John 10

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

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^a 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.^b 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^c 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?”

Jesus Claims to Be the Son of God

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.^d 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^e that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’^{f 35}And 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.