43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

We live in a society full of influencers, leaders, and people who affect crowds by millions. Through social media and TV shows, also through Hollywood and other entertainment products derived from a high-cost global entertainment industry, people are interconnected, communicated, and we are having a lot of fun, as was announced by Epicurus, Bentham, and other philosophers of the pleasure. That is truth and not, because the reality is there are a lot of people who experience the loneliness, suffering and millions of people feel like they are not relevant for others even their for parents and a lot of them are children under 18 years old but also a lot of adults are affected for high levels of anxiety and the cases of suicide, stress, and other expression of dissatisfaction are the more clear evidence of the previous affirmation. Who really cares about humanity? Well, the answer to this question is easy: God really cares about the entire humanity, and He sent His Son die for our salvation, but the church is committed the spread this message and taking care of the people in the name of Jesus. How can we become good shepherds of humanity, starting with our neighborhood?
 
The Greek word agape (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian invention, a new word for a new thing (apart from about twenty occurrences in the Greek version of the Old Testament, it is almost nonexistent before the New Testament Agape draws its meaning directly from the revelation of God in Christ. It is not a form of natural affection, however intense, but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). It is a matter of will rather than feeling (for Christian’s mint love even those they dislike-Matt. 5:44-48). It is the basic element in Christlikeness
 
In the present reflection, we are going to address three relevant points about the idea of the good shepherd presented in the biblical text. 1. Christ chooses to incarnate the good shepherd, which was his motivation and divine call 2. The need to contextualize the pastoral model of Christ for the Christian Church here and now 3. We must be a church that attends a society affected by the lack of love and justice and covered with religiosity; we must find the call that encourages us to go towards the whole transformation of reality
 
It is important to remember that the Biblical passages like Acts 13:14, 43-52 occur in specific contexts, in specific circumstances, and are received by specific people from specific issuers. The interpretation of the Scriptures must recognize this context. In general, individuals, inspired by the Spirit of God, wrote about concrete situations that illuminate the lives of specific people today. That integrates exegesis and contextualization as part of a deeper reflection guided by the Holy Spirit through the whole history.
 
When we preach, we face circumstances different than those faced by the first witnesses. The reading of the Acts shows Paul and Barnabas facing opposition because of the preaching of the resurrection of Christ, the Jews denied the teachings of Jesus, as well as his lordship of him, and therefore confronted the first Christian communities and their proclamation of hope. According to our doctrine, we could consider that the Jews experienced a problem related to the effective call; within some, it was not possible to recognize the message of Christ, on the contrary, conspired to cause harm and ended up expelling the apostles. But Paul and Barnabas did not desist and proclaimed with enthusiasm to the Gentiles.
​
We must carefully review the attitude reflected by the Jews in the text of Acts. It seems that sometimes people are willing to face the proclamation of the gospel because of jealousy, and in response, they act in clear contradiction; they can be passive, that is, they do not admit their opposition, but sometimes they do so directly and actively. It highlights the courage of the apostles who respond to each contradiction with great determination. But it also highlights the attitude of the Gentiles who welcomed the proclamation with joy; they received it as good news. The scene closes chapter thirteen with a kind of negotiation putting at the center the social power represented in the distinguished women and prominent men of the city; the objective of the negotiation was the persecution of the messengers of the gospel.
 
in Revelation 7 we are shown the result of this opening to the Gentiles that is seers in the book of Acts through a metaphor consisting of an uncountable multitude of all nations, tribes and peoples and languages, in front of the throne and dressed in white clothes as a kind of international congress before the Lamb of God in venues 14 through 17 the eternal Kingdom is announced under the shepherding of the lamb from whom they will receive consolation
 
Chapter 10 of the Gospel of John gathers an extraordinary metaphor that connects with prophetic figures of the Old Testament, like the test of Ezekiel 34. Jesus compares the attitude of the salaried shepherd with the attitude of the good shepherd. He does not seem to avoid pointing out the clear difficulty that represents for the leadership of Israel of his time to have left the project of God in terms of caring for the most destitute people. Jesus uses a continuous parallel to contrast the ruling class of Israel against the model of service that has been embodied by him. It is important to note that, at this point, Jesus has made a series of miracles in favor of people with an obvious need for help. The problem became more intense after the Jews condemned the works of Jesus for a mere religious zeal; their indifference towards the most vulnerable was evident, to the point of preferring to keep their religious precepts to serve those who needed. Jesus takes advantage of the circumstances to announce a project of reconciliation from God. The metaphor of the good shepherd is also used to summon those who had been considered astray. Jesus calls at the meeting of the faith to people of different ethnic or social status. Paul, later, is going to replicate this message when he affirms that there is no Jew, nor Greek, slave, nor free. Jesus is the good shepherd of those whom God has chosen to be part of his flock and his pastoral mission for them and to take care of them, keep them within his covenant. John, in his gospel, proposes that eternal life begins in this world, in the same way that eternal death begins in the same unbelief. Jesus offers a covenant from which no one can separate his beloved from him, and that is the guarantee of those who accept the gift of love and confirm his call through following Jesus as evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God.
 
