You Are Not the One to Build, Part 5: God’s Callings for All of His Children and Friends

God "calls" all believers to love one another and to be conformed to the image of His Son--to be made, by God, to be just like Jesus. There is also a number of other things to which God "calls" all believers--almost all of them things we simply let him do to or through us, and all of them summed up by loving each other and being remade into His image.

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1. Title slide: You Are Not the One to Build, Part 5:  God’s Callings for All of His Children and Friends.
2. . Heading: Reviewing the Basic Principle from the last part:  Let God do the calling.  Then follow where He leads.  He knows what He is doing.
3. The ideas to be covered in the next few passages are: 1) God Chose Me.  2) I did not choose him.  (Humanly speaking, having me is no bargain for God, of no advantage to Him at all!) but 3) He calls me to be His child and friend.
4. John 15:15-17.  At one time we were called slaves.  This is still all the religions of this world can say—we are slaves of the god or gods of this world, in whose hands we are ignorant pawns. Even Islam, the human religion that places individual humans in the most exalted position of all human religions, can only call humans “slaves” or “servants,” some few of whom attain to faith and to God’s love, but yet only as his slaves and not as his children or his friends.  Indeed,  the Qur’an can only say about Jesus that he “was not but a servant upon whom We bestowed favor, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel.” Qur’an 43:59  (Sahih Int. English interpretation).    But in John 15:15-17, Jesus has done something different.  Not only does he call God “the Father”—his Father and ours—Jesus then tells us he has called us his friends, and says he tells us everything the Father tells him, if we will listen.  And he has chosen us, as his friends, to bear lasting fruit.  The promise that we may ask anything of the Father, and he will give it, is tied to bearing this fruit.  The fruit He has chosen us to bear isn’t like the fruit of our endeavors in the world—temporary fruit, measured by the measures of success the world uses, and only lasting for a little while.  It isn’t large crowds of enthusiastic followers—something Jesus always avoided.  Nor is it great wealth or political power. All of these last for only an instant and usually backfire.  No, he has appointed us to produce lasting fruit, a community of love in which our love for each other is visible to the world.  And to produce this fruit, God will give us anything we ask.  “This I command you, that you love one another.” 
5.  1 Corinthians 7:17-20. I have presented this passage before.  Here, I emphasize that, in using my present situation to produce the fruit He seeks, “keeping God’s commands” in that situation “is what counts.”  I am to remain where God calls me until he makes the changes, not follow my own ideas about how to improve my circumstances.  Instead, I must be content doing what God tells me to do.
6. 1 Corinthians 7:21-24. I have freedom in Christ, no matter what my worldly circumstances say.  I am free to follow him.  I am not to voluntarily make myself a slave to another.  This doesn’t refer solely to legal relationships.  I am not to put myself in a position where I believe I must ignore what God is telling me and obey someone else instead.  I was bought—by God—at a price.  And, in staying in my present situation and doing what God says in it, I am precisely responsible to God, and not to whatever humans may call me their servant.  I am to do what those who rightly demand my service tell me, insofar as it is consistent with what God tells me, but in doing what my human masters tell me, I am responsible to God and not to them. My first responsibility remains to listen to God and let him bear the lasting fruit of love through me.
7.  Romans 9:23-27.  Here are three other things it is said God “calls” all believers.  Although we were not God’s people, when he chose us to be objects of his mercy, he “called” us “his people.”  God now “calls” me one of “His  people.”  Though we were not God’s beloved,  He “called” us “beloved.”  He calls me one of his loved ones.  And though we were not God’s people, he now “calls” us “sons of the living God.” I am now, by His calling of me, one of His children.  The Gospel, the good news, isn’t just that God sent his Son Jesus, it is that, through Him, he has called us to be His children, too. Through Jesus, God calls me His child—and like Jesus in this way!
8. Heading:  Example of Abraham. Subheading: God’s friends trust Him to know what He is doing and where they should go  ,
9. Hebrews 11:8 summarizes this whole theme of our response to God’s calling: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going.” I don’t have to understand what God is doing, or where his call will lead.  I usually won’t understand.  Faith consists in obeying God’s call without knowing where it leads.
