John 10

Part of Light of the World and the Good Shepherd📖 John introduction

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¹“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! ✦ ²But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ✦ ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ✦ ⁴After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. ✦ ⁵They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” ✦ ⁶Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, ✦ ⁷so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ✦ ⁸All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. ✦ ⁹Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. ✦ ¹⁰The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. ✦ ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. ✦ ¹²A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. ✦ ¹³The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep. ✦ ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, ✦ ¹⁵just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. ✦ ¹⁶I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd. ✦ ¹⁷“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. ✦ ¹⁸No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” ✦ ¹⁹When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. ✦ ²⁰Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” ✦ ²¹Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” ✦ ²²It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. ²³He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade. ✦ ²⁴The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” ✦ ²⁵Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. ✦ ²⁶But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. ✦ ²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ✦ ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, ✦ ²⁹for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. ✦ ³⁰The Father and I are one.” ✦ ³¹Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. ✦ ³²Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” ✦ ³³They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.” ✦ ³⁴Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’ ✦ ³⁵And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people who received God’s message were called ‘gods,’ ✦ ³⁶why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God’? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. ✦ ³⁷Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. ✦ ³⁸But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” ✦ ³⁹Once again they tried to arrest him, but he got away and left them. ✦ ⁴⁰He went beyond the Jordan River near the place where John was first baptizing and stayed there awhile. ✦ ⁴¹And many followed him. “John didn’t perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.” ✦ ⁴²And many who were there believed in Jesus. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

In this chapter

Concept The Good Shepherd

Where this chapter connects

John 10 ·52 John 6 ·22 John 8 ·19 John 17 ·19 John 5 ·16 John 3 ·12 John 14 ·12 John 12 ·11

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 10YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 10David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 10Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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