I Am the Door of the Sheep / the Good Shepherd

Yeah. We are going through this summer series on the I am sayings of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John, seven different sayings. And today we are going to combine two of those sayings into one message. But I hope that through all the series that the Lord Jesus would become more and more dear to you, that we would. That our first love for him would not grow cold, but that we would really have him before our eyes.

And how lovable is how desirable, how glorious. And I think Jonathan passionately painted a picture of Jesus, was super attractive. And he painted a picture right before our eyes. And we see him in his beauty, his glory, and what he means to us in the same sense. Let us approach this sermon today when we talk about Jesus as the door of the sheep and Jesus as the good shepherd.

And two weeks ago we had the message where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. And so also in today's message From John chapter 10, it addresses the question, what does a person live on? And in John 6 about the bread of life, he said, I am the bread of life. I'm able to sustain you even for eternity. In John 4 with a Samaritan woman, he says, I can give you this living water, eternal provision.

So today also it's an answer to this question, what does a person live on? And we need Jesus in a different way here. And the dominant image in the sermon today is Jesus as our good shepherd or the good shepherd of the sheep. And I don't know, when you think about the good shepherd image, what comes to your mind first? Maybe you have seen some cheesy paintings of the good shepherds in a living room or somewhere, or you think of Hollywood movies that paint a very soft, often picture of Jesus.

He's kind of cute, a soft and gentle soul with lots of compassion and empathy for the needy. Also someone with basically almost no standing in society, just a shepherd out there, poor, with his sheep on the fields, dirty clothes, stinking, smelling. And that's of course part of this shepherd image. Jesus as a shepherd, he's close to the sheep, he's high, he's emotionally involved in the life of the sheep, he suffers with them. But we completely underestimate the statement that Jesus makes when he says, I am the great, the good Shepherd.

It's a massive statement that we should not miss the claim that Jesus makes here in ancient and Mesopotamian and also surrounding countries, the image of the shepherd was used to actually to refer to the king. The king saw themselves as the shepherds of their people appointed by gods or There may be many gods. So shepherding in the ancient world was actually a metaphor for the exercise of authority, really absolute authority and governance. And as a just and powerful ruler in ancient times, you would also care for the weak, of course, in your society. So for example, through the prophet Isaiah, God says about the future emperor of the Persian world empire, Cyrus.

God says about Cyrus, he is my shepherd. This ruler of this world empire, Persia, he is God's Yahweh's shepherd. And God says, and she shall fulfill all my purpose. His purpose in rebuilding Jerusalem, of course, in the temple.

And we have to see this entire John 10 chapter here. The what Jesus talks about himself as a shepherd. Yeah. In light of the, the picture of the failure of Israel's shepherds in the Old Testament and almost all the prophets, they have to just judge those self appointed shepherds of God's people of Israel and their failure to really provide what need it. And Ezekiel 34 is one of these outs, is the outstanding shepherd.

That's kind of the basis you could say, or the background also of John, chapter 10. Here, Ezekiel 34, the Lord through the prophet, says to these fake shepherds, those who fail in their task, he says here God prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds. Thus says the Lord God. Ah, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves, should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

The weak, you have not strengthened the sick, you have not healed the injured, you have not bound up the strayed, you have not brought back the lost, you have not sought. And with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were just scattered because there was no shepherd. And they became food for all the wild beasts. And in this chapter God continues to not only describe the current situation in Israel among his people, this failure of the shepherds, but in conclusion of this gigantic failure, he actually gives us a.

Gives them a promise. And in verse 15 and he says, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. And I myself will make them lie down basically on these green pastures to be fed and to rest, declares the Lord God. And then in verse 23 it becomes a bit more clear what he means. I myself and I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David.

And he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord will be their God. And my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord, I have spoken.

So when Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, that's a massive statement in light of the prophecies and the promises of God in the Old Testament to raise up the son of David, the divine figure, the Son of God, that basically God himself would now take on this charge to feed and to care for his people. The Messiah.

Think about David, even David, the best of the best you could say of shepherds. And Israel as a king had failed his people several times. But this son of David, this coming shepherd, he would never fail God's people. Isaiah 40:10 says, Behold, the Lord God comes with might. Verse 11.

