Access to the Father, Eph, 2:17-18
Ephesians 2:17-18 · Vern Peterman · Aug 8, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826231196018

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

As I was looking at the passage this week, I began to be increasingly excited about just the richness and the marvelous depths that we find in God's Word. As we go through it this morning, I think you'll begin to see what I'm talking about here. In Ephesians 2, 17 and 18, Paul is continuing on with a thought that he had begun to address with the church at Ephesus there. And it starts about like this. He has been addressing the fact that we've got Jews and Gentiles now in one group, the church, but it's not just a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. It's a new humanity. It has a new character to it. It's a new creation. New and kind.

It started in Ephesus with this conflict back in 586 BC and thereabouts. a number of Jews were relocated to Babylon. That's this area over here. That's also, by the way, where a lot of our soldiers are stationed right now in that general area. And so what took place then, after being relocated from Israel over to Babylon, then about 220 BC, about 250 years roughly before Paul's writing this letter, 2,000 Jewish families were moved by incentive of 10 years tax-free from Babylon to go up to this area around Ephesus, Colossae, Galatia, and that area. The fellow in charge of that part of the empire said, if you'll make the move, I'll give you the tax break. And so 2,000 families did it.

Now, that explains why we have this Jew-Gentile issue there in Ephesus. There was this chronic hostility, okay? You're a Jew. You're a Gentile. And names a little more piercing than that. There was constantly this chronic conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles in and around Ephesus. Very many were familiar with it.

The solution that the Lord had for it, He says, the law is at the core of what divides these two. I am not only going to create a new people, but I'm going to take out what is dividing them, and I'm going to put the law for these people out of commission." And that's what we looked at previously. We saw in the passage 14 through 16 that it was the Lord in each of these actions. God was the one taking action. He was the one who made. He was the one who broke down. He was the one who abolished. He was the one who established, and on down the list.

What we're seeing in the passage here this morning, we continue on, And now we've got a couple more verbs. God is continuing to be the one who's taking the action. Isn't that interesting? The action is on God's part. Why? Because the Church is God's creation, not ours. It's God's doing that is making this come about.

So it starts off by saying, He came and He preached peace. So let's get the pronouns clarified. The he is Christ, and the him in verse 18 is Christ. So he, Christ, came and preached, and in verse 18, through him, that is through Christ, we have our access. All right, now, let's take a look at this word came. It has the idea of he was coming, okay?

It's a focus on the ongoing action there, not just a one-time event, but there was a continuing action that's at focus here. Then on this word preached, we're accustomed to hearing that word, but this is, in the Greek, a little different from what is commonly used for preaching in the New Testament, and it's different in this way.

This is the word euangelizo, and it sounds like evangelize, because that's what it means. It is a good news telling or telling a good message. That's the focus here. It's not just preached as if you had something to convey with a spiritual content, but it is specifically conveying a good news, communicating a good news, bringing it out in the open and letting people know the good news. It's that kind of action. This word is used elsewhere for preaching the Gospel as the good news. We see examples there in Acts and in Romans. We could give others as well.

He came and he preached peace to you who were far away and peace to you who were near. Now, this peace is Irenae, which is our source for the lady's name Irene. Peace. Christ is not only making peace, being peace, as we saw in the passage last week, He is not only Christ our peace, but He is also preaching peace. He is preaching it as good news. He is not only making it possible, but He is telling of it. He came and preached the good news.

In the Greek text here, there's actually two places where that word peace shows up. It is twice. Notice that he's addressing, in each case, he's addressing one group and then the other. Peace to this one, peace to that one. Peace to those who are far away, peace to those who are near.

Now, some commentaries or cross-references will make a point to Isaiah 57, 19 here. I might point out that while some of the words are similar, that's talking about two different groups of Jews, This is specifically Gentiles and Jews. So you might make note of that. This verse is talking about Jews who were distant, and we actually have Jews who are distant from Israel now in many parts of the world, but specifically here, this was Jews that were in Ephesus, distant from Israel, and some who were nearer. Okay. Now, when we get into this passage.

