THE LORD’S PRECIOUSNESS TO THE FATHER
Luke 2:8-14; Mark 1:9-11; Matthew 17:1-5; Luke 23:44-46; John 20:17; Acts 1:9-11
It is in mind to speak of what the writer of the hymn we sang encapsulates so sweetly in the last verse:
‘In Thy grace Thou now hast brought us
Sharers of Thy joy to be,
And to know the blessèd secret
Of His preciousness to Thee.’ Hymn 277
What is in mind is to take these passages referring to six points in the Lord’s life here, and to go over them and the periods between them, and to direct our hearts and minds to the preciousness of Christ to the Father. It says, “Because it is contained in the scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion a corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame”, 1 Pet.2:6. I have in mind to refer to these and other scriptures to illustrate what is in mind.
In Luke 2 we have this interesting expression as to “a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. It is the incoming of the Lord in His birth. We know that He was distinctive even before that, because it says of Him, “the holy thing also which shall be born”, Luke 1:35. Now that One is presented as a Babe in Bethlehem’s manger, and the Father is sending this message, “good pleasure in men”. Here was the One in whom His good pleasure would be found; He would find His delight in Him: as we go on we will see that. The Scriptures describe that progress from the manger to the Jordan, from the Jordan to the mount, from the mount to the cross and His death and burial, and from the tomb to His resurrection and ascension and His coming again; that is what I had in mind to speak of.
Here we have God’s “good pleasure in men”. God would find His pleasure in this One, seen here as a Babe. We have spoken of the lamb character; and here is a Babe, helpless, unable to defend itself. It says in the Psalms, “thou didst make me trust, upon my mother's breasts”, Ps.22:9. The Lord is seen here as a Babe, and the Father was able to identify – although the Child had done nothing as yet – that in Him His good pleasure would be in men. God would find His delight in this beloved One, and because of that He would find His delight in men. It is wonderful to lay hold of. I feel the need to lay hold of it more.
In Mark’s gospel, we have the matter of the Lord’s baptism. I wanted to speak first about the period of time between His birth and His baptism – the manger to the Jordan – and what characterised that part of the Lord’s life that the Father delighted in. We have that glimpse of the Lord at the age of twelve “occupied in my Father's business”, Luke 2:49. You could write that as a banner over that private, secret history with God and man, of the Lord Jesus here – “occupied in my Father’s business”. As a boy of twelve He was everything that the Father sought to find in a boy of twelve. Scripture says: “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isa.50:4. How delightful to the Father, that here was One who was always ready, who always had a ready ear for what the Father would say, whatever it might be. Later in Luke 2, it says that the Lord Jesus “advanced … in favour with God and men” (v.52). It also says in the prophet, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”, Isa.53:2. Oh, what a joy to the Father to see that; Jesus was not drawing anything from this scene, but drawing everything from the Father as a root out of dry ground.
That marked this period from His birth to His baptism, the Lord’s growing up before the Father, “a root out of dry ground”. It culminates in what is said at His baptism: “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. It has been said that here, His personal perfections were a place of rest for the divine glory1 – the Father saying that He found His delight in Him, and the Spirit descended as a dove: “the Spirit, as a dove, descending upon him”. The Spirit found all in order, nothing to adjust, everything in perfection. It is the thought of rest, the dove speaks of what is peaceful; the Spirit complacent in all He found in that One. The Father’s voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. It is the culmination of these thirty years of the secret history of the Lord’s life, in secret with the Father, and in secret with those He knew. We do not get many glimpses of it, but we see that the Father found His delight in Him – as the hymn says, ‘the blessèd secret of His preciousness to thee’. How wonderful it was that the Father had that in Christ, and heaven cannot be silent. In this passage, the Lord is about to begin His public pathway, of service, and we have heaven’s approbation. It is really the mark of heaven’s approval of that thirty years of life when He was “occupied in my Father’s business”.
In Matthew, we have the mount where the Lord was transfigured before them. I thought of what characterised the Lord’s life from the Jordan to the mount – a period of about three years. What a period it was: it says of Him, “who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil”, Acts 10:38. The Lord says in Nazareth, where He was brought up, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”, Luke 4:18. Why? It says, “to preach glad tidings”. Think of the Father’s delight in every step of the Lord’s pathway. “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, John 4:34. In the Lord’s pathway here, every step was according to the Father’s will; what gems, you might say, these elements of His life in service. John says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”, John 21:25. Heaven contains them; heaven has it all recorded, every blessed feature so precious to the Father. The world could not contain these books, but these things were written – so we have them, they are contained in the Scripture. We see in them the secret of His preciousness to the Father.