And he will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. And in Micah 5, the famous chapter 5, about the place of the birth of the one who would be ruler in Israel, Messiah in the same prophecy, Micah 5, verse 4. And this ruler, this coming Messiah, he shall stand and shepherd his flock, and the strength of the Lord, and the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. Even here, a promise that his influence, his government, his shepherding would even spread beyond the borders of the people of Israel, would become a blessing, a shepherd to all nations.

And it's interesting when you read through the Gospel of John, actually right before John 10, when it is about the good shepherd and the sheep, we read about the blind man in Jerusalem who was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath day. And it's this fantastic kind of dialogue. They drag him in front of the judges, the religious Pharisees, scribes, to accuse Jesus. Of course they want to squeeze a testimony against Jesus out of him. And he's actually arguing with them.

And in the end he. They just cast him out. Like you have been born in sin and you don't understand anything and just. They just cast him out before them. You're not worthy even to talk with you.

That's the chapter right before. And it may be actually the same situation because there's nothing in John that, that indicates there's a change of location, time. And later at the end of John 10, actually people say, some people, this man cannot have a demon, the one who opened the eyes of the blind. So actually all chapter 10 very likely is right after this incident with a blind man. And, and this is a perfect illustration for how the religious leadership in Israel at this time failed to shepherd this blind man, completely failed him.

They Cast him out like a nobody, worthless person, worthless Israelite, a follower even maybe of this Jesus. And they just found accusation, trying to find accusations against Jesus, the true shepherd, so fascinating here in light of the, again, the. The these fake shepherds that abuse their power and their position. Now, Jesus, in chapter seven, he presents him as the true shepherd, the good shepherd who would not use and abuse the people. So Today in chapter 10, we have a lengthy parable.

There are two different aspects of Jesus himself symbolized Jesus as I am the door of the sheep. He is the door in this parable, and he is also the good Shepherd. And he. Two times he begins his statements by truly, truly, really enforcing the point, the message, truly, truly. He presents the parable, truly, truly.

Then he presents himself as the door and the good Shepherd. Yeah, let's pray. Then we'll move through the text.

Father, we thank you that it has pleased you to send us the good shepherd, Jesus Christ, Messiah, son of David, whose influence even reaches all nations. Now he has become the good shepherd of people from all cultures and ethnic groups. And even today we are gathered here in his name and each one of us could sing praises of him as he has shepherded us in the past and is currently just drawing close to us to provide what we need. We ask that your voice, Jesus, would be heard through this passage. It's your voice in the Scriptures.

So please talk to us, Lord. Show us again who you are to us and help us to fully embrace this relationship with you. Amen.

Yeah. Jesus starts here with just laying out the parable with different aspects in John chapter 10, verse 1. Truly, truly, I say to you. He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him. The gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep just follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow because. But they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. We shouldn't probably allegorize this parable too much and like, give meaning to every single aspect.

It's about some main. Some key points here. So, for example, who is the gatekeeper? Or Jesus is both. He's a door, a physical element in this thing.

He's also the shepherd, a person at the same time. So we should focus on the main message that he wants to deliver here in this. Let's just go to the next slide here. This is just a picture of a very small sheep fold here, probably in Palestine, somewhere in the Middle East. So we have different elements in this figure of speech.

We have sheep in this sheepfold here.

And in the Bible, these sheep are a picture also for God's people, people who are in special covenant relationship with God. It's God who owns Israel, it's his people. And he cares for Israel in a very special way. So here in this parable, the sheep are those who belong to God, to the good shepherd. And then in the sum of the sheep, you have the flock that what he says is all my own.

All those sheep that belong to the good shepherd. And we have the good shepherd, of course, of the sheep. And these, he says, these sheep are my own. He's the rightful owner. The sheep are his property and his responsibility as a shepherd.

And then interestingly, he mentions also other groups of people, strangers whose voice is unfamiliar to the sheep, maybe passengers walking by, thieves, bad motives, robbers, those who were not the rightful owners of the sheep, people who were motivated by selfish interests. They really didn't care for the sheep or the well being of the sheep. They even want to maybe abuse them, use them, destroy them like robbers. Then we have the sheep fold here. It's this walled in, open air enclosure.

