Greater Works

Our text this morning is a promise from Jesus. And what a promise! It’s actually quite astounding. As soon as I read it to you I am sure that you will agree. But it is astounding and confusing. To prepare for this sermon I pulled down all of my commentaries on John - and I have more than a few - and read what each one has to say about this promise. All of that is to warn you. Explaining Jesus' words to you is going to be a bit of a challenge. This promise is not easily understood, but there is benefit in working to understand it. So, please listen as I read what Jesus said.

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 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.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14.12-17)

Did you hear that? You are going to do the same works that Jesus did. And in fact, you will do greater works. Greater works! What could that possibly mean? How many of you have changed water to wine, fed thousands from someone's lunch and raised the dead? And yet, there it is, Jesus' promise. And His promise is not for some elite few. It is for '… whoever believes in me…’. Astounding and confusing.

So, how are we to understand this? Well, let's start by looking at this idea of 'greater works'. What does Jesus mean by that phrase? To help us we're going to consider Jesus' opinion of John the Baptist.

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

So, when Jesus said these words John was the greatest yet, but according to Jesus there will be those who will be 'greater'. And what makes them 'greater' is that they are in the kingdom while John was not. That may sound confusing all on its own, but let's step back and consider the big picture.

Let's look at what God has been up to. And let's picture that as a bit of drama. God has written a play, and He is putting it on in His theater. 'All the world's a stage.' This play has four acts. Act One was all about the Garden of Eden. Life was good, beautiful, perfect. But, as you know, life didn't stay good. Things fell apart because of the sin of Adam and Eve. That sin was the beginning of Act Two. This Act is essentially about and limited to the story of Israel. At this point the theme of the play is becoming clearer. The plot develops. Everything is moving to the climax. Some of the prominent actors here are Abraham, Moses, David and John the Baptist. Then comes the climax that the play has been building toward. The Kingdom of God arrives. It's not complete. It's more like a seed that begins to grow. It's at that point Act Three begins. And that Act continues on, the Kingdom grows and bears fruit, until the beginning of eternity, until the time of harvest when Jesus returns. That's when Act Four begins. So, Act One: the Garden. Act Two: Israel. Act Three: the beginning and growth of the Kingdom. Act Four: Eternity

So, back to John the Baptist. He was a preacher so let's compare him to me. How do he and I line up? I think that the answer is obvious. In so many ways he was a better preacher, a bolder preacher, than I will ever be. And yet, Jesus says that I am greater than he was. How can that be? Here's the difference between us. John was in Act Two, but I am in Act Three. I live after the arrival of the Kingdom. I am not greater because of the quality of my preaching. I am greater because of when I live, because I preach after the coming of the Kingdom. And because of that my sermons are about truths that John could not preach because he knew nothing about those truths. 'Greater' is not about what. 'Greater' is about when.

Now, back to Jesus' words about 'greater works'. Let me pose a question. In which Act of God's play do we find Jesus? He is in Act Two. He's with Abraham, Moses, David and John the Baptist. He is before the establishment of the Kingdom. But we are in Act Three after the Kingdom has started. If we compare the ‘what’ of our works with what Jesus did, there is no comparison. He did miracles. But if we compare the ‘when’, then the works that we do are greater.

This becomes clearer when you understand when Act Three actually begins. Act Three begins with the coming of the Spirit. In our text Jesus said that we would do greater works because He is going to the Father. And what will He do once He has returned to the Father?

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…

Act Three is all about the Spirit coming on the Church. The Kingdom of God is planted and begins to grow. And what does the Church do now that the Spirit has come on it? It spreads the Gospel of the Kingdom. At the heart of that is Jesus as the resurrected Savior. And Act Three is not limited to just Israel like Act Two was. No, Act Three is about the world. In Act Three Jesus is proclaimed in a way that He was not proclaimed before and in places He was not proclaimed before. And that will continue until Act Four begins when Jesus returns.

So, here's the bottom line. What are these greater works that we do? They are our bearing witness to Jesus and doing that in ways that have never happened in all of history before the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost. This work of bearing witness is greater because of several things.

First, we bear witness to Jesus as the Savior who died on the Cross for sins and who was raised as Lord of all. That witness was there in Act Two, in the history of Israel, but it was veiled and only hinted at. It was veiled and hinted at even during Jesus' ministry. But we bear witness to it in utter clarity. The partial is gone, and the true is present. We bear clear witness to Jesus as the sin-bearer who has freed us from our sins.

Second, we are able to do a greater work of bearing witness to Jesus not because we are better people than those who lived before Pentecost. We are able to do this greater work because the Spirit has come on the Church in such a way as to transform it. The Church after Pentecost is different from the Church before. The power of the Spirit for bearing witness is present now in a way that it was not before.

And that leads to the third reason why our work of bearing witness is greater. The Church is no longer a people with a limited, national focus. That was Israel's mission. Our mission is different. The Church today is a people whose focus is the world. We bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to the whole world.

Now we're ready for the practical part. Jesus made this promise of greater works to all who believe in Him; to all of us. What is that supposed to look like? Are we supposed to stand up and preach to some crowd like Peter did on Pentecost? Are we supposed to hand out Gospel tracts to every stranger we meet? What are we supposed to do? What are all of us supposed to do in order to do the greater works of bearing witness to Jesus in the power of the Spirit? Here's one thing that we all are to do. Listen to what Jesus said.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

We bear witness to the rescue that Jesus has brought about by our life together as a church. It is as we love each other that we give proof that Jesus succeeded in His work. Our changed lives are the evidence that He is real. We bear witness by being the Church as He defines it.

We've been looking at Philippians in our Bible studies. Here's a section that we recently looked at.

… complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

We are called to unity, to being one in so many ways. That's hard. In fact, I think that I can say that, left to ourselves, that's impossible. But since Jesus has sent the Spirit, it's do-able. And as we make progress toward that goal of really being one because of love, we give evidence to the watching world that Jesus is real. We do the greater work of bearing witness.

And we can be very optimistic about reaching this goal. Jesus gives another promise related to doing this greater work.

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.

Jesus isn't giving a general promise about our prayers. He is talking about this greater work that we are to do. So, overcoming the sometimes large obstacles to loving one another and being of one mind and all the rest is possible because Jesus promises to grant our prayers for success in these things. And I suspect one thing that will happen in response to prayers like this is that Jesus will grant us more of the presence of the Spirit to expose and remove sin and replace it with a holy love that unites.

I'm hoping that Jesus' promise is no longer as confusing as it was. I'm also hoping that His promise is even more astounding to you. We have been given a great work to do. And because of the Spirit, it is something that we can do.