Let us turn today to Luke 3:21,22, “Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” ”. This is a testimony that the Father gave to Jesus – you are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The major part of Jesus life, which we don’t know much about, was the reason why God the Father testified this way. We know that the life of Jesus was one without sin and one in which He was in constant touch with the Father. Jesus denied His will and always did the will of the Father. Jesus’ inner life was fully pleasing to the Father. Our life should also be likewise. Our inner and outer life should be fully pleasing to the Father.
In Luke 3:16,17 we understand the need of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to burn up the chaff in our life. The Holy Spirit can help us to cleanse our inner life and help us to remove all the roots of sin in our life. In John 16 we read of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit will help us to be like Jesus – free from sin. In v13 we read, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” The Holy Spirit will help us to understand the truth – the truth about Jesus coming to save us from our sins, the truth that there is no good in our flesh. In the past week also we heard about the importance of prayer. Jesus also had a very close relationship to the Father through prayer. Jesus always found time to pray; withdrawing himself from the crowd. This was the way Jesus found the will of the Father for him.
Let us turn to 1 Samuel. We know the story of Samuel. Hannah dedicated Samuel to the temple. We read of how God bypassed Eli and spoke to Samuel. Eli had repeatedly disobeyed God. So God chose to speak to the little boy Samuel. In 1 Samuel 2:11 we read that Samuel ministered to the Lord. In chapter 3 we read how the word from the Lord was rare in those days. Samuel was not familiar with hearing the voice of the Lord, so he thought it was Eli who called him. Later, with Eli’s help, he realizes that it is the Lord who spoke to him. Samuel was faithful in what the Lord had given him to do, so the Lord chose to speak to him. Eli was disobedient and so the Lord bypassed him and stopped talking to him. Has the Lord stopped talking to you? Do you still hear His voice? We need to take the tasks that God has given us seriously or else the Lord will bypass us and talk to another person. We may have been a part of the church for a long time. But if our deeds don’t correspond to what we hear repeatedly, the Lord will stop talking to you. When we get warnings, let us repent. Let us not harden our hearts. The life of Eli is a warning to all of us. We see how the Lord was going to punish Eli (v12-14) and God told this to Samuel. In v19, we read that the Lord was with Samuel and not one of his words failed. This can be possible only if God’s blessing is on us and with the help of the Holy Spirit. We too can have this experience that the Lord can speak to us and when we speak, the words will go straight to the hearts of the listeners and lead them to repentance. We need to find out what is God’s calling for our lives and do it faithfully. If we don’t, God will take it away from us and give it to another. If the Lord is not with us, we know how a pathetic state we will be in.
In 1 Peter 2:1-5 we read about putting aside various sins and longing for the word. Every day we taste the kindness of the Lord. In v4 we read of being precious in the sight of God. Although Jesus was rejected by men, He was precious in the sight of God. Where do we find our worth? Are we precious in the sight of men, or in the sight of God? In v5 we read of being living sacrifices – this can be possible only with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Our life will be well pleasing to the Father only if we have the Holy Spirit. Without the help of the Holy Spirit it is impossible to live a life without sin. This is God’s burden for us. In Mark 10, we read of the blind man that Jesus healed. In verse 51 we read, “And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!”.” This is what the Lord is asking us today – What do you want me to do for you? Let us desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In Psalms 41:11 we read that the mark that God is pleased with us is that we have victory over all our enemies (sin). In 2 Corinthians 5:6 we read of Paul’s ambition to be pleasing to the Lord at all times. May this be our desire too.
We are all beloved children to our Father, but we need to check if our Father is fully pleased in us. When the Holy Spirit is there in a beloved child; then our life can be one where the Father is fully pleased in us. When the task that God has given us is being done faithfully, the Father can be pleased in us. When we fall and do something that is not pleasing to the Father, we need to remember that we have tried to please someone else at that point. In Acts we read that when the people were stoning Stephen, he was filled with the Spirit and looked to the heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand side of God. Whose face are we looking at? The faces of the ones who are coming to stone us or the face of the Father? After the death of Jesus, his disciples scattered away in many directions. Two of them took the route to Emmaus, but we see Jesus walking with them and bringing them back to hope. When we too take the wrong paths in life, the Lord walks with us to bring us back to Him. Let us always repent and be beloved children who are well pleasing to Him.
