The Power & Love In Jesus' Name Series

I suppose it was probably 15 or 20 years ago when I got a call from a young lady in our church who was working as a phlebotomist at St. Mary's Hospital in Reno. She had established a friendship with a couple who were in a crisis because he was facing a surgery for a blocked carotid artery. She had talked to them some about Jesus and sensed that they were, at this important juncture in their lives, very open to a relationship to Him. So, I was called in to share the Gospel with them, to "close the deal" so to speak.

So, as I arrived with everyone in the room I was a bit surprised to find out how young the man was--he was a mere 40 years old. As it would eventually be revealed, he had abused recreational drugs nearly his entire adult life, which was likely responsible for the health predicament that he now found himself in.

They were indeed open to Jesus and the Gospel, so after I shared with them about how they could be assured of the forgiveness of sins and eternal simply through putting their faith in Jesus, they both prayed a prayer to trust in Jesus.

Of course, there was still the problem that his physical condition presented. I then learned that medical tests had determined almost a total blockage of one of his carotids, and surgery was scheduled for the next morning. But before the surgery, doctors had ordered one last test to assure them that surgery was indeed needed.

Well, this seemed like the perfect set-up for a miracle to me. So, I prayed to the Lord Jesus, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for a complete healing by the time that that one last test was performed the next morning, so that the carotid artery would be completely clear, and the surgery could be cancelled.

Now I was unusually confident, for me, that God was going to heal this man. I know how God sometimes works--Jesus came to seek and save the lost, God's heart bleeds for the lost, and thus He often delights to affirm His power to save through Jesus, by demonstrating His power to heal.

So, I called the next day. And I was not exactly surprised, but was very delighted to hear that indeed God had heard our prayers and when the test had been completed, it had shown that the blockage had completely cleared, leaving doctors bewildered about what had happened. Their faith assured, the couple checked out of the hospital, and continued to believe, though their obedience was rather halting due to years of sinful habits.

That experience came powerfully to mind as I considered our passages and our topic for this morning--that Jesus Himself strongly encouraged believers to pray in His name, and guaranteed that our prayers in His name would result in our doing the very same kind of works, that is miracles, that He Himself did, and even greater works in John 14:12-14. And it so happened while I was preaching on this passage during our series on the Truly, Trulies of Jesus just about six months ago, Jeanie and I in our daily devotions were reading the Book of Acts, and we came across Acts 3, where it become clear that Peter and John, the Apostles of Jesus, just a few short months after Jesus had made the promise in John 14:12-14, precisely obeyed Jesus, prayed boldly in Jesus' name for a man who had been lame from birth, and experienced the very same result that Jesus had predicted.

The apostles, believe it or not, just simply did what Jesus told them to do--they prayed in Jesus name, and guess what, Jesus did what He said He would do--they perfromed the same kind of miracle that Jesus was famous for in His ministry.

Now, let's just take a moment to review what Jesus promised in John 14:12-14: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 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."

Now Jesus said this the night he was betrayed, in the upper room, the day before His crucifixion. It was an encouragement to His disciples clearly to continue to do what He had been doing, and an absolute exhortation to them to continue to do so and an explanation of how they could continue to do so, by praying in Jesus' name. And notice that it was not just a promise for them, or for the first century, or the apostolic age. The promise was made to "he who believes in