The Honour of Being Useful or A Life of Service Worth Boasting About

Introduction

One of the best sermons I have ever heard was preached at Jarvis Street Baptist Church on the occasion of my graduation from Toronto Baptist Seminary. I do not remember who gave the sermon and I don’t remember the text, but I remember the theme very clearly. The sermon was on being useful. This is a subject that is not discussed very often, and it is no surprise since North American evangelicalism has largely embraced a spectator culture in church. Although we would rarely admit it, this is generally how even we, here at Faith Baptist, approach church life, at least for many of us. The old saying is true that in a baptist church 20% of the people do 80% of the work. This attitude is largely behind the phenomenon of ‘church hopping’ and it curates the things that many Christians find important in a church, such as the kind of music or the children’s ministry, rather than finding a biblical church where they can serve faithfully. The factors which most Christians normally consider are always what we will receive in that church rather than what we may give.

However, this is not how the church is made to function. The Apostle Paul writes to a church in Rome that he has never visited and yet he believes them to be useful to each other in their instructing one another. The active service of love is what gives that church its life and made it such a strong church in the following decades and centuries. In fact, perhaps one reason the office of the Pope developed so strongly a few hundred years later is because the church in Rome was known as such a solid place which other churches sought to imitate. Whether that is the case or not, Paul praises the usefulness of each Christian to another as a sign of their maturity, and then gives us a window into his own calling as an Apostle to draw us after such a life of fruitful usefulness.

Paul’s Usefulness to the Roman Church

Paul has not officially begun to conclude his letter to this church. We find our that Paul’s letter and the bold way in which he wrote should not suggest that Paul considered the church to be weak or unstable. Instead, he says that he is satisfied with them, he is happy that they are in such a place as they are. Though he felt the need to instruct them on certain matters, he begins his conclusion with this encouragement that he believes them to be in a strong place. The content of his letter was not meant to teach them anything new, but to remind them of the Gospel they have already grasped in its fullness and to show them the practical implications of the faith so that they may continue to grow strong and confident in the Lord.

His satisfaction with this church is in three areas:

They are full of goodness. They are not perfect people, but the church is known to be a place where the members are good to each other and to the world. They have this reputation that is well-founded that in all things they are living a healthy existence as a church in the good works each member is performing by faith in Christ.

They are filled with knowledge. Not that they are puffed up and proud theologians, but they are well-studied in the Scriptures. Not only this, but knowledge in this kind of positive context implies a knowledge that has infused itself into their lives. They know the Word of God and the teachings of Christ and they put them into practice.

They are able to instruct one another. While this definitely applies to the elders, it also applies to the congregation as a whole. Some who lack knowledge in the Scriptures may become very willing to instruct and correct in matters they know nothing about. In general, a little knowledge puffs up, but a deep study of God’s Word in search of truth is always humbling. This humility means they can instruct one another without pride. They remove the log in their own eye and then go on to deal with the speck in their brother’s eyes. A healthy church is full of those who actively correct one another in love, humility, and patience. In this way, iron sharpens iron and the church is built up.

In all these ways, the church is useful to the witness of Christ and his Gospel. Paul’s reason for writing, however, opens up a little explanation of Paul’s own desire to be useful. He has written to them because of his own calling as an Apostle to make sure that the things they have heard are remembered and are being applied according to the will of God.

But why does Paul spend so much energy reminding and instructing a church that he has never been to? His answer is at the end of verse 15, because of the Grace given me by God.

Paul’s Boasting

This opens up the content of the rest of this text. Essentially, Paul is saying that his letter is written with bold encouragement and exhortation, not because Paul is trying to be controlling or to insert himself where he has no business, but rather because God has gifted him with the grace to do so. If we look carefully here and in the rest of this passage, we can discern the mix of humility and confidence Paul has in the gracious power of God.

