Episode Transcript
Tim 00:00:23 Hello and welcome to the unveiling with your hosts Ajai mark and Tim. This week is gonna be episode number 45. We are still in the series of lessons on the seven I ams of Jesus from the Book of John. And this week we are taking, our statement from John 10, starting at verse 11, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. Well, that's gonna be an interesting one to walk through, but I'm, I am gonna say, I find a lot of interesting parallels to last week where Jesus, was saying, I am the gate. And we talked about, how a shepherd literally lays down in the threshold of the sheep pen, to keep the sheep safe by keeping predators out in the sheep in. And, that, you know, only the shepherd walks through the threshold, and anyone else who goes over the walls or climbs in another way is just a thief, someone who's there to kill steel and destroy. So these two tie pretty well together, Ajai The, the whole shepherd analogy last week, we talked about sheep being a really good, metaphor for the day, because shepherding sheep and all of that were very, very common throughout Israel in those days. So from the gate to the shepherd himself, what, what do you what say you, Ajai
Ajai 00:02:18 Yeah, so Tim, even I also observed that, and we talked about it last time, right? He's in this small passage, right? He shot passage. He's identifying himself both as a shepherd, and the door are the gate, right? And it is not unusual with our Lord Jesus Christ, for example, you know, he's both the gift and the giver, right? He's both the priest and the offering. So similarly, you know, in fact, you know, his all things, he's our largest Christ. So it is no wonder that he's not only the gate and the way to the law to God, but you know, he's also the good shepherd, and he's both the gate and the shepherd. so one thing that, struck me right away is, the main text of our today's podcast is, I am the Good Shepherd. And the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. So here in a short sentence, right? You know, the Lord defines what good is all about, right? If I say I'm good to somebody, I'm actually ready to give my life for them. That's what the meaning of good is. So it is clearly, you know, that's what struck me. I'm the good shepherd and the good shepherd. What does the good shepherd do? It's not like, you know, he feeds the sheep, you know, he takes care of the sheep, you know, he's kind of watching over them. No, he goes to the extreme and says, you know, I give my life. You know, that is a definition of God's good. That's why, you know, the Lord said, you know, when he talk to the Pharisees, he said, there's nobody good but God. But in our definition, right, you know, we bring down the, level of goodness to human goodness, right? You know, if we do something nice, you know, a little favor to somebody, you know, we think, okay, we are being good. But I think I want to kind of, bring our attention to this, right? In God's view, being good means giving his life to us. See how, how, how awesome it is. So whenever we hear, you know, God is good to, you know, we all say, right, you know, God is so good to me. God is so good to me. But I wonder how many of us realize that the definition of good is Jesus is going to the extent of giving his life for us. If he didn't do that, he's basically not good.
Tim 00:04:32 So I, you know, it's interesting you say that, because nobody, but Jesus knew what he was saying in part there, because he was going to the cross. He was literally going to give his life for his sheep, his people. And no one, I i don't think anyone had an inkling in that moment when he was saying that here, that this was going to happen. Yeah, only him.
