GREATER WORKS THAN THESE (PART IV)

“They Want to Make Themselves Like the Most High”

By Akin Ojumu

In this commentary, we are examining what the Lord Jesus Christ meant when He promised His disciples that they would not only do the works that He did, but that they were also going to do even greater works.

John 14:12

“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.”

Until a few years ago, my understanding of what John 14:12 meant was that believers in Christ are going to perform much greater supernatural miracles than the Lord Jesus Himself did while He was on earth. I thought “greater works” meant more spectacular signs and grander out of this world wonders.

This understanding of this verse wasn’t original to me. I was taught it, and so are many of you reading this. Whenever John 14:12 was preached, what we were told was that Christians were going to demonstrate power like nothing the world has ever seen. Those who taught us buttressed this claim by quoting Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 2:9

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Going by this interpretation of John 14:12, Christians, rather, a few select Christians who have sufficient faith and anointing, are going to be able to perform fantabulous miracles. So great are the works these powerfully anointed people will do, they’ll even give the Lord Jesus Himself a run for His shekels. These special breed of believers will unleash the power to heal the sick, raise the dead, make the lame walk, restore sight to the blind, make the deaf to hear, and cause the dumb to talk. 

Not only that. Because of their special power and anointing, these super-believers will be able to command miracle money into empty bank accounts, drive their vehicles hundreds of miles on empty tanks, and they will even turn empty pots of soup into “jars of flour that will not be exhausted and jugs of oil that will not run dry.” All of these miraculous feats they will do by their own power and ability.

But guess what? It is all a lie. As we saw last time, the greater works mentioned in John 14:12 is primarily about the reach and scope of the Gospel message. The Lord Jesus was letting His disciples know that they were going to take the Good News beyond Jerusalem and Judea into Samaria and all the way to the uttermost part of the earth. 

Unlike their Teacher and Lord whose 3-year ministry was confined within the boundaries of Israel, the disciples were going to spread the Gospel message to far-flung places. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, hordes of gentiles will be ushered into the kingdom of God by their preaching of the Gospel.

Isaiah 49:6

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Isaiah 2:2-3

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.””

The greater works the Lord Jesus said His disciples would do is describing the extent of the works and not the essence of the works. What He promised was the measure and magnitude of the works and not the nature and substance of the works. It’s all about the quantity of the works and not the quality of the works.

And it makes sense that the “greater works” the Lord Jesus was talking about in John 14:12 couldn’t have been greater and more spectacular miracles than Jesus Himself did. There’s no miracle that can be greater than restoring eyesight to a 40-year-old man who was born blind. I don’t know of any miracle that can surpass the raising of Lazarus back to life after he had been dead and buried for four days and had already started decaying and oozing foul odor. You are never going to do any miracle greater than walking on water, calming a boisterous sea, and turning five loaves and two fishes into a banquet for thousands of people to feed.

John 1:1-14

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is God who took on human flesh and lived as man. He was fully God and fully man. In him dwell the fullness of God bodily. He is divine and not just an ordinary man. At no time did He lose His divinity. So, the idea that a mere human is capable of performing greater miracle than God is not only preposterous, but it is outrightly blasphemous.

Isaiah 14:12-15

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.”

Anyone who tells you he has the power and ability to do greater miracles than God is either deceiving you or he himself is deceived. Those who hold to such an outlandish idea are of their father, Lucifer. Such a person is an enemy of God who would love nothing more than to dethrone God and make himself greater than God. But such heretics and blasphemers would all eventually be cut down and thrown into hell fire where they rightfully belong.

May God open my eyes and your eyes to discern the truth of His Word.