This is evident elsewhere in Paul’s letter in the way he boasts. Throughout this epistle, Paul has repeatedly shown how the Gospel negates any ability to boast. His whole theology on a justification that comes apart from works of the law but only by faith in Christ is directed at the end that we cannot boast. Rom 3:27

Romans 3:27 ESV

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

And yet Paul does have a place for Christian boasting. Paul talks about boasting in the Thessalonian church because of the fruitfulness of his ministry among them. He writes in Gal 6:4

Galatians 6:4 ESV

But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

How can we reconcile this with Paul’s theology which excludes boasting? Why should we want to boast if it is so contrary to the gospel message? Studying all of Paul’s letters reveals the answer, specifically in 2nd Corinthians. In that letter, he is responding to some in that church who didn’t like how weak and quite Paul was when he was there in person. They desired a much more fiery and charismatic preacher who would demand respect. But Paul, in writing to them in a bold manner, turns the tables on them by boasting. And in what does he boast? His suffering, persecution, weakness, exhaustion, and sickness. He makes it clear that there are many things he could boast about in their worldly way of thinking, but he doesn’t. Instead he says in 2 Cor 11:30

2 Corinthians 11:30 ESV

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Or a few verses earlier in 2 Cor 11:16

2 Corinthians 11:16 ESV

I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.

We see that Paul has accepted their challenge to boast, but what he boasts in is not strength, charisma, talent, or natural ability. Instead, he boasts in weakness. He is free to shout from the rooftops how weak and inadequate a person he is. He is proud in what would normally cause shame. On the other hand, in Philippians 3 when he is talking about Jewish heretics who were boasting in their Jewish heritage and submission to the law, he counters in a way that puts them to shame.

Philippians 3:4–8 NIV 2011

though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ

In other words, Paul is now ashamed of the things that he used to boast in, and that these Jews were boasting in. The script is flipped for Paul. What would normally bring pride now brings shame, and what would normally bring shame now causes him to boast. But why?

Paul is not against boasting. What he is against is boasting in human ability. He boasts in his weakness and is ashamed of his achievements because he now realizes that, in Christ, all his achievements are useless. However, his weakness is of great worth. Christ made himself weak to save us. He embraced weakness and suffering, and so Paul now embraces it and celebrates this way in which he may be like his Lord.

Beyond this, in his weakness the true power of God is shown. He can confidently say that no one in Corinth came to Christ because of how good of a speaker he was. No, his speaking was weak and simple on purpose, that the power of Christ may be shown. This is clarified in the famous passage of Paul’s thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor 12:8-9

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 ESV

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

So we see that for Paul, boasting has not come to an end but rather the object of the boasting has changed. In one aspect, we could define worship this way; to boast in Christ rather than ourselves. Paul boasts in his weakness because it makes it clear that the great things done by Paul were actually done by the power of God through him. He can celebrate weakness because in weakness it becomes obvious that God is at work. Paul can boast in the work he has done not as his work but as Christ’s. This is not mere modesty, because he is willing to put himself up for open mockery to make the point. His life shouts out, “Look how much great stuff Jesus Christ has done with a broken, weak, sick, feeble little thing like me!”

Paul’s Usefulness as a Missionary-Priest

How does this show itself in Paul’s point here? He has written the letter to confirm that his boasting will not be in vain. Verse 16 he uses the language of priesthood and relates it to his ministry. As a Christian and Apostle, he sees his ministry of gospel preaching and church planting among the gentiles as an offering made to God. This offering is not one he can boast in in himself, he makes that clear in verse 18. The offering, which here is the faithful obedience of gentile churches, was provided for by God just as God provided the ram to Abraham in Genesis 22. Paul has surrendered himself to Christ in humble submission to be a tool that may be used to accomplish this end. He then has the privilege of playing the role of a priest. The acts of offering is his continued effort in ministry, and he finds it a great privilege to be the one who may offer the sacrifice of Gentile believers to God.

In other words, Paul boasts in how useful such a useless tool as himself can be in the hands of a wise God. He can honestly say that he has reason to be proud of his work for God because it is only what Christ accomplished through such a wretched fool as he was. In such a weak vessel, a useless and disposable jar of clay, the riches of the Gospel were made known to gentiles from Jerusalem all the way into the northwestern part of Greece. What was useful in the flesh is useless to God, but in embracing and boasting in his weakness the useless has become useful.

A Desire for Continued Usefulness

And so Paul continues to strive so that Christ’s work in him may be brought to further completion. His ministry was to preach the Gospel where Christ had not yet been named, a detail we will focus on more next time. He is confident that in his weakness, even in his imprisonment, Christ will display his glory.

