John 10

1 "Yes, indeed! I tell you, the person who doesn't enter the sheep-pen through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.

2 But the one who goes in through the gate is the sheep's own shepherd.

3 This is the one the gate-keeper admits, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out.

4 After taking out all that are his own, he goes on ahead of them; and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.

5 They never follow a stranger but will run away from him, because strangers' voices are unfamiliar to them."

6 Yeshua used this indirect manner of speaking with them, but they didn't understand what he was talking to them about.

7 So Yeshua said to them again, "Yes, indeed! I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep.

8 All those who have come before me have been thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

9 I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture.

10 The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.

11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

12 The hired hand, since he isn't a shepherd and the sheep aren't his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them.

13 The hired worker behaves like this because that's all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn't matter to him what happens to the sheep.

14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me --

15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father -- and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep.

16 Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

17 "This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life -- in order to take it up again!

18 No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do."

19 Again there was a split among the Judeans because of what he said.

20 Many of them said, "He has a demon!" and "He's meshugga! Why do you listen to him?"

21 Others said, "These are not the deeds of a man who is demonized -- how can a demon open blind people's eyes?"

22 Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter,

23 and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo's Colonnade.

24 So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, "How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!"

25 Yeshua answered them, "I have already told you, and you don't trust me. The works I do in my Father's name testify on my behalf,

26 but the reason you don't trust is that you are not included among my sheep.

27 My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me,

28 and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands.

29 My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father's hands.

30 I and the Father are one."

31 Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him.

32 Yeshua answered them, "You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father's power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?"

33 The Judeans replied, "We are not stoning you for any good deed, but for blasphemy -- because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God [Hebrew: Elohim]."

34 Yeshua answered them, "Isn't it written in your Torah, `I have said, "You people are Elohim' "?h

35 If he called `elohim' the people to whom the word of Elohim was addressed (and the Tanakh cannot be broken),

36 then are you telling the one whom the Father set apart as holy and sent into the world, `You are committing blasphemy,' just because I said, `I am a son of Elohim'?

37 "If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father's power, don't trust me.

38 But if I am, then, even if you don't trust me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with me, and I am united with the Father."

39 One more time they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands.

40 He went off again beyond the Yarden, where Yochanan had been immersing at first, and stayed there.

41 Many people came to him and said, "Yochanan performed no miracles, but everything Yochanan said about this man was true."

42 And many people there put their trust in him.

John 10 Commentary

Chapter 10

The parable of the good shepherd. (1-5) Christ the Door. (6-9) Christ the good Shepherd. (10-18) The Jews' opinion concerning Jesus. (19-21) His discourse at the feast of dedication. (22-30) The Jews attempt to stone Jesus. (31-38) He departs from Jerusalem. (39-42)

Verses 1-5 Here is a parable or similitude, taken from the customs of the East, in the management of sheep. Men, as creatures depending on their Creator, are called the sheep of his pasture. The church of God in the world is as a sheep-fold, exposed to deceivers and persecutors. The great Shepherd of the sheep knows all that are his, guards them by his providence, guides them by his Spirit and word, and goes before them, as the Eastern shepherds went before their sheep, to set them in the way of his steps. Ministers must serve the sheep in their spiritual concerns. The Spirit of Christ will set before them an open door. The sheep of Christ will observe their Shepherd, and be cautious and shy of strangers, who would draw them from faith in him to fancies about him.

Verses 6-9 Many who hear the word of Christ, do not understand it, because they will not. But we shall find one scripture expounding another, and the blessed Spirit making known the blessed Jesus. Christ is the Door. And what greater security has the church of God than that the Lord Jesus is between it and all its enemies? He is a door open for passage and communication. Here are plain directions how to come into the fold; we must come in by Jesus Christ as the Door. By faith in him as the great Mediator between God and man. Also, we have precious promises to those that observe this direction. Christ has all that care of his church, and every believer, which a good shepherd has of his flock; and he expects the church, and every believer, to wait on him, and to keep in his pasture.

Verses 10-18 Christ is a good Shepherd; many who were not thieves, yet were careless in their duty, and by their neglect the flock was much hurt. Bad principles are the root of bad practices. The Lord Jesus knows whom he has chosen, and is sure of them; they also know whom they have trusted, and are sure of Him. See here the grace of Christ; since none could demand his life of him, he laid it down of himself for our redemption. He offered himself to be the Saviour; Lo, I come. And the necessity of our case calling for it, he offered himself for the Sacrifice. He was both the offerer and the offering, so that his laying down his life was his offering up himself. From hence it is plain, that he died in the place and stead of men; to obtain their being set free from the punishment of sin, to obtain the pardon of their sin; and that his death should obtain that pardon. Our Lord laid not his life down for his doctrine, but for his sheep.

Verses 19-21 Satan ruins many, by putting them out of conceit with the word and ordinances. Men would not be laughed out of their necessary food, yet suffer themselves thus to be laughed out of what is far more necessary. If our zeal and earnestness in the cause of Christ, especially in the blessed work of bringing his sheep into his fold, bring upon us evil names, let us not heed it, but remember our Master was thus reproached before us.

Verses 22-30 All who have any thing to say to Christ, may find him in the temple. Christ would make us to believe; we make ourselves doubt. The Jews understood his meaning, but could not form his words into a full charge against him. He described the gracious disposition and happy state of his sheep; they heard and believed his word, followed him as his faithful disciples, and none of them should perish; for the Son and the Father were one. Thus he was able to defend his sheep against all their enemies, which proves that he claimed Divine power and perfection equally with the Father.

Verses 31-38 Christ's works of power and mercy proclaim him to be over all, God blessed for evermore, that all may know and believe He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. Whom the Father sends, he sanctifies. The holy God will reward, and therefore will employ, none but such as he makes holy. The Father was in the Son, so that by Divine power he wrought his miracles; the Son was so in the Father, that he knew the whole of His mind. This we cannot by searching find out to perfection, but we may know and believe these declarations of Christ.

Verses 39-42 No weapon formed against our Lord Jesus shall prosper. He escaped, not because he was afraid to suffer, but because his hour was not come. And He who knew how to deliver himself, knows how to deliver the godly our of their temptations, and to make a way for them to escape. Persecutors may drive Christ and his gospel our of their own city or country, but they cannot drive him or it out of the world. When we know Christ by faith in our hearts, we find all that the Scripture saith of him is true.