Greater Works — Part One

We’re going to read from the Gospel of John and chapter 14, from the first verse.

Jesus is speaking:

“‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I[’m] going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you[’re] going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

“Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

“‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I[’m] going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.’”

Amen.

And we pray together:

As we come to the Bible, now, Father, we pray that you will “take your truth” and “plant it deep in us” and “shape and fashion us”[1] in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Well, we have been studying, as you know, these “Truly, truly” statements in the Gospel of John, and we have arrived this morning at the one which we find in verse 12. Let me just reread it. If you have it in front of you, you can look on it. “Truly, truly,” Jesus says, “I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

I think it’s fair to say that this is not the easiest of texts. In fact, of all the “Truly, trulys” so far, this might be the most demanding. Certainly it’s been the most demanding this week. And the reason for that is because this text, these words are so often misunderstood or misapplied. It’s not uncommon to hear people say fairly outlandish things as apparently from these verses.

And so, as with any passage of the Bible, it is important that we don’t remove our heads as we come to the text of Scripture—that we understand that our minds have been given to us to think properly about. And therefore, when you read these verses, a number of questions inevitably come to mind. For example: Is Jesus in this brief passage teaching that whoever believes in him has miracle-working powers? After all, it seems to say that, doesn’t it? Is praying in Jesus’ name a magical phrase, a kind of incantation that then guarantees that we will receive whatever it is we want, whether health, money, or prosperity?

Now, there are more questions that are immediately raised, but these are uppermost in my mind, and I thought perhaps it would occur to you as well. What we’ve said in all of these studies is as important this morning as ever, and that is that it is imperative that when we come to something that is a small piece of a large puzzle, that we do not unearth the statement from its context. And we have tried to teach each other that the context of the Bible is the story of salvation, the work of God from all of eternity to put together a people that are his very own, and that that is what God is doing in the world: he is building a people for himself. Jesus is granted from the Father the inheritance of nations,[2] which we sang about in one of our songs earlier.

And so it’s important that we understand that. We understand that the intention of the writer of the Gospel of John is that people would view the signs and works and words of Jesus and find that in them there is the cause to believe in Jesus as the one he proclaims himself to be—the Messiah of God—and that “by believing” to “have life in his name.”[3]

Jesus is addressing this in the context of the closing hours of his life. He has gathered with his disciples. We learned in the twelfth chapter that Jesus himself was troubled. He was troubled in his soul: “My soul [is] troubled [now]. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”[4]

If ever, as it were, Jesus needed the comfort and companionship of those whom he had called to himself and made part of his disciple band, it surely was now. But the one who acknowledges himself to be in need of comfort is, you will notice, the one who is granting comfort. He understands that his disciples are unsettled. They’re unsettled by the prospect of his departure. He’s been explaining this to them along the journeys, but they haven’t been getting it. It has landed on deaf ears. And even in the immediate prospect of things, they’re still not on track.

His soul is troubled, and yet his concern is for them. He knows that they need to know that his absence will actually be beneficial, that his going will open up new vistas to them—terrain that they’ve never really experienced before, privileges that are granted to them, responsibilities that are entrusted to them. And in all of that, he needs to let them know that he will not leave them as orphans. That’s in verse 18. We didn’t read on to verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and [you] will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” By chapter 16, which is all part of the same discourse, he’s explaining to them, “I tell you the truth”—16:7—“it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

Now, as I was studying this week, I said, “Was there ever a kinder person in all of humanity than Jesus? Was there ever a kinder shepherd?” We’ve been introduced to him as the Good Shepherd, the one who gives his life for the sheep.[5] The sheep are a mixture of personalities and styles and agendas and so on. And yet, as we’ve already seen, it says that Jesus loved them, and he “loved them” right “to the end.”[6] He loved them despite the fact that he was aware of the betrayal, despite the fact that he knew that one would deny him. Despite their doubts, despite their misunderstandings, he loved them. He was kind.

