Interpret → Preach
For the service
John Wesley’s own Explanatory Notes Upon the Old and New Testament on the day’s readings — his verse-by-verse commentary, not a summary of it. Read the full edition ↗
first Isaiah 49:1-7
- v.1Listen — God turns his speech to the Gentiles, and invites them to hearken to those counsels and doctrines which the Jews would reject. Me - Unto Christ: Isaiah speaks these words in the name of Christ.
- v.2A sword — As he made me the great teacher of his church, so he made my word, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- edged sword. Hath he hid - He will protect me from all mine enemies. Made me - Like an arrow, whose point is bright and polished; which therefore pierceth deeper.
- v.3O Israel — As the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, so here the name of Israel may not unfitly be given to Christ, not only because he descended from his loins; but also because he was the true and the great Israel, who, in a more eminent manner, prevailed with God, as that name signifies, of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type.
- v.4Then said I — Lord, thou sayest thou wilt be glorified by my ministry; but I find it otherwise. In vain - Without any considerable fruit of my word and works among the Israelites. My judgment - My right, the reward which by his promise, and my purchase, is my right.
- v.5To bring — To convert the apostate Israelites to God. Not gathered - Not brought home to God by my ministry. Yet - God will not despise me for the unsuccessfulness of my labours, but will honour and glorify me. My strength - To support and strengthen me under this and all other discouragements.
- v.6He — The Lord. It is - This is but a small favour. The tribes - That remnant of them which shall survive all their calamities. My salvation - The great instrument and author of that eternal salvation which I will give to the Gentiles.
- v.7His Holy One — The Holy One of Israel. To him - To Christ, to whom, in the days of his flesh, this description fully agrees: for men, both Jews and Gentiles among whom he lived, did despise him from their hearts; and the nation, of which he was a member, abhorred both his person and his doctrine; and he was so far from being a temporal monarch, that he came in the form of a servant, and was a servant of rulers, professing subjection and paying tribute unto Caesar. Kings - Though for a time thou shalt be despised, yet after a while thou shalt be advanced to such glory, that kings shall look upon thee with reverence. Arise - From their seats to worship thee. Faithful - Because God shall make good his promises to thee. Chuse thee - And although thou shalt be rejected by thine own people, yet God will manifest to the world, that thou, and thou only, art the person whom he hath chosen to be the Redeemer of mankind.
psalm Psalm 40:1-11
- v.2Pit — Desperate dangers and calamities. Rock - A place of strength and safety. Established - Kept me from falling into mischief.
- v.3And fear — Shall stand in awe of that God, whom they see to have so great power, either to save or to destroy.
- v.4The proud — Or, the mighty, the great and proud potentates of the world, to whom most men are apt to look and trust. Turn - From God, in whom alone they ought to trust. To lies - To lying vanities, such as worldly power and wisdom, and riches, and all other earthly things, or persons, in which men are prone to trust: which are called lies, because they promise more than they perform.
- v.5Many — This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the person of the Messiah, in the following verses.
- v.6Sacrifice — These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices, but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah, and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his father's will, as it here follows, ver. 7, 8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Opened - Hebrew. bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exod. xxi, 5, 6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb. x, 5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.
- v.7Them — These words literally and truly belong to Christ, and the sense is this; seeing thou requirest a better sacrifice than those of the law, lo, I offer myself to come, and I will in due time come, into the world, as this phrase is explained in divers places of scripture, and particularly Heb. x, 5, where this place is expressly applied to Christ. Volume - These two words, volume and book are used of any writing, and both express the same thing. Now this volume of the book is the law of Moses, which is commonly and emphatically called the book, and was made up in the form of a roll or volume, as the Hebrew books generally were. And so this place manifestly points to Christ, concerning whom much is said in the books of Moses.
- v.8I delight — This is eminently true, of Christ, and is here observed as an act of heroic obedience, that he not only resolved to do, but delighted in doing the will of God, or what God had commanded him, which was to die, and that a most shameful, and painful, and cursed death. My heart - I do not only understand it, but receive it with heartiest love, delighting both to meditate of it, and to yield obedience to it.
- v.9Righteousness — Thy faithfulness. Great congregation - In the most public and solemn assemblies: not only to the Jews, but also to all nations; to whom Christ preached by his apostles, as is observed Eph. ii, 17. Not refrained - From preaching it, even to the face of mine enemies.
- v.11With-hold not — David, having been transported by the spirit of God to the commemoration of the great mystery of the Messiah, he now seems to be led back by the same spirit, to the consideration of his own case.
second 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
- v.1An exhortation to concord, beating down all glorying in the flesh, 4- iv.21
- v.2A reproof, 1. For not excommunicating the incestuous person, v. 1-13 2. For going to law before heathen Judges, vi. 1-11 3. A dissuasive from fornication, 12-20 4. An answer to the questions they had proposed concerning marriage, vii. 1, 10, 25, 36, 39 5. Concerning things sacrificed to idols, viii. 1- ix. 1 6. Concerning the veiling of women, 2-16 7. Concerning the Lord's supper, 17-34 8. Concerning spiritual gifts, xii. xiii. xiv 9. Concerning the resurrection, xv. 1-58 10. Concerning the collection for the poor, the coming of himself, of Timothy, of Apollos, the sum of all, xvi, 1, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14 II. The conclusion, 15, 17, 19-24 1st CORINTHIANS
- v.4Always — Whenever I mention you to God in prayer.
- v.5In all utterance and knowledge — Of divine things. These gifts the Corinthians particularly admired. Therefore this congratulation naturally tended to soften their spirits, and I make way for the reproofs which follow.
- v.6The testimony of Christ — The gospel. Was confirmed among you - By these gifts attending it. They knew they had received these by the hand of Paul: and this consideration was highly proper, to revive in them their former reverence and affection for their spiritual father.
- v.7Waiting — With earnest desire. For the glorious Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ - A sure mark of a true or false Christian, to long for, or dread, this Revelation.
- v.8Who will also — if you faithfully apply to him. Confirm you to the end. In the day of Christ - Now it is our day, wherein we are to work out our salvation; then it will be eminently the day of Christ, and of his glory in the saints.
- v.9God is faithful — To all his promises; and therefore "to him that hath shall be given." By whom ye are called - A pledge of his willingness to save you unto the uttermost.
gospel John 1:29-42
- v.29He seeth Jesus coming and saith, Behold the Lamb — Innocent; to be offered up; prophesied of by Isaiah, Isaiah liii, 7, typified by the paschal lamb, and by the daily sacrifice: The Lamb of God - Whom God gave, approves, accepts of; who taketh away - Atoneth for; the sin - That is, all the sins: of the world - Of all mankind. Sin and the world are of equal extent.
- v.31I knew him not — Till he came to be baptized. How surprising is this; considering how nearly they were related, and how remarkable the conception and birth of both had been. But there was a peculiar providence visible in our saviour's living, from his infancy to his baptism, at Nazareth: John all the time living the life of a hermit in the deserts of Judea, Luke i, 80, ninety or more miles from Nazareth: hereby that acquaintance was prevented which might have made John's testimony of Christ suspected.
- v.34I saw it — That is, the Spirit so descending and abiding on him. And testified - From that time.
- v.37They followed Jesus — They walked after him, but had not the courage to speak to him.
- v.41He first findeth his own brother Simon — Probably both of them sought him: Which is, being interpreted, the Christ - This the evangelist adds, as likewise those words in ver. 38, that is, being interpreted, Master.
- v.42Jesus said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah — As none had told our Lord these names, this could not but strike Peter. Cephas, which is Peter - Moaning the same in Syriac which Peter does in Greek, namely, a rock.