Mark 00:04:57 One of the things after listening, to your podcast from last week, the one that I, missed, but it in no way was a detriment, that was an excellent discussion. One of the things you guys just started to, to kind of enter into, it wasn't the main gist of that scripture. So that's probably why I'd like to delve into a little deeper, because as I look at last week, you guys talking about I am the gate, I am the door. That's the one way in, okay, here he is talking about, he's the good shepherd in that anybody else that comes by another way as a thief and a robber, these, this whole chapter 10 really to me is talking about just the exclusivity of Christ. You know? And I don't think we have to come into that bashfully because you know, so much of, today's society is so relativistic, and oh, your truth is fine for you. My truth is fine for me. But that's just silliness, because truth has a definition. Truth is exclusive. It's absolutely exclusive of everything. That's not true. You don't have to believe, you could say, you know what? Gravity is your truth. Yeah. But when I push you off the Hancock building, you're gonna find out that what's true for me is true for you, because true is true. And that's what I think I really love about this chapter. And you pointed this out, Ajai that not only is Jesus saying that I am the gate, you can't get in any other way, but you pointed out, you alluded to it, that, and beside that being, the fact there's only one way through that gate. And it's not by the law or by works, or by other world religions. It's only through Christ. That's the one way. And there's only one way to receive Christ. You can't earn him, deserve him, merit him. It's by faith. It's by the spirit drawing you and filling you, with faith in his work on the cross. So I just love how he goes into great depth here in a couple different ways. And we all know the famous other scriptures. You know, I am the way in the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. He's, and it's, Paul said, there's no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. So I just think he's d dealing clearly with the exclusivity. So you cannot take Jesus as one way, as so many other people in the world, in secular humanism, other religions think there are many ways. Jesus is either the one way or he's no way at all. Because he's saying, I am the way. No one comes to Father. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the gate. You come through me and you come by faith through my grace and love for you. There's no other way. So I just love how clear he makes it. He's not, he's not leaving it up to people to define who he is.
Ajai 00:08:09 So in fact, I think, I had this discussion, before, at work, you know, with one of the Jews. I think the way sometimes, you know, we present the gospel is like, you know, we present Lord Jesus Christ as not as the only way of escape, right? We present him as a condition, right? So I think in general, what people think is, you know, the whole world is fine and dandy, right? They're happily living. And then this guy called Jesus shows up on the scene and places a condition. If you believe in me, you are going to heaven, otherwise I'm going to send it to hell. Right? People interpret like that and people present the gospel like that. But that's not the case, right? It's everybody is in a sinking boat. You know, we use this analogy, they are not fine and dandy. It's not like people are playing on a playground, right? All the kids are playing and suddenly this big guy, you know, angry guy shows up, Hey, you believe in me, otherwise, you are not playing anymore, right? I'm going to put you in the jail. It's not like that. Everybody is in a sinking ship and the only live boat available is lodge crash, right? If there are 10 other live boats, he doesn't mind because his heart is to save the people, right? But there's only one live boat, and that is our largest crash. So by being, he becomes exclusive because he's the only way. If there's any other way, I'm sure you know, God would've taken that way instead of sending his son to the cross.
Tim 00:09:40 Well, I, I'd like to touch on what Mark just said, about we, we can proclaim this unabashedly. And, and I would say that I agree with that completely. Because there is no system of religion on the entire planet that is not exclusive. There's, every one of them is exclusive to some point or another. Whether you're following, you know, a profit, and everyone who doesn't believe our infidels, or if you're following, everyone has their exclusivity. So why do we need to be apologetic for that when someone challenges us? Oh, you're just so rigid. It has to be Jesus. What about, and then they'll throw up their hundred roadblocks. I'm sorry, I maybe don't have all the answers for all your roadblocks, but I do know this. Jesus is the way.
Ajai 00:10:30 Yeah. Well, I think I just want to add, other religions, they may be exclusive, but they're not true. So they're not, they won't help <laugh>.
Mark 00:10:39 I understand. Right? And, and it's, it's up to each seeker to some extent, to seek truth, to seek. You know, if you, if you so many people believe Jesus is there, call out to him. Ask him, and just, just give an honest prayer. Doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just say, Lord, if you are there, if you are God, show yourself to me. Let me understand and know, you know, I just think that's an honest prayer that anybody, any true, honest seeker, any in any religion can say, you know? and one of the things, I love what Jesus says here, he tells us how to recognize who the good shepherd is. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. And he, and if you read a little further on, he says, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up. What other shepherd in any other religion was beaten, flogged, spit on mocked, crucified? You know, he gave his life for us. And I, I love this answer here when he says, no one takes my life for me. Cuz through the centuries civilization is argued who killed Jesus. Some say, oh, it's the Romans. They're the ones who crucified him, and it's big government, whatever, you know, and then say, no, no, but the Jews are the ones that forced them to do it. So they would actually become antisemitic and call Jewish people Christ killers. And then people of a more spirit, spiritual ilk say, no, it's my sin, it's my fault. But Jesus clears it up right here. No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. And that's what differentiates him from the good shepherds and the th thieves and the robbers.