We already saw this far off or far away idea when we looked at Ephesians 2.13. Here we see it again. It's basically the same word. We're far away in 2.17.

This Greek word there is makron, and it is used to describe Gentiles that are far off. The Greek Old Testament includes this family of words to describe the Gentiles who are at great distance away from the Jews. You see these Old Testament references where that Greek Old Testament word uses the same word that Paul uses here, twice, verses 13 and 17. The difference is this passage is talking not about just physical distance, but spiritual distance, as we'll see here in just a minute.

And those who were near, We pointed out previously in Ephesians 2.13, Psalm 148.14 says that Israel is near to God and draws from the same family of words as Paul uses here in Ephesians 2.17. We pointed out before in Romans 9 that Paul lists Israel's privileges and it's just all saying these are all the ways in which Israel is already made near.

He's spelling that out in detail. Now, so just to make it clear, those who were far away were the Gentiles, those who were near were the Jews. Spiritually far away, spiritually near. So to clarify all of our different pronouns here, for He, Christ, came and preached peace to you who were far away, the Gentiles, and peace to those who were near, that is, the Jews, through Him, Christ, so that we both, Gentiles and Jews, have our access in one spirit to the Father.

So let's put it in diagram form. You also have that on your handout. By the way, if you're visiting with us for the first time, I want to point out, this is a page number on your handout, so you can track with us here. If there's no page number, it's not on your handout. Write fast.

Okay. The point being here, and he was coming and preached the good news of peace to those who are far away, the Gentiles, and peace to those who were near, the Jews. That's to kind of put it in diagram format so that it's real clear what he's communicating to us here. But now we have a question. Do you like questions? I hope so, because that's exactly what we've got. We have a question here, something to think about. When did Christ do that? While Christ was on earth, he sent the disciples off, remember, two by two?

Pears sent him off and he said, I want you to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I don't want you to even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Just to Israel, okay? That's chapter 10. Five chapters later, a lady who is Gentile asks Jesus for some assistance and what does he say? I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Very specific. He repeats the emphasis, the focus is upon Israel.

So, we still have the question, don't we? So, when did Christ come and preach peace? We still have that question in front of us. Here's Jesus, and of course He spent time around the temple, we know that. He spent time around Jerusalem, that general area. He talked to people in the temple, He cleared the temple.

That still has to do with Israel, doesn't it? I still haven't answered the question. All right, now, the northern part of Israel, did he do something different there? Well, he was around Galilee and traveled around in that area, and so he was on the shores of Galilee, went out in boats across the sea, still talking to Jews the whole time, still focusing on Jews.

So we still have the question, when did Christ do that? Now, if it was on the cross, as we saw last week, that he put the law out of commission, obviously the cross is the threshold when he would begin to preach peace. So he must have preached peace after that time. Do we still have the puzzle in front of us? Yeah, because we still haven't answered the question.

If you look at John chapter 20, three places right together, 19, 21, 26, all quote Christ is walking in and saying, peace be with you. Then in verse 21, he follows that with, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. Ah, now we're starting to see something here. The commission to send the message of peace was given to the apostles. Right here. We're not done. We want to jump ahead here just to the book of Acts. This is chapter 10.

And this is where Peter is speaking to the Gentiles for the first time. And those of you who are familiar with the passage I'm talking about, not without quite a bit of instruction from the Lord that that was okay to do. And so here's Jerusalem, just so we get our map context here. And here's Galilee up around the northern end of Israel. Caesarea is over here, home to about 3,000 Roman soldiers, Gentile to the core.

Peter is sent to speak to a household where a Roman soldier is at the head. Interestingly enough, here's Peter speaking, he says, he opens his mouth, he said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality But in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcomed to him, the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ."

This word, nation, is ethnos. We get our word ethnic or ethnicity or any of those kinds of terms from this term. It is often translated Gentiles, where it's appropriate, in a number of passages. Here are several in Acts that are given there in your notes. So it has the implication of Gentile, even if it's not specifically meaning Gentile. But here's the interesting part.

