John 14:12-14: A Prediction and a Promise

John 14:12-14: A Prediction and a Promise

Please take your Bible and turn with me to John 14. If you’re using the Story Bible we provide, that’s on page 746. We’re going to continue our series of messages going passage by passage through the Gospel of John, and the passage we come to this morning is John 14:12-14. John 14:12-14: 12 “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. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 

You’ve probably heard the saying that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And there’s a reason that saying is so popular. Most of the time, that’s the way things work. Not long ago, I received a telemarketing call offering me a free cruise to the Bahamas. And they said in order to get this free cruise to the Bahamas, I just had to take a short survey about myself. Now usually, when I get a call like that, I politely but firmly tell them that I’m not interested and I get off the phone rather quickly. But on this occasion, I think I had some time to kill—I might have been in the car or something like that—so I decided to play along for a few minutes. I think I was mostly just curious how long it would take these scammers to ask for my personal information and what excuse they would present for needing those details about me. So I took their survey. The survey consisted of random questions about my interests and preferences and things like that. And just like they promised, it was very simple and very short. Then after the survey, they congratulated me on earning the cruise and started to enthusiastically paint a picture of how wonderful it was going to be, and they sounded very excited about it. But of course, I was still waiting for them to ask for a piece of personal information. And sure enough, they told me that the cruise was mine, but I just needed to pay a tiny little fee of less than a hundred dollars to cover the taxes for this cruise. And of course, in order to pay that hundred dollars, I would need to give them my credit card information. So obviously, having had my curiosity satisfied and having been mildly entertained their ridiculous ploy, I kindly told them thanks but no thanks. Because if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, when we hear about something wonderful, it really is true—especially when the person we hear it from is none other than Jesus himself. And that’s what we discover here in our main passage this morning. In this passage, Jesus encourages his disciples with a prediction and a promise. That’s the main idea of verses 12-14. Jesus encourages his disciples with a prediction and a promise. So first we’ll look at the prediction, and then we’ll look at the promise.

Jesus’ Prediction

First, point number one, the prediction. We see it stated in verse 12: “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.” Now this truly is a grand prediction. In fact, it’s so grand, it’s difficult not to be a bit taken aback by it. If you’re like me, you probably read that and then have to go back and read it again to make sure Jesus really said what you thought he just said. “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.” So first, let’s think about what kind of “works” Jesus did. What kinds of things have we seen him do so far in the Gospel of John? Well, we’ve seen him do a lot of miracles. He changed water into wine, he enabled a paralyzed person to walk, he fed five thousand people with a little boy’s lunch, he walked on water, he opened the eyes of a blind man, and let’s not forget: he raised Lazarus from the dead. So Jesus has done some pretty amazing things. And of course, he also did a lot of preaching and teaching along the way. Those are the “works” he’s done. But here in our text, Jesus says that his disciples will do greater works those. So how in the world is that possible? What could be greater than walking on the water? What could be greater than raising Lazarus from the dead?

Here’s what I think. I think the greater works Jesus is talking about are related to proclaiming the full gospel message. That’s what makes the works of Jesus’ disciples greater than Jesus’ own works. During his earthly ministry, Jesus shared the gospel, but he didn’t really give people all the details. It was too soon. His death and resurrection were still in the future. People wouldn’t have understood what he was talking about. So Jesus proclaimed gospel truths, but he didn’t really spell out all the details. However, his disciples would be able to share the details. They would be able to tell people exactly what happened as Jesus died on the cross. They would be able to explain to them how his death purchased our salvation—how when he died, he was enduring the punishment we deserved. Everybody in the world has committed sin against God and deserves nothing but wrath and judgment. But Jesus made atonement for our sins, which means that he paid the penalty for our sins so we wouldn’t have to. And because he then didn’t stay in the grave but resurrected from the dead, he’s able to offer us life and forgiveness and salvation. That’s the message Jesus’ disciples would be able to proclaim. So far here in John 14, the details of that message hadn’t been clearly proclaimed, but in the future, through the disciples, they would be. 

So that’s one way in which the disciples would do greater works than Jesus himself. But I also think there’s another way. Think about what happens as people embrace that message and look to Jesus for salvation. Not only does God forgive their sins, he also makes them into new people. Think about how much of a miracle that is! In Ephesians 2, Paul describes us as at first being “dead in trespasses and sins.” He says that we “lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” But then he says that “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” That’s what happens when somebody becomes a Christian. Spiritually speaking, the dead are raised to life. A few days ago, I went to the funeral of the dad of one of my friends. And as I walked up to the casket and was looking at the deceased person’s body, someone came up to me and made the stereotypical remark about how good the person looked. Didn’t the people at the funeral home do such a good job of making the deceased look like his old self? And I remember thinking to myself, “This doesn’t look anything like the guy when he was alive. He looks…dead.” There was no doubt in my mind that the person in that casket was very much very much in a dead condition. And that’s the way the Bible says we are before Jesus saves us. But at salvation, God takes what’s dead and raises it to life. He changes us and makes us alive. Imagine the newspaper headlines if a deceased person at Slater’s funeral home down the street got up during their funeral and started walking around and talking to folks. People would record it on their cell phones, and before you know it, it would be a worldwide sensation. Now of course we know that’s never going to happen, but that’s exactly what happens spiritually when Jesus saves a person. It’s just as great of a miracle as someone physically rising from the dead. 

