Chapter 10:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Lightfoot
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGarvey Pendleton
| McGee
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Luke Acts
John 10
Verse 1. He that entereth not by the door - By Christ. He is the only
lawful entrance. Into the sheepfold - The Church. He is a thief and
a robber - In God's account. Such were all those teachers, to
whom our Lord had just been speaking.
Verse
3. To him the door keeper openeth - Christ is considered as the
shepherd, ver. 11. As the door in the first and following verses.
And as it is not unworthy of Christ to be styled the door, by which
both the sheep and the true pastor enter, so neither is it unworthy
of God the Father to be styled the door keeper. See Acts xiv, 27;
Colossians iv, 3; Rev. iii, 8; Acts xvi, 14. And the sheep hear his
voice - The circumstances that follow, exactly agree with the
customs of the ancient eastern shepherds. They called their sheep
by name, went before them and the sheep followed them. So real
Christians hear, listen to, understand, and obey the voice of the
shepherd whom Christ hath sent. And he counteth them his own,
dearer than any friend or brother: calleth, advises, directs each by
name, and leadeth them out, in the paths of righteousness, beside
the waters of comfort.
Verse
4. He goeth before them - In all the ways of God, teaching them in
every point, by example as well as by precept; and the sheep
follow him - They tread in his steps: for they know his voice -
Having the witness in themselves that his words are the wisdom
and the power of God. Reader, art thou a shepherd of souls? Then
answer to God. Is it thus with thee and thy flock?
Verse
5. They will not follow a stranger - One whom Christ hath not
sent, who doth not answer the preceding description. Him they
will not follow - And who can constrain them to it? But will flee
from him - As from the plague. For they know not the voice of
strangers - They cannot relish it; it is harsh and grating to them.
They find nothing of God therein.
Verse
6. They - The Pharisees, to whom our Lord more immediately
spake, as appears from the close of the foregoing chapter.
Verse
7. I am the door - Christ is both the Door and the Shepherd, and
all things.
Verse
8. Whosoever are come - Independently of me, assuming any part
of my character, pretending, like your elders and rabbis, to a
power over the consciences of men, attempting to make laws in
the Church, and to teach their own traditions as the way of
salvation: all those prophets and expounders of God's word, that
enter not by the door of the sheepfold, but run before I have sent
them by my Spirit. Our Lord seems in particular to speak of those
that had undertaken this office since he began his ministry, are
thieves -Stealing temporal profit to themselves, and robbers -
Plundering and murdering the sheep.
Verse
9. If any one - As a sheep, enter in by me - Through faith, he shall
be safe - From the wolf, and from those murdering shepherds.
And shall go in and out - Shall continually attend on the
shepherds whom I have sent; and shall find pasture - Food for his
soul in all circumstances.
Verse
10. The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy -
That is, nothing else can be the consequence of a shepherd's
coming, who does not enter in by me.
Verse
12. But the hireling - It is not the bare receiving hire, which
denominates a man a hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his
hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge: yea, and the Lord hath
ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the
Gospel:) but the loving hire: the loving the hire more than the
work: the working for the sake of the hire. He is a hireling, who
would not work, were it not for the hire; to whom this is the great
(if not only) motive of working. O God! If a man who works only
for hire is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he
who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at all? The
wolf - signifies any enemy who, by force or fraud, attacks the
Christian's faith, liberty, or life. So the wolf seizeth and scattereth
the flock - He seizeth some, and scattereth the rest; the two ways
of hurting the flock of Christ.
Verse
13. The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling - Because he loves
the hire, not the sheep.
Verse
14. I know my sheep - With a tender regard and special care: and
am known of mine - With a holy confidence and affection.
Verse
15. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father - With such
a knowledge as implies an inexpressible union: and I lay down my
life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole life was only a
going unto death.