Preaching peace through Jesus Christ. The Greek words behind preaching, peace, and through are exactly the same as those that are in our passage in Ephesians 2, 17 and 18. I don't mean close, I mean they are the ones. It is not preaching in the general sense, but it's the good news telling, the good news messaging. Peace, the exact same word, and through, the exact same word as we saw here.

Through Jesus Christ is specific as to name, but has the same idea as through him. What I have been amazed at as I compare notes is how often what Peter says and what Paul say are so well integrated, and yet we know the two of them had limited time together. Boy, it's as if somebody else inspired this stuff. Okay.

Anyway, among the New Testament epistles, all of Paul's letters, without exception, begin with a peace greeting. Subsequently, most of them talk about peace. Add to that the letters of Peter and Jude begin with a peace greeting, and all but one of John's letters, and I include with that the book of Revelation. begin with a greeting of peace. If we go to the end of the book of Ephesians, we are back in Ephesians again, same book we're studying, the very last chapter, Paul talks about, and we'll be getting to eventually, if the Lord doesn't take us home, we'll be getting to the spiritual armor that believers have been given.

And when we get to that, we see in Ephesians 6.15, One of those items that Paul identifies is, "...and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." What he does is he uses the noun form of the same group of words that is the verb in our passage here this morning. And peace is of course the exact same word. So Paul is continuing this message. If you want, you can see this Roman soldier's calligae. If you want to go into a shoe store and ask for those, go ahead. But anyway, you get the idea. Firmly planted with the certainty, the sure-footedness that comes with a gospel of peace. That's the idea that Paul is communicating here with these spiked sandals that were typical of the Roman soldiers' wear.

So the New Testament makes it abundantly clear as we see Christ's instruction, as we see Peter beginning to present to the Gentiles using the exact same words as Paul uses, as we see the instructions from the apostles, as we see each of the letters that come out, it's abundantly clear that this gospel of peace was carried out not by Christ personally, but as initiated by Him and given by direct instruction to the apostles as they went out. They got the point so that when Peter first talked to the Gentiles, he brought up those very same words, preaching peace through Jesus Christ.

And when the other apostles go out and they preach and they write, they're saying the same thing. Now, So this diagram comes home here. And He was coming and preached the good news of how? Through the apostles and His instructions directly to them. And we have good evidence here that they got the point. And that's exactly what they carried out.

Now, as we look at this, we get into verse 18, and what do we see? For through Him we have our access in one Spirit to the Father. This word for has the idea of so that, it's indicating the result. Why do we say that? He preached peace to the Gentiles, he preached peace to the Jews, so that those who believe then have access. So this is the result, the outcome.

It's interesting, Paul uses a phrase here that he uses elsewhere, but actually the apostles used again and again and again. Those of you in the second Corinthians class are going to see this, you know, through him or through Christ phrase popping up again and again.

John 1.3, and we saw this when we were studying Colossians chapter 1, all things came into being through him. Same phrase as Paul is using here.

2 Corinthians 1.5, our comfort is abundant through Christ. He is the means of that comfort.

2 Corinthians 3.4, such confidence we have through Christ toward God. God is the means, He is the avenue.

And finally, 2 Corinthians 5.18, God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.

We keep seeing that message again and again. It's interesting, what do human beings have a tendency to do? They want to add to that. Isn't that the human pattern? We want to add to it. Through Christ? Oh yeah, but I've got to do something too. Through Christ? Oh yeah, but I've got to add this little church group because they're the ones that I'm going to get to Christ with. Or we've got some other thing that we're going to add to it. Scripture keeps coming back to this focal point. Through Christ. Real simple, isn't it? Let's take a look here. Here's a cultural insight, and I think it's something that's helpful.

