Friends, I thank you again for letting me come to your homes, at this hour. Today, I will be speaking on: Pleasing God in the Footsteps of Jesus Christ.

In Saint John’s Gospel 8:29, Jesus said:

John 8:29

²⁹ And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.

In Hebrew 10, these are the words of Jesus even though we don’t find them recorded in the Gospels. But in Hebrews 10:5,

Hebrews 10:5

⁵ Therefore, when He came into the world [that is, Jesus], He said:

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
⁶ In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’”

Let me reread verse 7, and omit the parenthesis:

⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
To do Your will, O God.’”

PRAYER:

Father, as we get into Your Word now, to see how Your Son the Lord Jesus Christ pleased You; and we want to learn from Him. May Your Words come alive, we pray, that You teach us, that we may please, You in the footsteps of Christ, in His Name I pray. Amen!

God the Father bore witness to His Son on two different occasions: that He pleased Him well. In Luke 3:22,

Luke 3:22, at His baptism, the Father said, “You are my beloveth Son; in You I am well pleased.”

This was His private life; because at this point Jesus had not started his public ministry. And this was a personal testimony. “You are.” He was speaking – He was addressing the Son – the Lord Jesus Christ. “You are My beloveth Son; in You I am well pleased.” A second time, towards the end of His life on earth, after His public ministry – towards the end of His Public Ministry – on the Mount of Transfiguration the Father spoke again: Matthew 17:5 or Mark 9:7. This time, it was a public testimony – “This is My beloveth Son.” The first one was, “You are”, this one, “This is my beloveth Son”, He was speaking to the public as it were. “In Whom I am well pleased. Hear Him” or “Listen to Him.”

We’ve also established that pleasing God is a higher pleasure. Jesus had that pleasure – higher pleasure. There is a lower pleasure: the kind of pleasure that sin produces. The pleasure God feels when we please Him trickles down into the hearts of the ones who do the pleasing.  Not many people know this pleasure today otherwise overwhelming majority would not be striving and dying for the lower pleasure that sinful things give them.

How did Jesus please the Father well?

Jesus pleased the Father well as a matter of choice. We read in Hebrew 10 where He said, I have come to do Your will, O God.  Many other references in John’s Gospel, He would say, “I have come to do the will of Him who sent Me; I have come, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” It was a choice. For Jesus Christ, pleasing the Father was a choice. And how did He choose to please the Father? He chose to please the Father by doing His will perfectly. And what do you mean by doing His will perfectly? He chose to do the will of the Father by doing what the Father said to do, by doing that which the Father told Him to do, when the Father told Him to do it, and by doing what the Father told Him to do, not only when He told Him to do it, but also how: what the Father wanted Him to do, when the Father wanted Him to do it, and how the Father wanted Him to do it. Jesus chose pleasing the Father above even such essential need as food.

In John 4:32-33,

John 4:32-34

³² But He said to them [His disciples], “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

³³ Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

Jesus pleased the Father as a matter of choice. We choose who to please. Friend, who have you chosen to please? Yourself? Some of us have chosen to please  ourselves, others; or, have you chosen to please God? But let us be forewarned that you will be disappointed if you choose to please any person other than God.

Jesus did not only choose to please the Father. For Him, pleasing the Father was a matter of choice. Jesus Christ pleased the Father by depending on Him. Jesus said in John 5:30, “Of Myself, I can do nothing.” Christ’s dependence is marked by His humility. Of all the amazing attributes of Christ, such as His holiness, His love, His power and His faith, it is interesting to know that the one He claimed to Himself was His humility. In Matthew 11:28-29, where Jesus says,

Matthew 11:28-29

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

John the Baptiser, unlike many servants of God today, followed in the footsteps of Jesus Christ His Master. When the Jewish religious leaders sent people to go and find out from John who he was, that is, in John 1:19-23, 25-27, they said to him,

“Are you the Christ?”

He said, “No!”

“Are you the prophet?”

“No!”

“Are you the One to come?”

He said, “No!”

“But, who are you so that we can send message back to those who sent us?”

John the baptizer said, “I am a voice, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

But, many of us servants of God today will claim that…some will even claim to be Jesus Himself.

God will never abandon the one who depends unreservedly on Him; as  David testified in Psalm 37:25: He said, “I have been young, but now I am old, I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor His children begging bread.”

To please God well, you need to depend on him, and you can be sure that He will never abandon you to your human weaknesses. Christ’s dependence on the Father is marked not only by His humility but also by His prayer life. Prayer is the expression of dependence. Jesus prayed without ceasing in solitude – solitude of soul, solitude of space and solitude of time – and He prayed in public, too; but more so in private. Nobody ever prayed like Jesus Christ. What is your prayer life like, friend? Do you take time to pray? Your prayer life tells God everything about your dependence upon Him. There is one thing He tells God. He tells God that the relationship you have with Him is important to you.

One rabbi – Jewish rabbi, Cassof said, “Taking time out to pray every day says [that is to God], this relationship matters to me.” Jesus Christ pleased God well as a matter of choice. Jesus Christ pleased God well by depending upon Him; and finally, Jesus Christ pleased the Father by paying the Ultimate Price. The pleasure of the Father is not apparent in the passage in the New Testament where the death of Jesus Christ is recorded. There it does not say specifically that the Father was pleased with His sacrifice. But that is the fact; that is the truth. But that fact is made clear in Isaiah 53.

In Isaiah 53:9-10, the scripture says,

Isaiah 53:9-10

⁹ And they made His grave [that’s Jesus Christ’s] with the wicked [It was a prophecy before even hundreds of years before He came]—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ Yet [it pleased the Father] it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.

it pleased the Father to bruise Him.

The death of Jesus Christ pleased the Father; because by that death, Jesus Christ brought many sons to glory, brought many people into the Kingdom of God. And so, that death pleased the Father. You may not be called upon, friend to die for Christ. Nevertheless, God is pleased when you serve Him sacrificially.

Few people may be called upon to die for the Lord Jesus Christ: to sacrifice themselves for Him. But, since you and myself may not be called upon to do that, but there is still a sacrifice that God is pleased with in our lives.

With that we will close.

Hebrews 13:14-16

¹⁴ For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. ¹⁵ Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. ¹⁶ But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Sacrifice for others…which is rare in our land today – when selfishness reigns. Friend, would you pray to God today to help you, to please Him, in the footsteps of Jesus Christ?

The Hymn writer says:

1. I need thee ev'ry hour,

Most [blessed Lord] – Most gracious Lord.

No tender voice like thine

Can peace afford.

I need thee, oh, I need thee;

Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior;

I come to thee

PRAYER:

Father, we thank You for this time we have spent in Your Word. It’s our prayer that You would grant us the grace to please You in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Name we pray. Amen!