TEXT: John 14:12-14
TITLE: PRAYER – THE SECRET TO POWER
You would not consider the disciples supersaints, they were ordinary people just like anyone else. Yet the most significant words Jesus ever spoke concerning prayer, He spoke to His disciples – men who only a few hours later, every last one of them, abandoned their Master. These men were scared to death to be left on their own.
During His last hours with them before the cross, Jesus promised, “I will not leave you helpless orphans” (John 14:18, WILLIAMS). That was exactly what they were afraid of – being left like the helpless orphans. They couldn’t bear the thought that He might leave them, which lately He had been talking about a lot. Every time Jesus brought up the cross, they tried to change the subject. They must have thought, We’ve been such a failure with Him, what will we be without Him?
Let’s join the disciples on that last night Jesus spent with them before the cross & see if we can overhear their conversation.
It’s around midnight, & they are coming from the upper room where they celebrated the Passover. We fall in behind the small band as Jesus leads them through the streets of Jerusalem and out the eastern Gate. We wonder where He is going. He’s crossing the Kedron. Of course. He is bringing us to one of His favorite hideaways, the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of Mount Olivet.
As we walk, Jesus continues the ominous discourse He began in the upper room. The pale moonlight reveals the confused looks on the men’s faces. The men shuffle close together, straining to hear every word. It has been an unsettling evening. They are perplexed by the strange behavior of their fellow disciple, Judas, & the puzzling conversation that had passed between him and Jesus.
Jesus is speaking in riddles and He says something about leaving and something about His Father’s house.
Philip speaks up, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). Jesus answers in verses 9-11 (read).
Philip had said “show us the Father,” as though he had never seen Him, but Jesus insists he has seen Him. He just didn’t know it. Every time he watched Jesus heal a leper, he saw the Father. Every time he listened to Jesus teach, he was hearing the Father.
By His answer Jesus was saying, “I am not the source of My own sufficiency. The things I said and did – they did not initiate with Me. It was the Father.”
Here we begin to see the secret to the power behind the words & the actions of Jesus. In John 5:19 He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”
Again in verse 30: “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”
The secret surfaces again in John 8:28 – “Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.’”
And again in John 12:49 – “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.”
The explanation of the miracles Jesus worked and the words He spoke lies with the Father. He did those things – through Jesus – but he did them. It was based on the relationship they had with one another.
He was saying to Philip: “the secret of the works is not My physical presence. And if the secret is not My physical presence, then My physical absence won’t make any difference.”
“As a matter of fact, if you will trust Me, the works that I have done, you will continue to do, and you will even do greater works that I have done.”
“You think My leaving will end My work and make everything difficult for you. But My elevation to the right hand of the Father will enable you to do through My intercession greater works than I have done. My presence in heaven and the Spirit’s presence in you is the pledge of even greater power and greater works.”
The Lord is leaving, but His departure won’t dismantle His work as they thought it would.
Then Jesus makes an extraordinary promise to the disciples – and to us: read verse 12. The promise is to him who “believes in Me.”
To those who believe in Him, Jesus promises two things: one, they will equal His works, &, two, they will exceed His works. Fifty days after He made that promise, in the very city where He was crucified, the disciples did equal & exceed His works. After ten days in the upper room, the disciples emerged with the power of the Holy Spirit within them, & after a short sermon by Peter, 3,000 people were added to the fledgling church.
For as long as I can remember, we’ve been trying to do it again, but the Pentecostal power continues to elude us. I don’t know many Christians who would say that the church is living up to the promise of John 14:12. So the question is, why not?
Perhaps the real key is found in the phrase we often overlook: “because I go to My Father.” Jesus makes it clear that the promise of greater works can be fulfilled only if He returns to the Father. Why? Why was it necessary for Him to ascend to heaven before the disciples could realize this promise?
Upon ascending, Jesus would send the Spirit (John 7:39; 16:7). Jesus Himself would occupy the place of intercession to hear & answer the prayers of His disciples. It was this that would make possible the doing of greater works.
Jesus is emphasizing the union that will exist between Him & His disciples although they will be separated physically. He is going away but He will remain with them & the work He started will continue & even increase. His physical absence will not diminish the work – it will enhance it.
“Works” & “greater works” refer not so much to the independent & specific acts of the disciples, but rather to the fact that everything they do will actually be done by Jesus through them.
How did Jesus intend us to realize the fulfillment of that promise? The pledge of greater works in John 12 is followed by another promise in verse 13: “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Instead of stopping at verse 12, we should move right into verse 13: “And greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father [verse 12]. And whatever you ask in My name that I will do” (verse 13).
The greater works of verse 12 are accomplished by the praying of verse 13. Verse 13 becomes our model verse.
The book of Acts is filled with prayer meetings; every forward thrust the first church made was immersed in prayer. Take another look at the church at Pentecost. They prayed 10 days and preached 10 minutes and 3,000 people were saved. Today we pray 10 minutes & preach 10 days and are ecstatic if anyone is saved.
But remember, Jesus said we would do it the way He did it; His secret would become our secret. Did Jesus pray? Was it a conspicuous part of His life? If Jesus could say & do only what he heard & saw the Father do, he had to spend a lot of time listening & seeing. And He did. There was a recognizable rhythm in the life of Jesus: He would withdraw to meditate, then go out to minister. Again and again this pattern repeated itself. The public life of Jesus was supported by his private life with His Father.
Whenever we get our prayer life in order we will also see great miracles take place.
