Let's turn together to John, chapter 14. John chapter 14, I want to exhort you to just as I did earlier with prayer and are coming together for prayer to apply yourself to hearing and comprehending the sermon that is delivered. It was interesting for me to read this past week. It wasn't one of the messages delivered but something that I read by Joel Beaky as he was quoting a couple of our great church fathers and I know for some folks it's a bit of an annoyance to hear from those who have labored before us but they do speak words that are quite wise very often. John Calvin, for example, who preached daily in his church there in Geneva, said that he believed very few people listened well to sermons. More than 30 times in his commentaries and nine times in his institutes, Calvin referred to how few people received the preach word with saving faith. He said this, if the same sermon is preached, say to 100 people, 20 receive it with ready obedience of faith while the rest hold it valueless or hiss or loathe it. Now I haven't heard any hissing thankfully but I do hope that we have a better scorecard than 20 who are able to receive it but at the same time we have to note that our ears are not as trained to hear sermons as they were in Calvin's day there. They sat under his preaching daily and he preached very often an hour or more. We compete with media and we compete with fast food which is calling some of us even now to the altars of the take out and the altars of the drive-through. We have so many things that would drag us away from the word of God. I want to encourage you not scolding you but encouraging you prepare yourself prior to coming pray that God would cause you to be ready and fit to receive his word as he speaks to us for when God's word is read and God's word is preached it is not because it is a tradition it is because God would affect the sanctification the purification of his people and save those souls which have yet to come to know Christ. So we turn our attention now to John chapter 14. John 14 going to begin at verse 11 as we join a conversation that has been going on now for some time for several weeks of our study. John 14 verse 11 12 and allow me to read 13 as well. Listen for God speaks to us through the spirit and the reading of his word. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves. 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. Whatever you ask in my name this I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The Lord bless the reading of his word the hearing of his people. As we drive deeper and deeper into the word of God what are you expecting? What are your expectations? There's no there's no hidden meaning to the question it's not really even a redundant question. I'd like you to answer at least in your own mind not out loud but what is it that you expect as we go deeper and deeper into God's word? I pray that it would not be like the Gentile woman who coming to Christ when he told her that time was not yet for the Gentiles that she would said she would simply be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the table. I hope that you have heard and have received Christ invitation that you would not have to make do simply with crumbs falling from the table but you have been invited to sit and to feast at the table and that includes partaking in his word that you would grow more and more mature in your understanding. Why would I mention that now? The disciples themselves having walked with Christ and listened and watched him for three years are struggling mightily to understand what Christ is shall we say desperately not that Christ is in desperation but because of the time and because of the weightiness of the teaching and the importance of this doctrine in the life of the believer that he is desperately teaching them now in these final hours before their separation and the crucifixion, the atoning work at the cross. Jesus has been making an appeal for faith. He's been calling for the disciples to believe what they cannot see and now he describes the fruit of their faith in amazing terms. Is it amazing terms? Certainly it is. Did you hear when Jesus said, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do, greater works. Now what they had already observed in Christ, greater works if that is not classified as amazing, I don't know that anything ever could be. Jesus is continuing to open up the implication of his being in union with the Father in the context of the kingdom, the establishment of the kingdom of God and he tells them his works testify to his oneness with the Father. Let me review the bidding as it were up to this point in 14, just in chapter 14, in verse 1 he said, believe in God, believe also in me creating there a connection or a link in verse 7. If you had known me you would have known the Father from now on you do know him and have seen him. We see the Father in the person of Christ in verse 9, whoever has seen me has seen the Father again in verse 10. The Father who dwells in me does his works in verse 11, believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Is this new teaching that Jesus has never touched on, certainly it's not. I'm going to flip back a couple of pages to chapter 6 and read just a few verses, 53 to 58. Jesus, he's talking here about the bread of life. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood as eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me he also will live because of me this is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the Father's ate and died, whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. The unity of the Father and the Son is what Jesus is describing for the disciples and he will go on and we will explore this as he unfolds it more and more in the chapters that follow the unity of the believer with Christ. H.A. Ironside, a great commentator for many years ago, said the unity of the Father and the Son does not involve the fault that the Father and the Son were exactly the same person. They were two persons and yet one in the unity of deity with the Holy Spirit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Joseph Cook used to say the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit couldn't be God in his fullness. The Son without the Father and Holy Spirit wouldn't be God. The Spirit without Father and Son wouldn't be God but together they are one God in three persons. Jesus is now going back to that concilatory tone as he's trying to unfold this for his disciples. You remember he had that initial concilatory tone with them when they were upset and after there had been the prediction of betrayal and he told them that he was going to be to a place that they were not to be frightened because he was preparing a place for them and the place that he was going and that place was still ahead of them. It was a place they had yet to go to. There were so much more glorious than anything they had ever known and they wouldn't long to hold on to anything that they have now if they could but just glimpse the place that Jesus was preparing for them. He told them that they knew the way to this place after the protest of not knowing how to get there by Thomas and that there was already knew and there was no need for him to disclose any further directions to them but only that way which was him would be opened up and that we know is through the cross. Now he wants to tell them of the work again that is still ahead of them. The work that remains ahead of them that will be greater than any they have ever seen and as the work Jesus did testified of his unity with the Father so their work will testify of their unity with him the Son. All right with that being said are there any practical implications for us? Is there anything intended for us in what Jesus has said? Listen to this verse again. I tell you the truth. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. The first practical implication that we draw out is there is continuity between our work and labor and the ministry of Christ. He will be doing the one who is a follower of Christ that which I have been doing that is the work that Jesus was doing. There's another one if we read further. He will do even greater things than these. So first of all there's continuity between what we as the church of Christ do and what Christ has done and then there's also an increase in the ministry of the church of Christ when compared to the work that Christ has done but then there is also a condition that is laid upon it. This is made possible because Jesus said I am going to the Father. Let's look at these somewhat briefly as these continue to be unfolded in the verses that follow as Jesus begins to really focus the detention of the disciples upon this idea of unity culminating in his teaching of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the Spirit indwelling them. They're unified to him. It is his spirit but that is still ahead of us. Let's consider these verses. Continuity. Well that begs the question well what sort of work are we to be involved in that has continuity with the work of Jesus? It's continuity related to the works of Jesus and what were those great works that Jesus did? Well many immediately turned to the miracles. So they fed 5,000 He raised people from the dead. A 1991 sermon by John MacArthur or miracles cited an occasion when Oral Roberts said I cannot tell you about all the dead people I've raised. I've had to stop a sermon, go back and raise a person. Now I will confess there have been a few times that I wondered if I might also have to do that but if I wait long enough generally the one that I thought passed will stir and in fact it was just a little nap. But Oral Roberts apparently his preaching I guess we could say he's really knocking them dead because he has had to do this a lot. In the middle of preaching often he has to go and raise a few people in the middle of a sermon. John Wimber who is of the vineyard teaches that raising the dead is a basic element of any reputable healing ministry. If you're in Christ obviously you're going to be raising some people from the dead. Are these the great works, the greater works that Jesus is describing that they're supposed to be involved in? I would contend and I think the text certainly supports. He's not referring here to his miracles because he cast the miracles himself in a certain context that these were signs that pointed to the arrival of the kingdom and the work he's called the apostles to is teaching within the kingdom. Not to continue with the signs that show the arrival of the kingdom but the proclamation of the gospel that people could enter into the kingdom. We have the word now which testifies to those very signs what we have commanded though through the rest of the New Testament scriptures is that the people of God would take up the word and would preach the kingdom of God to those who dwell in darkness. If we were to take it in the sense of miracles then we would have to mean it would have to mean that if Jesus raised three from the dead then we have to raise six. We have