John 9

John 9:39-42

portable for the same group, he goeth before them as their Shepherd, to protect them from danger, and the sheep follow him, clash at his footsteps, imitating his example; for they know his voice; they have a disarmament of goforth-meth, and approve of, and submit to his teachings. But a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers; they discover the false principles or bad practices of those who fit up for pretended guides, and will not put their fouls under their tuition, or be influenced by their examples.

2. The Jews understood not the meaning of his discourse, and therefore Christ more explicitly opens to them his meaning.

(1.) He is the door; the only way of access to God and glory is through him, and none can enter into the ministry but by his call, and under his commission. All that went before, with pretensions to the character of the Messiah; and those who, without an eye to him, exercised their ministry; or who endeavoured, as the Scribes and Pharises of that age did, to prejudice the people against the true Messiah’s character, all those were thieves and robbers, intruders into the office to which God never called them, and robbing him of his glory; but from their oblivion teachings the Lord preferred his own people, so that they were not deceived by them, nor paid regard to the teachings of these false Shepherds. But of himself Christ faith, I am the door of access to, and acceptance with God; by me, through faith in my name, of any man ever in, he shall be saved from his, from the condemning guilt and enslaving powers of it, from the law, and the curse which it pronounces; from Satan, and all the powers of evil; from deceivers, and all their wits; yea, he shall be saved with an everlasting salvation, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture, during his journey through life; he shall have free access to the ordinances, possess a glorious liberty in his spirit, be safe under the Shepherd’s confitant care, and be fed with the sweetest refreshments which the grace of the gospel ministers. Blessed and happy are they, who thus walk under the confitant guard and guidance of the divine Redeemer.

(2.) He is the Shepherd, the great, the good, the true Shepherd.

[1.] The gracious design which he is come upon, is quite different from that of the false teachers. They, by their pernicious benefits, deal away the heart of the unwary, prejudice them against the truth, and whilst they promote them life and salvation, really murder their fouls; and lerk by persecutions to destroy or disperse the flock of Christ, which they cannot deceive: which he is come, that his people and the sheep of his pasture may have life, the life of grace here, and of glory hereafter: yea, that they might have it more abundantly, fuller assurance of it than they ever had before; or in a more abundant measure, and with greater glory and advantage than even Adam in innocence possessed.

winter, in the month of December. And therefore Christ walked under cover, in a place called Solomon’s porch; a magnificent building, which standing on the same ground where Solomon’s porch formerly stood, continued to bear that name.

2. Hither the Jews came to him; and surrounding him, in order to pick a quarrel with him, they urged him to tell them plainly and boldly, and leave them no longer in suppence by his figurative and dark expressions, whether he were the Christ or not.

3. Christ knew their malicious designs, and therefore answered him, I told you in terms sufficiently plain, if you chose to understand them, and ye believed not, and were determined not to believe: it was vain, therefore, to add farther assertions, and he chose to refer them to the miracles which abundantly proved his mission: the works that I do to my Father’s name, they have witness of me. But ye believe not, obstinate in your infidelity, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you; their tempers and dispositions plainly showed they were not, and Christ knew they were not of those whom the Father had given him, whose character and conduct he detested. My shop has my tools, with attention, discernment, and spiritual delight, and I know them, take cognizance of them, and distinguish them with my peculiar favour and regard; and they follow me in the ways of truth and righteousness, obedient to my word, and imitating my example. And I give unto them eternal life; they have a present sure title thereto, experience the beginnings of it here, and shall be put into the full possession of it after death; and they shall never perish; no wilks of Satan, no craft of men, no power of corruption, shall be able finally and fatally to prevail against them, and separate them from the love and protection of me their shepherd: neither shall any place them out of my hand, whatever efforts the devil, the would, and the flesh may make to destroy them. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all their lives, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand; they must be safe when omnipotence is their guard. I and my Father are one, in nature, essence, and perfection; and our power, wisdom, and truth, are engaged for the preservation of the redeemed flock. Note, (1.) Eternal life is wholly the gift of God through Jesus Christ. (2.) They whom Christ will have, can never perish. O that we had faith to trust him!

4. The Jews, fired with rage, could no longer refrain, but took up Jesus to stone him as a blasphemer.

5. Jesus mildly expostulated with them on their basenets, saying, Many good works have I shrewd you from my Father’s works of such benevolence and wonder, as evidenced his mission divine: for which of those works do ye stone me? How horrid is your ingratiate? How bake your returns? Note, (1.) Nothing aggravates our sins against God, so much as our vile ingratiate. (2.) If we meet with the most ungrateful returns from those on whom we had conferred the greatest obligations, we may not think it strange: Jesus was so treated before us.

6. The Jews attempt to vindicate their conduct, saying, For a good work we stone this not, but for blasphemy; and because that then, being a man, musket thyself God; for in this light they interpreted his claim of unity with the Father, and his assuming the incommunicable attributes of the Deity. Note, Pretended was for God’s honour hath been the pretext which persecutors have often used to cover the most violent outrages against his most faithful servants.

7. Christ proves he had the fullest right to those divine honours which he claimed. Is it not written in your law, I said ye are good? Pl. Lazarus. 6. If he called them good, who as magistrates were types of the King Messiah, and unto whom the word of God came; entrusted by him with the government of the Jewish church and nation; and the scripture cannot be broken, but must receive its accomplishment in that Messiah, who really possesses divine honour and authority, and is intitled to that high name which they bore as his representatives; say ye then of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and set apart before the worlds were, and in the fulness of time sent into the world, Thou blasphemy, because I said, I am the Son of God? But besides the scripture testimony, I appeal to my miracles. If I do not the works of my Father, as great as might be expected from him, and by my own power as God; if these do not speak my divine character, and that I am entitled to the honour I claim as Son of God, believe me not; I am content to be rejected by you: for if I do work so great, and in such a manner, as declare my divine power and godhead, though ye believe not me, on my own word and afflictions, believe the works, those unacceptingable evidences, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him; we being one in nature and essence, having the most intimate union and communion in the same undivided Godhead.

8. Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand, 40. And went away again beyond Jordan, into the place; where John at first baptized; and there he abode. 41. And many refoored unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things

that John spoke of this man were true. 42. And many believed on him there.

Far from appealing their fury, Christ, by maintaining his right to the essential glories of divinity, exasperated them to the highest pitch. Whereupon,

1. They sought again to take him; concluding they had now full evidence against him to convict him as a blasphemer, and get him legally condemned by the Sanhedrim, and put to death.

2. As the time for Christ’s suffering was not yet come, he escaped out of their hand; either holding their arms by an invisible power from seizing him, or their eyes from seeing him.

3. He retired beyond Jordan, into the place where John as first baptized; and there he abode, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and gathering probably some fruit from the feed, which John had sown there about two or three years before.

4. Multitudes refoored to him there, drawn by his preaching and miracles; and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spoke of this man were true. He appears with that transcendent greatness and glory, in which John spoke of him, and many believed on him there, as the true Messiah. Note, (1.) The persecutors drive the ministers of Christ slain one place, God will take care to send them where he hath still greater work for them to do. (2.) Jesus will be peculiarly welcome with his gospel to those, whose hearts, by the sharp convulsions of the law, as by the austere Baptist’s ministry, are broken with a humbling sense of sin.