John 10

1 I assure you that whoever doesn't enter into the sheep pen through the gate but climbs over the wall is a thief and an outlaw.

2 The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3 The guard at the gate opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4 Whenever he has gathered all of his sheep, he goes before them and they follow him, because they know his voice.

5 They won't follow a stranger but will run away because they don't know the stranger's voice."

6 Those who heard Jesus use this analogy didn't understand what he was saying.

I am the gate

7 So Jesus spoke again, “I assure you that I am the gate of the sheep.

8 All who came before me were thieves and outlaws, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

9 I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.

10 The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.

I am the good shepherd

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

12 When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That's because he isn't the shepherd; the sheep aren't really his. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them.

13 He's only a hired hand and the sheep don't matter to him.

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me,

15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep.

16 I have other sheep that don't belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.

17 " This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I can take it up again.

18 No one takes it from me, but I give it up because I want to. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it up again. I received this commandment from my Father."

19 There was another division among the Jews because of Jesus' words.

20 Many of them said, "He has a demon and has lost his mind. Why listen to him?"

21 Others said, "These aren't the words of someone who has a demon. Can a demon heal the eyes of people who are blind?"

Jesus at the Festival of Dedication

22 The time came for the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter,

23 and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon.

24 The Jewish opposition circled around him and asked, "How long will you test our patience? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."

25 Jesus answered, " I have told you, but you don't believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me,

26 but you don't believe because you don't belong to my sheep.

27 My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.

28 I give them eternal life. They will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand.

29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from my Father's hand.

30 I and the Father are one."

31 Again the Jewish opposition picked up stones in order to stone him.

32 Jesus responded, " I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of those works do you stone me?"

33 The Jewish opposition answered, "We don't stone you for a good work but for insulting God. You are human, yet you make yourself out to be God."

34 Jesus replied, “ Isn't it written in your Law, I have said, you are gods?

35 Scripture calls those to whom God's word came gods, and scripture can't be abolished.

36 So how can you say that the one whom the Father has made holy and sent into the world insults God because he said, ‘I am God's Son'?

37 If I don't do the works of my Father, don't believe me.

38 But if I do them, and you don't believe me, believe the works so that you can know and recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

39 Again, they wanted to arrest him, but he escaped from them.

Jesus at the Jordan

40 Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had baptized at first, and he stayed there.

41 Many people came to him. "John didn't do any miraculous signs," they said, "but everything John said about this man was true."

42 Many believed in Jesus there.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hanukkah
• [b]. Ps 82:6