105
John 14:12  THE DISCIPLES TO DO GREAT THINGS
	
	Introduction:

	In our last several texts Jesus has been seeking to
comfort to His disciples.  They were greatly disturbed
because Jesus was about to be crucified and because He was
about to leave them and go away.  He wanted them to be at
least somewhat prepared to face His arrest, His crucifixion,
His death and His burial.
	I think you know that you can never get fully prepared
for the death of a loved one, but when you are well informed
you can get somewhat prepared.
	In our text today Jesus is still seeking to bring them
comfort.  He is now trying to get them to look beyond His
death and His departure.  He is seeking to get them to look
ahead to the work that they are to do for Him after He
has departed from them.  He makes two astoundingly great
promises concerning the work that they will do.  He tells
them first that they will be able to do the same kind of
works that they had seen Him do.  Then He tells them that
they will do even greater works than He Himself has done.

I.  The promise that they would be able to do the kind of
	works that Jesus had done

	V. 12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also..."
The works which the disciples had seen Jesus do included the
preaching of the gospel and teaching the great truths of
God.  Jesus said that the disciples were to carry on the
great work of preaching and teaching in which Jesus had been
engaged.
	The works which the disciples had seen Jesus do also
included miracles.  He had cast out demons, healed the sick,
caused the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the lame to
walk, the blind to see and the dead to raised to life again.
Jesus said that they would be able to do great miraculous
works such as they had seen Jesus do.  Technically, what He
said was that the believer in Him as the Christ would be
able to do this same kind of works.
	Actually the apostles had already been working miracles.
In Mark 6:7 we read, "And he called unto him the twelve, and
began to send them forth two by two; and gave them power
over unclean spirits."  In verses 12 & 13 we read, "And they
went out, and preached that men should repent.  And they
cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were
sick, and healed them."  Miracle working would not be new to
the apostles.
	But even though they had done those miracles while Jesus
was still with them that does not mean that they would still
be able to do these things after He was gone.  They had no
way of knowing whether or not they would still be able to do
such miracles once Jesus was gone away from them.  But in
our text Jesus assured them that they would still be able to
do miracles even after He was gone.  There is plenty of
record that they were able to do so.
	There is something, however, that should be clarified.
We should not jump to the conclusion that Jesus meant that
every believer would be given the gift of miracles.  In I
Cor. 12:1 we read, "Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant." Down in verse 4 we
read, "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same
spirit."  That means there are different kinds of spiritual
gifts and that not every believer would get the same kind of
spiritual gift.  In verses 8-11 we read, "For to one is
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another word of
knowledge by the same Spirit; To another the working of
miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of
spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues (meaning
different languages); to another the interpretation of
tongues; But all these worketh that one and the selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."
	So Jesus was not saying that every believer would
receive the spiritual gift of miracles, but rather that it
would come to pass that among the believers there would be
some who would definitely have the gift of miracles.  He
promised that they would be able to do the same kind of
works that they had seen Him perform and that included
miracles.
	I said that we should not jump to the conclusion that
every believer would have this miraculous power and we see
that this is substantiated in I Corinthians chapter twelve.
Yet neither should we jump to the conclusion that Jesus
meant that this kind of miraculous gift would continue
throughout all future generations.  In I Corinthians chapter
13 the Apostle Paul is still discussing the subject of
"spiritual gifts" which he started discussing back in
chapter 12:1.  But in chapter 13 Paul makes it clear that
not all of the spiritual gifts would continue.  Some of
these gifts would stop when the writing of the Bible would
be completed.
	In verse 8 Paul said that the spiritual gift of charity
would never fail.  That is, it would never stop.  The word
"charity" as used in Scripture means "love."  Believers in
every generation would have the spiritual gift of love.
	However, in that same verse, verse 8, Paul said that the
spiritual gift of making prophecies would fail.  That is
this gift would stop.
	Likewise, Paul said in verse 8 that the spiritual gift
of tongues would cease.  This is contrary to what many
people wish to believe.  But Paul very clearly said that
they would cease.
	In verse 8 Paul additionally declares that the spiritual
gift of knowledge would vanish away.  He is not saying that
all knowledge would vanish away and that everybody would
have minds that are totally blank.  He was talking about the
spiritual gift of supernatural knowledge --- knowing things
without going through the natural process of learning ---
knowing supernaturally.  Paul said that gift would vanish
away.
	In verses 9 and 10 Paul tells when these spiritual would
stop.  They would stop when all of the parts of divine
revelation would be completed.  Paul said specifically that
the spiritual gift of prophecy, the spiritual gift of
tongues, the spiritual gift of supernatural knowledge would
be all done away.  They would be done away when the various
parts of divine revelation had been written and the Bible
would be completed.
	These special spiritual gifts filled a great need during
the days before the Bible was completed.  There were many
people claiming to speak God's message who were not speaking
the message of God.  Some were true men of God proclaiming
the word of God.  Others were frauds who spoke not the word
of god.  The special spiritual gifts would enable the
churches to know who was proclaiming God's word and who was
not.  They did not have the New Testament to check to see
who was telling the truth, but they did have the special
gifts which enabled them to know who spoke for God.
	But after all of the parts of divine revelation were
given and confirmed, the special spiritual gifts were no
longer needed.  In verse 10 the Apostle Paul compared the
spiritual gifts to various items which are useful to a
child, but are put away when the child matures.
	In verse 11 he compares them to seeing the will of God
through a glass darkly.  But he said that after the divine
revelation would be completed it would be like looking face
to face at the truths of God.
	The special gifts were somewhat like various items used
for children.  The teether which is chewed by a baby with
sore gums when he is teething is an important item.  So are
a baby's rattle and bottle.  An older child's toy pistol or
doll are also important items for children.  But when one
reaches maturity, it is time that he put away those things.
So it is with the special spiritual gifts.  They played an
important part in early Christianity.  But when Christianity
began to mature it was time to put away most of the special
gifts.
	In verse 13 Paul said that only three special spiritual
gifts would remain after the completed revelation of God.
Those three are specifically named: Faith, hope and charity
(love).  All of the other special spiritual gifts would be
done away, including the gift of miracles.
	God is the same yesterday, today and forever, but most
of the special spiritual gifts including miracles were not
to continue.  Like most of the others, miracles would cease.
Only faith, hope and charity would remain --- those three.
If Paul had said that faith, hope and charity would remain,
we would think that miracles might remain also.  But since
he said "...faith, hope and charity --- these three --- then
we know that he meant only these three.  God still has the
power to give the gift of miracles if He wanted to do so.
But God Himself, through the Bible,  has informed us that
those gifts would stop and I believe that men ought to
believe what God has said about it.
	But what I want you to see about those apostles who had
already been given the gift of miracles is that the ability
to perform miracles would not be taken from them when Jesus
would leave and return to heaven.  They would still have the
gift of miracles after Jesus would leave and go away.  That
news should have been an encouragement to them and help to
lift them out of their depression.