In that period of service, the Lord spoke to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, about new birth, a very basic thing; and He spoke to a Samaritan woman about worship: what a blessed matter it was. The Father’s will was done in all of this; the Lord did and said what the Father had in mind for that day and for that person. In everything, the Lord was doing the Father’s will: the healing, the selecting of the disciples. Think of Him in prayer before the Father as to selecting the disciples, knowing all that was involved in that selection; all shared, you might say, with the Father, the Father’s mind coming into it all. How precious it was to the Father: the Lord never did anything of His own volition, exactly; He was always waiting for the Father’s word: “He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. What a blessed thing it is to contemplate, that the Father had here One who, in every step, did what He willed, and loved to do it; He loved to do the Father’s will. There is a beautiful correspondence between the Father’s love for Christ, and Christ’s love for the Father: the Father finding His delight in that blessed One.
On the mount, the Father’s voice is heard again. Peter, when he refers to this (see 2 Peter 1:17,18), speaks of the Lord and the voice; he does not refer to the diversion that he, Peter, brought in here. The Father says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him”. It was not a passing thing, it applied to these three years of service. Those years of public service were a different test to the first thirty years of the Lord’s life, and now another test was coming. In Luke’s account of the mount, it says that they “spoke of his departure which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem”, Luke 9:31. That brings us to our next scripture in Luke 23, to the cross. I thought about that period of time, perhaps about six months of service, from His coming down from the mountain until the crucifixion. From the mount His face was set to go to Jerusalem, to the cross (Luke 9:51). The clouds were gathering; the storm that the enemy was bringing in to rage against the Lord’s Christ was building. He comes to a village of the Samaritans and they reject Him because His face was set steadfastly to go to Jerusalem (vv.52-55). His pathway brings about rejection; and His disciples want fire to come down. They thought it was deserved, but no, it is not the spirit of the lowly Jesus, it is not His Father’s will. He is going on, He is accepting that will, accepting the sufferings, treading that pathway to Calvary; how blessed it is to contemplate that. He was not defending Himself, the same Jesus who healed the lepers (chap.17:11-19), such wonderful things, is going on. He meets the blind man at Jericho who cries out for mercy (chap.18:35-43). Does he find mercy? Yes, of course! It is the same Jesus; you find Him weeping over Jerusalem, the Father’s feelings expressed: “If thou hadst known, even thou, even at least in this thy day, the things that are for thy peace: but now they are hid from thine eyes” (chap.19:42). Think of the feelings of the Father and the feelings of the Lord combining there: He wept over Jerusalem. Then He weeps over the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35), as we touched on in the reading. It was the common lot of humanity, yet how He felt for that family; and He comes in and He raises Lazarus.
Just days afterwards – we do not know how long but it is not long, it would seem – the Lord is facing His own death. There is that woman who pours out the alabaster flask; she poured it out on Him because heaven delighted to prompt that in her heart, that the Lord should be anointed in this way. The Lord says, “Suffer her to have kept this for the day of my preparation for burial”, John 12:7. How blessed it was. His steps go on: He desires that He might have that supper with His disciples. How blessed are the things that are opened up there. We see in the gospels, particularly in John, how the Lord brings in these blessed matters – “I do always the things that are pleasing to him”, to the Father (John 8:29). He says, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”, John 10:17. How wonderful! I remember reading a little remark that ‘every movement that He made gave the Father fresh occasion to love Him’.2 You can see where that impression comes from. Everything is according to the Father’s will: “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. He is moving on: it has been said that He is moving on to the altar, not to the throne3; He is moving on and the storm is gathering, every step is precious. He kneels before the Father in the garden – “if it be possible let this cup pass from me”, Matt.26:39. I think the three-fold repetition of His prayer is important; not because there was any doubt, but to establish beyond all doubt that the blessings God had in mind for us could only be accomplished by this blessed One going the way of death. He receives that cup from the Father.
Where we read in Luke, it says, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”. Then, “And having said this, he expired”. I thought this was particularly affecting because in the previous column of the scripture, we have the words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (v.34). The hymn-writer says,
‘What grace was in the suff’ring Lamb,
Who died to make us free.’ Hymn 215
What grace was there – the Father’s feelings in relation to His people, in relation to mankind, perfectly reflected in everything that the Lord did. In every circumstance, He was found perfect. We see, as these scriptures are before us, something of the secret of His preciousness to the Father.
He lays down His life, He goes down into death. Scripture puts together the cross and His death and burial. It says “For I delivered to you, in the first place, what also I had received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”, 1 Cor.15:3,4. I just thought it was remarkable that He died, He laid down His life, “according to the scriptures”, and it involved the shedding of His blood. John brings that in: “but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water”, John 19:34. How necessary these two things are, the blood and the water. It is not in my mind to go into that now, but I wanted to draw attention to the feelings of the Father. The Lord had just committed His spirit into the hands of the Father, but His body was going down into death. He had died, and He would be taken down from the cross, but that soldier, to make sure that the Lord really was dead, pierced His side.
Think of the Father’s feelings. It has been said that He was never more precious to the Father than when He had to endure the forsaking, and then going down into death4. The Father found His delight, not exactly in the fact that His suffering and death were necessary, but in the fact that here was One prepared to go through with it all in perfect submission to His will. God had counted the cost. Scripture speaks of counting the cost (see Luke 14:28); we could say reverently that God had done that; and here was the One who in God’s ways in moral excellence was carrying it out. He was giving effect to the counsels of God, going down into death and into the grave.