10. Hebrews 11:8-11. Here I present a little of the context of the last verse.  While Abraham entered the promised land, he never received the promise in this life—and neither did his son Isaac or his grandson Jacob.  They lived their lives as foreigners in the promised land, not its possessors.  But they did this because their father Abraham “was looking forward” to a future that was even more distant than the conquest of the land under Joshua or the establishment of an earthly kingdom under David.  He was looking forward to eternity, “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”  And, looking forward to eternity, when God called him, he left home, knowing only that God was leading him, not where he was going.
11. Hebrews 11:17-19. Years later, while living as an alien in the promised land, God had miraculously given Abraham a legitimate son and heir, Isaac, after both he and his wife Sarah were too old to have children. God had promised Isaac would become more numerous than the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore and would inherit all of his promises to Abraham. “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”  Then God did something strange.  He told Abraham  to go up on a particular mountain and offer Isaac as a burnt offering to God.  From the perspective of the world, it is obvious that a dead son cannot become more numerous than the stars or inherit any promises.  But Abraham demonstrated his faith by complying with God’s instructions that seemed to completely nullify His promises.  God offered Isaac because “he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.” This is another definition of faith—considering God able to do what he has said, even when it makes absolutely no sense, and acting on that belief.  And God came through, figuratively bringing Isaac back from the dead by showing Abraham a ram caught in a bush nearby at the very last possible instant!
12. James 2:21-24. This is another passage that is usually considered “hard” to interpret, and one that Martin Luther thoroughly disliked.  But it is not difficult to interpret once it is observed that Abraham’s faith included action in keeping with what he believed. He didn’t just have the opinion that God could raise the dead if he wanted to.   He believed that God would raise the dead to the point that he put Isaac and all of God’s promises at risk when God told him to do so.  If God had to fulfil his promises by raising Isaac from the dead, Abraham believed he would do so.  And so he did what God told him to do.  It was this faith, a faith sufficient to evoke action, that was credited to Abraham as righteousness.  And it was because of this faith that he was “called” a “friend of God.”  We are “called” “friends of God,” I am “called” a “friend of God,” for the same reason.
13. John 15:13-14. “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”  Case closed.
14. Heading: Called. Subheadings: To Fulfil God’s Purpose.  To Be Made Like Jesus. The next few slides demonstrate that God is said to “call” us to fulfil his purposes, and that the purpose to which He has “called” us is to be made like his Son Jesus.
15. Romans 8:28-30. This passage brings both ideas together.  I won’t get into the intricacies of the centuries of arguments about how God’s foreknowledge of events—including our individual responses to Him—and his predestination or predetermination of events work together.  Instead, I only observe that, because He knows what He knows, God is able to make the promise of verse 28 work: those He has “called” to fulfil his purposes will unerringly do so, and He will make everything in all creation and in all of time work together to enable them to do so.  The picture of things “working together” in verse 28 can apply to such things as weaving a rope together, weaving a garment together, or even weaving a tapestry.  Because God has seen the whole, finished product of human history from the beginning, he knows all of the evil and all of the good in it, and has already made it all fulfil his purposes for those he has “called.”  The end product will be what he has determined, no matter how evil our current circumstances are. Then verse 29 tells us his purpose for those he has “called.”  That purpose is that we each individually will be conformed to the image of his Son Jesus, who showed us His love by dying, laying down his life for His friends.  We will be made to be just like Jesus.  To this end, those God chose, he first “called,” then made right before him, then glorified by making them just like Jesus.  All of this is presently being accomplished, and, in the end, will undoubtedly become fully visible.  God will make it happen.  We have His word!
16. 2 Peter 1:2-4. This passage merely reinforces the message of the last one.  Because God has “called” us, he has given us his power, everything we need, as we come to the true knowledge of Him.  Through that knowledge, he has given us “precious and magnificent promises.” We are given those promises so that we “may become partakers of the divine nature”—as in the last passage, so that we may become like Him.  The promises are given, not to enable us to obtain the things of this world we lust after, but to enable us to be made in His image, to which we were called.
17. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (NASB). Once again, God “called” us through the Gospel to “obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  We are called to me made like Him. This is the object of the “salvation”—the deliverance from the rebellion, the sin, of the world, that leads to evil, decay and death—for which we have been chosen.  That “salvation” works by “sanctification”–setting us aside for God’s purpose.  We are set apart to God’s purpose and transformed to be like Him by the Holy Spirit within us and by faith in the truth.  As already noted, faith in the truth acts as the truth which is known and believed directs.  That is our part in the process, listening to the truth and acting on it.  But God has already chosen and called us to ultimately fulfil our part, and our ability to do so comes from Him.
18. Heading: Called. Subheadings:  Out of Darkness, Into Light.  Into Freedom.
19. 1 Peter 2:8-10. God called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.  Where the world stumbles in darkness, we should be able to see where he is leading us.  Faith is still needed—in this world, I cannot see the whole path we will be taking together.  Darkness is still all around us.  But like the Israelites during the plague of darkness, there is light in my house, even with darkness all around. And I do know Jesus’ presence with me and can see my next step.  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  Psalm 119:105.  We have been called out of darkness into God’s light for a purpose—so that we may show and tell those around us about his mercy, who has chosen us to be his people and his priests, representing those around us before him.
20. Galatians 5:13-14. In calling me into his light, God made me free to follow him.  He has called me to freedom.  But it isn’t freedom to do whatever I want, to have whatever my body and mind crave, no matter who it hurts.  It is freedom to follow him.  And he is love.  He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  “The whole law is fulfilled… in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
21. Heading:  Called. Subheadings:  Into One Body.  To Love Each Other.
22. John 15:15-17. We have seen this passage before.  Where we were once called slaves, Jesus has now called us his friends, made known to us everything his Father says, and appointed us to bear lasting fruit. And that fruit is our love for each other.
23. Ephesians 4:1-6. The subject of this passage is walking worthy of the “calling” with which we have been “called.” This first requires diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit—all of us individually following the one Holy Spirit wherever He leads—in the bond of peace.  I must do my part in this. The unity of the Spirit is shown through my humility, gentleness, patience, and repeated overlooking of offenses and irritations, which I must consciously practice under the Spirit’s guidance.  And just as there is only one God and only one Lord, there is only one hope of our calling—the hope that we will be made fully like Him.
24. Colossians 3:14-17. We were—past tense–called into one body.  That calling has already been accomplished.  The perfect bond, which binds that body together, is love.  The binding together of the body is in the present tense—we make it effective in our own experience by putting on love.  The instruction is to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart and to put on love much like I would put on a piece of clothing, to clothe myself with actions consistent with love, as in the Ephesians passage just discussed, not to fake love.  The love is really present within me, in the Holy Spirit, if I will put on actions consistent with it.  And in any situation I can know what those actions are, because I am no longer in the darkness, but am now in his light.  It is in this way that letting Christ’s peace rule in my heart and putting on love are synonymous.  As long as I have peace, walking in his light, I am putting on love.  Where I sense discord with Christ, disquiet in my spirit, and intuitively know I am getting back into the darkness, I am not walking in love.  To keep this sense ever active and growing, I must let the word of Christ dwell richly within me.  This means not just study of his written Word—though that certainly is necessary—but also conscious cultivation of my ability to hear his voice in the moment.   And the community to which I have been called, the Body to which I am bound, has a part in this, in our collective expressions of encouragement and instruction (admonition), prayer, thankfulness and singing.  It is interesting that the overflow of this expression is not in something outward that organized churches seem to treasure, like giving more money or going to more events, but in hearts that inwardly sing thanks to God.  The overflow is a musical heart!  Then: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
25. 1 Peter 3:8-9.  Here Peter reinforces the same message.  We were called to inherit a blessing. That blessing is found in living in harmony with each other.  Because we were called to inherit a blessing, we should even return blessings when people insult us or do us evil.  Do for others what God did for me!