II.  A promise that they would do even greater works than
	Jesus did

	An even greater encouragement to the disciples would be
the statement which Jesus made in the later part of our
text.  (V. 12), "...and greater works than these shall he
do; because I go unto my Father."  This is an astonishing
statement.  If I were to tell you that any man would do
greater works than Jesus, you would have a hard time
believing me.  If you were to tell me that anybody would
ever do greater works than Jesus, I would have a hard time
believing you.  But since it was Jesus who told the
disciples that they would do greater works than He had done,
then I think we all ought to believe Jesus.
	But what did Jesus mean when He said that they would do
greater things than He had done?  Did He mean that they
would preach greater sermons than He would preach?  Did He
mean that they would be greater teachers than He was?  I
hardly think so.  The men of that day said about Jesus,
"Never a man spake like this man." I think that statement
still holds true today.
	Did Jesus mean that the disciples would perform greater
miracles than He had performed.  No! No! No! A thousand
times "No!"  Jesus performed the greatest miracles ever
recorded in the Bible.  Read the record for yourself and you
will be convinced that the miracles of Jesus were greater
than the miracles done by the apostles.
	Then what did He mean.  He most certainly meant
something.  Jesus, Himself, gave a clue to what He meant
when He said, "...because I go to my Father."  He meant that
Christianity was just getting started here on earth and He
is the One who had started it.  Jesus was a preacher of the
gospel and as far as preaching there was none who could do
it better.  But there is no record in the Bible of Jesus
preaching and having about 5,000 people getting saved at one
time.  Yet that is what happened when the Apostle Peter
preached on the Day of Pentecost following the after Jesus
ascension of Jesus to heaven.  On another occasion there
were about 3,000 who were saved.
	Jesus had confined His ministry chiefly to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.  But the disciples of the Lord
would go far and near preaching the gospel to both Jew and
Gentile.  Churches would be established in all parts of the
world and thousands upon thousands would be saved as the
Lord's churches carried out the Great Commission.  No, the
disciples of the Lord would never preach better sermons than
Jesus and they would never perform greater miracles than
Jesus, but they would reach greater numbers than Jesus did
and they would reach a greater territory than Jesus did and
their ministry would cover a much greater period of time
than that of Jesus.  The Lord's ministry lasted only three
years, but the ministry of His disciples still goes on
today.  So this is what Jesus meant when He told them that
they would do greater works than He had done.
	What I want you to see is that this should have been a
great encouragement to those disciples who were so very low
right at that time.  It should have helped to lift their
spirits to know that they would still be able to work
miracles like Jesus had done and that they would be able to
accomplish a lot more in promoting the Christian cause in
the world than Jesus Himself had done during His ministry.

III.  Some very important things from our text

	Now let me point out to you some very important things
from this text.  First of all, I would point out to you that
nobody in this world can ever save a lost soul except Jesus
Christ.  If anybody anywhere wants to get saved, he will
have to call on Jesus Christ and trust in Jesus in order to
get saved.  There just may be somebody here today who needs
to get saved and wants to get saved.  I point you to Jesus
as the Savior of men.  He saved the apostles.  He saved me.
He can save you.
	Secondly, I want to point out to you who are saved, that
there is a place for you in the work of the Lord.  There is
a great work yet to be done for the Lord in this old world.
If you are saved you should want to have a part in doing the
work of the Lord.  If you are saved and you do want to have
a part in carrying on the work of Jesus in this world, then
I point out to you that there is a place for you.
	Furthermore, I want to point out to you that time is of
the utmost importance.  If you are unsaved it is most
important that you not waste the valuable time that you
have.  It is vital that you turn to Jesus and call upon Him
for the salvation of your soul while there is time.
	If you are already saved and you want to have a place in
serving the Lord, then I want to say that the way to start
is by following Jesus in baptism and getting into the
membership of a New Testament church.  If you will be
regular and faithful in a good New Testament church then
there will be more and more things for you to do for the
Lord.  But time is wasting and it is important for you to
get started.

Conclusion:

	We are going to have and invitation hymn at this time
and we are going to invite you to come.  If you are unsaved,
please come and get right with God while there is time.
	If you are saved and in need of a church home, then come
today.  If you are saved and you are a member here at
Pleasant Hill and you need to renew your commitment to serve
the Lord, then I a going to call upon you to do that this
morning.
	Who will come?