That scripture in 1 Corinthians goes on, “and that he was buried”. That is a lovely distinction, that “he was buried”, and it is left at that. It is according to the Scriptures, of course. We see that in the scripture – “And men appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death”, Isa.53:9. He has gone that way: “he was buried”. We can say that the work which was accomplished between the cross and His resurrection involved His death, the shedding of His blood, and His burial. What meaning it has for us! But He cannot remain there. The psalmist says, “For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption”, Ps.16:10. That is what the psalmist says: He could not be left there. He was in the grave three days and three nights; it was a perfect witness: no shorter and no longer than was needed to witness to divine love; “thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”, Matt.12:40. What a matter it was for the Father, that the One whom He loved, in whom He found His delight, was found there in the grave, in death.
But He could not be held by it, He could not be left there. That is demonstrated where we read in John – I thought it was good to bring in the four gospels, and it is important how John presents it. The Lord says, “I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. He could not be left there. I thought of what the apostle Paul says to the Ephesians, “what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies”, Eph.1:19,20. The Lord could not be held by the power of death. You could say that He had the authority to take His life again: He says that (see John 10:18). He had authority to come to life again, but in the blessed dependence that marked Him, it is the Father who raises Him: “he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”. It was not simply a word; it was not like creation when “he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, Ps.33:9. It was power: “according to the working of the might of his strength in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”. He is risen: the One whom the Father loves, and now the Lord is introducing His own to this wonderful relationship. How the Father’s heart, in His delight in Christ, is extended. That love continues; the Lord is now out of death, He is risen. The angel says: “He is not here, for he is risen”, Matt.28:6. And then the Lord appears to His own. First He sends this word, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. He brings His own into that relationship with the Father, into the Father’s delight in Him, that blessed One.
In Acts we read that He was taken up: “And having said these things he was taken up, they beholding him, and a cloud received him out of their sight”. I was thinking of these forty days: it says earlier in the chapter: “he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs; being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things which concern the kingdom of God” (v.3). What was involved in that! The Lord in resurrection comes to His own. Luke speaks about that: “The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon”, Luke 24:34. He had secured Simon; the Lord had prayed for him before, that his faith would not fail (chap.22:32); Simon Peter was going to be necessary for the spread of the testimony. It was all in the Father’s mind, all part of the delight of the Father that He found in Christ as He worked in resurrection amongst His own. The Lord reached Simon, and then He secures those two on the way to Emmaüs (Luke 24:13-35). They were going away and He brings them back: their souls were exercised to come back to the place where the Lord is being spoken about and to which He was coming (v.36), for He comes in amongst His own. It also refers to “all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us” (Acts 1:21) and about the different times that He appeared to them in these forty days (see 1 Corinthians 15:5-8). He was encouraging them, building them up so that there might be that which was established and would continue here after He had gone.
The Lord was acting so that all the work of salvation that He had wrought would bear fruit, fruit to God and fruit to Himself. Then we have this: “having said these things he was taken up”. He does not go of His own volition exactly, but He was taken up; the Father saw to it that He was taken up into heaven. We should lay hold of this; that the One in whom the Father delighted, the One who had been so faithful to Him – the Father saw to it that He was taken up in front of His own, “and a cloud received him out of their sight”. It is wonderful language: it shows the delight of the Father in bringing that blessed One to be with Himself. It says, “whom heaven indeed must receive”, Acts 3:21. How could it be otherwise? The One who delighted the Father’s heart is now in heaven at the Father’s right hand, sitting on the throne, awaiting the word to come again.
That is why I read on; I thought it was interesting to see what these two men say: “why do ye stand looking into heaven?”. They were standing there looking into heaven, but they had seen Him taken up. These two men say “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven”, so the disciples saw Him: “And as they were gazing into heaven, as he was going” – they saw the Lord taken into heaven. The mind goes to Elijah and Elisha. Elisha wanted a double portion of Elijah’s spirit (2 Kings 2:9) and Elijah says, “if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee” (v.10). They saw Jesus taken up, and the two men say, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. He is coming again in like manner. The Lord is coming again; He is going to reign, and He will be publicly vindicated. The Father’s delight in Him will be acknowledged by all when He comes to reign, taking the place that is rightly His. In the meantime, we wait for Him to come for all of His own. It speaks of “a king who made a wedding feast for his son”, Matt.22:2. There is going to be a wedding feast for this One, and all those who have been secured by Him will be there, those who form the bride, that which delights His heart and also delights the Father’s heart. Christ will have that which answers to His own heart. We might just finish on that, that the Father’s delight is in Jesus, and those whom He has secured.
Well, may we be encouraged as we think of this, may it lift our hearts and focus them on this blessed One in whom the Father found His delight, for the Lord’s name’s sake.
Address at Glasgow
25 April 2026
Robert McClean