John 10

     10:1-21.  Jesus continues the teaching that began in John 9 with the sixth sign, the healing of the man born blind (see 10:21).  Throughout John 10, he clearly proclaims the great doctrines of grace, the message of man’s total ruin in sin and God’s perfect remedy in Christ.  As always, this brings division (19).  Christ preached the doctrines of grace to his sheep and false shepherds alike.

     The figurative language (6) is explained by Jesus himself (7-18), and it was not the first time the Jews had heard it (see Ps.23; Jer.23:1-6; Ezek.34 throughout, esp. verses 4-5, 16, 22-24). (Jesus the door of the sheep fold, see Mic.2:12-13)  The element that was the last straw for some was Jesus’ claim that he would die for the sheep, and that he had authority from the Father to take up his life again at will (14-18), which led to the opinion of some that he had a demon and was insane (20-21).

     10:22-23.  The Feast of Dedication is the only mention in the canon of what Jews now call Chanukah.  It began in the period between the Old and New Testaments.  The Syrian ruler Antiochus (IV) Epiphanes had polluted the temple with pig’s blood, and tried to force Greek culture on the Jews.  In 165 B.C. Judas Maccabeus captured the temple and cleansed it.  The commemoration of this is not an important feast to Jews today, but may have been somewhat more so in Jesus’ day, when the temple was in use, but with a Roman eagle placed over its entrance (by Herod).

     10:24-26.  Jesus has told them over and over, both by word and works, who he is.  It was no easier for them to believe than it is for a materialist today.  The following verses explain why this is so.

     10:27-29.  The following quotes and many of the notes in this section are from a sermon by James Montgomery Boice, in Sermons that Shaped America.

     The doctrines of grace taught here by Jesus are “…a full statement of man’s utter inability to choose God and of the necessity for divine grace in each step of salvation.”  Jesus told his enemies that “…those who do not believe in him do not believe because they are not his sheep, that those who are his sheep believe and follow, that this is true because they are given to him by the Father, that these who are given to him by the Father inevitable come to him, and finally, that these who come will never be lost.”  This is often pejoratively called Calvinism, but Calvin didn’t invent it, nor did the apostle Paul, nor anyone else.  It is God’s word.

     Eternal life is a gift to some (28).  It is undeserved and unearned.  “…pure grace saves some when none deserve it.”  The Puritans, according to Boice, said that each of Christ’s sheep ” ‘…has a double mark — on his ear and on his foot.  The mark on his ear is that he hears Christ.  The mark on his foot is that he follows him.’ “

     The Father has given the sheep to the Son, and they shall never perish (28-29).  The perseverance of the saints is only because of God’s perseverance with the saints.  The Father and the Son have an eternal covenant to save his sheep.  It is no guarantee against enemies and dangers.  “The promise, you see, is not that the ship will not go to the bottom, but that the passengers will all reach shore.”  (See Acts 27:22).

     10:30-39.  The Jews had demanded that Jesus tell them plainly who he was (24).  He did so with such clarity that they sought to stone him for claiming equality with God the Father (30, 33, 36).  His works support his radical claims (38).

     10:40-42.  John the Baptist needed no sign to confirm his testimony, for the works of Christ authenticated John’s word and work as well as his own.