This article is adapted from the charge to the congregation delivered at the ordination and installation of Kyle Borg as the pastor of the Winchester Kan., RPC on Nov. 6, by Gordon J. Keddie, pastor of the Southside [Indianapolis, Ind.] RPC.

One Sabbath evening in Glasgow, Scotland, almost half a century ago, a close friend who was preparing for the ministry of the gospel introduced me to a lively Christian lady. She assumed I also was a student for the ministry. But when I said that I was a biologist, she instantly and brightly said, “Well, the Lord needs biologists too!”

Until that moment, I had never thought that God needed anything, far less me. The need seemed to me entirely in the opposite direction. We need a Savior; we need God’s sovereign grace to convert us to Christ; we need the work of the Holy Spirit. Isa Calder introduced a brand new thought to me: Did the Lord really need me to be biologist? Does the Lord need you? If so, in what sense, and to what purpose?

Yes, the Lord Needs You! [8:1]

First, a disclaimer. It is true that the gospel of Christ is more about how much we need to know Christ as our Savior than any notion that God needs us. God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—needs no one and nothing outside of Himself in any absolute sense. He is absolutely complete in His essential being. He does not to need to create anyone and He does not need to save anyone—except that it is His sovereign decree from all eternity to save people to Himself by grace through faith in Jesus Christ! Given His eternal plan of salvation for the world, God does need those He saves to serve Him in His purposes of grace. So there is a consequent absolute necessity—a necessity resulting from His eternal decree—in terms of which He needs His people to serve in His plans for the spread of the gospel in the world and the glorification of His name and His nature as the God who “is love” (1 John 4:10).

This can be seen in Luke 8:1-3. Here we are shown something of what Jesus needs us for in the work of His kingdom. It is almost like a list of available jobs. He needs:

1. Preachers to proclaim the glad tidings (v. 1);

2. Witnesses to His free grace (v. 2); and

3. Supporters devoted to providing for ongoing ministry (v. 3).

If you are in a church with a pastor, verse 1 is fulfilled already. God has provided you with a minister of the gospel. Luke records that Jesus, “went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the Twelve were with Him” (v. 1). This speaks to your pastor, for as surely as Jesus set apart His disciples to preach the Word (although Judas Iscariot was to betray Him), so the Lord needs His servant to be His ambassador where you live, to preach the Word and pastor the people there. God’s servant needs to be faithful to his calling in his place.

Verses 2-3 speak directly to you, the members of the congregation. The Lord needs you to take seriously these words, and to count it a privilege to serve him. And you also need to be faithful in your calling in dependence upon the Lord. Two points need to be taken to heart.

The Lord Needs Transformed, Redeemed People to Witness to His Everlasting Love and Free Grace [8:2]

You will notice that “certain women” were also with Jesus as He “went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God” with the Twelve (v. 2). The thing to notice here is that these women were trophies of God’s grace—they had been “healed of evil spirits and infirmities [i.e. sicknesses].” Three names are given: Mary Magdalene, Susanna and Joanna. The great point is that all had come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus and had become part of Jesus’ team. They were Christ’s ones, and what God had done in their lives and was continuing to do is a standing witness to the grace of God in the gospel of His Son. The point is that Jesus saves, and, having saved us, calls us to witness to our salvation. In this sense He needs you to be faithful.

There is something wonderful here: Just as rather unlikely men were called to be Jesus’ ministers/apostles, so certain unlikely women are called to become His powerful witnesses! It is “the weak things of the world” that the Lord is pleased to use to “confound the…mighty” (1 Cor. 1:27). This is a word to every member, male and female, of your congregation. As surely as Jesus witnessed a “good confession” before Pontius Pilate, so every one of His believing people is called to witness a good confession before the watching world (1 Tim. 6:13). The Lord needs you to confess Him before men!

Jesus Needs Devoted Supporters to Provide for the Ongoing Work of the Gospel [8:3]

Notice what “many others” did—women, and surely also men: “They provided for Him from their substance.” They gave money and provided what it took to enable the gospel to be proclaimed by Jesus and His followers. Did Jesus really need their support? J. C. Ryle says, “Of course He needed not their help” [Luke, vol. 1, p.246]. Jesus could have fed Himself as He did the 5,000. But God decreed, and Jesus committed, to depend on the help and support of His people. He started the way He meant them—and us—to continue. The God who decrees the end also decrees the means. Your calling is to be needed!

Will you apply this to yourselves? Let me offer some concrete suggestions.

1. It is a fact, Christians, that it is God’s “good pleasure” to employ you to glorify His name in the world! That means in this part of the world, in this community and through this congregation of His saints. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” and He will “fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness [in you] that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified” (Luke 12:32).

2. It is also a fact, Christians, that it is your privilege and blessing to answer God’s call to minister to Christ and for Christ—and so to minister for God Himself. Let me cite just one glorious example from Scripture: Did God need Esther in order to save the Jews? The answer is yes and no. If she remained silent and did not go to the king, Mordecai said rather ominously, “relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” He then added, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14). God had no absolute need for Esther in order to save the Jews, but He did have a relative need and He placed that upon her conscience.

If we fail in our obedience to the Lord, we will be the losers, just as Esther would have been had she remained silent. The Lord will see His will through to completion and perfection. But, as we already noted, the Lord’s will with respect to His final purpose and goal includes His will for the means by which His ends are secured. The Lord needs you to be faithful in your community, and you need to be faithful in your community for your own soul’s sake, as well as the witness of the gospel and the work of the kingdom of God where you live.

Have you not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

–Gordon J. Keddie