Ajai 00:12:31 Yeah, that is an awesome point. mark, you know, I also wanted to add, you know, he laid down his life not for good people, but for sinners. So there's no other religion, like you said, where you have a sinless man, right? Son of God actually laying down their life for sinful men. In fact, in many religions, you know, it says, you know, yes, they also had many incarnations of God, in fact, you know, in religions like Hinduism, but, and their philosophies, you know, God incarnated always to punish the evil and protect the righteous. But here this could shepherd came to lay down his life for sinners. In fact, you know, Bible says, I did not call the righteous, but, sinners to repentance. And in fact, the beauty of that is there is nobody who is righteous. So if the Lord has to save only the righteous, nobody will be saved.
Tim 00:13:29 I, I see two little points in there that intrigue me, and I might look at further, but when you say, when God said, I didn't come to save the righteous, well, first of all, no one is righteous, none. But second of all, when he says that, what he's really saying to me just now after hearing it and not really looking into it, is I didn't come to save the self-righteous, you know, because those are the people with the attitudes who won't accept me. Oh, I'm good enough. this, that and the other. He, it's a, it's kind of a complex statement in very simple words,
Mark 00:14:04 You know, Ajai that point that you just made is an awesome, powerful point that not only did the good shepherd lay his dive down for the sheep, he laid his life down for the black sheep.
Ajai 00:14:17 Yep.
Mark 00:14:18 You know, and not only you can look around at every other world religion, nobody died for us. But the, what they did was to get people to try to be better. You gotta do this, you gotta do that. Christ came and gave his life for the worst of us, for the worst in us. And, and I love, I don't remember, you probably know the address where it says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though some might possibly dare for a to die for a good man, but Christ died for sinners. I know I'm paraphrasing to some extent there. Yeah, exactly. Do you know the address of that one? Is that Romans?
Ajai 00:15:06 It's in Romans chapter five.
Mark 00:15:07 Okay. That is just such a great demonstration of his love. Yep. That when we're at our worst, no one took his life for us. He said, here I am a body who prepared for me the lamb of God. And he gave himself up to be sacrificed for us. Not when we're at our best, but when we were at our worst. Not when we were giving 10% so that we could get <laugh>, not when we were in our 10 part series and how to be a better person, but when we were doing the very things that we really don't wanna do.
Ajai 00:15:39 Yep. So, yeah. So I would like to know, go back to our text again, right? So verse 11, and if we go to verse 10, if you see the context right, if thief does not come except to steal or to kill or to destroy, have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. So here you see the connection, right? You know, he's talking about abundant life, and then he talks about, you know, I'm the good shepherd. So when we see the Lord Jesus Christ as our good shepherd who gives his life for us, you know, that is a secret of abundant life. And in fact, you know, we cannot really talk about good shepherd without going back to Psalm 23, the famous verse. Right? So, I dunno if you guys were talk thinking about it, but definitely, you know, that also supports it, right? You know, seeing God as a good shepherd, having his him as our good shepherd, he's the secret of abundant life. So I was going to go through all the verses in Psalm 23, but I'm going to stop maybe at, each of the verses, you know, so that you, we can have a dialogue instead of just me doing a monologue. But I think that immediately, you know, the first thing you know, I want to, focus on, you know, to back up the point that having Jesus as a good shepherd is the secret to abundant lives, right? So if you go to Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Or in other translations it says, Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not lack. So that is a secret. If you're not lacking what you have, you have abundant life. So that is one of the things, you know, that we see if we are lacking in life. And if you're always, you know, whether it be, financially or whether it be physically, whether it's emotionally or even in your, if you're lacking peace or joy or, rest, all that goes back to, you know, how do you see Lord Jesus Christ? Do you see him as your good shepherd? Or you basically, you know, don't see that, you know, when you see Lord Jesus Christ as a good shepherd, you have abundant life. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack.
