A Mystery of Greater Works

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12.

 

I would be happy to simply do the works that Jesus did, and quite content to live life there. I would rejoice at healings and deliverances and seeing others come to the Father. I would be thankful to see others share the Gospel as a result of receiving the Gospel from Christ through me.

 

What about you?

 

Note that in verse 10 Jesus couples “words” and “works” together. “The words that I say to you I do not speak out of Myself, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” I write this to caution us about equating the “works” of verse 12 solely with miracles, healings, deliverance from the demonic, and the like. “Works” can include words.

 

On the other hand, “works” can include miracles and I see no warrant to exclude them and no reason not to desire them for the glory of God.

 

Let’s also note verse 13, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

 

Regarding healings and deliverances, I cannot imagine anything exceeding the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth when I read passages such as Mark 1:32 – 34, when virtually the entire city comes to Jesus and there are many miracles. Then we have the raising of the dead, such as Lazarus.

 

Of course we have Paul in Ephesus. “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.” (Acts 19:11). We also see both Peter and Paul raising the dead in Acts.

 

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the Word of the Gospel was surrounded by the power of the Gospel. “God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” (Hebrews 2:4).

 

When we have a discrepancies between what we ought to be and what we really are, we can either make excuses for our shortcomings or we can acknowledge them and ask our Lord Jesus Christ to help us. When we excuse our shortcomings by rationalizing them away, and especially by saying they are God’s will, we are on dangerous ground.

 

Paul writes, “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” (2 Cor. 1:20).

 

Since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), we ought to expect Him to be the same in ministry within and without His Body – His continuing Incarnation - today as yesterday; and we ought to expect that the Holy Spirit abides in us today as He does within the Body when 1 Corinthians chapters 12 – 14 were written.

 

I cannot believe that brethren who profess a high view of Scripture venture onto the dangerous ground of teaching against the present – day living and working of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s Body in accordance with 1 Corinthians 12 – 14, as well as other passages. No matter how we may want to gloss over this, no matter how we may rationalize it, this is robbing others of the promises of God and of their life in the Holy Spirit and I just don’t understand it. Have we forgotten Revelation 22:18 – 19? Ought we not to leave things alone that we don’t understand?

 

Just because we, at least in the West, are falling short of living in the fulness of our inheritance, is no warrant for any of us to add or detract from the Word of the Bible – and I suppose I should say that there are, no doubt, those on the other end of the spectrum who often add to the Word of Christ. Being demonstrative is not a sign of living in the Holy Spirit nor of spiritual worship – the Presence of Jesus Christ and His Living Word, our koinonia with Him and with one another, is what we should be seeking. As Jesus says, and as He will repeat, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15).

 

As Jesus makes clear, the distinguishing marks of Christians are to be our love for one another and our unity (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13; 17:20 – 23). This is where we will see the glory of John14:12, this is where we will have a Biblical Gospel witness, and this is where we will all see clearly.

 

Whatever John 14:12 means, its meaning cannot be understood apart from its context, apart from John chapters 13 – 17…which of course culminate in the Holy of Holies of John 17. Its meaning must be lived in Christ and with one another and in the context of the entire Bible – I wonder if we will see this in our lifetimes?