Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁴² They kept on being taught by the apostles. And they kept on being with them. They ate bread together and talked with God.

⁴³ All the people were very much surprised. Many wonderful things and signs were done by the apostles.

⁴⁴ All the believers were together; and everything they had was for the use of all.

⁴⁵ They sold their things and divided the money among the believers. They gave each person what he needed. 46,

^46-47 nd every day the believers kept on gathering in the temple. They ate bread in each other's homes. They ate their food gladly and with open hearts. They praised God. All the people respected them. Day by day, the Lord added to the church those who were saved.

¹⁹ Maybe a person is punished when he has done nothing wrong. If he takes these troubles to please God, he does a very good thing.

²⁰ What praise will you have if you take a beating when you have done something wrong? But when you do right and are punished, if you take it quietly, God is pleased.

²¹ You have been called to do this because Christ also was punished for you. He showed you what you should do. So do as he did.

²² He did no wrong. And he told no lie.

²³ When people said wrong things to him, he did not say wrong things to them. When he was punished, he did not say, `I will do something to you!' But he trusted in God who judges what is right.

²⁴ Christ in his own body took the wrong things we have done to the cross. He did this so that we would stop our bad ways and live right. Because he was punished, you were healed.

²⁵ Like lost sheep, you were going away from God. But now you have come back to the one who takes care of you and helps you.

10 Then Jesus went on to say, `I tell you the truth. A person must get to the sheep through the door. Anyone who climbs over the wall to get in is a bad man and steals things. He has come to steal the sheep.

² But the man who comes in through the door, he is the one who takes care of the sheep.

³ The guard will open the door for him. The sheep will listen to him. He calls his own sheep by their names and leads them out.

⁴ When all his own sheep are out of the house, he goes ahead of them. The sheep come behind him because they know his voice.

⁵ They will not go after a stranger. They will run away from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.'

⁶ Jesus told this story to the Pharisees, but they did not understand what he was trying to tell them.

⁷ So Jesus told them again. He said, `I tell you the truth. I am the door of the sheep house.

⁸ All those who came before me are bad people and steal things. They came to steal the sheep. But the sheep did not listen to them.

⁹ I am the door. Anyone who comes in through me will be saved. He will go in and out as he wants to, and will have food to eat.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal the sheep and to kill them and spoil them. I have come so that people may live and that they may enjoy life to the full.