Tim 00:17:58 So I'm going to ask a question here, because, growing up in the church, going to many different denominations, there are a couple of denominations out there who are the prosper, what we call the prosperity crowd, name it and claim it, bla it and grab it, whatever you wanna call it. But the, when it says, I want you to have life and life more abundantly, I'm, you know, here to pro, you know, to make you prosper. I don't think it means what some of these people think it means. It's, you know, mark, what do you, what what does it mean to you when it says, I'm, you know, I want you to have life and life more abundantly. I'm assuming you're not gonna sing the old song, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Mark 00:18:37 No. well, one of the unfortunate things about false teachings is beside the wrong and could hurt people, is that, that it hides the truth. Okay? There's no way you can read scripture, read the words of Jesus, look at the gospel, look at the crust and say that God didn't come to bring us life and bring it to the full. There's just too much in there. and so what the prosperity Gospel does is it takes that out of balance, but not just that the prosperity gospel is a works gospel. So the true gospel is actually more prosperity than the prosperity gospel cuz the prosperity gospel, you need to do this and you need to do that. You need to send your money into that TV evangelist to prove your faith so that then you can give to get that. That's not the gospel. The true gospel is way more valuable than that. It's you've become a child of God, you're a son and a daughter. You are an heir of God and a coheir with Christ. All he has is yours. How is any good father not gonna take care of their child and provide for what they need? So, so that's how I would answer that. The real gospel is much more prosperous than the prosperity gospel, cuz the prosperity gospel is just another works thing. Yeah. Do this and then you're gonna get,
Tim 00:20:04 So Ajai define prosperous then, because I think a lot of people really see that as having all of their physi, we're back to the, you know, the people following juices after the loaves and fishes. Oh, you fed us, we wanna make you kings. You can keep taking care of us. And that's not how this works, right? That's, that's not the prosperity he's talking about.
Ajai 00:20:24 Yeah. Yeah. So again, you know, when we say prosperity, we just, think of money, right? Buildings and cars. And, but I think that is coming from the fact that, you know, for them they see money as the only thing that, prosper means to them, right? So I think it mostly goes to where their heart is and how they're seeing life. You know, they think, oh, money is only prosperity. And then they, first of all, in order of the greed, they think that money is only prosperity. And then, and because of their guilt, they oppose it. So somehow in their mind, they think having money is a bad thing. So even though they want it, they go against it because of all this wrong thinking. But I think again, you know, we see the prosperities here, right? You know, it says in, Philippians, I think it's in, in four 19, my Gods shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Right? And then the Lord Christ said, here I have come to give you life and life more abundant. The prosperity is basically the bottom line is the life of Jesus receiving his life and living his life and enjoying his life daily is what is prosperity, right? That's what is defining this here. I came to give you life and life more abundant. And what is it life that is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. And again, here weve seen Philippians four 19, my God shall supply all your need out of, not out of a bank account. My God is not going to supply all your need. You know, from some, storehouse, he's saying that according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So, and then we see, you know, again, Psalm 23, Lord is my shepherd. I should not lack, you know, not lacking in any area for life is prosperity, basically. And of course, you know, it's, we are not just talking about physical. If we are just talking about money, you know, there are billionaires, right? They're already prosperous, they don't need Christ. And the billionaires are some of the poorest people that I know. So we are just now talking about money. So we are first and foremost, you know, we are talking about prosperity in terms of having the life of Christ in us, right? You know, our spirits coming alive to God. And that is a first prosperity, right? We have the eternal life living inside us. So in the spirit area, we receive a new spirit, right? There's nothing we do when, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. The moment we believe in Lord Jesus Christ, we become a new creation. That is our greatest position. Whether we have something outwardly or not, that is our biggest version. Because the Bible says, you know, what does it profit a man? If you gain the