Hear Him

Matt 17:5b "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"

If there is any question what we are to focus our attention on as believers, as a church, as the Church universal, God the Father dispelled it with this statement. And here we are toward the end of Jesus' ministry on earth. A few verses after God made this declaration Jesus told His guys that He was going to die but He would rise from the dead. (vs 9, 12, 22-23) So, at the beginning of Jesus ministry God the Father spoke from heaven when He was baptized and said: "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3:17 and now toward the end of His earthly ministry God said: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him." Same statement but with an addition. "Hear Him".

A couple of years ago our men's ministry went through a study by Robert Lewis called "Men's Fraternity" Robert Lewis said that this statement showed two things about the Father's relationship with the Son. He loved Him and He was proud of Him. (His point was that every boy should know that their Dad feels this way about them.) God's love for His Son was and is immeasurable. Yet even in His love, He allowed Jesus to die. Even in His love He turned His back on His Son as He hung on the cross because the Father could not stand to look at the sin that Jesus carried for me and the whole world. No wonder He could say that He was well pleased. No wonder He was proud of Him. And this love and this pride did not waver. Jesus came to do and say the things that His Father told Him to do and say. He was obedient even up to death and the Father was pleased. (Try to wrap your brain around this verse: "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." Is. 53:10) God had pleasure in His Son, He had pleasure in His death, and He has pleasure in His reward.

No wonder He said that we need to "Hear Him". There is no one like Jesus. There is no one who has the truth…Jesus is the truth. There is no one who has the words of life…only Jesus does. If we want the truth, if we want to really live we need to listen to Jesus. We need to pay attention to Him. We need to soak in everything that He has to say. We have to concentrate on Him. We have to fix our eyes on Him. No other message, no other distractions, no other person…only Jesus.

Why? Because: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him."