And that's pretty typical probably for what Jesus describes here. The stones piled up, there's one door, there's a person watching the door in the night. He would just lie down in the door as a human barrier for the sheep and for people to maybe come into the sheepfold. And that's where it gets a bit complicated. What's the sheepfold in this parable?

And in my opinion, this stands for the people of Israel here. Because later Jesus speaks of sheep that he has in another fold. These are, this is a fold. And these sheep folds were often used by several shepherds that had their sheeps in there and called out their sheep. But Jesus here, the good shepherd, he has his own sheep.

The people of Israel are his sheep, the remnant within this sheep fold.

And we will later see that he has another fold from people, from the Gentiles.

Later, Jesus says he is the door of the sheep. He doesn't say the door of the sheepfold. He's not thinking in terms of a building, but in terms of people. And him as a person, a shepherd, they are his sheep.

Yeah, there's this door, a hole in the wall here that gives access to the sheepfold and the sheep that are kept inside. And the door here in this parable stands simply for having rightful access to the sheep that belong to this shepherd. There's this gatekeeper at the door to make sure that only the true shepherds of the sheep would get access to their own sheep.

So that's the main point here, that the shepherd enters only through the gate as the appointed, the lawful right, right shepherd of those sheep kept inside. And the gatekeeper would acknowledge the fact that he is the shepherd and give him access to the flock. It says the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd. They are familiar. That's really true.

That sheep realize they can distinguish between different voices and they know the voice of the shepherd. And they follow the shepherd outside and back inside. And they will distinguish and say, this is a strange voice. And they are shy and they will refrain from following a stranger.

Later Jesus will say, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. And he will say, you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. There are sheep that are not among Jesus sheep maybe yet. And they don't hear his voice. They don't identify his voice as the voice of their shepherd.

And that describes most of the people of Israel. They didn't hear the good shepherd and the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. They didn't believe because they didn't belong to his flock, to his sheep.

But now he goes on that he is the door of the sheep that opens the way to salvation and life for them. Verse 7. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And I will go in and out and. And will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

It's the act here of entering into the sheepfold, but it's actually also the act of entering into a relationship, entering into fellowship with Jesus through the gate, which is Jesus himself. Belief in Jesus and then putting oneself under the protection of Jesus as the good shepherd. Finding security, being saved. He says they will be saved, those who enter through Jesus as the door. And he said, he says they will go in and out.

It's a Semitic probably way to say. This describes the course of life. Everyday life over a span of life. Wherever people, the Sheep are, whatever they're doing, whatever they're facing, the sheep will go with them and they will find pasture.

But here again it's the door is important as the only, the lawful and normal way of entering the sheepfold and getting access to the sheep. It's only through Jesus that one kind of can join God's people and find the security within the fold of God.

Interesting question. Here Jesus talks about in verse eight, all who came before me are thieves and robbers. What is he referring to here? All of these before him. Some say he's pointing to other messiahs in Israel's history, zealots maybe.

But I think he's just talking about all these false shepherds, these fake shepherds, self appointed shepherds that cared more about their own interests than the interest of the sheep. They were thieves and robbers in the way that they wanted to use them, exploit them for their own selfish purposes and maybe even destroy them in the process. They didn't care for the needs of the sheep.

So Jesus, he distinguishes himself from these other shepherds that are currently present. When we think of John 9, those who kicked out this blind man.

So the sheep here are the true people of God, the remnant among Israel. And the gatekeeper is God, maybe recognizes the shepherd as the rightful owner of his sheep and he opens the door to them. And we see there's a bond of trust between the shepherd and his sheep. They know nose voice intimately, they are familiar with the voice. They listen to him, and they don't listen to other voices.

There's an instinctive certainty even in turning away from the voices of strangers, they immediately distinguish these voices.

So Jesus remains the only door through which the sheep go in and out, where the sheep find safety and food. And he's a shepherd who even gives life abundantly in the sense of complete salvation. And all the different dimensions of life, how it relates also to our relationship with God, reconciliation with God. But the term abundant life, it implies like not stinginess, pettiness, not just enough, the bare minimum, but plenty of life, overflowing life, glorious life. The shepherd offers his sheep.