Pastor Weldmann says: The church is God's means of expressing His love to the world. When we fully understand the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be quick to love others as we have been loved by God. We live out our love by encouraging, comforting, and admonishing others to abide in the love of God. Data collected in Canada from April to June 2022 showed that just over half (53%) of people aged 15 years and older said that they trust many or most of the people in their neighborhood. The remaining 47% said they trust a few or none of the people in their neighborhood.
 
The model proposed by Jesus is extremely difficult in a society highly open to religious activities but not very committed to following Jesus. The leadership model based on the service to others and primarily to the most vulnerable people become a deep challenge. One of the immediate actions that we should value in our pastoral model, for example, for the city, should be to give priority to offering different relief actions to people in need. Organize ourselves with the wisdom that comes from God, to manage what is necessary and offer in a concrete way, food, perhaps shelter for people living in need but also, to develop skills and competences to be mentors, offering the adequate orientation with all the wisdom coming from the bible for families and people needed not just for material needs but also spiritual needs in the midst of the richness or wealth. Our societies have become societies based on competition or confrontation paradigms for human coexistence; regrettably, we need to recognize the wisdom coming from other cultures.
 
Ubuntu describes a set of closely related African-origin value systems that emphasize the interconnectedness of individuals with their surrounding societal and physical worlds. "Ubuntu" is sometimes translated as "I am because we are" (also "I am because you are"), or "humanity towards others". Ubuntu often meant in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.
 
We must pray for our rulers and people in eminence so that we can live quietly and peacefully; in the same way, we must prophetically watch their actions to confront them in the light of the gospel, of the project of the Kingdom of God. The contradiction, in the same way, has occurred in the time of Jesus, often remains interesting; therefore, we must announce the paradigm of the gospel of giving priority to the people who had priority in the message of Jesus, those people who attended preferably, and to whom I announce the hope of the Kingdom of God. In summary, to shepherd the city as Jesus did, that is the call not for a group of specialists or technicians in biblical interpretation or pastoral skills, but it is the call of all the people of God. Let us be the shepherd people who lead this city to the feet of the Lamb to receive consolation and to participate in the feast of salvation.

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. 32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. 35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Human beings have been created for relations. The bible shows enough evidence about God’s intentions to establish relations with humanity. Human history is about relations, and the reality of sin reflects the broken relations of everything: broken relations with others human, broken relations with the creation, broken relations with himself, and broken relations with his creator. The only way to restore humanity is to get over the broken relations and move forward in direction to the God’s kingdom.
 
Dr. Bernie Siegel, in " Homemade, May 1989, says that single men are jailed more often, earn less, have more illnesses, and die at a younger age than married men. Married men with cancer live 20% longer than single men with the same cancer. Women, who often have more close friendships than men, survive longer with the same cancers. Married or not, relationships keep us alive. Let see the biblical perspective about relations.
 
Psalm 147: 1-12. This happened about 600 years before Jesus came to the earth, and this passage contains a good example of the complexity of human relations. The Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem and took the people away to Babylon. Babylon was a country east of Jerusalem. They made them live there for 70 years. They were exiles (they lived away from their own country). This happened because God’s people did not love him nor obey him. So, God punished (or hurt) them. But after 70 years, God destroyed Babylon and brought his people home. He built Jerusalem again and made his people feel happy again. Some of them had broken hearts. This is a way to say that they felt very, very sad (or depressed). Other people had injuries. Perhaps someone had hit them or cut them with a knife. Really, God did not do these things himself. The psalm means that he made them happen through other people. Broken stories, destruction, but also restoration, all are included in the story of Israel's relations with God, with themselves as people, and with other countries.
 
In Isaiah 40: 21-31 we find the image contained in the text of Isaiah is a powerful metaphor about relations between God and his people; it’s a new chapter about tensions, disappointments, and struggles. God is in control of the universe, but also is closed to humanity. God is using his power in favor of Israel, keeping a relationship of care, love, and protection. God is a father, not a supranatural force, or a mystic essence, is a person, one who oversees a relation with Israel. He is open to care for His lovely people. On the contrary, Israel is going far from God’s will, taking their own decisions, and making their own mistakes. Isaiah appeals to references to Jacob because cit onsiders the importance of the incarnational understanding of the concepts, the Hebrew language usually refers to concrete expression of the reality more than theoretical ideas as the Greek does. That is an important thing to consider when we interpret the Old Testament in comparison with the New Testament. It means, from the Hebrew perspective, God is a concrete person, an incarnational reality, not a power or a force, is Someone who exists in relation to everything that He has created.
 
