PART 13 B

THE GOOD SHEPHERD TEACHING

"Amen, amen! I tell you, the one who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but instead climbs up some other way, that one is a thief and a robber. But the one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he takes out his own sheep, he goes in front of them and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, rather they will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." Yeshua spoke this parable, but they did not understand the things which He was speaking to them. Then Yeshua spoke to them again, "Amen, amen! I tell you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came ahead of me {announcing they were Moshiach} are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not shema them. I am the door. If anyone enters in through Me he will be preserved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes for no other reason than to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they might have life and that they might have it with overflowing abundance. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. The one who is a hired hand and not the shepherd who owns the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming he leaves the sheep in a hurry. Then the wolf catches them and the sheep scatter. The hired hand leaves in a hurry because he is only a hired hand and does not care for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd and I know My sheep and I am known by My own. As Abba knows Me, so also I know Abba and I lay down My life for the sheep. I also own other sheep who are not of this fold. I must also bring them along. They will also shema My voice and the result will be one fold and One Shepherd. Avi loves Me because I lay down My life, so that I might regain it. No one takes it from Me, rather, I Myself lay it down. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to regain it. This commandment I have received from Avi." {In this Yeshua affirmed that the commandments of YHVH are given along with the ability to perform them.} As a result of these words there arose once again a division among the leaders of the Yehudim. Some of them said, "He has a deceiving spirit and is mad! Why do you shema him?" Others of them argued back, "These are not the words of someone who has a deceiving spirit! Can a deceiving spirit heal the eyes of the blind?"

YESHUA AT CHANUKAH

Now it was time for the Feast of Chanukah in the winter and Yeshua walked in the Mikdash around the part called King Shlomo's portico. Then some of the leaders of the Yehudim came around Him and questioned Him, "How long will you cause us to doubt? If you are Moshiach declare it plainly to us." Yeshua answered them, "I told you, yet you did not trust it. The deeds which I do in Avi's Name, they witness concerning who I am. You do not trust because you are not among My sheep. As I told you, My sheep shema My voice and I know them and they follow Me. To them I give eternal life and they will never perish, neither will anyone remove them from My hand. Avi, who gave them to Me, is greater than anyone and no one is able to remove them from Avi's hand. Avi and I are Echad [One]." Then some of the leaders of the Yehudim picked up stones to throw at Him. "Many good works I have showed you from Avi, for which one of those deeds do you stone me?" Yeshua remarked. They said, "We do not stone you for a good work, but rather for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be Elohim." Yeshua answered them, "Is it not written in the Torah, 'I say, you are masters?' If he called those 'masters' to whom the Word of Elohim came and the scripture cannot be broken, how can you say concerning the one Abba has set apart from Himself and sent into the world, 'You blaspheme,' simply because I said, 'I am the Son of Elohim?' If I do not do the deeds of Avi, then do not trust Me. But if I do them, though you do not trust Me {because of the way I look to you}, trust in the {miraculous} deeds. You should understand by those and trust that Abba is in Me and I am in Him!" Therefore they tried again to take hold of Him, but He escaped out of their grip and went away beyond the Yarden River again into the place where Yochanan first performed the mikveh. He found shelter there and many congregated to Him. They were saying, "Yochanan did no miracle, but all the things that Yochanan spoke about this man were true." Many trusted in Yeshua there.