whole world and lose your soul? Clearly the soul is more valuable than the whole world. So the first is just having this eternal life. Being born again is our biggest prosperity. And then the second thing is a soul prosperity. Right? The Bible clearly says in, I think John chapter three, bill levered, that, you know, I wish that you're prospering all things even as a soul prosperous. So when our soul is prospering, right? You know, we are happy on the inside, we are full of joy and peace and no guilt and condemnation. And Lord gives healing in every area, right? You know, our heart is healed, our thinking is healed, and our emotions are healed and our pain is healed, right? So the second is a sole prosperity. And finally, I think, you know, Lord will also take care of our physical needs. In fact, you know, when they come to bodily health, a lot has to do with your soul prosperity. The more happier on the inside, even if you eat problems, right? A happy, life. I think a happy heart is health to your, to all your bones, right? You know, I'm paraphrasing, but again, I think the third one is a physical right? You know, we want to God, I think in the gospel we also have healing. So physical healing, physical health, because I think, I feel like, you know, personally, after your salvation, the greatest gift God can give us is bodily health. Because if you're not healthy, you know, we really cannot enjoy life. And finally, I think God will also take care of all our physical needs, right? Financial needs, our food, clothing, shelter, and comforts in life.
Tim 00:24:47 All right, well, I'm glad you guys cleared that up. And AjaiI hijacked your point. So do I need to turn that back over to you to finish what you were saying on, the beginning of that verse there,
Ajai 00:24:58 The beginning of that?
Tim 00:24:59 Well, you were starting at verse 10,
Ajai 00:25:01 Right? Right. Right. Yeah. So I think I was going back to pointing this out, right? So I think here it says, you know, whoever has I came to live give you life and life more abundant. I think it stops there, right? You know, everybody has their own idea of what abundant life is or what prosperity is. But I feel like, you know, that is actually explained in Psalm 23, and I'm going to real quickly go over it in two minutes without taking too much time. And maybe, you know, we can go into it at later point of time or maybe write a blog about it. But I feel like, you know, Psalm 23 is the description of the abundant life that Christ came to give us, right? So the first force says, you know, God is my shepherd. I shall not like, you know, there's no, like, you know, the good shepherd means supply everything we need. He gives, and in Bible says, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, right? So Lord is my shepherd, I shall not like that is abundant. And then he says, he makes me lie down in green pastures that is rushed. He gives a rush for our souls, and he leads me by still waters. That is peace. He gives peace to us, and he rest restores my soul. We just talked about it. That is soul prosperity. And then he leads me the path of righteousness for his name sake. You know, we don't have to worry about, you know, walking righteously, he will cause our righteousness to shine. And then though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I fear no evil. You know his presence because he's with me, right? His presence drives away all fear. So it's a fearless life because of his presence. You know, in Hebrews it says, he will never leave us in our forsakes. So that we may boldly say, Lord is my helper. What can a man do to me? And then he prepares the table in midst of my enemies, right? You know, right in the midst of our enemies. I think there's a secret here, real quick, you know, the table when we talk about the table, you know, we are talking about the communion, right? The body and the blood of our law, Jesus Christ. So when the enemy attacks us, you know, when there's a spiritual battle, Lord wants us to, you know, just sit and eat right? He doesn't want us to focus on the enemy. So I feel like, you know, the, there's a secret here, right? When we are in a spiritual battle, we take communion. That is a secret. You know, we take the body and the blood of our Lord is Christed. And then the next one is announce my head with oil. That is he pours his Holy Spirit upon us, and my cop ran over. So we will always have extra, right? We will overflow. Our ministry is simply overflowing. We serve others out of our overflow. And finally, not surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, every day we wake up, you know, we can expect goodness and mercy. And I dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You know, the house of the Lord is the body of Christ himself, right? You know, that means we dwell in Jesus forever. You know, this is our glory. So I kind of quickly went over it, but I think meditating on Psalm 23 will give us a picture of, you know, what abundant life is like.
