Greater Works
John Fischer

Ever wonder about that time when Jesus said that those who believe in Him would do even greater works than He did? Well I don't know about you, but I haven't brought anyone back from the dead in the last few weeks. The last time I stepped on water, I sank. I can't even cure the common cold, and I can't make the water in my glass into anything other than... water. What could Jesus possibly mean by this statement? My only take on this up until now has been to assume I was falling way short of what I could be accomplishing with my life. Well that's kind of depressing. Why did Jesus say this if He was just going to leave us all depressed by it?

Dave Roper, in his writing on John, has helped me to finally make some sense of this. The actual statement is found in John 14:12, “Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with my Father.” The key, Dave points out, is in the statement: “because I am going to be with my Father.” In other words, these greater works will be possible as a result of His leaving. Couple that with his statement a few verses later about coming back in the form of the Holy Spirit who would indwell all believers, and you begin to get the picture.

Let me try and say it another way. It's as if Jesus were saying, “Right now there is only one of me. Soon there will be many, because I am going to my Father in heaven from where I can direct my work through hundreds, thousands, even millions of you all over the world.”

“Our efforts,” Dave Roper writes, “insignificant on the face of it and largely unobserved, are joined to innumerable streams of effort that result in the stupendous flow of God's love and goodness to men and women, boys and girls throughout the world. Thus we are part of a greater thing than we could ever imagine!”

Think of it. We are accomplishing greater works than Christ did when He was here! It's what we can all do together as the singular “body of Christ” that is at work here. Talk about purpose! And your job is just as important as anyone else's.

We are a part of something great. Just as a tiny stream begins high in the mountains and is joined by countless tributaries until it becomes a wide, rushing river, so our little work becomes part of a work greater than what even Jesus accomplished when He was here.

PDL