26. 2 Peter 1:9-11.  In the previous several verses, Peter had named a series of virtues I should put on because of God’s call on me–diligence, faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love.  Here he says that if I lack these, I am short-sighted and have forgotten that God has purified me, so that these virtues are inside me if I will only be diligent to let them out.  And he goes on to say that I can “make [my] calling and election sure” by practicing these virtues.  My way into God’s kingdom—the realm where he now rules, not just eternal rewards—will be abundantly supplied by my conscious practice of these virtues.  It comes down to ignoring the urging of my old self and the world around me in order to consciously follow the true self which God has placed within me.  For to me to live is Christ!
27. Slide 27. Heading:  Called. Subheadings: Away from My Own Ability.  Away from My Own Accomplishments.
28. 1 Corinthians 7:17-20. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any meaning now, even though God established circumcision as a sign between the children of Israel and himself.  As I now relate to God, nothing I can do to show devotion or win his favor is meaningful.  So I should stay in the situation in which he has called me, until he changes it.
29. 2 Peter 1:2-4. God called me according to his own glory and grace, not according to mine.  He then gave me everything I need to live his life here. And he gave me himself.  None of this comes from me.
30. 1 Peter 1:14-16 (NASB). Here, I am even called away from my own purposes.  God is holy—he is set apart to his own will, unmixed, undivided, and never does anything out of mixed motives or that is outside of his entirely good decided purpose. That is, in fact, what being “holy” means.  And, because God is that way, I am called to live that way, too—with a single purpose and unmixed motives.
31. 1 Peter 1:14-16 (CEV). The Contemporary English Version of the same passage brings this out even more clearly.  The content of the holiness to which God calls me—and which he himself possesses—is not being controlled by my own desires, but only by his will. It is being purely his and not mixed.
32. 1 Peter 5:8-11. God has called me to his eternal glory in Christ, and will make me complete, confirm, strengthen and establish me.  In the process, I will have to resist suffering placed in my way by my spiritual enemy, but I am promised the ability to resist.  But I am being called out of myself and into God’s glory.  Neither my resistance nor my glory is my accomplishment.  It all comes from God.
33. 2 Timothy 1:8-10 (NASB). God saved us—delivered us from the destruction to which our own way led—and at the same time called us with a holy calling—a calling to be set apart to him. Paul’s explanation repeats this—his holy calling for us is not according to our works—the works from which he saved us—but to his own purpose and grace.  God’s single purpose for which he set us apart is grace, it is gracious, it gives us good which we did not deserve. These good things were granted to Jesus from eternity, before anything else was, but have now appeared to us in Jesus.  He abolished death, which is no longer final, and brought both life—life right now, rather than that somber dress rehearsal for death in which we once existed–and immortality to light through the good news of faith in Jesus.  And we are urged to join with the Apostle in suffering for this good news, to make it known to others in this life.
34. 2 Timothy 1:8-10 (CEV). The same passage in a different translation further accents that God chose us to be set apart to him as his holy people before time began and that he did this because of his kindness.  It is even his kindness to us that gives us the power to endure our suffering for the good news.
35. Heading:  Called. Subheadings: To Suffering. To “Foolish” Trust in God.
36. 1 Peter 2:20-24 (NASB). This passage is the clearest statement that I have been called to suffer and should expect to suffer, because Jesus suffered the same things.  Jesus left me an example of patient endurance of suffering, so that I would follow in his steps, the text says.  God does not place the sufferings on me; other disobedient people do.  My challenge is to use the power God gives to respond to these sufferings the same way Jesus did. I should respond without sinning, without using deceit to escape suffering or returning insult or threats upon those tormenting me but show only trust in God as I face suffering. The text then reminds me that Jesus died a tormenting death to bear my sins, so that I would be enabled to die to my sin—my rebellion against him—and live for righteousness.  His wounds heal me in my suffering.
37. 1 Peter 5:8-11. I have discussed this passage before.  Here, I merely point out that the text says all of my brothers and sisters in this world also suffer at the instigation of the devil, the spiritual enemy. This is a part of my calling.  The quality God has put in me that enables me to endure this suffering, so that the devil will not devour me, is my faith.  My faith here is my reliance on God’s goodness and his plan to bring me into His eternal glory. If this faith in God’s plan endures, I will also endure my present suffering and see him perfect, confirm and strengthen me.  I will see his plan being accomplished before my face, even in the midst of my suffering.