Paul also has the ambition to be the fulfillment of the OT Scriptures. Indeed, he points out that texts like Isaiah 52:15, which spoke of the ministry of the suffering servant to the gentiles, is being fulfilled in him. Although Jesus in his ministry did not preach to the gentiles, the ministry of Christ carries on in this pathetic and yet divinely useful tool named Paul. He sees his ministry as the very embodiment of Christ, though he himself is nothing and has nothing to boast in. His weakness gives him great joy, for in it he knows that it is not his effort that is accomplishing this, but through him Christ is working by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. God has given him the great honour of being the one who may be used for such an end, that Christ may be glorified and that Paul may share in that glory, not that he contributed to that glory, but that Christ has graciously included Paul, weak as he was, in the glorious work he is doing through him.

Conclusion

How may we learn from this text? The greatest help it can be to us is to imitate the attitude of the Apostle. Unfortunately, a spirit of works-righteousness has crept into evangelicalism in a way that makes us both lost on the implications of the Gospel and useless for the Kingdom.

For example, when it comes to growth in righteousness and death to sin, we often lose our way here. Some of us struggle with sin and, though we ask time after time for God’s help, we never seem to get victory over it. Why is that? It may be that the reason God doesn’t give you power over that sin is because you are aiming at the wrong thing. Perhaps you are seeking to overcome that sin for the purpose of feeling better about yourself, feeling more godly and useful for God, as if you have finally earned the righteousness to be used by him. I know Christians who are frustrated by their physical inadequacies and ask why God won’t heal them so that they can be more useful for the Kingdom. The problem is that they are thinking of usefulness in a fleshly way. This is a trap I lived in for so many years. Jesus doesn’t want you to try to become a more godly person! He wants to make you a more godly person through his power at work in your weakness. He will not heal you until your heart is in such a place where you accept your weakness and even boast in it so that your usefulness may be credited to no one but himself.

Are you trapped in a sin that causes you to be fruitless in God’s church? Confess it freely and shamelessly to another Christian. Boast in the fact that you are a sinner, not so you can keep on sinning, as Romans 6 teaches us, but so that your victory over sin will give you no reason to boast in yourself. So you will rather be able to boast in the fact that Jesus Christ defeated sin in such a sinner as yourself.

Are you trapped in some physical limitation that makes you feel unfruitful to God? Come before him and confess your utter weakness and need for his grace. Then go and do whatever work you have been called to do, all the while boasting in your weakness. Then when the fruit of your labour comes in, you will boast in the grace of Christ who used you.

This is how we become a useful church for Christ. Nothing is more useless to God as a church full of self-confident people, or a church full of people who want to be confident in themselves. What is useful to our Lord is a church full of people who boast in their weakness and then work hard for the Kingdom as if they had the strength of Samson.

This ties in with what we saw this morning in effective prayer. Prayer must be done in humility and confidence: humility in our own ability and free confession of our sinfulness and weakness, and confidence in a powerful and gracious God who is pleased to use the useless for his glorious purposes.

Becoming Useful Priests in Christ Jesus

A baptists, we believe in the priesthood of all believers. We are all priests in Christ and all of us must bring an offering to him. The book of Romans shows us that no sacrifice given from our own strength and ability will be of any use or acceptance to God. Like Abraham, we must be willing to lay all our hope in ourselves on the alter and lift the knife to kill it, and look! There in the thicket, a ram caught by its horns. A power which is not the product of your own strength. A sacrifice provided by God which is pleasing to him. The work you have been called to do is the privilege of walking into the Christian life confident and yet totally unprepared, because you know that the Holy Spirit will provide the power to accomplish it.

Will you have something to boast of in Christ on the day of his appearance? Will you be able to say with Paul, “look how much a powerful God did in the life of such a weak and sinful person”? In what way have you been called to be useful? What good works has God prepared for you to do in service of his Kingdom? Do you feel strong enough, ready to accomplish it? If you do, you are not ready. Go and meditate on your sin and weakness for a while. If you don’t, then get to it. Do the work you are not prepared to do. Put that sin to death, serve your brothers and sisters sacrificially, pray till your knees bleed, share the Gospel boldly, because you weakness is the perfect state for God to do something great.

Remember that Jesus himself embraced weakness. He did this to show us the way of Christian life. He suffered for your sins on the cross, the ultimate act of giving himself over the weakness of the flesh; the experience of death. In this show of weakness, God’s great power was displayed when he raised our Saviour from the dead. Follow Christ into the experience of weakness. This will keep you humble. In all of it, set your hope on the grace the Lord promises to show you and the glory he will reveal to you and through you. In this way, you will become a boaster like Paul: you will boast in your weakness. You will boast in his strength.