Intro: This is a wonderful passage. It is a passage that is full of Jesus. Jesus is comforting His disciples who are just beginning to realize he is going to die. Thomas says we don’t know the way Lord and Jesus says I am the way. Philip is looking for a spectacular sign and Jesus just wants them to look to Him. Many people are looking for greater things today. Some look for greater salaries, some look for greater and grander homes, greater things, greater status, greater self-worth. But it seems many go about the wrong means to acquire the greater things or realize greatness. Jesus is comforting His disciples with an astounding statement. He who believes on me the works I do he will do and greater works. If you have ever desired greatness Jesus is saying you can do great things, great works for the kingdom of God. Great things will come into your life from a great God. However these great things, great works, will not fall into your lap. Great things come through faith in a great God. But that faith is not one sided. Our faith is multifaceted like a beautiful diamond. However we have one object of our faith, one thing that makes our faith shine. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Four facets of our faith that bring great things from God are, a personal faith, a practical faith, a patterned faith, finally a powerful faith.
Greater things come from.
I. A Personal Faith
John 14.12 “He that believes on me”
Believe is a Greek word that means to be persuaded and place confidence or trust in. How is it that Paul could say “for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
Paul had taken the leap off the porch of life into the arms of God. He was persuaded and confident in God because Paul’s faith was a personal faith. We do not place faith in traditions, faith in our ancestors, faith in a building or faith in a denomination. We place our faith in a person Jesus Christ.
Your momma can’t be confident for you, your grandpa can’t choose Christ for you, your church can’t be persuaded for you, you must know Him yourself!
Look at the rebuking; I believe sad words of Jesus, in John 14.9 that are directed at Philip.
John 14.9 “have I been with you so long and yet you have not come to know Me, (ouch)
This was in response to Philip asking for Jesus to show them the Father!
Our God is great enough to create all there is but personal enough to treat us as if we are all that ever was!!
Jesus came down out of heaven and clothed himself in flesh and became a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in order to relate to us. He did this to build by his life and death a relationship between us and God.
When you enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ it is like getting married. As the day, weeks, and years go by you grow to know more and more about the person.
(Do you know more about God today then 20 years ago?)
There is a wonderful story that is told about a man trying to cross the Mississippi River close to its source in the north.
He decided to cross the apparently frozen river rather than go farther to the bridge. He said to himself “I believe I can walk across. I won’t have to take the longer walk to the bridge.” So he began his trek across the frozen river. When he got a distance from the shore, he looked at the other side and thought, Maybe I ought not be out here. Maybe this ice won’t hold me up. If I fall through, they’ll never know what happened to me. I’m a fool. What am I doing out here? And as he turned around to go back to the other side he said to himself, “I better walk softly.” Then he thought I better get down on all fours, so I won’t put my weight in any one place. Then he said to himself, “That’s not enough. I better lie down and squirm across. I may go through the ice. What a fool I am. My wife will never know what happened to me. “ He began to whimper and cry, and then he heard it, a roaring, cracking sound. “Oh,” he said to himself, “The ice is breaking; I’m a goner.” HE put his face down and began to pray, “God save me, help me Lord.” The noise got closer and closer – that rumbling and roaring – but the ice didn’t seem to be breaking. Then he looked up, and there was a man with a team of horses with a wagon loaded with logs driving across the river. That was the noise he heard. When he saw that, he jumped up brushed off the ice and took his stroll across the rest of the river.
What was the difference in the two men?
The second man knew the ice. Our faith is personal, it is based on knowing and trusting A person, Jesus Christ!! Jesus gives to us the knowledge of God!! If you have seen me you have seen the father.
Psalm 9.10 “and those who know your name will put their trust in you.”
Why is it so important that our faith is personal? Listen to Daniel.
Daniel 11.32 “but the people who know their God will display strength and take action (king James carry out great exploits” greater things!!
Greater things come from a personal faith in a great God!!
II. A Practical Faith
John 14.12 “The works that I do he shall do’
It is one thing for faith to be personal, it is a whole other story for it to be practical. Personal means that it has affected you inside the way you think, attitude, emotion. Practical means that it has affected you outside. The way you live!!
The church of today needs so desperately to take their personal faith and move to practical faith. In other words a faith that works. I would define a practical faith as one that affects our actions and interactions with others!!
The culture has so indoctrinated us today to get us to believe the lie that our faith should be private. That we should act different in public than we do in private.
A practical faith moves beyond the walls of home and church in order to become the feet and hands of Jesus.
This Christmas season has anyone seen the love of God in your hands and feet. Our hands and feet represent our actions. Where we go, what we do, what we give. How does the world see us at this time of the year?
Do they see us giving or taking? Do they see us serving others or our own interests? Do they see us investing in the lives of others or in our own interests?
Does your faith work? Does your confidence in Christ show in your everyday choices, and actions?
Greater things in the Christian life come from a faith that works the works of Christ.
III. A Patterned Faith
John 14.13 -15 “That the Father may be glorified”
John 14.15 “If you Love me, you will keep my commandments.”
A) According to God’s word
We pattern the way we live based on the Bibles timeless instruction. It is a wonderful book. It has was written by at least 40 authors over approximately 1400 to 1600 years in three languages yet has one theme, God’s involvement in man’s life.
If you want to know a personal God you need to know about God’s person. That comes by reading, studying, praying, and sharing the word of God.
Adrian Rogers said it brilliantly, “Study the Bible to know about God, obey it to really know God.”
We pattern our lives as Jesus Did according to God’s revealed Word!!
Psalm 119.105 “ Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
The lamp shows us where to step so that we don’t fall. The light shows us how to turn when we get off God’s beaten path.
A personal, patterned, practical faith gets God’s will accomplished on earth.
B) Accomplishing God’s Will
14.13-14 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the son. 14 IF you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it.”
Jesus said “In My name”. In other words according to the will of God. Faith is not getting mans will done in heaven. It is instead getting God’s will done on earth. Living in faith is living in the will of God. So God’s will is accomplished in our lives.
If you love Me keep my commandments. Live according to my principles, and precepts. God has given us instruction on family, work, play, government, friends, you name it God instructs us in His word. The kicker is will we pattern our lives according to his will?
IV. A Powerful Faith
John 14.16, 26
Jesus was going away so that the comforter would come. As we draw close to God in a personal relationship, we live out a practical faith, patterned according to God’s word and His will, we can have a dynamic and powerful faith when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the engine that makes the entire car go. The holy spirit woos us to Christ. The Holy Spirit fills us with power. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin.
If you are trying to live a life with a personal, practical, patterned faith, but are not living in the power of the Holy Spirit that is like trying to drive a sports car without turning on the engine.
Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing. We cannot live the Christian life by our own efforts and energies. These things are impossible with man, but all things are possible with God. A powerful faith comes from a powerful source the Holy Spirit of a Great God.
If you desire great things in the coming year then surrender to God and the control of His spirit.
Conclusion: How do we get ready for greater things?
1) Realize Great things come from God
2) Reorganize in order to spend time with God; Bible Study, devotions, reading, prayer
3) Rely on God’s Holy Spirit to instruct and enable you to do God’s will