Through the pagan religions of Ephesus, one couldn't even hope for access to a deity. And I would clarify that, that's for the official temple religions of Ephesus, would have priests, and you would go through the priests, or you wouldn't have access to the deity at all. there was always this need to go through a priest. And if you look at the religion of the Jews, it was even true for them. You had to go through a priest. The idea of having access to God was simply not built into people's understanding of things. Even among the Jews, think of it, they would have the one day, they call Yom Kippur, when they would send one priest out of all the priests, one, who would go into the Holy of Holies that one day, and that was it. Access to God, even among the Jews, was still through the priesthood.

So, here we have something very unique. Through Him, we both have, Jews and Gentiles, our access in one Spirit to the Father. Now, one of the things you notice, we said that that Him, H-I-M, in verse 18 is Christ. the Son, we have the Spirit, and we have the Father.

Ah, you see that? We have all three persons of the Trinity in one verse. And what is the focal point of their involvement? Your access. If you have ever wondered, you know, have you ever been in a situation and heard somebody say, well, why doesn't God do something? Folks, here is something in which all three persons of the Trinity are involved, and it has to do with your access to God. The entire Godhead is involved in your access. There is no lack of involvement, there's no lack of interest on God's part. And this also came with a price. God didn't just say, will have access. No. That access came with a price. That's why it's through Him, through Christ. In order for you and I to have access, Christ had to pay the price.

That's what verses 14 through 16 was talking about. Okay. The three persons of the Godhead we have already seen and we're going to continue to see it throughout the book of Ephesians. Here's the specific one we're looking at here today, 2.18. Here are all four of the passages where all three persons of the Trinity are involved in you and in the church body. If you look at it, we've got these first six on the list that are in the section of Ephesians that has to do with our position in Christ. Notice the emphasis. There is indeed an emphasis on all three persons of the Godhead and their involvement in your position. But furthermore, when he gets into what is kind of the practical half of the book, notice that it doesn't stop. It continues.

Key message. The Trinity, the three persons of the Godhead, is not just a belief that we say, hey, that sounds cool, where do I sign? The three persons of the Godhead are told to us here because the intent is very much and very clearly that we live it. We are not to just believe the Trinity as if to say, okay, where do I sign, or I'll raise my right hand and swear I believe it.

But it is intended to be lived. That's the reason for the doctrine. It's not just so that we have some theoretical hypothetical thing, but that it is indeed lived out. That's the intent. For through Him we both, We have our access. Now what does he mean by we? He's been throwing pronouns around here. Got to keep those straight. It's not this kind of we. You need to know that. Spelled differently.

We both have our access in one spirit to the Father. The we includes himself, and by both he means the Jews, like himself and the Jews in Ephesus, And the Gentiles, like most of Paul's readers in the church, so he would say earlier in verse 17, you who were far away, addressing the majority group, which would be Gentiles, and the significant minority of Jews. We both, believing Gentiles and believing Jews, have our access. Both have.

Now there's a word that seems simple enough, right? Well, maybe not. Have here is a present indicative, and the idea is that we're having it right now and we're continuing to have it, and this is always true. It's the present tense that says right now we're continuing to have the access, and the indicative mood says this is a statement of fact. I'm not guessing or hoping this is the way it is. Now, look at this. Notice what it doesn't say.

It doesn't say that you won't have access until the future. Sometime, you know, when you go home and be with the Lord, then you'll have access. No. We are right now continuing to have the access. It doesn't say that you might have the access. If you're really good, you'll have the access. Or something goofy like, you've got to be a pastor to have access. That's really goofy. It doesn't say that you did anything to gain access.

I did this and this and this and this, so I have access to God. No. It is God's doing. Do you notice that? We've got a whole string of verbs of things that God did. Guess what you get to do? Belief. Yeah. This is God's doing and His accomplishment. And by the way, that's good news, isn't it? That's good news. that you get access because of your character or efforts make you worthy, that you somehow really have it now because of what you've done or how good you are. It doesn't say that you went to the right church. It doesn't say that you prayed the right prayer words. It doesn't say that you bought your way in. Nothing about what you did other than to believe.

