The Life of Jesus

I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me —

just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep.

Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

“This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again!

No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”

Again there was a split among the Judeans because of what he said.

Many of them said, “He has a demon!” and “He’s meshugga! Why do you listen to him?”

Others said, “These are not the deeds of a man who is demonized — how can a demon open blind people’s eyes?”

Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter,

and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade.

So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!”

Yeshua answered them, “I have already told you, and you don’t trust me. The works I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf,

but the reason you don’t trust is that you are not included among my sheep.

My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me,

and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands.

My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father’s hands.

I and the Father are one.”

Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him.

Yeshua answered them, “You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father’s power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?”

The Judeans replied, “We are not stoning you for any good deed, but for blasphemy — because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God .”

Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah, ‘I have said, “You people are Elohim’ ”?

If he called ‘elohim’ the people to whom the word of Elohim was addressed (and the Tanakh cannot be broken),

then are you telling the one whom the Father set apart as holy and sent into the world, ‘You are committing blasphemy,’ just because I said, ‘I am a son of Elohim’?

“If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father’s power, don’t trust me.

But if I am, then, even if you don’t trust me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with me, and I am united with the Father.”