Mark 00:28:02 Can I, I'd like to get back to our previous conversation a little bit on the Good Shepherd and how we know who the good shepherd is. We've already, Christ has already established in the text here that we know he's the good shepherd because he lays his life down for us. And as we was mentioned, as we look around the world, there's a lot of other people claiming to be Shepherds Buddha and Mohammad, and the different, many different polytheistic, you know, pantheism and all that. The tree is the good shepherd and the rock is the good shepherd, but he's the only one that we see that is laid as life down for me. There's another thing that's very exclusive to Christ, and that is that he was God, that he claimed to be God. As we look around the rest of the world at everything else, that religion and philosophy has to offer, not only is nobody dying for us, nobody else is claiming that they are the Creator. They are God. And there are a ton of Christian cults out there, that, that say that Christ is not God. They think he's a great prophet or a great teacher, but he's not God. And there are liberal theologians who say that Christ never claimed to be God. Well, here at the end of 10, I wanna read this because it says this. It's the summary of that whole chapter of Jesus teaching as he sat there teaching about being the gate, being the only way in being the good Shepherd. All others are thiefs and robbers. he summarizes to his Jewish opponents, he said. So at the end of his teaching, it says His Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him. But Jesus said to him, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? We are not stone you for any good work. They replied, but for bla blasphemy, because you a mere man claim to be God. Now, this is one mass, a verse right here, clearly stating that Jesus is claiming to be God. And all those that were listening knew exactly what he was saying and were prepared to kill him for it, which they obviously in the end did. But that's another just exclusive thing that Christ claimed to be God. And by everything he did and said, and by his resurrection, he proved that he, that he is God. And it reminds me of, I used to work at a recording studio and I was working on a mix. One day the doorbell rings and there's a young man out there, must have been in his mid twenties, late twenties, and he was from the Jehovah's Witnesses. And he said, oh, I would like, like to talk to you. I think he said some line like, do you know where you're going if you died tonight? Or something like that. And I said, you know, come on in, let's talk. You know, and I think he was like giddy because he doesn't get that too often. So we went into the control room of the studio. I, I brought up my online Bible. We were living in a wonderful time when we can have the entire Bible and search it just by a word. And he, he, he started sharing some of the things they believe and he said, oh, you know, we don't believe that Jesus is God, that he was God or claimed to be God. Boom. I had a dozen verses showing Jesus saying that. Then he said, nobody in the Bible ever worshiped Jesus. And I'm like, what are you crazy? Boom. A dozen verses people kneeling and, and worshiping Jesus and Jesus receiving that worship, not rebuking him, rebuking them if he was just a rabbi or a good teacher, that would've been blessed for me for them to do that.
Mark 00:31:58 Cuz that deserves stoning, right? They tried to stone him for that. So, it was just a really good productive conversation. So about a week goes by, ding dong, it's him again. This time he's got a little bit older of a man with him. And it was clear when he came in that he brought out the big guns. This was supposedly their scriptural gun, slinger who was going to come and refute everything. We sat down and I'll just say scripture, shut his mouth. He could not respond to it. It is clear Jesus claimed to be God. People worshiped him, and he, he laid his life down for us. He's the good shepherd, and he's the gait. And, and as AJAIpointed out, not only is he the only one, the only way, but there's only one way to him. And that's by faith, by grace through faith in Christ alone and through the cross.