Remember, he covered that back in verse 9. By grace are you saved. Verses 8 and 9. And so if we take the full meaning of this word here, in verse 18 it says, For through him we both are right now, in fact, continuing to have our access. That's the sense of the the words that he's conveying. We, right now, are continuing to be having our access. And that word, by the way, that's translated have, we saw in the book of Revelation frequently has the sense of have it in hand. You've got it. This isn't hypothetical. If you're a believer here this morning, you have the access. You've got it. Right now. And it's continuing. And it's not stopping. It doesn't go away.

Our access is what it says here in the English. We need to fix that a little. Let me explain why. The our is actually not in the Greek. The King James is correct here to leave it out. But both translations will miss the point that it has a definite article. We're having the specific access.

The specific access. Now, here is the best word in the whole verse. Let me explain why. What exactly is access? When we think of access, maybe you think of an open door. Maybe it's an interesting door, but it's an open door. Maybe you think, well, I've got the right combination, or the right password, or I've got the key. You might think of access that way. Maybe you think, hey, I've got the key to the elevator, and the elevator goes up, right? No, that's not quite what it means either, but we'll see. Maybe you think it's, I found the secret door.

That's access. I know how to get in, and most people don't know about this. Is that what he means? There's a word here, prosagoghe. That's a noun, and we might be thinking it's the open door, having the right key, or the secret way to get in. But you know what? Fortunately, that's not what it means. That's not what it means. Paul chose a select word that provides powerful insight into what this is talking about. First, we have to step back in time. Can you handle that? Okay. A little time machine work here. Fasten your pew belts.

About the time the Old Testament was being completed, there was a Greek historian, Xenophon, if you care to keep track of that, who wrote about the practices of the Persian kings in their palaces in his time. And the palaces are still a little broken down, but still in good enough shape, you can easily tell what those were like. There's a fisheye view of the Persian palaces there in the middle.

And so the kings would be situated in these palaces in their throne room. They would have the scepter. And there were soldiers there to make sure that everybody who came into the king was on the up and up and safe and all that sort of thing. And they did whatever the king ordered. Now, it turns out like this. You could not simply walk into the throne room at will.

You couldn't say, hey, you know, I think I'll drop in on the king today. And that'd be kind of cool. I heard this fellow speak one time, and he was going to make a trip over to England, and he wrote a letter to the Queen requesting that maybe they could have tea or something of that sort. On Royal Stationery, he got a letter back that was very polite, but told him, you got no business meeting with the Queen. We have that sense of, hey, this is somebody important. You need an introduction that's more than just casual.

In those days, to simply walk into the king's courtroom, the throne room, and to do it casually meant you were going to get sliced to bits most likely. And if you want to check that out, you can look at even the Book of Esther, where even the queen could not simply walk in. Someone with authorized access to the king, however, could make an introduction for you.

And so you had to familiarize yourself with that person. and make the introduction, and then it was okay. But only then. So, the Greek historian, this Xenophon fellow, had a name, he wrote down in Greek, for the person who was assigned to make the introductions. So it couldn't be just anybody the king knew, it had to be a specific person who was authorized to make the introductions.

So if you wanted to go in and talk to the king and live through the experience, You had to talk to this fellow, and this fellow was a prosagogaos, which is why Paul would tell us that we have the prosagogaos. We have that special introduction to the supreme royalty. We know the right person to introduce us, the one who has specific, unique authorizations. So it has this sense, through him we both have our access, that is the prosagoga, the unique required authorization for introduction to the supreme authority. Or you could put it this way, through him we both have our access, the prosagoga, that is the required authorized introduction to royalty, who is Christ, authorized because of his death, burial and resurrection, because of who he is.

So the word comes across this way. Prasagoghe is having access that is not just impersonal, it's not just, I have the key, I have the password. Instead, it is very much who you know. Have you come to a place of knowledge of this one who can introduce you, Do you have a continuing relationship with Him?

