hebrews had memorized the genealogies and built their whole understanding of priesthood around the Levitical line. Pastor Ray suggested they had been skipping over Melchizedek even though they knew he was in the text. What parts of scripture do you tend to skip over, and what might you be missing there?
4. Pastor Ray read from John 8 where the religious leaders kept appealing to Abraham as their father even while they were talking to Jesus face to face. He said it is hard to get out of your own paradigm, but when you do, God shows up. What is an ism or inherited assumption that has made it harder for you to see what God is actually doing?
5. At the Lord's Supper, Pastor Ray said the old covenant was a temporary system pointing to an eternal truth, and that what brings people from very different church backgrounds together is the blood of Christ. How does that shared foundation change the way you think about Christians whose traditions look very different from yours?