And when we in real life receive such an offer, we, we are tempted to say, maybe that just sounds too good to be true. What's the hidden motive? Maybe when someone says, just become my sheep, I'm the, I'm a good guy, I'm a good shepherd, I'm going to take care of you. And he promises abundant life, everything we could ever dream of. What's the true motive of this person making such an offer?

Submit to me as your shepherd. But we should realize that's one of the main points, that Jesus has proven his trust worthiness.

Jesus seeks nothing for himself. Jesus already had everything as the eternal Son of God in heaven. Isn't that a convincing argument? To trust him when he invites us to come under his care to believe in him as our good shepherd and to submit to him.

That's the motive for his incarnation. To take on lowly human form was absolutely unselfish. He came to give sinners life. How did he do it? By laying down his own life for us.

As we will see now in the next paragraph, verse 11, when he moves on from the door to the shepherd image. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand, cares nothing for the sheep.

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 for the sheep.

Yeah, that's the good shepherds. That's the beauty of the goodness of the shepherd, this perfect competence and moral goodness as he is willing to lay down his life, take on human form to become a sin offering for us, to provide life for us.

And sheep are rather stupid animals, animals that need a leader. They easily wander off. They don't know where the grass is. They don't know where they find food. They are easy prey for predators.

And the best way maybe to describe them is helplessness. Helpless sheep are helpless and all kinds of dimensions of their existence. Stupid. So they need a shepherd. What's the main responsibility of a shepherd?

Actually you have all these elements in Ezekiel 34. It's like feeding the sheep, sustaining their physical life in the sense of spiritual life. He provides eternal life. Jesus and protecting the sheep. We have seen Psalm 23, that your rod and your staff, they comfort me in this valley of the shadow of death.

It's just this idea of this wooden stick that would be used to do to as a weapon to fight off wild animals, predators. And it's also the stick. Then the staff that is used to guide the sheep actually had something on it to get around the neck of the sheep to pull them back. They are wandering off. You pull, hold them, stretch out the staff.

You pull them back close to you, close into the security of the flock. So feeding, protecting, then leading like guiding the sheep to pastures, guiding to please, to places of restoration, places where they are safe. And then finally, the practical care we had in Ezekiel 34, you have not bound, didn't bind them up. He didn't treat their injuries, their diseases, all these things. And we see, when we look at Jesus in the Gospels, he's emotionally completely engaged.

When he sees human suffering. Think of the crowd. When he sees the crowd, they are like sheep without a shepherd. And he is. He has compassion for them.

He sees them as helpless and harassed people of God. Sheep without a shepherd. Think about the man with the crippled hand in the synagogue. He sees a helpless, abused person. He wants to heal.

And he sees the lack of love in the synagogue of these religious people. And he's emotionally involved, engaged in the situation. He's the shepherd of this one man that he heals. We think of the mother whose only son had died, and he's full of mourning with her compassion.

And we think of Jerusalem. When he sees Jerusalem, he's weeping over Jerusalem, that they reject their Savior, their shepherd.

So we have feeding. Jesus feeds us, sustains us, even with eternal life. He's protecting us from our enemies. He's leading us, guiding us in life to places that are good for us, protecting us. And he's at a very practical level, involved in you and your life.

And he's emotionally, completely engaged with what's going on in your life and my life.

But the main point is he is willing to lay down his own life. He's giving his life so that we may find life. Life is only to be found in him. And that's actually the unmistakable sign that he is the good shepherd, that he is willing to lay down his own life for the sake of the sheep, to sacrifice himself for the sheep. And there's a unique tie between the sheep and the shepherd who had laid down his life for the sheep.

He's not like a hireling, like a paid person. The paid person is not paid to risk his life, but he owns the sheep. And he's willing to lay down, to lay down, down on the line for the sheep. So in Jesus, God fulfills his promise to be the shepherd for his people, the one appointed shepherd over the people of God.

But it goes far beyond the perspective of legal ownership. He not only owns us as our shepherd, but there's also this kind of knowledge of inner acceptance, inner embrace, inner sense of belonging between shepherd and sheep. We, the sheep, know that they belong to the shepherd, not only in a legal sense, but like a family member. You belong to a family we belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to us as the one appointed shepherd. But then surprisingly, we read that there's another fold here that God has sheep also who do not belong to this fold that he had talked about so far in verse 16.

