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Transcript 136D
"Greater Works Than These Shall He Do" [Jn 14:12]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. I found in John 14:12 that it says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father." Would you explain that to me?
HC: Yes. Your question is concerning John 14:12, which seems to tell us (and it does indeed tell us) that we who believe in Christ will do His works, and greater works than these will he do, because He has gone to the Father.
Now let me ask you, first of all, do you know anyone today who is able to multiply the loaves and the fish as Jesus did, or who is able to raise the dead as Jesus did, or who instantaneously can heal a leper, or who can take someone who has atrophied limbs (that is, who has never walked and whose limbs are completely shriveled up), and instantaneously give that person whole limbs?
CALLER: Well, no, not necessarily. I don't know anybody. But since Jesus said this, and it's right here in the Word, I believe it is possible if it is the will of God.
HC: Except that if it is talking about doing miracles, then God would be lying to us if we couldn't see the evidence of this in the world. And we cannot see the evidence of this in the world.
Now when we study a little more carefully in the Word, we find that this was not the essential work of Christ, that He was going to do miracles. The essential work of Christ was to go to the cross and die for our sins. But we can't do that, either, because that was Christ's work, uniquely His. And so we can't enter into that.
But there's another work that Christ did. In Luke's Gospel, in Chapter 4, we find there that Jesus went about preaching the Gospel. In Luke 4:43 He declared, "I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. And He was preaching in the synagogues of Judea."
Now God is declaring that Christ came to preach the Gospel. That was His work to do. Now that's exactly the same work that Christ has commanded us to do. He said, "Go ye into all the world, making disciples," "Ye are My ambassadors," and so on. Now let's look at how successful Christ was as a preacher. He preached for three and a half years, and there was only a handful of believers, perhaps as many as 120, in Jerusalem, or maybe a little over 500 in all of Judea, after three and a half years of preaching.
But now Christ goes to the Father. And here we find Peter, who so often puts his foot in his mouth, and he preaches one sermon, on Pentecost afternoon, and 3000 are saved. He's doing the work of Christ, and greater works, because Christ has gone to the Father. In other words, Christ is not talking about miracles here. He's talking about being a preacher of the Gospel.
CALLER: There still is a doubt in my mind. Still I believe that if it is necessary, and God permits it, and if it is His will, we are able to do these things. It says, very plainly. Of course later on He talks about the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit.
HC: Now you must remember that as born again believers, we are told to "walk by faith, not by sight." We are told that "an evil and an adulterous generation seeketh for a sign."
Now the casting out of demons was a miracle. It was a sign. So was the healing of the sick. These were miracles. And Jesus said that we're not to seek this kind of a thing. Now this may be very exciting. This may seem to give positive evidence that we have the true Gospel. But we can't be more holy than God. We can't write the rule book. We've got to follow the Bible. And the Bible says that we walk by faith, and we don't walk by signs. And we don't get involved in that kind of activity.
CALLER: You just said that Jesus said that we should not seek these kind of things. But where does He say that?
HC: Because He said, "An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh for a sign." We find this kind of a verse recorded in a number of places. In Matthew 12, He said in verse 38, "Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, 'Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.' But He answered them, 'An evil and an adulterous generation seeks for a sign. But no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.'" Now the sign of the prophet Jonah is the cross, the fact that Christ died for our sins. That's the miracle that we have to look at.
And we're not to go around looking for miracles. We walk by faith. And if someone is unsaved, if we suspect he might be demon-possessed, it makes no difference. He's unsaved. The answer is, we witness to him of the Gospel. And it is God who will take care of the matter of Satan. We don't have to go around rebuking Satan. That's not our task at all.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.