38. Acts 6:7-10 (NASB). This is the first extended example in the New Testament, outside the life of Jesus, of how faith in the face of suffering works was the story of Stephen. I cannot even think of this story without weeping.  Stephen was doing no wrong.  He was letting Jesus make him into everything he was created to be.  Stephen, it says, was full of grace and power, and was performing great wonders and signs.  Many were coming to Christ. But some other men opposed him, and argued with what he was preaching.  But he disposed of all of their arguments—his opponents were unable to cope with his wisdom and the Holy Spirit speaking through him.
39. Acts 6:10-13, 15 (CEV). And so the suffering of Stephen began with other men who were jealous of his success and feared it might damage their own group’s interests.  When they couldn’t answer the wisdom of the Holy Spirit flowing through his lips, they instead started a rumor campaign.  They found other men who agreed that they would lie about what Stephen was saying.  Then they took these lies to the authorities and had Stephen arrested.  But the text says that, when Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin for trial, even that tribunal could see there was something different about him—his face looked like that of an angel.
40. Acts 7:51-54 (CEV). Stephen presented an extended defense before the Sanhedrin.  Human wisdom would have told him to get a good lawyer, retract the offensive parts of his message, apologize sincerely, and throw himself on the mercy of the tribunal.  Stephen did no such thing.    Instead, he was foolish and let the Holy Spirit speak.  And the Holy Spirit’s defense was a long, careful, chronological list of times God had offered to live among the children of Israel and be their God, as chronicled in their Scriptures, and they had refused Him.  It ended with the words on this slide:  “You stubborn and hardhearted people!  You are always fighting against the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did. Is there one prophet that your ancestors didn’t mistreat? They killed the prophets who told about the coming of the One Who Obeys God.  And now you have turned against him and killed him. Angels gave you God’s Law, but you still didn’t obey it.” The Council’s issue wasn’t with Stephen, it was with God, and Stephen told them so.  Each of those present could have only one of two responses to Stephen’s words: repentance or anger.  They chose anger.
41. Acts 7:55-60 (ESV). In their anger, the Council dragged Stephen out of the city and stoned him.  But, even in his death, Stephen remained under the control of the Holy Spirit.  Stephen’s next-to-last words often make me weep uncontrollably.  From the time Jesus ascended in Acts 2 until the time of final judgment in the Revelation, Jesus is always pictured as “seated” at the right hand of the Father.  Always, except once, here, in this passage.  Stephen said he looked and saw “the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”  The risen Jesus stood to applaud Stephen at his death!  A standing ovation in Heaven!  And Stephen told his crowd of accusers what he saw.  The crowd obviously understood, at least to some degree, the importance of what Stephen said he was seeing, because their response was to yell and stop their ears so they wouldn’t hear any more of his message.  Stephen also followed Jesus’ example in committing his spirit openly to God and asking God to forgive his murderers before he died.  And at least one of those present heard, understood, and, at the right time, remembered all Stephen had said—Saul the young Pharisee mentioned in this passage. We have talked about this Saul before—he carried his memory of this scene as a goad in his soul until Jesus confronted him in person years later.
42. Acts 8:3-6 (NASB). As I said, there were only two possible responses to Stephen’s defense—repentance or anger—and all those present chose anger.  This appears to have been particularly true of young Saul, who later events would show had heard and absorbed the whole message.  Initially, Saul was furious, to the point of obsession, not just with Stephen but with all of the followers of Jesus.  Saul went to the leading Priests and obtained formal authority as a special prosecutor, in modern legal language, commissioned to lead the legal prosecution of Christians as criminals.  The immediate result was that most of the Jerusalem church was scattered, and continued preaching Jesus in the new cities to which they went.  Ironically, as the authorities would view the matter, this caused the Jerusalem church to begin to fulfil Jesus’ parting command to make disciples of “all nations,” “to the farthest parts of the world,” not just in Jerusalem and Judea.  The first new area noted is Samaria, where Philip preached and performed signs in the power of the Holy Spirit.  But this success came because the church in Jerusalem was suffering under the persecution led by Saul!
43. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 (NIV). This passage speaks for itself, so I will read it:  “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” In the intervening centuries, only the names of the human factions have changed.  There are really still only two groups of unbelievers—those who look for God (or their other deities) to show power and those who look for wisdom (in God or elsewhere).  The first group sees Jesus’ death as weakness, the other sees it as foolishness.  But it is still also true that Jesus’ death, and resurrection, show all of the power and wisdom of God for those who will believe.  And we are called to receive and demonstrate that power and wisdom.
44. 1 Corinthians 1:25-29 (NASB). God’s wisdom, which overrides all human wisdom, is demonstrated in his calling of believers.  It is demonstrated in his act of calling ME to be his friend and child.  God usually doesn’t call wealthy, powerful, important people to be his children.  He usually doesn’t call people the world regards as wise, as intellectual leaders—the Apostle Paul was a partial exception to this, but God had to humble him first.  This passage doesn’t say he never calls wealthy, important people, political leaders, or great intellectuals, but he doesn’t call “many” such people. Instead, God usually chooses the weak, foolish, and insignificant—the things that “are not”, are not anything the world considers important—the ones the world neglects, ignores and even treats as subhuman—and makes them his children with the world watching. 
45. 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 (NIV). Finishing out the idea of the last passage with a little added emphasis:  God makes the foolish, weak and despised of this world—the ones the world sees as unfit to be part of it—into his children with the world watching so that no human will be able to boast that they made themselves like him—which was exactly the thing the Serpent tempted Eve to do by eating the forbidden fruit.  Being foolish to the world is a part of our calling.  But let the one who boasts boast in what God has done!
46. John 16:7-11 (CEV). This slide and the next one are the same passage in two different translations, with slightly different emphases.  Even though this passage does not use any “call” word, it is right at the center of my calling to foolish-looking trust in God.  Jesus here said that, after he left our visible presence, he would send the Holy Spirit— the parakletos, literally the “Advocate” or “Comforter,” the one who comes beside us—to help us.  The first way he will help us fulfil our calling is by showing the people of this world the truth about sin, about God’s righteousness or justice and about God’s judgment, and show them the ways in which they are wrong about these things.  I like the two modern translations I have chosen because they have avoided the use of the King James Version’s word “convict” in verse 8.  That word has too much church tradition and secular legal baggage associated with it.  In the secular legal meaning, “conviction” is the step in the criminal process immediately before punishment is imposed—the judge enters the “conviction,” the finding that the condemned criminal is guilty of their crime (regardless of whether they feel any guilt or remorse) and follows it by pronouncing a sentence.  That is definitely not what the Holy Spirit does for us.  The traditional church meaning of “conviction” corresponds to the other half of this judicial drama—the part a human judge can’t enforce and therefore pays little attention to—the induction of real feelings of guilt on the offender’s part.  In common Christian usage, “conviction” in this connotation is usually thought to be something the Holy Spirit does somewhat mysteriously in the heart of someone who is hearing preaching against some behavior they have done or contemplated doing. Before this can work the person must have been previously conditioned to regard, at least in the back of their mind or in their heart, that particular condemned behavior as evil, shady or dirty in some way.  The expected response in Evangelical churches, at least, is some form of “going forward,” recognizing the “sin” before someone else, and making some kind of formal ritual “decision” to receive Christ or follow him more closely and change that behavior in the future. But using a sinner’s cultural moral conditioning to induce guilt and a change in behavior is also not what this passage is talking about.
