While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” Matthew 17.5

The pleasure of the Lord
By now it should be clear that the greatest pleasure any human being can know is pleasure which is pure, perfect, and lasting. Pleasures demean, disappoint, and destroy us when they are merely fleeting, fleshly, and foolish. The pleasure we ultimately seek, and for which we were created, can only be found in one place, in fellowship and communion with the Lord of heaven and earth.

All the pleasures we know in this life, all good and perfect gifts, come down to us from God as gestures and tokens of His love (Jms. 1.17). By the pleasures of this life God summons us to join Him in His pleasure, the pleasure He takes within Himself. We will never know true pleasure, pleasure that satisfies completely, until we know pleasure as God knows and intends it.

This is the pleasure God intends for us within His Kingdom. We can know this pleasure, know it truly, joyfully, and continuously, and thus discover why the Kingdom of God is such very Good News.

And the way into this pleasure of God is by the One in Whom God is “well-pleased” – Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Savior and Lord.

Why God is well-pleased with Jesus
Why is God “well-pleased” with Jesus? Undoubtedly, many reasons could be cited. I will mention five, each of which is but an extension into time of the relationship Father and Son enjoy together in the Spirit within Themselves.

First, God is well-pleased with Jesus because the Word of God readily, gladly, and whole-heartedly submitted to the Father’s will (Phil. 2.5-11; cf. Jn. 17.4). Throughout the course of His earthly ministry, Jesus faced many temptations to deny the Father and serve Himself, especially during His testing in the wilderness (Matt. 4.1-11) and His trial before the Romans and the Jews. He was tempted to vaunt Himself, gratify Himself, and save Himself – to seek pleasure for Himself apart from the will and purpose of God. In each case Jesus maintained submission to the Father, knowing that joy and pleasures forevermore were being prepared for Him upon His return to His heavenly throne.

Second, God is well-pleased with Jesus because of His faithfulness, in particular, His faithfulness to the Word and counsel of God. Jesus knew the Scriptures and He followed and taught them assiduously. He never departed from the Word of God, and He never failed to teach all that God had entrusted to Him. As faithful as Jesus was in submitting to the Father, He was equally faithful in teaching the Word of the Father, and for this reason God commands all who know Him to “Listen to Him!”

Third, God must have been well-pleased with Jesus’ courage. He came unto a people He knew would reject Him, scorn Him, mock, scourge, and crucify Him. But He never flinched from His calling, never backed down from what He knew awaited Him, and never allowed the fear of men to turn Him from His course and calling in life.

Fourth, God was well-pleased with Jesus because of the love He exhibited throughout His ministry. People were astonished at Jesus not just because of what He taught but because He loved the unloved and unlovely, and even His enemies and those who opposed Him. God is love, and Jesus faithfully represented God’s love to the people of His day. For this as well the Father is well-pleased with Him.

Finally, God was well-pleased with the endurance Jesus showed. He stayed the course to the bitter end, never turning His mind’s eye away from the Father or the promise of exaltation that awaited Him. He remained strong, consistent, and unbending, even as they mocked Him on the cross and His disciples abandoned Him to His suffering.

Into the pleasure of the Lord
We can never hope to be as consistently and thoroughly submissive, faithful, courageous, loving, and persistent as Jesus was. But we can know the pleasure of the Lord by resting in Jesus, walking with Him, and listening to Him speaking to us from His Word. As we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we will know in Him more of the good pleasure of the Lord, pleasure that cannot be known apart from Him.

For being in Jesus is the ultimate pleasure, the defining pleasure, the culmination and touchstone of all the pleasures of this life, rightly received and enjoyed. In Jesus all the pleasures and Good News of the Kingdom of God come together in a single Person. To know Him, to set our minds on Him, to be seated with Him in heavenly places, to commune with Him in prayer, His Word, and the sacrament – this is to know, if only as a foretaste, true, lasting, perfect, and pure pleasure, pleasure to satisfy in every situation, every day of our lives.

Next steps: On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest rating, how would you assess the consistency of your walk with the Lord Jesus? Do you know His presence and pleasure as consistently and truly as you would like? Share this exercise with a Christian friend.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Kingdom Pleasure, is the seventh of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.