In 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23 the bible says that for the early church, the dynamic to settle down implied a challenge in terms of changes of attitudes, behaviors, and comprehension of piety, as well as a lot of gaps about how to assume the new life contained in the gospel. Apostle Paul exposed his own experience as a leader trying to build a consistent community but suffering for himself the implications of the religious tradition, the weight of the Roman cultures, and the influence of paganism on the church. Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, describes the states of the leadership, including some characteristics such as a lack of commitment and comfort with the status Quo. He decided to incarnate a life’s projects capable of reflecting God’s Kingdom according to the teachings of Jesus. The relational derivatives of this project were a big change in favor of a more committed practice of community, not just as individuals but as people of God, spreading the good news with the word but also with the deeds, the signs of the Holy Spirit. Paul did exactly what he received from Jesus, and he incarnated this new understanding of the relations and taught it in this way to all the new churches established at the beginning of the early church.
 
In the gospel of Mark 1: 29-39, we find a powerful story that includes a lot of concrete relational expressions. We can check the interest of Jesus to keep His powerful connections with His disciples as Simon and Andres, even Jesus felt a deeper sympathy for the pain of Peter’s mother-in-law, and He healed her. Crowds came to Jesus to be healed and to be driven out of demons, but the main motivation for our Lord was to keep His close relation with His Father, the Eternal God, through prayer. Then His disciples came to Him, and Jesus decided to keep going on His mission, preaching the gospel and healing people. We can identify a strong commitment of Jesus with His disciples and with the people around him expressed and the way that He was every time attending their demands not to manipulate or take advantages of His popularity, moreover, Jesus was able to feel the vulnerability of the people around Him and He took concretes actions in favor of them as expression of His father’s love. The same God who loved his people in the Old Testament, the creator, the savior of Israel, was now walking with the crowds, sharing their needs, and being exposed to the worst of the human conditions, all in favor of God’s project to recreate everything in a new reality.
 
God is more than a concept, Jesus is beyond any theory, God is someone who loves us, and Jesus is the incarnational expression of God in our midst. Because of His love, we are saved, because of His attitudes of compassion and mercy, we can feel His presence amid the worst battles, spiritual or material. In a world where relations are destroyed frequently due to envy or evil, in the midst of wars or famines, in the midst of individualism and consumerism, we are called, as Jesus taught, as Paul wrote, to live to proclaim a new world, one where solidarity and peace are the expression of God’s kingdom. Sometimes it is too hard live new relations based in respect, love and compassion even into our families or into our churches because the weight of the sin is still affecting the God’s plan for our lives but we can resist every time that we can the temptation to destroy, to do harm and instead, to be instruments of love but not just through words rather deed, acts, and signs of the Holy Spirit.
 
The family matter, according to the General Social Survey (Families), of the 11 million people aged 55 and older in Canada in 2017, 7.5 million were part of a couple. Five million, or 7 in 10, aged 55 and older, were in a long-lasting relationship of 30 years or more. Long-lasting relationships were more common among married couples than among those who lived common-law. People in long-lasting relationships were, on average, 68 years of age. Long-lasting couples were likely to have at least one child. 92% of persons in unions of 30 years or longer had at least one child. 76% of persons in unions of less than 30 years had at least one child. Half of adults aged 75 and older who were part of a couple had been in that relationship for 55 years or more.
 
Our evangelism must be relational, as God is. The Bible tells us about our God keeping a longer relationship with the human being, a relation based on His faithfulness, His mercy, and His promises. Jesus incarnates the relational project of God being a friend for His disciples, being a healer for the vulnerable, and being our savior on the cross. How can we be aware enough about our call to be relational? keeping each other and loving not just our friends but the entire humanity. Especially in this time where love is frozen for indifference, individualism, and vanity, we must come back to the simplicity of the gospel, keeping relations of transparency, authenticity,y and truth. If we adopt these concrete actions in our personal circle, we can affect others and provoke in our people questions for which the gospel is the answer.
 
Love doesn’t exist just as a concept; whoever uses the word in this way is just evading the concretion of the real love expressed in actions, in deeds, in signs. All Christians must come as ambassadors of transformed relations, creating opportunities to build a new understanding of what it means to be a friend, family, and a Christian as closely as Jesus did. 

21 They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. 23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders[a] for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.​ 26 From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27 On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

Beloved brothers and sisters, I come before you today not only as a pastor with more than fifteen years of ministry experience, but as a fellow pilgrim of faith, someone whose life has been profoundly transformed by Jesus Christ. I am a Christian because Jesus is my Savior and my Lord. I believe this with all my heart. He changed my life, and because of that, I have chosen to serve the Kingdom of God with gratitude, commitment, and hope.
 
I believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God. I believe in one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His sacrificial and atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory. I believe that salvation is possible only through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in believers and enables us to live godly lives. I believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, and I believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in Christ. And from that faith, I want to invite us today to reflect together.
 
Jesus Christ reveals to us the depth of God’s incarnational love. Yet the world around us constantly reminds us that we live in a society wounded by violence, fear, and the absence of love. Every day, the news confronts us with stories of death and injustice. As Christians, we pray for the victims of violence, of every kind, but we also pray for those who cause violence, trusting that even hardened hearts can be transformed by God’s grace and reconciled to themselves, to others, and to God.
 
We appeal to authorities for justice and peace, but above all, we turn to God, the only One capable of transforming the reality in which we live.

Our reflection today, inspired by Scripture, will focus on three central truths:

• Salvation is a voluntary act of God that marks human history.
• Salvation is an act of love, and Jesus shares that love with those who follow Him.
• The Lord’s Supper calls us to remember salvation as a profound act of love.

 
In Exodus 12: 1 - 8 and 11 - 14, we find that salvation starts with God. The book of Exodus tells us that Israel’s history was shaped by suffering. Its nomadic origins and its geographical location often placed it at a disadvantage among powerful civilizations. Yet God was writing a story far greater than political power or military strength.
 
Ironically, Israel’s enslavement came after God had used an Israelite, Joseph, to save Egypt from famine. Over time, a new Pharaoh rose who no longer remembered Joseph and saw Israel not as a blessing but as a threat. Fear led to oppression, and oppression led to slavery. But God did not forget His people.
 
In Exodus 12, we encounter a decisive moment. God prepares Israel for liberation through a powerful symbol: the blood of a spotless lamb placed on the doorposts of their homes. This act was not magical; it was deeply theological. It was an act of trust, obedience, and hope. Salvation began not with Israel’s strength, but with God’s initiative.
 
God summoned His people into a project of liberation and announced that the time had come. Salvation entered history because God chose to act.
 
This memory became central to Israel’s identity, and it would later shape the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. As John Calvin beautifully expressed, the Supper leads us to the death and passion of Christ, then to His resurrection, assuring us of life and salvation, because through His victory the gates of paradise have been opened.
 
The book of Acts shows us that salvation did not remain confined to one people. Paul and Barnabas traveled from city to city proclaiming the Good News, strengthening believers, appointing leaders, and entrusting communities to the Lord.
 
This was not an easy mission. Scripture tells us plainly: “We must suffer many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Yet love sustained the early church. When the apostles returned, they gathered the community and shared everything God had done, especially how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
 
Salvation created a movement of love. The church rejoiced not in its own success, but in the expansion of God’s grace. The story of salvation became their story.
 
In John 13: 31–35, Jesus did not merely teach love; He embodied it.
 
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gathered His disciples around the table. He washed their feet. He shared a meal. He spoke not from fear, but from love. And then He gave them a new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
 
This love became the defining mark of the early Christian community. It was so visible that outsiders could say, “See how they love one another.” That is why neither Peter nor Paul built movements around themselves. Their authority flowed from their relationship with Jesus, who had loved them first.
 
The Lord’s Supper was not a repetition of the past; it was the fulfillment of God’s promise. The Messiah Himself stood at the center of the celebration, embodying God’s love in its fullest expression.
 
Jesus did not teach love as an abstract concept. He taught love through presence, humility, and shared life. In Eastern culture, sharing a meal was a profound act of communion, and Jesus chose that moment to teach His disciples what love truly means.
 
He did not accuse them or condemn them for what was coming. Instead, He prepared them to love as He loved. Later, when He sent them into the world, He commanded them to teach everything He had taught, including this way of love.
 
This love challenges us to move beyond excessive individualism, rivalry, and fear. It calls us to recognize the other, not only those who think like us, but those who are different. Only this kind of love can confront racism, discrimination, stigma, and the many forces that destroy human coexistence.
 
Jesus’ love is not naïve. It is courageous. It seeks understanding even when harmed, and reconciliation even when misunderstood.
 
Today, loving in conventional ways is not enough. We are called to love with concrete actions, through respect, recognition, and commitment. To care not only for our families, but for our neighbors. To build peace where we live.
 
When we come to the Lord’s Table, we remember that we belong to one humanity, sharing one planet and one fragile future. May the Spirit of God move among us today, so that forgiveness, compassion, and commitment shape our lives.
 
May we never stop making love the center of a new civilization, beginning with our own hearts. Amen.