Access:

Context:

• Jesus doesn’t want His followers to fall away.
• It is to their advantage that He goes away.
• The big plus is that the Holy Spirit will be sent.
• There will be sorrow before the big plus.
• The hour is coming.

John 16:25-28 “...I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father...”

How had Jesus been speaking to His disciples?

• Figuratively. Not directly.
• In parables, riddles, and difficult to understand references.

How was this going to change?

• There was to be plain discussion about the Father and the Kingdom of God.

• Acts 1:3 “...He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God...”
• John 14:26 “...But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you...”

What would be different regarding the Father?

• No longer speaking to Jesus who spoke to the Father.
• It would become speaking to the Father in Jesus name.

Why would this be possible, and even necessary?

• Possible because the Father himself loves you.
• Possible because the death and resurrection of Jesus was to provide access.

• Romans 5:2 “...Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God...”

• Necessary because Jesus was going to be with the Father.
• Jesus came from the Father. Jesus entered this world. Jesus returned to the Father.

Was this establishing a different kind of relationship with the Father?

• No longer just priestly access on behalf of the masses.

• Hebrews 8:13 “...In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away...”

• Hebrews 9:15 “...Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant...”

• Hebrews 10:19-22 “...Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water...”

• Hebrews 4:14-16 “...Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need...”

How and when do you avail yourself of access to the throne of grace?

What is available at the throne of grace?

• Grace - Unmerited favor. Getting what we don’t deserve.
• Mercy - Unmerited forgiveness. Not getting what we do deserve.