47. John 16:7-11 (NIV). But if inducing a guilt feeling to obtain a “decision” and a change in behavior isn’t what this passage is talking about, then what is it saying the Holy Spirit will do? The language of the passage tells us.  First, the Spirit shows people their “sin,” singular, not “sins,” plural. It then says that their “sin” is merely that they “do not believe in” Jesus.  It has nothing to do with their bad acts or their prior moral conditioning, only with their relationship with Jesus.  And how does the Holy Spirit do that? The people see Jesus in us and understand that they don’t have what we have!  The faith they have rejected is possible and they see it in us.  The Holy Spirit gives them this understanding. But read on.  The Holy Spirit also shows people that they are wrong about God’s righteousness and justice.  While Jesus was visibly present with us, he was the standard, the one in which they could see God’s righteousness perfectly displayed—and they hated him for it.  Now that he is gone, they can see God’s righteousness in us—though imperfect, as shown through us, the Holy Spirit brings it out so individuals in the world can see it.  So Jesus said the Holy Spirit would show the world they are wrong about God’s righteousness, because now we can see it directly in him no more.  Instead, it is made visible in us.  Finally, the Holy Spirit shows individuals in the world that they are wrong about God’s judgment against his enemies in this world. People usually think that any divine judgment that may occur must wait until an infinitely distant future day.  The Holy Spirit shows them that the prince of this world, the devil and the whole evil system that usurps God’s place, has already been judged.  He shows them that the powers they are relying on have already been judged by showing them that we already triumph over those powers by our simple, foolish faith—even when those powers think they have killed us.  In all of these ways, the Holy Spirit’s work showing people in the world that they are wrong about God depends on his work in us, in me.  It’s not a mysterious induction of guilty feelings in others that God uses, but, rather, a Spirit-guided demonstration of his work in me.
48. Hebrews 11:6-7 (NASB). Though verse 6 is often taken by itself, out of context, as a definition of faith, it is really part of a larger context, of which verse 7 is an important part.  Noah believed that God exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.  He demonstrated this faith by believing God’s warning of a coming flood and taking 100 years building a large boat.  This was foolish faith.  There had never even been any rain, and none of the people around him, to whom it says in another passage that he “preached,” would have understood what a “flood” would look like.  But what was the outcome? When the flood came, Noah was rewarded with the “salvation” of his family—their deliverance from drowning in the flood.  And he became an heir of the righteousness before God which comes from faith.  But we are told something else that fits perfectly with the theme of foolish faith and persecution—by building the Ark in his faith, Noah “condemned the world,” each of whom had an opportunity to join him and his family in the Ark but rejected it.  He was saved by his faith, but the world was condemned by his faith. 
49. John 16:1-4a (NIV). Returning to John 16, earlier in the passage Jesus warned his disciples that most of their hearers, when confronted by the Holy Spirit about their misunderstanding of God, would choose to respond with anger rather than repentance.  In choosing anger, their opinions about God would remain unchanged. “The time is coming,” Jesus said, “when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.”  But he hastens to explain that they won’t do this because they are really bad people, but, instead, “because they have not known the Father or me.”  They will think they are doing right, serving a God they do not (and in their mind cannot) know!
50. John 16:12-15 (CEV). Here we return to what the Holy Spirit will do now that Jesus is no longer visible to us.  The Holy Spirit will show us what is true and guide us into the full truth or all of the truth, as we are able to understand it.  The Spirit will tell us what Jesus says, and only what Jesus says, and will even show us things still future, as we see time.  The Spirit will bring glory to Jesus—this is the purpose for which the Spirit tells us everything.  The Spirit will take Jesus message and tell it to us, and we will live and repeat it—remember Stephen?   All things the Father has belong to Jesus.  Nothing we need will be withheld.  Despite all of the centuries of arguments about whether God still speaks to people, and, if so, to whom, this really is a wide open promise that the Spirit will continue to tell us everything he hears from Jesus and nothing will be withheld.  The only limitation is our ability to understand and practice what we hear.   This depends on our faith, our ability to use what we hear even though it appears foolish because we trust God.  This is where I have always fallen down!  (I have a long way to go).
51. 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 (NASB). The next part of this presentation will pursue further the concept of staying where I am put and letting God do the calling, in the context of individual callings as opposed to the things to which He calls all believers. 

Next (for now): Part 6A: Persons given to the Church and formal “offices.”

The Voice of God (God Speaking to Us) Outline