John 10 - CSB Tony Evans Study Bible

10:2-4 Jesus was using this imagery to describe himself and to emphasize the importance of his followers (his sheep) having a personal knowledge of and relationship with him (their shepherd).

10:9 Jesus is “the way” to safety and life (14:6). We must go through him to be saved.

10:10 Jesus doesn’t want you merely to posses eternal life but also to possess the full experience of life. Following the shepherd leads to blessing and joy and a growing experience of eternal life. It allows him to rebuke and reverse the enemy’s attempts at blocking the blessings, purpose, and spiritual fulfillment God has for your life (see Joel 2:25; Mal 3:11).

10:15 In saying, I lay down my life for the sheep, Jesus was speaking of his substitutionary atonement when he would sacrifice his life on the cross for the sins of the world—though that would not have been clear to his audience. As he would tell his disciples later, “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends” (15:13).

10:16 God the Father gave his one and only Son because he loved the world—all humankind, without exception (see 3:16; 1 Tim 2:6; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2). The other sheep that Jesus would save are Gentiles who would believe in him so that the church would consist of both Jewish and Gentile believers (see Eph 2:11-22). There will be one flock.

10:17-18 Jesus was under no obligation to sacrifice himself for sinners. And though the Jews would hand him over and the Romans would crucify him, this was only possible because he let them (see 19:10-11). No one takes the life of the Son of God. He lays it down voluntarily because he is willing to give his life in obedience to the Father’s command and in love for sinners (10:18).

10:19-21 Notice the polarization here. No one was on the fence about Jesus. Indeed, each of us will believe either the truth about him or will embrace a lie instead.

10:22 Today the Festival of Dedication is commonly known as Hanukkah, which celebrates the rededication of the temple in 165 BC after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 168 BC.

10:28-29 Believers are not eternally secure because of their grip on God but because of his grip on them. If you come to Jesus by faith, he’s got you. When you’re too weak and your hands go limp, he’ll still be hanging on.

10:30 I and the Father are one—in essence and in purpose. You don’t get a clearer claim to deity than that. Remember, our Creator is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ is one person with two natures (divine and human).

10:34-36 Jesus pointed to Psalm 82:6: I said, you are gods (John 10:34). There God referred to human rulers, who were made in God’s image and responsible to imitate God’s character, as “gods.” So if sinful men in honored positions could be called “gods,” what about a perfect man?

10:39 You’d think that by this point they would realize that seizing Jesus is a dead-end street (see 7:30-32, 44-46; 8:20). No one could take his life from him (see 10:17-18), but soon he would lay it down. Jesus was sovereign over his own death.

10:40-42 Given the hostility directed against him in Jerusalem, Jesus departed . . . across the Jordan (10:40). But that didn’t put a damper on his ministry or the success of his message (10:41-42).