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“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.
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But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
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The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
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Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
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They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”
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Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.
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Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.
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All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
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I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture.
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The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
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“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
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He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.
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The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep.
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I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
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even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
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I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.
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Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
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No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”
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Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words.
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Many of them said, “He has a demon and is insane! Why do you listen to him?”
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Others said, “These are not the sayings of one possessed by a demon. It isn’t possible for a demon to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”
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It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem.
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It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.
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The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
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Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.
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But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.
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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
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I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
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I and the Father are one.”
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Therefore the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
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Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”
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The Jews answered him, “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
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Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?
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If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken),
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do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
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If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me.
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But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
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They sought again to seize him, and he went out of their hand.
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He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was baptizing at first, and he stayed there.
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Many came to him. They said, “John indeed did no sign, but everything that John said about this man is true.”
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Many believed in him there.