Verse
16. I have also other sheep - Which he foreknew; which are not of
this fold - Not of the Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles. I must
bring them likewise - Into my Church, the general assembly of
those whose names are written in heaven. And there shall be one
flock - (Not one fold, a plain false print) no corrupt or divided
flocks remaining. And one shepherd - Who laid down his life for
the sheep, and will leave no hireling among them. The unity both
of the flock and the shepherd shall be completed in its season. The
shepherd shall bring all into one flock: and the whole flock shall
hear the one shepherd.
Verse
17. I lay down my life that I may take it again - I cheerfully die to
expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their
justification.
Verse
18. I lay it down of myself - By my own free act and deed. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again - I have an
original power and right of myself, both to lay it down as a
ransom, and to take it again, after full satisfaction is made, for the
sins of the whole world. This commission have I received of my
Father - Which I readily execute. He chiefly spoke of the Father,
before his suffering: of his own glory, after it. Our Lord's
receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as
the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life. For this
he had in him self, as having an original right to dispose thereof,
antecedent to the Father's commission. But this commission was
the reason why he thus used his power in laying down his life. He
did it in obedience to his Father.
Verse
21. These are not the words - The word in the original takes in
actions too.
Verse
22. It was the feast of the dedication - Instituted by Judas
Maccabeus, 1 Macc. iv, 59, when he purged and dedicated the
altar and temple after they had been polluted. So our Lord
observed festivals even of human appointment. Is it not, at least,
innocent for us to do the same?
Verse
23. In Solomon's portico - Josephus informs us, that when
Solomon built the temple, he filled up a part of the adjacent
valley, and built a portico over it toward the east. This was a noble
structure, supported by a wall four hundred cubits high: and
continued even to the time of Albinus and Agrippa, which was
several years after the death of Christ.
Verse
26. Ye do not believe, because ye are not of my sheep - Because
ye do not, will not follow me: because ye are proud, unholy,
lovers of praise, lovers of the world, lovers of pleasure, not of
God.
Verses
27, 28, 29. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me, &c.- Our Lord still alludes to the discourse he had
before this festival. As if he had said, My sheep are they who,
1. Hear my voice by faith;
2. Are known (that is, approved) by me, as loving me; and
3. Follow me, keep my commandments, with a believing, loving
heart. And to those who,
(1.) Truly believe (observe three promises annexed to three
conditions) I give eternal life. He does not say, I will, but I give.
For he that believeth hath everlasting life. Those whom,
(2.) I know truly to love me, shall never perish, provided they abide
in my love.
(3.) Those who follow me, neither men nor devils can pluck out of
my hand. My Father who hath, by an unchangeable decree, given
me all that believe, love, and obey, is greater than all in heaven or
earth, and none is able to pluck them out of his hand.
Verse 30. I and the Father are one - Not by consent of will only, but by
unity of power, and consequently of nature. Are - This word
confutes Sabellius, proving the plurality of persons: one - This
word confutes Arius, proving the unity of nature in God. Never
did any prophet before, from the beginning of the world, use any
one expression of himself, which could possibly be so interpreted
as this and other expressions were, by all that heard our Lord
speak. Therefore if he was not God he must have been the vilest
of men.
Verse
34. Psalm lxxxii, 6.
Verse
35. If he (God) called them gods unto whom the word of God
came, (that is, to whom God was then speaking,) and the Scripture
cannot be broken - That is, nothing which is written therein can be
censured or rejected.
Verse
36. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into
the world - This sanctification (whereby he is essentially the Holy
One of God) is mentioned as prior to his mission, and together
with it implies, Christ was God in the highest sense, infinitely
superior to that wherein those Judges were so called.
Verse
38. That ye may know and believe - In some a more exact
knowledge precedes, in others it follows faith. I am in the Father
and the Father in me. I and the Father are one - These two
sentences illustrate each other.
Verse
40. To the desert place where John baptized, and gave so
honourable a testimony of him.
Verse
41. John did no miracle - An honour reserved for him, whose
forerunner he was.
Chapter 10:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Lightfoot
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGarvey Pendleton
| McGee
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Luke Acts
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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