to do it greater than he did. If Jesus cast out a legion of demons we have to cast out two legions of demons because we have to do a greater work than he did. If he calmed the sea I suppose we'll have to drain the sea because we have to do a greater work than he did. Surely even the most carnal and the most uninformed mind wouldn't believe such things and yet we hear those preachers of the airways like Roberts, like Oral Roberts, Benny Hen and others. I won't list go down the row call of what I'll call the row call of shame. We hear those who have taken captive the weak souls and the weak minds with stories of their false miracles and wonders and people eat it as they say like candy. Thankfully we're not left to wonder or speculate or as so many have done just simply make something up. Jesus wasn't hiding his meaning. There's no secret here that is left for us to discover on some treasure hunt of spiritualistic or allegoric meanings. All along Jesus has made it clear his miracles were not the focus of his mission. That was not why he came. He didn't come simply to raise three people from the dead. These were signs of the kingdom and John 626 after feeding the 5000 crowds followed him and he said truly, truly I say to you you are seeking me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. They were consumers. They wanted to know what they could get out of it. They were going to eat some bread that Jesus had set before them and they thought well if this man will feed us then we'll join his ministry because it fills us up with what our carnal nature desires and 628. What must we be doing to do the works of God? Well here we have the question. What are these works of God? We are told that we will do greater works than Christ. Here he defines by answering the question what must we be doing to do the works of God and Jesus answered them this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. Belief 1410 do you not believe that I am the father that I am in the father and the father is in me the words if you have a highlighter or you are not inclined to keep yourself from writing in your Bible I encourage you to underline that. The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me does and then underline these words is works. What are the works? The proclamation which Jesus was giving him. Listen again the words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me does his works. What are the works that words Jesus is speaking to them. The proclamation of the kingdom. Jesus is not promising them some supernatural power that will give them authority over nature, authority over death, authority over the demons. He is talking about belief. That is what he is talking about. He is talking about proclamation and belief in Luke 10, 17. 72 disciples go out and they return from a successful outreach adventure and they say to him Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name and Christ responds to this remarkable revelation by them. This remarkable occurrence is in verse 20. Do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Jesus even as the 70 went out and experienced extraordinary and miraculous events when they return Jesus downplayed those and he said don't even preoccupy yourself with thinking about that instead rejoice because your names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Your names are recorded in heaven and Jesus is mine. The miracle of rebirth was far greater than any other miracle which we might see performed. Well, if we've defined exactly what those works are that we are called to be involved in the proclamation of the good news for the belief of people that they would enter into the kingdom of God, then we are told that we will do it greater even than Christ. So with increase, well very few of the disciples could grasp the intent of Jesus' teaching at that point. He was revealing the Father to them. They saw a liberator. They saw a miracle worker. They saw a teacher. But Jesus was the incarnate Word. He was and is God tabernacling with his people. God being with his people. Listen again to Jesus' disappointment because the apostles don't grasp this in 149. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long, and you still don't know me, Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Not until Pentecost, when the Spirit of God is poured out, does the increase begin to come? And here we see the first fulfillment of this promise by Jesus. On that day the apostles told the people of Christ and 3000 believed. On that day at Pentecost, the apostles preached to the people. Christ and 3000 people believed within a generation. Millions would believe. Colts and temples would be abandoned and destroyed. And eventually an empire, Rome itself, would be declared Christian, with increase, with increase. Jesus came and established the kingdom through his atonement, through the securing of the covenant of grace and through being the second Adam, making a way for us, that we might be saved by being in union with him. And our work which he has given us is now the proclamation of that. That many would come to believe. And do they come to believe because of the power and the force of our words, or because of our witty presentation, our charismatic personality? No. Because of the Spirit of Christ, which dwells within them, the Spirit of God, which is poured out upon them, that their eyes would be opened, and that they would be made to see the truth of God's Word. Until then, it's foolishness. Remember the verse, the foolishness of preaching? Why