GREATER THINGS
John 14:12
John 14:12
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
(NIV)
How can you do more than Jesus?
Jesus never traveled more than 100 miles from where He was born. Jesus only healed a couple of dozen people. The total number of people who claimed to be His disciples forty days after His death on the cross was 120. Doesn’t really sound like He accomplished very much. Dr. James Allen wrote:
He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty
He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth
When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind’s progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life.
How?
Jesus BEGAN a work that we are supposed to bring to completion.
He BEGAN it in His earthly body,
and He will CONTINUE it thru His spiritual body (us!)
Philippians 1:6
6 … he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
(NIV)
How? By placing His Own Holy Spirit in us!
The Christian life is a supernatural life. It is the life of Christ lived out in every believer by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not optional in the Christian life!
Having the Holy Spirit’s presence is not like getting power windows and air conditioning in your new car to make it more comfortable. Instead we need to understand that He is the engine, he is what makes it go.
The Holy Spirit is the power of our Christian experience.
The Holy Spirit is not just the personification of good qualities. He is a PERSON, just like Jesus is a person and God is a person. The Holy Spirit is how we can do greater things.
John 14:12-18
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
15 If you love me, you will obey what I command.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
(NIV)
Paraclete: The word means “one called alongside” for protection or counsel. It conveys the idea of an encourager in the sense of a legal counsel.
A story in Leadership magazine illustrates this phrase: “Jackie Robinson was the first black to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.” —Daily Bread
The Holy Spirit is The Great Reminder
The Holy Spirit is called alongside of us so that we might remember what Jesus said.
John 14:26
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
(NIV)
The Holy Spirit is The Great Re-energizer
The Holy Spirit is called alongside of us so that we might be re-envigorated and empowered to testify.
John 15:26-27
26 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
(NIV)
Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
(NIV)
Just 50 days after Jesus spoke these words, the Holy Spirit filled those 120 disciples and they testified to the people in Jerusalem that day and more people came to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord than did during the entire time Jesus walked upon this earth!
The Holy Spirit is The Great Re-enforcer
The Holy Spirit is called alongside of us to re-enforce what Jesus said and did so that we might do greater works than he did.
John 16:7-14
7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;
10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
(NIV)
If what I say at home is not re-enforced by my daughters’ teachers and people they look up to, I will have a harder time influencing them to do right. I want others who influence them to speak the same thing I have spoken so that they might have a better chance of catching it!
That’s what the Holy Spirit does. He re-enforces the truth of Jesus so that we can better catch it, convinced of it, and convicted by the truth.
Conviction is the result of examination, testing, and. argument. The test exposes and demonstrates in order to bring out what is true and what is false. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit, called alongside of you and dwelling in you, will put these things to the test so that you will have no doubt about sin, righteousness, and judgment.
We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, because we live in a world filled with people who do not believe in Jesus. (vs. 9) We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of righteousness, because we encounter people who look right, look “like” Jesus, but are not like Him from the inside out! (vs. 10) Jesus compared those kind of folks this way:
Matthew 23:27-28
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
(NIV)
We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of judgment, because the devil has already been judged, already suffering torment, and only wants to take you down with him! (vs. 11)
If you ever wonder if what you have been taught is from the Holy Spirit, see if it matches up with what Jesus said. If it doesn’t, consider it suspect! What the Holy Spirit says and does will always match the words of Jesus. If someone who speaks brings glory only to himself and not to Jesus, that person is not speaking under the authority and power of the Holy Spirit.
Only one question remains: Have you received the Holy Spirit?