You know, if you remember the people whose marks you bear for good in your life, I guarantee you that many of those people you will remember most profoundly not because of their intellect, not because of their status, but because of their kindness. And indeed, the story of the Bible is the story of God’s amazing kindness. When Paul writes to the church at Rome and he’s explaining the wonder of God’s grace, he says to them, “Would you show contempt for the kindness of God? Don’t you realize that it is his kindness that leads you to repentance?”[7] Well, of course, this is nothing new. He was Jewish in background. He knew the Psalms. He knew the Prophets. He knew Psalm 145: “The Lord is faithful in all his [ways] and kind in all his works.”[8] “I led them,” says God through the prophet Hosea, “I led them with cords of kindness.”[9]

When Paul is encouraging Titus to encourage his congregation in relationship to the wonder of salvation, he says, “Remind them that it was when the kindness and loving goodness of God appeared that he saved them.” I reversed that. It reads, “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared…”[10] And when Jesus taught, he explained that his kindness was then to be displayed in the kindness of those who were his followers: “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and [so] you will be [the] sons of the Most High.” How will people know that Parkside Church is filled with sons and daughters of the Most High? “For he is kind to the ungrateful and [to] the evil. [So] be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”[11]

The story of the Bible is the story of God’s amazing kindness.

“Kindness,” said Mark Twain, “is the language that the deaf can hear and the language that the blind can see.”[12] There’s something in that. I was reading a book last evening. I was struck by a number of quotes from the book, an author that I’ve never read before, a lady. And at one point in the book she said something that I immediately scribbled down. She was talking about the miracles of Jesus, and she said, you know, perhaps Jesus’ most underestimated miracle may have been having these friends, who were fickle, who were failures, and who in the end abandoned him. What an amazing group of people! Were it not for the kindness of Jesus, he would have dispatched them long ago. He would have got rid of them and started with another group. Aren’t you glad that he hasn’t got rid of you and replaced you with someone else—someone brighter, someone more faithful, someone that doesn’t ask hard questions?

This is the one who is concerned for his followers. And the immediate context of the “Truly, truly” statement is before you in the text. “You need to know,” he says, “that I don’t think you should allow your hearts to be unsettled. Let not your hearts be troubled. Just believe in God. Believe also in me.” He says, “You need to know, number one, that I’m going to prepare a place for you; number two, I’m going to come back for you; number three, you actually know the way where I’m going, because I’ve already told you that I am going to the cross. I’ve told you on a number of occasions. Whether you’ve really registered it or not I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is, you know that I’m going by way of the cross.”

And the reason he’s doing all of this is because he wants them to understand that as they face the prospect of his death, they need to know that it will not be the end—that it won’t be the end; that the whole story of Jesus and all that he’s done is not going to come to a crashing halt.

In the first service, I used an illustration, which I can use again now, from a movie that I remember—a scene in a movie where, in a hotel in India, a lady appears at the front desk to address the proprietor of the hotel, and she is keen to let the proprietor know that nothing works. The air conditioner doesn’t work. The door doesn’t lock. She has a complete litany of things. And the young fellow looks at her, and then he says, “We have a saying in India: ‘Everything will be all right in the end. And if everything is not all right, it is not the end.’” That’s what Jesus is saying. They don’t get it. It’s going to be okay in the end.

Thomas, though, immediately puts up his hand. We ought to be glad for Thomases—the people who ask these kind of questions that we secretly would like to ask, but we don’t really want anybody to know that we don’t know the answer. And Thomas puts up his hand after Jesus has said categorically, “And you know the way to where I’m going.” Categorical statement: “You know the way to where I’m going.” Thomas puts out his hand, says, “Lord, I’m going to speak for the group here: we do not know where you’re going. And how can we know the way?” Kindness. I mean, if you were the schoolteacher, you’d say, “You know, sit at the back for a while. In fact, sit at the back forever.”

We should be thankful, though, because that question from Thomas gave us one of the great verses of the New Testament. Verse 6: Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. [And] no one comes to the Father except through me.” It was Thomas’s question, Thomas’s investigation that gave rise to that declaration from the lips of Jesus.

When you put 14:6 along with 3:16, you realize that the exclusive claims of Jesus are for everybody—that when Jesus says, “I am the only way for you to meet God, to know God,” that is an exclusive claim. But it is a claim which is extended to the vastness of the world: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but [should] have everlasting life.”[13] Those two things go together: the vastness of the reach of the gospel and the exclusiveness of the claims of Jesus.

But we shouldn’t be unsettled by this, despite the fact that we live in a culture that has truth on a sliding scale. But those of you who are in science, particularly in engineering—building bridges, putting things together so that they won’t topple—you’re dealing in objective, verifiable data. You are dealing with angles that mean what they mean, weight measures that mean what they mean. Those of you who are doing blood pressure, those of you who are the nurses who are putting in those drips, you know that these things have to be done in an exact way, that there is a difference between the lower vessels of the heart and the upper vessels of the heart, that the double circulatory system works on a certain basis; it’s not just haphazard. We all know that. And yet when it comes to matters of spiritual things, we’re tempted to believe the cry of the culture: “Oh, there couldn’t possibly be one way. There must be many, many ways.” Jesus says no.