And when we share the gospel with someone and see them come to faith, we get to be a part of that. That’s pretty incredible. I can’t think of a greater privilege in life than to be used by Jesus in that way. And that’s what I believe Jesus is talking about when he says in verse 12 back in our main text that his disciples will do greater works than he did during his earthly ministry. They’ll see the spiritually raised to spiritual life.

 And if we look at verse 12 closely, we see that the reason they’ll be able to do these greater works is, as Jesus says, “because I am going to the Father.” So ultimately, Jesus is still the one doing the works. He’s just doing the works through us as he now sits at the right hand of the Father. So it’s not like our works are greater than his works. It’s that the works he does through us are greater than the works he did during his earthly ministry. 

Jesus’ Promise

But in order for us to be used by Jesus in that way and see him do his works through us, something else is necessary. There’s another ingredient here that we dare not neglect. And that ingredient is prayer. Look what Jesus says in verses 13-14: 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Let me ask you: is that not a promise that blows your mind? “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it,” Jesus says. It’s difficult to even know what to do with a promise like that. It’s so stunning, so incredible, how do you even respond? Well, let’s begin by taking it apart and examining it a little bit. 

First, what does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name? Jesus says here that the prayers he answers are prayers that are offered “in my name.” So what does that mean? Well, I believe that praying in Jesus’ name means praying according to his merit. We don’t come before God’s throne on the basis of our goodness or our achievements. No, we come recognizing that the only reason we’re able to come is because Jesus has made us worthy. By praying in his name, we’re claiming his status as our own. It’s like we’re entering a building that has restricted access, and the only reason we’re able to enter is because Jesus has given us his keycard. His status before the Father is the only thing that makes it possible for us to talk to the Father and have him hear our requests. So that’s part of praying in Jesus’ name: praying according to his merit. But in addition to praying according to his merit, praying in Jesus’ name also means that we’re praying according to what his name stands for. When we pray in the name of Jesus, we’re praying for his will, his priorities, and his mission in this world. And that’s confirmed for us in the second part of verse 13. Notice why Jesus says he’ll do whatever we ask in his name: “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” You see, this isn’t about us approaching God as some kind of a magical genie who just exists to serve our whims and wishes and give us any old thing we want. Prayer isn’t as much about us getting what we want as it is about God leading us to pray for the things that he wants. In the words of Jesus, it’s about the Father being “glorified in the Son.”

I love the way John Piper describes prayer. He calls it a “wartime walkie-talkie.” Listen to what he says: “Isn’t it plain that the purpose of prayer is to accomplish a mission? …It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission (go and bear fruit), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, ‘Comrades, the General has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end He has authorized Me to give each of you personal access to Him through these transmitters. If you stay true to His mission and seek His victory first, He will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you need it.’” Then Piper asks, “Could it be that many of our problems with prayer and much of our weakness in prayer come from the fact that we are not all on active duty, and yet we still try to use the transmitter? We have taken a wartime walkie-talkie and tried to turn it into a civilian intercom to call the servants for another cushion in the den.”

So the reason God has given us prayer is so that we can use it as an instrument for accomplishing his purposes and bringing glory to his name. That’s why Jesus gives us such a stunning promise in our main text. Of course, I don’t think that means we can’t ask for anything at all related to our personal well-being. The Bible also describes God as a Father who delights in giving good gifts to his children. But the primary emphasis of our prayers shouldn’t be our comfort or our pleasure; it should be God and God’s glory. And I think Piper’s right when he says that the reason we’re so often frustrated with our prayers is because we’re approaching prayer the wrong way. We’re trying to use it as a domestic intercom rather than a wartime walkie-talkie. 

Then in addition to that, I think Jesus’ words in John 14 remind us of another way we don’t approach prayer the way God wants us to approach it. Not only do we sometimes misuse prayer, but often we don’t even use it at all. So not only is prayer often misused, it’s often simply unused. As James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” Isn’t that powerful? In just nine words, James cuts to the chase and tells us exactly what our problem is, many times. “You do not have, because you do not ask.” Imagine what it would be like if your best friend won the lottery. Let’s say the lottery was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and they won that. And because they value your friendship so much, they offer to give you whatever you want. Just say the word and it’s yours. If you want a Lamborghini, they’ll get it to you about as fast as you can say the word “Lamborghini.” If you want a house on the lake, they’ll go one step beyond that get you your own private island. Whatever you want, they’ll make sure you get it. That would be pretty nice. And it would be especially nice if you were going through a season of extreme hardship. Let’s say you didn’t even have enough money to put food on the table and were on the verge of being kicked out of your home and becoming homeless. How crazy would it be for you to ignore their offer for help? You obviously need their help. Why would you not at least let them give you something? And that’s a good question to ask as we think about prayer. Since we obviously need God’s help, why would we not allow him to help us? Why would we not take him up on his invitation and start praying bold prayers and see him respond the way he promises to respond—by answering those prayers? 

