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 Baruch 5:1-9
no note on this passage
psalm Luke 1:68-79
- v.69A horn — Signifies honour, plenty, and strength. A horn of salvation - That is, a glorious and mighty saviour.
- v.70His prophets, who have been since the world began — For there were prophets from the very beginning.
- v.74To serve him without fear — Without any slavish fear. Here is the substance of the great promise. That we shall be always holy, always happy: that being delivered from Satan and sin, from every uneasy and unholy temper, we shall joyfully love and serve God, in every thought, word, and work.
- v.76And thou, child — He now speaks to John; yet not as a parent, but as a prophet.
- v.77To give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins — The knowledge of the remission of our sins being the grand instrument of present and eternal salvation, Heb. viii, 11, 12. But the immediate sense of the words seems to be, to preach to them the Gospel doctrine of salvation by the remission of their sins.
- v.78The day spring — Or the rising sun; that is, Christ.
second Philippians 1:3-11
- v.4With joy — After the epistle to the Ephesians, wherein love reigns, follows this, wherein there is perpetual mention of joy. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy." And joy peculiarly enlivens prayer. The sum of the whole epistle is, I rejoice. Rejoice ye.
- v.5The sense is, I thank God for your fellowship with us in all the blessings of the gospel, which I have done from the first day of your receiving it until now.
- v.6Being persuaded — The grounds of which persuasion are set down in the following verse. That he who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ - That he who having justified, hath begun to sanctify you, will carry on this work, till it issue in glory.
- v.7As it is right for me to think this of you all — Why? He does not say, "Because of an eternal decree;" or, "Because a saint must persevere;" but, because I have you in my heart, who were all partakers of my grace - That is, because ye were all (for which I have you in my heart, I bear you the most grateful and tender affection) partakers of my grace - That is, sharers in the afflictions which God vouchsafed me as a grace or favour, ver. 29, 30; both in my bonds, and when I was called forth to answer for myself, and to confirm the gospel. It is not improbable that, after they had endured that great trial of affliction, God had sealed them unto full victory, of which the apostle had a prophetic sight.
- v.8I long for you with the bowels of Jesus Christ — In Paul, not Paul lives, but Jesus Christ. Therefore he longs for them with the bowels, the tenderness, not of Paul, but of Jesus Christ.
- v.9And this I pray, that your love — Which they had already shown. May abound yet more and more - The fire which burned in the apostle never says, It is enough. In knowledge and in all spiritual sense - Which is the ground of all spiritual knowledge. We must be inwardly sensible of divine peace, joy, love; otherwise, we cannot know what they are.
- v.10That ye may try — By that spiritual sense. The things that are excellent - Not only good, but the very best; the superior excellence of which is hardly discerned, but by the adult Christian. That ye may be inwardly sincere - Having a single eye to the very best things, and a pure heart. And outwardly without offense - Holy, unblamable in all things.
- v.11Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God — Here are three properties of that sincerity which is acceptable to God: 1. It must bear fruits, the fruits of righteousness, all inward and outward holiness, all good tempers, words, and works; and that so abundantly, that we may be filled with them. 2. The branch and the fruits must derive both their virtue and their very being from the all - supporting, all - supplying root, Jesus Christ. 3. As all these flow from the grace of Christ, so they must issue in the glory and praise of God.
gospel Luke 3:1-6
- v.1The fifteenth year of Tiberius — Reckoning from the time when Angustus made him his colleague in the empire. Herod being tetrarch of Galilee - The dominions of Herod the Great were, after his death, divided into four parts or tetrarchies. This Herod his son was tetrarch of Galilee, reigning over that fourth part of his dominions. His brother reigned over two other fourth parts, the region of Iturea, and that of Trachonitis (that tract of land on the other side Jordan, which had formerly belonged to the tribe of Manasseh.) And Lysanias (probably descended from a prince of that name, who was some years before governor of that country) was tetrarch of the remaining part of Abilene, which was a large city of Syria, whose territories reached to Lebanon and Damascus, and contained great numbers of Jews. Matt. iii, 1; Mark i, 1.
- v.2Annas being high priest, and Caiaphas — There could be but one high priest, strictly speaking, at once. Annas was the high priest at that time, and Caiaphas his sagan or deputy.
- v.4Isaiah xl, 3.
- v.5Every valley shall be filled, &c. — That is, every hindrance shall be removed.
- v.6The salvation of God — The saviour, the Messiah.