is it foolishness? Because to the Gentile, it's foolishness, to the Jew, it's a stumbling block. But to the child of God, it is the words of salvation, the conditions with which these things occur. We've been told of the work that we must do. We've been told of the extent of this that it would be even greater than Jesus as the gospel has gone from this small band of 11 to capture the entire world by the power of the Spirit. Now the conditions, the condition of our faith, without faith in Christ, there's no union with Christ. Without faith in Christ, there is no ability to do the works of Christ. It's always Christ who works in us, but without faith, Christ is not in us. Do you have faith to do the work of Christ? Answer that question by exhibition. That is by putting that work of Christ own exhibit for yourself. Reflect upon this. Consider inventory your own life and consider whether or not you will satisfy that indeed the Spirit of Christ dwells within you and you are doing the work of Christ. Do you proclaim Christ with the power of the Holy Spirit? Do you show people the Father as Christ showed them the Father? It's on condition of Christ's glorification. He said, because I go to the Father, because I go to the Father, these things will occur. Jesus didn't say when I go to the Father, but because I go to the Father. John 12 32, Jesus promised when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. The disciples' perspectives were limited in these two aspects. It's what DA Carson calls the salvation historical realities. Now that's a fanciful way or a short-hand way of saying that their place in history and their proximity to Christ as he was incarnated in the flesh, calls them to not be able to see the long view of what Jesus was teaching them. We read the same thing in the prophet Micah when we said that Micah received a word from God that he prophesied to his people, and he could only begin to wonder at the far-reaching prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. He had no idea where that would be and how that would be. He only knew that there would be deliverance, and there would be a re-establishing of God's people, but he could only marvel at the mystery of how God would accomplish it as he relayed that which God had told him. The signs and the wonders which the apostles had seen pointed to a reality which they couldn't yet understand, at least not until after the atonement and the resurrection, the kingdom Jesus showed them was not understandable until Jesus had ascended. The second part is not only this historical reference point that they were in, but the disciples couldn't understand the things of God because they had not yet been indwelt with the spirit of God in chapter 1612. How many things, I still rather Christ says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. Until the spirit of Christ indwells the children of God, there is no opening of the eyes to see what the Scriptures teach. There is no illumination of the mind that we are able to understand that which Jesus teaches. And so until Jesus ascended to the Father and sent his spirit that disciples would not understand what Jesus was teaching them, but they reflected. They reflected and they understood and immediately upon understanding they set out to do the kingdom work. Well here's our reflection or here's our application if you prefer. Our own Christian life is established based on our union with Christ. We have kingdom work to do. We, more times than not, shrink back from kingdom work. Perhaps we imagine kingdom work is too much for us, but if you have walked with Jesus, then you must tell others about him. If you have tasted of that sweet grace of our God, then you must talk about its sweetness. If you have the assurance of faith, then you ought to testify to that peace of Christ that fills your soul. But we say, what if they won't listen? I've tried in the past and they wouldn't hear me before. How can they believe unless they hear? How will they hear unless someone is sent? Jesus has made us a promise. Jesus has promised to his own greater works than these will you do. So with the promise of Christ, the command of God, the indwelling of the Spirit, which one of us ought to shrink back from the work of the kingdom? Greater works than these, Jesus said, you will do. What are the greater works, the proclamation of the gospel, here and to the entire world, the expansion of the kingdom of God from its center in Jerusalem, to all around the world, the expression of the ministry of Christ from 11 to millions who love the Lord God. The disenfranchisement of a few disciples that decided to follow after this man named Jesus, to the establishment and the empowerment of his church. Against which the very gates of hell will not stand, history has proven this to be true. Even for those who do not believe, if they reflect upon their history, they must wonder, how has the church survived? Because it is indwelling with the Spirit of God, because it is empowered to do God's work, and because it answers his calling, and where the church fails to answer his calling, the church does not survive. Where the church fails to answer, than revelation, Jesus says, I will come there and remove my life from its midst. And so hearing this commission again from Christ, we also must rise courageously and confidently to do that which Christ has already assured us will be done, that we will proclaim and that people will believe. This is the promise of Christ, a promise which I believe, a promise which you believe