John Stott has a wonderful little quote on this, and I’ll give it to you. He says, “Because in no other person”—“in no other person”—“but the historical Jesus of Nazareth has God become man and lived a human life on earth, died to bear the penalty of our sins, and been raised from earth and exalted to glory”—because of that—“there is no other Saviour, for there is no other person who is qualified to save.”[14]

In a matter of weeks, of course, when the Holy Spirit is poured out after Pentecost, the people who are huddled away in prospect of Jesus’ departure, who are somewhat disillusioned and fearful, they will be on the streets declaring this very thing. You can read it in the early chapters of Acts. Peter stands up and boldly… The one who has said, “I don’t know who Jesus is,”[15] is now on the streets saying, “There is salvation in no one else, … no other name under heaven given among men by which [anybody could possibly] be saved.”[16] Well, see, he’s now discovered by that time, of course, just what Jesus is explaining here. But we’re not there yet. We’re still here.

And not only is Thomas having a hard time, but Philip—you could argue he takes it up a notch. Jesus has said, “From now on, you do know the Father, and you have seen him. You have seen him.” Then Philip says, “Excuse me: Could you show us the Father? That would be enough for us.” Jesus said, “Have I been so long with you, and still you do not know me, Philip?”

Incidentally, in passing: let’s be kind and gracious to one another in the matters of questions, concerns, unanswered questions. There’s a lot of Thomas and a lot of Philip in each one of us. And you might be sitting next to a Thomas this morning. But don’t be smart. If you get it, the reason you get it is because of the goodness of God. If you’ve still got questions, that’s understandable. It would be dreadful if we did not have a Savior like Jesus.

Let’s be kind and gracious to one another in the matters of questions, concerns, unanswered questions. There’s a lot of Thomas and a lot of Philip in each one of us.

Jesus’ words are God’s power at work. (We must move on.) Philip says, “Show us the Father.” Jesus says, “How can you say that? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?” Staggeringly, he says, “The words that I speak are actually not just my words; they are the words that the Father has given me to speak. I say what the Father told me to say.” And the union within the Trinity is a mystical and a miraculous union. And so the fact of the interrelationship between the Son and the Father that is as close as this does not remove the reality of the fact that they are yet two distinct persons.

And what we’re really discovering is that Jesus is explaining that his words are God’s words, and God’s works are brought about by the words of Jesus. That’s why Jesus on one occasion says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”[17] That’s why I say to you all the time, the real question is: Do you hear his voice? Do you hear his voice? The voice of a mere man, articulate or inarticulate, is still the voice of a mere man. Putting sentences together in a way that is cogent and understandable, that may be processed in our minds, is not the same, necessarily, as hearing Jesus speak.

Jesus’ words perform God’s works. What is the great work of God? Salvation. How, then, do people come to saving faith? Through the words of Jesus doing the works of God. When we began in chapter 1, we realized, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, … has made him known.”[18]

Now, with all of that by way of context, now come to “Truly, truly.” You say, “Finally!” I hope you realize that is not filler, loved ones. I’m not just trying, like, a bad history essay. Might be a bad sermon, but it’s not a bad history essay. Anyway, but… So, “Truly, truly, I say to you”—“in solemn truth, let me tell you,” says Jesus—“whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and anyone who trusts in me will do greater works.” Okay.

Now, if Jesus means by that supernatural acts which accompanied his ministry—walking on water, calming the sea, feeding thousands with a small lunch, raising the dead—if that is what Jesus is referring to here, then, to quote my friend Ronnie Collier, we are forced to admit that this is a promise which remains unfulfilled. If that’s what Jesus means when he says to his disciples, “You’re going to raise the dead, you’re going to do all these things,” and so on—if that’s what he means… Because, notice, the context is straightforward: “Truly, truly I say to you”—that’s the listeners—“whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do greater works than I do.” Well, the promise is unfulfilled. Read church history, and we know that no one in church history, and certainly no one in the realm of our personal experience, has commanded the elements, confronted the critics, walked on the water, and healed the sick with a word. Fair? Have you been with anyone who raised the dead? He might have slid in the bath, but that’s not the same as walking on water. No, we haven’t.

So then, what does he mean? What can this possibly mean? If that’s not the way to understand it, then what in the world are we to expect in doing “greater works than these”? Because that’s what he says: “[Anyone who trusts] in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do.”

