The Aim Is To Please

"John 8:12-30

Always try to please God

Do you realise that you can give God pleasure? Jesus says, ‘I always do what pleases him’ (v.29). This should be our aim in life – to please God.

Jesus models for us a life with God. He says, ‘I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me’ (v.16). He says, ‘The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone’ (v.29a). Throughout this passage, we discover something about Jesus’ perfect relationship with his Father.

Jesus says, ‘I know where I came from and where I am going’ (v.14). So many people struggle in life because they don’t know where they came from or where they are heading. So many struggle with a lack of purpose and direction in their lives. In a close relationship with God, we can know where we came from, and ultimately where we are heading.

Jesus’ relationship with the Father was also the source of his purpose and direction day by day. He says, ‘I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me’ (v.28). He says, ‘The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone’ (v.29a).

This is the model for us. God was with Jesus. Jesus knew he was never alone. There was not a single thing he did without God. At every moment his desire is to please God: ‘I always do what pleases him’ (v.29b). This is what gave his life such power and effectiveness. ‘Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him’ (v.30).

Not only was Jesus with God, he was God. As John puts it at the start of his gospel, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (1:1).

Twice in today’s passage Jesus says, ‘I am he’ (8:24,28). This is a way God sometimes refers to himself in the Old Testament (see for example Isaiah 43:10). The words translated ‘I am he’ are the same words that are used in the Greek translation of Exodus 3:14–16. There, God revealed himself to Moses as ‘I AM WHO I AM’. This name came to express both the identity of God and the closeness of God to his people.

In today’s passage, Jesus seems to be using this name himself (and he definitely does so later on in the chapter, in v.58). He is telling the people that God has once again come near to them in him. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.

It is as we look to the cross that Jesus says we have the clearest demonstration of his identity. ‘So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be.” ’ (v.28).

Jesus had complete confidence in his own identity. We have seen how the key to Jesus’ confidence and identity lay in his relationship with the Father. The same will also be true for us. As you spend time with the Father in prayer, in worship, or in reading the Scriptures, you will find that your sense of identity and confidence in who you are in God will grow. You can know where you have come from and where you are heading.

No matter what people say about you, you can walk confidently with head held high. Your identity is in Christ and what he says about you and the fact that he is with you.

Father, thank you that we are able to say, ‘The one who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone’. Help me, like Jesus, always to do what pleases you and always to speak just what you have taught me."

1. Thank You, Lord, for being always there whatever happens. May I always do what pleases You.

2. Praise God for new friends from the other side of the world. Thank You for resetting my mindset.

3. Thank You for good connections.