Tim 00:32:56 Well, these are all great points, guys, and this, there's a lot to unpack in John 10 overall. and I agree with you Ajai Psalm 23 is an excellent, excellent, book to read me, meditate on, absorb. So, I am looking at the clock and I see we're starting to run out of time here. So as always, wanna give each two guys a chance to summarize or bring up your last point as you will. mark, we missed you last week. I, I promise, no matter what I said, we missed you last week. So I'll let you go first.
Mark 00:33:32 Sure. Well, thanks Tim. I would like to try to summarize with a story. This happened years ago. There was a hot dog joint near where I lived, and it was kind of a hangout for everybody to come to everybody eat lunch and just talk and you know, about all kind of things. Well, one day, the, the conversation turned to spiritual things. And I started sharing the gospel with this big group of, I don't know, a dozen men maybe. And one of the guys I, I did not recognize, he was a young Jewish gentleman. And after we were done talking about Jesus, I said to him, so, what do you think? And he said, you know what? I think that, Jesus was a, a good, great teacher and a prophet. That's what I believe. And then I explained to him as, CS Lewis's favorite chapter in mere Christianity, that Jesus was either Lord, a liar or a lunatic. He's not a good teacher and a prophet, if he is claiming to be God, if he is claiming to be the one way to God. And so exclusive, he's either crazy and really believes that about himself, or he is a liar trying to manipulate people, or he really is God. And I said, what do you think about that? And the gentleman said, well, then I guess I'll choose lunatic. And then I just said, well, the problem with that is he laid his life down for us. He healed people. His teaching was brilliant, the highest moral teaching. He had too much credibility. And this one of such great credit credibility said that he is the way, the truth in the life. He is the gate. There's only one way into that she spend, and it's through him. He is the good shepherd, and we see him laying his life down. We see him claiming to be God, and we see him give after he lay his laser's life down. He said, I not only have authority to lay it it down, but I have authority to take it back up. And that's why I believe that exclusivity is a great thing.
Ajai 00:35:44 Awesome, awesome. Yeah. So I think, mark, did an excellent job today, addressing the apologetic side of things, right? So exclusivity of our law is Christed and, the divine. I mean, Jesus's God, right? So, awesome job, mark. So I think I was focusing more on the application side. I think we have both apologetics and application today. So I would go back to our point again, right? I was making, you know, the secret to living an abundant life is seeing our largest Christ, a good shepherd. You know, there are two secrets to living an abundant life. You know, very simple, but we miss it. You know, seeing God as our father, right? He says, I am a good father, right? If you being evil, you give good gifts to your children, how much more good gifts I will give to you who ask, right? So God gives good gifts to us. It's hard for us to believe and seeing God as our father and seeing Jesus as our good shepherd. That is a secret to living that abundant life, in this world. So I just want to end with this promise. Psalm 65 11, you crown the year with your goodness, and you pa and your paths drip with abundance, right? So as we walk with Jesus, and as we walk in Christ, as we follow him, as our good shepherd, right, he's just dripping abundance all over. All we can expect is goodness and abundance as we walk with the Lord Jesus Christ as our good shepherd. So I say, you know, see Lord Jesus Christ as a good shepherd who laid down his life for you and expect abundance.
Tim 00:37:31 Wow. Both of you guys are right on with your summaries tonight. And I love the fact that we do did have tonight of apologetics and application as you put it, Ajai But, I'm gonna wrap, with, some text out of Matthew six, I think this is verse 33, but seek e first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you that prosperity are falls under the category of all these things. You know, we, you're right. The exclusivity is that Jesus is the way to heaven and to the Father. Jesus is and was God when he went to the cross, is God still today? And it is exclusive. There is a way into heaven, into eternal life, and into a, a full, a fully abundant life now. And that is him. And that is the one true gospel. We'd like to thank you all for listening, to us today. We hope you are being blessed. And if you're getting something out of this, we would appreciate it if you would share our little podcast with your friends and family. It really would help us out. Don't forget to visit our new website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Check out all of our past episodes and our blog. And with that, I wish everybody, blessed a day and will talk to you the next time.
