“My message today is ...”We Have Been Given Access”.

I suppose that most preaching is finding another way of saying this. It is a progressive, unfolding truth and God’s word is constantly giving me assurance that when my attitude is based on His character of mercy, grace and love, it will always cause everything to go smoother because He is working it all out for my good and His glory, every moment in my life. He has gone before me to prepare all my tomorrows with the blessing of new places, new things, new friends, new opportunities, and new challenges..

All of this has been achieved at an incredible cost, and thatmakes it the most valuable treasure we will ever have in this life... “ACCESS”....

Mark 15: 25 “It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself !" 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. 33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"). 35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah." 36 A soldier ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said. 37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" 

The veil in the temple, which separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy place where the priest ministered before God, was red on one side and blue on the other and purple in the middle where the two colors came together. It was embroidered with two huge cherubim on each side, who guarded the glory. The veil was 60 feet long, 30 feet high, and it was four inches thick. 

The veil represented relationships.                                                                  Adam and Eve had walked in the direct glory of God and considered it the normal thing in their every daylives. But the relationship was broken and the glory departed. Only a few in Old testament history had access to that relationship and the power and authority that came with it.                                                                                                       You might think of it like this- The President of the US- (regardless of who is in office) is the most protected person on the planet. Layers and layers of security ( fences, personal security, background checks, metal detectors,  bomb sniffers), THEN you get in the house, but still have no access. You could get in outer court of the temple but only a very few could get to God. God wanted so much to have that garden of Eden relationship with His people, but since a man broke the relationship, a man had to fix what was broken. Sin came through a man, and the cure must come through a man.             

1 John 3:8 “For this purpose the Son of God (the God man) was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the evil one”.                               If you could sum up all the works of the devil, it would be broken relationships. The veil was always there. Broken relationships between God and man and man with his fellow man. Jesus came to take away the division, and the great void, that stood between God’s glory and man’s greatest need, which was Himself.

God entered the earth realm in a physical body and sacrificed Himself so He could once again have a relationship with us.                                            A woman was taking an afternoon nap. When she woke up, she told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a diamond necklace. What do you think it means?" "You'll know tonight," he said. That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Excited that it was the diamonds she told him about, she opened it to find a book entitled "The Meaning ofYour Dreams." It’s amazing that he lived this long......                                                                     God didn’t just give us a book, He wanted a relationship with us so much that He was willing to move heaven and earth to make it possible. 

So, at the moment of Jesus’ death, having satisfied the justice of God upon sin and the curse, the veil was torn from top to bottom, becoming a physical witness of the completed work of the cross. In so doing, all who were separated, could now come back into relationship by the glorious work of redemption through Jesus blood. Matthew Simpson said the following statement of the roll of Pastors, but I want to expand it to all Christians,                                                   “They stand in Christ’s stead, their message is the Word of God, all around them are immortal souls, the Savior, unseen, is beside them, the Holy Spirit broods over them, angels gaze upon the scene, and heaven and hell await the issues. Oh, what divine associations, and what a vast responsibility.”

Picture the most guarded place in the United States, the Ovaloffice of the president. And picture yourself, walking through all the security, and strolling into the room and sitting down at the President’s own desk. That’s what God wanted for us. To have access to the throne of God almighty!

Ephesians 2:5,6 “And God has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 6:10 We are to declare....“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (no separation)

The veil between this dimension and the glory of the supernatural has been torn in half, so we can pass through the veil from sickness into wholeness.... from never enough into more than enough.... from division, and strife and turmoil, into healed relationships, harmony and peace. We can have access to the throne room of His glory!

The torn veil, is God’s invitation to enter in....

John 14:12 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall He do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.”

Jesus has gone before us to prepare for our coming. As we keep our eyes on Him, He will show the way, through every veil we face. The veil of lack, of broken relationships, of financial insufficiency, of fear, and inadequacy, of disease and infirmity. Jesus says I have gone before you and prepared for your arrival.

John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”   

The tearing of the veil, meant that the temple in Jerusalem was being replaced with a new location for God’s glory. No longer would it require a pilgrimage of great distance to experience God’s glory. No longer would it mean that everyone be required to purchase animals for sacrifice on the altar at the temple, to cover their sins.                                 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are now the temple of God and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple”.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are the chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His Glory and marvelous light”. That’s talking about ACCESS!

The bible gives us a picture of parallel events taking place in earth as they are taking place in heaven. We are given a view of a heavenly mercy seat which the earthly mercy seat in the temple was patterned after. Just as the priest was to enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat for the sins of the nation, so likewise, when Jesus rose from the dead, He sprinkled his own sacrificial blood on the mercy seat of heaven.                                                                                                                                        Hebrews 9:12, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the (heavenly) holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” The work of redemption wasn’t finished until Jesus sprinkled His blood on the heavenly mercy seat, so that He might prepare a way for us in the heavenly realm.         (songsays) When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you!

Another scripture having to do with access, is found in...

Ezra 9:8 we read: “That He might leave us a way of escape, and to give us a nail in His holy place.”

Again we see the parallel between the earthly events and the heavenly conclusion. As they were driving the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet, that price He paid was securing for us a place in that Holy place in heaven where thieves cannot enter and time cannot corrupt it. The nail in His holy place is our passport, to enter through the veil, and into all that He gave us access to. .

I want to give each person a symbol of your passport beyond the veil. Our hope and our faith hangs on a nail, that was fastened in heaven, as a symbol of our complete access. It cannot be affected by things of this world, it is secure and outside this dimension. It is anchored in eternity.

