want to look at the commandment of Jesus.  What is the commandment the Father gave Jesus when He sent Jesus into the world?  We fancy ourselves as commandment experts in the church.  We hear a lot about God’s commandments in christian circles, and its usually from the perspective of what God commands us to do.  But, is that what the Father’s commandment is really all about.  If God isnt carnal can we accurately describe His commandment as Him telling us we must perform carnal ordinances?  

Joh 12:44  Jesus cried and said, He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me.
Joh 12:45  And he that sees me sees him that sent me.
Joh 12:46  I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness.  I am come to bring the Father and His heart out of the shadows of the carnal mind, so He can been seen and known.  The light is the revelation of the Father.  The world was dwelling in darkness because they hadn’t seen or known the Father.  
Joh 12:47  And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
Joh 12:48  He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Joh 12:49  For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
Joh 12:50  And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Jesus says he came on behalf of the Father, so the Father can be seen and heard.  Jesus says he didnt come to speak of himself, he came to speak of the Father.  He says the Father sent him, and the commandment the Father gave him was to make the Father known to the world.  

Psalm 40 talking about the commandment the Father gave Jesus, says lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me.  I delight to do your will O God.  Your law is within my heart.  I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation.  I have not hid your lovingkindness and your truth from the great congregation. 

Jesus says to the Father in John 17:4 I have glorified you on the earth.  I have finished the work you gave me to do.  I have manifested your name in the earth.  Jesus says in the passages we just read in John 12 the Father’s commandment is life everlasting.  Jesus says in John 17, that life everlasting, is to know the one true God.  If life everlasting is to know the one true God, and the commandment is life everlasting, then the commandment is the revelation of the one true God.  The commandment is the revelation of the Father.  It’s the Father Himself.  

***The commandment the Father sent Jesus with was to reveal Him to the world.  The Father is perfect.  His heart is pure towards us.  Our image hasnt been marred in His heart.  He can only ever treat us as the treasure He says we are.  He can only ever be good to us, even should He find us in the darkness of our sin.  He can only ever be with us to be our advocate; to defend our name and our life, from all that would harm us.  His heart is filled with so much goodness towards us that even should we give Him evil, He will be good to us.  Theres no darkness in the Father.  There’s nothing in Him to be afraid of.  He’s harmless as a dove.  He’s set apart to being the lover of our lives.  He’s set apart unto chasing us down with His mercy and His goodness.  

John begins his gospel by telling us Jesus is in the bosom of the Father.  He says no one has seen the Father but the Son.  The Son is come to declare the Father to the world.  Jesus knows the Father.  The Father sees He is in Jesus and Jesus is in him.  The Father says to Jesus go and make me known to the world so they can see I am with them to give their lives the care they need.  Show them I am there to swaddle them from the blood of death with the light of my life.  Let them see the goodness I feel in my heart towards them is so much, that it even will chase after them.  Show them I can cover their nakedness; show them I can overcome the deadness in their bodies and the deadness in the world.  Show them I can give them a life that can comfort them and pamper them with peace and love and joy.

The Father sent Jesus, and the precept the Father gave Jesus to reveal to the world, was Himself.  The revelation of the Father is the commandment.  

If the Father’s commandment was to tell people to perform the carnal ordinances in the law, or to produce good fruit, or tell people what they must do to live right.  He could have sent anyone to do that.  He didnt need to send Jesus.  Anyone can tell people what to perform.  But if the Father wanted to make Himself known to the world, then the only one He can send is Jesus because Jesus is the only one who knew His heart. 

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

When we think of the word commandment we think of someone ordering us to do something.  But, it’s used here to talk about something God brings forth by manifesting Himself.  Paul says God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in Genesis, has commanded light to shine in our hearts, by revealing His goodness towards us in the face of Jesus Christ.   God called forth light in our hearts by revealing Himself to us.  God shined in our hearts by revealing Himself to us in the face of Jesus Christ.  

Jesus says he knows the Father’s commandment is life everlasting.  He knows the revelation of the Father will call forth life in people.  Jesus didn’t come to speak of himself.  He came to speak of the Father.  The resurrection of Jesus speaks of the Father.  It speaks of the thoughts and intents of the Fathers heart towards people who are afflicted by sin and death. 

Jesus says to the Father in John 17:1 glorify me that I may glorify you.  Jesus goes on to say this is life eternal, that they might know you, the one true God.  

Jesus says to the Father, if the world can know your love for them like I know your love for me, they will call upon your name, and that will call forth your life in them.  Glorify me by raising me up out of the grave, and that will be the fulfillment of the commandment.  When you raise me up from the worlds sin and death, clothed in your life, it will paint your image in the earth, and make you known to the world.  When the world can see you caring for their lives in me, that will be the fulfillment of the commandment; that will make You manifest as Father; that will show you to be the one true God; this will be unto eternal life.   All those who see and believe will call upon your name, and that will call forth everlasting life in them; that will be unto everlasting life manifesting in them.  

That’s why Jesus is a light.  The life that manifested in his bodily resurrection reveals God as Father.  It reveals the lovingkindness in God’s heart for our lives.  It reveals that God has taken thought to give our lives the care they need.  It reveals God has done a work to care for our lives, that is exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think …  that gives us eyes to see God; that glorifies God as Father.

Joh 15:10  If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 

The commandment of Jesus is the revelation of the Father.  The way you keep the commandment of Jesus is to abide in the image Jesus painted of the Father in the earth.  Abiding in Jesus is to walk before the Father’s perfection towards you.  Its to walk in the image of the Father Jesus painted in his death and resurrection.  It’s for your home to be made in the bosom of the Father.  It’s to dwell in what Jesus revealed about the Fathers heart towards your life in the cross and the resurrection.  The way you keep the commandment of Jesus is to live your life beholding the goodness and faithfulness of the Father towards you; to serve you with His life and decorate you in His peace, and His love, and His joy.  God is desiring for us to walk before Him.  He is wanting us to see He is perfect in His thoughts and intentions towards our life.  He wants us to see He can only ever love our lives and be good to us, so we walk in His perfection towards us.  

Deuteronomy talks about walking in the statutes and judgments of God.  That’s what it means to walk in the statutes and judgments of God.  God has revealed Himself to be perfect towards you.  He has revealed Himself to be as he ought to be as your shield and your buckler.  He has revealed that He is as He ought to be as the one who can give your life the care it needs.  He revealed Himself to be righteous as the one who will make you exceedingly fruitful.  The statutes and judgments of God declare His righteousness towards you, and the way you walk in His statutes and judgments is by crying out Abba, and looking to the strength in His hand to serve you with life.  

This is the point of the commandment, this is the end of the commandment, that your heart cry out Abba ….  The commandment is the revelation of the Father, and you walk in the commandment by continuing in ….

The Father is the one true God.  He shows Himself to the one true God by providing Himself a lamb and conquering sin and death in the body of Jesus’ resurrection.  He does that so you have one God the Lord Your God.  

This is the point of the commandment, this is the end of the commandment, that your heart cry out Abba ….  The commandment is the revelation of the Father, and you walk in the commandment by continuing in ….

End ……