And Jesus says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. And this surely points to the fact that Jesus, as indicated in the prophecies of the Old Testament, he was meant to become a light for the nations and to be a ruler and a shepherd actually from for people from all nations. So when he talked about the sheepfold, first I would say he talks about the people of Israel, the sheep within the remnant within the people of Israel.

And now he talks about the people among the Gentiles, the nation that will also hear his voice and will join his flock. And there will be no scarred sheep anymore. He will gather them all from all nations into his one flock. So one flock remains or fold and one shepherd over over them, the good Shepherd Jesus. And that a grand vision, fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed.

All families of the earth shall be blessed in him. Paul talks about the broken down wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles. Now we're one new humanity. We were one new man, one family of God. And in the Great Commission, Jesus said, go now to all nations and baptize them and make them disciples.

Add more sheep to the fold of the good Shepherd. So that's these other sheep. And he will also care for them. Verse 17. Then for this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority take it up again. The charge I have received from my Father, this charge I have received from my Father. And when you read this here, the Father loves me because I'm going to do this later on my life. Then the immediate question is, how can the Eternal Son of God, who enjoyed the infinite love of the Father, then gain more love?

So what he probably wants to say here is that by Jesus, willingness to lay down his life for the sheep, really fulfilling the charge the Father has given him. Actually he finds he enjoys the approval of the Father. He doesn't increase. The love of the Father doesn't increase, but he finds special approval of the Father by executing his will, accomplishing the mission he has. He had been given.

But he also is doing it on his own accord. He says, and even as a Son of God, He. He does it on his own accord. He has authority to lay it down as God, the second Person of the Trinity.

And you may ask here, and this, at this point, how is it possible that the, the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, can say, I'm going to lay down my life, I'm going to die.

Did God die on the Roman Cross? What's the answer? And the answer is yes and no. Jesus was in one essence with the Father. He died only in his human nature.

If God were to die, the entire universe would collapse and cease to exist because God sustains everything by the power of his being. But the divine nature of the Son isn't capable of experiencing death, only the human nature. So he still enjoyed life as in his divine nature, but he laid down his life in the sense of he laid down, died in his human nature as a man.

So Jesus suffered and laid down his life. He died in his human nature, which he could then take up again. As it says in the resurrection of the body. And all over the New Testament it says that the Father actually raised Jesus back to life. But interestingly, Jesus says he also has a father authority to receive this life back again.

Even there, there's a togetherness. They're acting together in one will, the Father and the Son. And there's the Father who has authority, and there's a Son who has also authority. So there's perfect conformity of will between Father and Son. Also power and love here go together.

He has full authority. He's the eternal Son of God, but he's willing to humble himself, to lower himself, to lay down his life because of his love for the sheep. And actually the power is qualified by the deepest self denial. Here he has all authority as a Son of God, but he denies himself all of his privileges and denies himself these things and lays down his life for the sheep. So this kind of shepherd transcends the image of any other good shepherd that we can ever think of.

Jesus makes himself one with his own. Jesus enters as the shepherd, the leader, into the distress of the sheep, of our distress. He takes it upon himself by his own supreme freedom authority. How deep the Father's love for us. How deep the Son's love for us.

As we close here, John chapter 10 when you look on YouTube, TikTok, whatever, if you look church services online, there's just an inflation of self appointed apostles, teachers, prophets, shepherds in our days People in their car filming a video making the boldest claims about some doctrines. They have seen Jesus again in heaven or in their bathroom in the mirror. And there are churches when you hear lots of hallelujah, thank you Jesus, praise God, all the, and they quote the Bible and they still lead people, many people astray. But there are people clapping, laughing with the preacher, the guy who has the microphone. They are not able to distinguish the voice from the voice of the good shepherd.

It's just a phenomenon and there seems to be a demonic component to that, like this rapid widespread influence that some people have. And in recent weeks maybe you have seen that like more and more bloggers have posted about the so called apostle Katherine Crick in California, appointed by a prosperity preacher in Tanzania. And as far as I have figured out, there's actually no gospel preached. It's a gospel of deliverance from all kinds of miseries in life. And it's the anointing.