There is no greater work than the work of regeneration.

Now, even when you read through the church, the early church in the Acts of the Apostles, it’s clear that although they had what Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12 as “signs and wonders,”[19] which were foundational to the church and which were evidences of their peculiar apostolic function—even though you have that, even though that is there—when you read it, you realize that none of them or all of them together never, ever performed more spectacular miracles than Jesus had done. None of them did! So what does he mean? “Truly, truly, anyone who trusts in me…” This is not a particular group. This is not a special “crack troops,” as it were. No, “anyone who trusts in me.” A promise to anyone.

Now, when we have studied John, we’ve said again and again that John is saying, “When you read through this Gospel and you see the signs that Jesus has done, the purpose in including these signs is in order that they might lead you to believe in Jesus as the Messiah of God and that in believing him, that your life might be changed and transformed—that you might become members of his family, that you might be those who believe in his name and receive him and become the children of God. That’s what all of this is doing,” he says.

So when we read through the Gospel and we see the signs and works that Jesus is doing, they are pointing to the work that he has come to do: the great work of salvation. In fact, there is no greater work than the work of regeneration. Because the work of regeneration is not, as some people would like to think, a sort of sidestep from one degree of interest in spiritual things to another, whatever it might be. No, this is dead people being made alive. There’s no greater work than that. But the work that Jesus did in physical healing was simply a pointer to the reality of the ultimate healing of the real resurrection.

Think about it, for example, in the story that I use often as an illustration, but purposefully. They bring the man to Jesus on a bed because the man can’t walk. They can’t get him in through the front door; they let him down through the roof. It is a major intrusion. It’s a major event. Any bystander could look at that and say, “Well, this makes perfect sense. Jesus is a miracle worker. They’re in need of a miracle worker. His legs don’t work. They’re very kind. They drop him down to Jesus”—which they do. And what does Jesus say? “Son, your sins are forgiven.”[20] What? Anybody, again, including the guys with the bed, would have said, “This is not what this is about. This is about his legs, Jesus. We didn’t come here for some invisible forgiveness. We came here for some physical resurrection.”

Why does Jesus do that? Well, he heals the man; you know that. He says, actually, “In order that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he says, “let me just give you a sign. Let me give you a sign.” And he said to the fellow, “Hey, listen, take your bed and go home.”[21] The fellow took his bed, and he went home! And the Pharisees muttered and grumbled. Why? Because, you see, what he had done was he had put his finger not only just on that man’s need but on the need of every single person in the entire universe: the need to be reconciled to God. The need to be made new. The need to be born again.

Now, when you think about what then unfolds in the pouring out of the Spirit, that message of salvation was conveyed, arguably, and was about to be conveyed, arguably, in a greater way. “You will do what I do.” Well, he was going to accomplish salvation. They were going to convey the message of salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit. “You will do that,” and off they go, and they do it. Version number one: Peter proclaims the news of Jesus as a living Lord and Savior, and three thousand people turn to Christ.[22] That is more people than ever, that we know, ever responded to the ministry of Jesus in three years of earthly ministry. “Greater.”

Jesus’ ministry existed in a relatively small area—a very small area. The ministry of the church is not in a small area. Remember, before he leaves them, he says, “All power, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, and I want you to go not up the street, just, but I want you to go to the whole world.”[23] And so, beginning in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth…[24] “Greater.”

You see, his humanness was restricting, wasn’t it? He could only be one place at one time. He could only speak to the group within his hearing. And now he says, “You’re going to go to the nations of the world.” And that’s why when Luke begins his second volume, in the Acts of the Apostles, he says, “You know, I wrote my first book, and that dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach”[25]—we have that; the Gospel records—“all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.”[26] What were those commands? What I just mentioned: “I want you to go to the whole world with the news of the gospel.”

And so the distinction here in verse 12—the works that he does and the works that they will do—is not actually a distinction between the works of Jesus and the works of all who trust in Jesus, but it is the distinction between the works that Jesus performed during the days of his flesh and the works that he will then continue to perform through his disciples after his death and his exaltation. Because he will no longer be limited by his pre-death humanness.

Now, I don’t know if you’re tracking with me. I hope you are. But the miracle, the great work of Jesus—Yeshua, the Savior, the Redeemer, the one who sets people free—that is the great work. That is the great work. Many things can be done in different ways. Did you ever save anybody? Did you ever save your children? Did you ever save your wife, who doesn’t believe? Did you ever save somebody? If it was simply a matter of rearranging the thought processes, we could have a stab at that. But it isn’t that. It’s being translated from death to life. It is being moved from the broad road that leads to destruction to the road that leads to life through a narrow gate of entry—namely, Jesus.