The rending of the curtain of the Temple, was a symbol of a new covenant which we enter into through the death and resurrection of Christ. 

Hebrews 10:19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh....”

The curtain that once kept those who were inadequate, flawed, unqualified, and sinful outside, and unable to enter in, now encourages those same ones to come and enter boldly through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our point of access. 

Where there was fear and hesitancy, now there is confidence. Hebrews 10:22 "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in the full confidence of faith.”

Our confidence is in the faithfulness of God. That confidenceis reflected in a transformed heart and a changed life. It springs forth from the core of our Spirit and it is demonstrated in a surrendered will... “Not my will but thine be done”...

To know that He is faithful even when we are not faithful. He is just when the world is unjust. He knows us better than we know ourselves and yet He loves us as we are, so we can become what we should be and He’s prepared for our arrival. He has gone before us and made all He has done accessible to us. 

We may look at all this, as a huge step, but it is a series of small steps simply taken, one foot in front of the other, in obedience and it produces huge, results. 

In 1847, a boy named Homan Walsh went out to fly a kite. Homan was taking part in a kite-flying contest, so he brought his best kite, and plenty of string. There was a crowd of people competing.

He stood on the Canadian bank of the Niagara River, letting more and more of that string go out, until it stretched nearly 1,000 feet. At that point, a man on the American side of the Niagara Gorge, grabbed the string, and the crowd that had gathered let up a mighty roar. For the first time in history, people on opposite sides of this great gorge were holding onto the same string. And Homan won $5, the top prize in the contest.

Quickly, the string was tied to a tree on the American shoreline, and a cord tied to the Canadian end of the string. The cord was then pulled across the 800-foot span. A rope was tied to the cord, and pulled safely across. To the rope was attached a wire cable, and to the cable, a thicker cable was attached. It was the beginning of an engineering victory over one of the greatest natural barriers that had separated Americans and Canadians.

Fifty-foot towers were built on each side of the river, and more cables became a part of the picture. In time, they walked on a foot bridge for price of a quarter. But less than a year after Homan’s kite first flew across the river, people were safely riding their horse-drawn carriages across the Niagara, on a marvelous suspension bridge that hung 220 feet over the rushing water.

Today, thousands of passengers travel across the multi-lane, high-speed bridges and it never occurs to most of them, that somewhere in the past, just to get this modern-day miracle that gives access between two countries, under way, somebody had to fly a kite.

If great bridges can get their start with a boy’s kite and string, then you can be sure that great spiritual experiences can get their start 

with amazingly simple choices that we make every day.

I have seen some remarkable transformations in people’s very nature and character when they genuinely entered into and surrendered to God’s new covenant of access. 

II Corinthians‬

Jesus said “I have given you the keys of access” and Paul took the keys and made good use of them. Look at the Apostle Paul and you see that where there had once been hate, there was now love. 

Where there had once been unbelief, there was now faith. 

Where there had once been pride, there was now humility. 

Where there had once been strict obedience to human traditions, there was now submissive obedience to God’s Spirit.

Where there was resistance, there was now total surrender.

Paul had entered into God’s new covenant of access, He discovered a new way, A new heart. A new mind. A new belief system. A new attitude. A new Spirit within him. He chose a new way of living. He was a remarkable example of what New Birth is all about. 

Here are four ways we are made new:

What does the mind of Christ look like?

Jesus thought of others before Himself.

Jesus gave priority to the Kingdom of God. Not my will but God’s will.

Jesus thought it was more important to serve rather than be served.

Jesus had the attitude of humility and compassion.

2.... We receive a new heart.

What does our new heart look like?

We put ourselves in the place of others and feel what they feel.

Our hearts are deeply stirred over sin, even if everyone is doing it. 

We rejoice with others, even when we are in need ourselves.

We humbly seek the good of others over our own.                                         Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

To guard our hearts does not mean we try to eliminate all risk from our lives. That would be just another type of bondage. If we try to eliminate all the risk, we would be eliminating all love from our lives.

3.... We are given a new belief system with new behaviorpatterns.

What does that look like?                                                                                                             We remain sexually pure.                                                                                           We are honest and trustworthy in all we do.                                                      We honor our promises and pay our debts.                                                   When we say we will pray for someone, we pray for them....

We guard our ears, our eyes and our thoughts.                                        Scripture tells us to give no place to the enemy. 

4..... We are given a new redeemed Spirit.                                                                                                                                              What does that look like?                                                                                               We have received power to overcome sin.

We have received power to withstand temptation.

We have received power to stand firm in the trials of life.

We have received power to come boldly before God’s throne.

And if we fall short, it still says....                                                                                                                                        2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore IF any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”.God never makes a mistake when He gives His callings and choosing, so He never says “Oops, I didn’t see that one coming”!!!.

And if we fall, we start right where we are, repent, and receive the grace of a new beginning, and access to all He has given. We just have to allow God, once again, to do His new thing in our lives.

The veil has been torn, the barriers have been removed, access has been granted, the new covenant is still in tact, our relationship with the Father has been restored. Thank You Jesus. Whosoever will may come, and whatsoever thing we ask shall be granted. Ask and you shall receive, continue to seek, and don’t quit.... knock and the door shall be opened.... The door of forgiveness, the door of relationship, the door of access.....It’s based on His willingness, not your fears, weaknesses, flaws and lack of faith. 

Hear Christ say “Behold I make all things new”                                                        Or maybe you need to hear once again, “Behold I make all things new”....All things are now available.....