The gospel is that you receive the anointing, that you receive the supernatural power now to also be a prophet and apostle and do miraculous things. And this apostle Katherine Crick, she has on her website, she has 2 million followers worldwide views on YouTube, 225 million views on YouTube. You think that's so obvious a fake and this is not at all the gospel that she's preaching, but 225 million views on YouTube. And she supposedly brings revival to all kinds of nations. Actually she brings the real Jesus that can only be known through her spiritual father, this gospel prosperity preacher.

Also completely blasphemous statements and people are just, still just loving it and following her.

So it's fascinating that people, they can say the most blasphemous things in the pulpit and people are really clapping and laughing all along. If we don't listen to the voice of Jesus in the Bible, we will be an easy prey for false apostles, prophets and teachers. But we have the voice of Jesus in the apostolic testimony. These other people just make claims to speak in the name of God. They use religious words, they even quote the Bible.

But it's not the apostolic voice of Jesus in the scripture.

John writes in his first epistle here about false teachers that had destructive ministries in the church, that left the church. But he says in First John 4, 5, these false teachers are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God, we are of his sheep, his fold. Whoever knows God listens to us, to the apostles which we have in the New Testament. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Came across a quote from Charles Spurgeon in these days. He said, preach Christ. That is the magnet. Preaching Christ today is hopefully the magnet.

He will draw his own to himself. Forget about all these gimmicks. Forget about entertaining carnal minds in the church. Preach Christ crucified. And this will be the magnet that will draw the sheep to the good shepherd.

Maybe we can show this slide. Yeah, maybe you're a lost sheep. Never heard about Jesus. You doubt that he is the good shepherd. I see people in the neighborhood.

They have Buddha statues on the balcony in the yard. That's the kind of the blade of maybe green grass that they have found. We have a medium in our neighborhood, people in the occult. We have people in esoteric circles.

Again, I want to appeal to your reason. Who is the most trustworthy person? What's the most trustworthy claim that anyone, anyone has ever made or charged to follow this person? And we have seen it's Jesus who laid down his life for us. This Jesus was the fulfillment of all these prophecies in the Old Testament.

The Jesus who laid down his life but also took it back, who was raised from the dead, who gave evidence that he was the good shepherd.

I like this quote in this Jesus book of Ratzinger here. Carried by Jesus, we can come home. He can carry you too. His shoulders are strong enough. If you are lost sheep and you don't.

You're wondering, you don't know where to find the green grass. You don't know about eternal life, then he's able to carry you. Draw near to him, listen to his voice in the New Testament, try to take his word, take him by his word, and he will draw close to you and to you believers. I want to just say, like with Jacob, who at the end of his lives he blessed Joseph and says about himself the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.

That's the way in which he describes his walk with God. And he was a very imperfect person, Jacob, a deceiver, one who tried to take his luck into his own hand. A very imperfect person also in the way he raised his sons.

But God's power for good in his life was stronger than his imperfections. His. And at the end of his life, just talking to his sons, blessing them, he says, this God who called me, talked to me once, he has been faithful. He has been the good shepherd all my life. Long may Jesus be your good shepherd.

Whatever valley you may have to pass through, the final valley of the shadowy shadow of death. Jesus will be the good shepherd right next to you, leading you all the way. Someone said about Jesus, our shepherd, he walked alone on that road, that road to Calvary, so that we never walk alone. I want to pray and ask Davi and Franklin to come up front for a closing song.

Jesus, we thank you for your compassion, that you are not a distant figure, that Christianity is not about believing some doctrines, but it's about a relationship with a person who has proven his trustworthiness. We see your unselfishness, Jesus, as you have laid down your life on Calvary, like taking on human form, leaving your place in heaven, Lord. But you did this to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sin, to ultimately redeem us with the Father, to execute his will, Lord. And we ask for each person in this room that we would draw close to you today and this week. That we would learn to distinguish your voice from other voices.

That we would nourish ourselves through your voice in the New Testament and in the Old Testament, open our eyes to your goodness, Lord, to your greatness, your power, your compassion. Amen.

Can I remember? If you are able, it would be a huge encouragement, amazing encouragement. If you can make it over to follow us. 6:30 Church baptism service in Potluck in Kaulsdorf I want to dismiss us with this benediction here. Now.

May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The Goddess.

Christ.

Amen.