We’ll end here, because we get the even harder part later on. But let’s just allow this notion to set in our minds. This is how Paul addresses the Ephesians about the miraculous work of God. This is what he says: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you … walked.”[27] That’s the first issue, you see. People do not believe they’re dead. They don’t believe they’re dead. Humanity is the walking dead. “I am come that [you] might have life.”[28] So he speaks to the walking dead.

And so he writes to these people that live in Ephesus, who’ve had a varied background. He says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, [you followed] the course of [the] world, … the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that[’s] now at work in the sons of disobedience—[and] we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” Some may have greater expressions of it than others, but we were all in the same predicament. We were “by nature children of wrath.”[29] “The wrath of God is released from heaven against all the wickedness and ungodliness of men.”[30] That’s comprehensive. There’s no way out of that program. And there’s only one solution to the program: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”[31] That’s what he means. That’s what he means. Only God can do that.

Do you have your glasses ready for tomorrow, where we’re going to see this great celestial phenomenon—unless we fall asleep? I was thinking about that before I went to bed last night. My wife’s in Chicago, so I had time to think about different things. And as I lay there staring at the ceiling, I was thinking about Monday, and I was thinking about today. And then a song came to mind, which, as you know, is a condition from which I suffer. And it was an old song that’s hardly—I haven’t heard anybody sing it in a hundred years—by John W. Peterson. And it goes like this (I’m not going to sing it, relax):

My Father is omnipotent,
And that you can’t deny,
A mighty God of miracles;
[It’s] written in the sky. …

It took a miracle to put the stars in place.
It took a miracle to hang the world in space.
But when he saved my soul,
Cleansed and made me whole,
It took a miracle of love and grace![32]

That is the great work. It is the work of God, entrusted to the people of God—you, me, anyone who trusts in Christ. It is opportune for those who are recipients of God’s kindness to live, learn, and share that kindness with others so that they, too, might be members of his family. It’s a call to the church. A call to the church.

Let us not miss the call. And then, in the evening hour, we’ll try and come to terms with this categorical prayer-promise. ([Responding to a baby crying]: That’s another happy customer on their way.)

Just a brief moment of silence, and then we’ll sing our closing song:

Father, thank you that when your Word is proclaimed, your voice, the voice of Jesus, is heard. We are very interested to hear from him, and we pray that in hearing his voice, that we might respond, and that those of us who have been following Jesus for a while and have grown lethargic and somewhat cold and distant—we ask your forgiveness, and we ask that you pour out the Holy Spirit upon us in fresh measure that Jesus Christ may be exalted. And in his name we pray. Amen.

[1] Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “Speak, O Lord” (2005).

[2] See Psalm 2:8.

[3] John 20:31 (ESV).

[4] John 12:27 (ESV).

[5] See John 10:11.

[6] John 13:1 (ESV).

[7] Romans 2:4 (paraphrased).

[8] Psalm 145:13 (ESV).

[9] Hosea 11:4 (ESV).

[10] Titus 3:4 (ESV).

[11] Luke 6:35–36 (ESV).

[12] While this quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, this attribution appears to be false. Its true originator appears to be Christian Nestell Bovee in his 1857 book Thoughts, Feelings, and Fancies. See https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/kindness-quote-is-not-by-mark-twain.

[13] John 3:16 (ESV).

[14] John Stott, The Authentic Jesus: A Response to Current Scepticism in the Church (Basingstoke, UK: Marshalls, 1985), 78.

[15] Luke 22:57 (paraphrased).

[16] Acts 4:12 (ESV).

[17] Matthew 24:35 (NIV).

[18] John 1:18 (ESV).

[19] 2 Corinthians 12:12 (ESV).

[20] Mark 2:5 (ESV).

[21] Mark 2:10–11 (paraphrased).

[22] See Acts 2:41.

[23] Matthew 28:18–19 (paraphrased).

[24] See Acts 1:8.

[25] Acts 1:1 (paraphrased).

[26] Acts 1:1–2 (ESV).

[27] Ephesians 2:1–2 (ESV).

[28] John 10:10 (KJV).

[29] Ephesians 2:1–3 (ESV).

[30] Romans 1:18 (paraphrased).

[31] Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV).

[32] John Willard Peterson, “It Took a Miracle” (1948).