Because after all, we are continuing to have that access. Having the access isn't a passing privilege, but because we continue to know Jesus Christ, it's an eternally established relationship. We always have the access because we always have relationship with Christ. We always have the official introduction, all the time. because we know him. So this word prosagoge is also a verb.

Someone who did this royal introduction, prosago would be the verb, and it turns out that 1 Peter 3.18, the ladies who are studying on Tuesday night will be encountering this in a matter of a few weeks I think, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring prosago us to God, that He might provide the unique, special introduction to the Lord. He might be the one who provides that unparalleled introduction to the Lord Himself. So the question for us here this morning, a good question to ask ourselves, Got the prosagogae?

Maybe more explicit here. Do you know the one who can make that required royal introduction to the Father? Do you? Do you believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried and raised to life? That is what is essential, to know the one who is uniquely qualified to introduce you.

Then he says here, we have our access, that special introduction, in one spirit. What's his point about the one spirit thing? Why is that added in here? Well, one question we have is, does he really mean one? I mean, has it got to be one? Alright. Notice in verse 14, what did he say? For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one. Verse 15, in himself he might make the two into one new man. I think he means one. Verse 16, he might reconcile them both in one body. And verse 18, through him we both have our access in one spirit. I think he really means one. Ephesians 4, 1 through 6, he is going to continue on with some of this message, and one of the things that he's going to talk about when he gets there is preserving the unity of the Spirit.

The Spirit is the basis of our unity. We've all been placed into one body by the Holy Spirit's work, and that's the message of 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. By one Spirit, we are baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks. Ah, see that? whether Jews or Greeks, we've all been placed into one body, made to drink of one Spirit. Yes, this does matter. Yes, it is the Spirit's ministry to place us into one body, whether Jews or Greeks.

And finally, to the Father. What's so special about being introduced to the Father? What's so special about having access? He is the one who is credited with giving us all of the spiritual blessings that we have in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to the Father who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He's the one who gets credit.

Paul goes on to give some insight into that. When he looks at the Father, he's going to tell us in the next chapter, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father. And then he's going to make requests. When we get into the fifth chapter, he's going to say, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father. We're going to have access to the Father to talk to Him. To talk to Him. It's for relationship.

Now, we're going to have expanded and explained here. If you're new to the Body, last year we went through Philippians, And we did expand and explain every week, and so if you haven't been with us for a short time, you might not be accustomed to this. What I typically do is explain the passage in more detail, and we'll do that here this morning.

This is expanding and explaining about the verse, not about me, okay? You don't want to see me expanded, okay? And there are some things about me that just can't possibly be explained. So we're not talking about that. We're talking about the verse here. OK. All right. Now.

And Christ was coming and preached through the special messengers, the apostles, the good news of peace to you, the Gentiles who are far away, and peace to those, the Jews, who were near. For through the cross work of and our relationship with Christ, we Jews and Gentiles both are continuing to have our fully qualified royal introduction in the unity we have in the Spirit to God the Father. who is the one who blessed us so unfathomably in the heavenlies in Christ. What's neat as we look at this verse is just to see the words that Paul chose, the way that he put it together, this isn't just something academic. This is all talking about personal relationship. And this is all talking about something, because remember, he's used a series of verbs.

God did this. God did that. Christ did this. It was God's involvement in action that brought this about. And finally, to have it culminate in verse 18, the entire Trinity, the Godhead, the ones who are involved in various aspects of the creation of the universe, which was accomplished through Christ, are all involved in your access to the Father.

And the reason for that is because amazing thing of amazing things, the Lord loves us. That is phenomenal. God said, I want these people, I want these people to have access to me and I will pay the price, whatever it is, so that they can have that access. And I want them to have it constantly. Starting now, from the point of their belief on into eternity. access. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you. You indeed have done marvelous and wonderful things. And as we look at this, Lord, it is almost incomprehensible. I think as we walk through heaven's gates and we get to a place where we stand before you, we will be in awe of what that access means. As a matter of fact, I think we will be in eternity learning what it means. because of your marvelous grace, your amazing grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.