You know, if we were to be completely honest, I think most of us would have to admit that the reason we don’t pray more than we do is because, deep down, we don’t really believe our prayers are going to accomplish something. I think, in many ways, our secular society has had more of an effect on us than we realize. And one of those is ways is that it’s made us skeptical of the supernatural—skeptical of the idea that there’s something above the laws of nature working in and interacting with our world. And so, society might say, there may be some therapeutic value of prayer and having a prayer life might make you feel better emotionally and reduce your stress and make you better able to function, but it doesn’t actually do anything beyond that. And if we’re not careful, we can start thinking that way. How many times has God done something you’ve asked of him in prayer, and yet you’re still tempted to think, “Yeah, but that might have happened anyway. That might have just been a coincidence.” You know, I once heard someone observe that the funny thing about coincidences is that they seem to happen a lot more often when you pray. And yet, we’re still tempted to think that prayer doesn’t do that much beyond making us feel better. 

Conclusion

We need God to rescue us from our skepticism and burden our hearts to start praying. And I’m not just talking about praying before a meal or praying for five minutes before beginning our day. I’m talking about really praying—really devoting ourselves to prayer. Could it be that the reason we haven’t seen God do more in us and through us and around us is simply because we haven’t been asking him? 

I think of George Mueller, a man who understood the power of prayer. George Muller lived in England during the nineteenth century and believed God was calling him to establish an orphanage to take care of the numerous orphans living in quite miserable conditions in England during that time. However, there was one problem: he barely had any money that he could use to get this orphanage up and running. But Muller was a man of prayer. In fact, he believed so much in the power of prayer that he determined that he would never make any of the needs of his ministry known to anyone except to God himself in prayer. He wasn’t going to tell anyone what he needed to establish or sustain the orphanage and was just going to trust that God would hear his prayers and bring what was needed. And guess what? That’s exactly God did. Not only did God provide the land and all of the resources they needed to establish the orphanage, but he provided enough for George Muller to care for more than ten thousand orphans over the course of his lifetime. At one point, his orphanage housed two thousand orphans at once. And in all, God provided over half a billion dollars (in today’s dollars) for Muller’s orphanage ministry. And all of this was done simply through prayer. They never did any fundraising.

In fact, Muller recorded over fifty thousand specific answers to prayers in his prayer journal, thirty thousand of which he reported as being answered the same day or even the same hour he prayed them. For example, he records that, one day, the orphanage director informed him that all the orphanage children were dressed and ready for school, but there wasn’t any food for them to eat. The orphanage didn’t have any food left or money to purchase food. So Muller told her to take the three hundred children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. Then, once they were seated, Muller thanked God for the food and waited with the expectation that God would provide the way he always did. After a few minutes, a baker knocked on the door. “Mr. Muller,” he said, “last night I couldn’t sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.” Soon, there was another knock on the door. This time it was the milkman. He told them that his cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage and that the milk would spoil by the time the wheel on the cart was fixed. So, he asked Muller if he wanted some free milk. Muller couldn’t help but smile as he brought in ten large cans of milk—just enough for the three hundred thirsty children. And that’s what it was like at Muller’s orphanage, day after day after day. You can go to England today and see the museum dedicated to Muller’s ministry and God’s extraordinary provision. What a testimony to the faithfulness of God and the power of prayer!

You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing that our church needs more than anything else is a renewed confidence in the power of prayer. In fact, the more I think about George Muller, the more I almost want to ask, “Why do we do anything but pray?” Could it be that the reason we haven’t seen more people come to faith is simply because we haven’t been as diligent as we could be in prayer? Could it be that the reason God hasn’t given each of us more relational in-roads with non-Christians and more opportunities to share the gospel is simply because we haven’t been praying for those in-roads and opportunities? Could it be that the reason we’re not farther along spiritually in our own lives and that we’re still struggling with the same old sins we’ve always struggled with is simply because we haven’t been more devoted to prayer? In the words of James 4, could it be that reason we don’t have in all of these areas is simply because we haven’t been asking? 

Why don’t you do this, if you’re a Christian here this morning: Why don’t you go home and make a list of five people you’d like to see God save in the next few months? And then, start praying for them by name every day. Just pray for them, and then see what doors God opens for you to minister to them and see the ways in which he softens their hearts and makes them receptive to the gospel. Let it never be said of our church that reason we don’t have is simply because we haven’t asked. 

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