Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do [what I do such as] what was done to the fig tree, but also you can [do a greater miracle such as to] say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.” (Matthew 21:21)
We might not perfectly obey Jesus in anything, but at least we should head toward the right direction. When confronted with the plain teaching of Jesus — a teaching that he repeated in different contexts, using different words, with miraculous demonstrations — those who refuse to agree cannot claim to be Christians or to have salvation, because obviously they refuse to believe or follow Jesus.
In John 14, when Jesus referred to the “greater works” or “greater miracles” that his followers would perform, he twice referred to something that you “ask,” leaving almost no room for something like preaching or charity (you don’t ask God to preach, but you can ask for miracles). Then, he said that he was talking about something that “I will do,” making it impossible that he meant something like preaching or charity (Jesus doesn’t preach in your stead, but he performs miracles). Verse 11, 12, 13, and 14 all refer to miracles. So verse 12 means that Christians — not apostles, but “anyone who has faith in me” — would do the miracles that Jesus did, and that Christians would do even greater miracles than those Jesus did.
You scream blasphemy: “How can men perform greater miracles than the Son of God?” And…I got you. If your response states or assumes anything like this, you are finished. You have a religion of men and a theology of self. You have exposed yourself as a faithless fraud. The text says Jesus would do these things — not the apostles, and not you. Jesus said that he would do greater and greater works, only that he would do them through his people, through those who have faith in him. It was never about you, but in your fake humble theology, you have made it all about you, and only about you. Your scheme backfires, because it shows that you only have yourself in mind all along, and the necessary implication of your doctrine is that even God himself can never do greater works than those he performed under the ministry of Christ. This makes you a blasphemer.
The greater works in John 14 refer to greater miracles, and the meaning of greater must include quality and degree of power. Jesus would be the one performing these greater miracles. His disciples would do them in the sense that they would be the ones representing him and looking to him to perform the works. Thus the lamest thing that you can say to justify unbelief is to whine, “But you are not Jesus. You are not an apostle.” This tiresome excuse backfires. According to the Lord’s own statement, the fact that I am not Jesus is exactly what guarantees the possibility that I would do even greater miracles in his name. It is meaningless whether or not I am an apostle. It depends on who Jesus is, not who I am.
Nevertheless, for the moment, let us assume the false doctrine and pretend that Jesus meant that we would do greater works only in terms of quantity — more in number and scope. But there is no relief. Even then, he first said that those who have faith in him would do the same works that he did. Again, this exposes the anti-Christ and anti-gospel nature of the theology of unbelief, a theology that is common to almost all Christian schools of thought.
Those who have faith would do the same works he did, and he did all kinds of miracles — miracles of healing, miracles of nature, miracles of prophecy and knowledge, among others. So even if we were to reject what Jesus said about stronger miracles, and permit only greater works in terms of number and scope, it would still mean that Christians should be doing more miracles of healing, more miracles of nature, more miracles of exorcism, more miracles of resurrection, more miracles of prophecy, more of everything he did.
This was Jesus’ idea of basic discipleship. Don’t forget we suspended the second half of this gospel doctrine for a moment, and we must put it back. Jesus said that believers would not only do the same works, but even greater works. Many charismatics would not admit to the greater works, and could barely believe him about the same works. This is why I do not identify with the charismatics. If you call me a charismatic, you underestimate how extreme my doctrine really is. It is as extreme as what Jesus said.
What am I then? I am “anyone who has faith” (John 14:12). The designation is incalculably more powerful than all other labels combined, but only those who affirm the most extreme theology is worthy of it. In any case, as if to add insult to injury, human tradition has enshrined in the creeds their failure to have faith, and the cessationists make it a test of orthodoxy to spit even the “same” works back in God’s face. Satan weeps with gratitude.
Jesus said that those who have faith would do the same works he did. And he said that those who have faith would do even greater works. What should we do if our experience does not live up to this basic gospel doctrine, this basic gospel commission? The chief solution in church history has been to throw Jesus under the bus and make roadkill out of him. Just completely flatten the Lord and move on with our religion. Pretty theology, so dignified and satanic, steamrolling over Christ for five hundred years. This is not the way. The solution is not to condemn the doctrine, but to assert it even stronger, more and more and more.
Those Christians who claim to care so much about theology and orthodoxy, when they find themselves behind in knowledge, they do not say that the solution is to give up on knowledge. No, they turn the whole church experience into one big theology class. It is an excellent idea, if only their theology is correct! When they perceive that they are falling short of the biblical standard of holiness, they do not say that the fruit of the Spirit must have been reserved for the apostles. No, they preach about it even more, over and over again, in different ways, on the radio, on television, in books, and even make posters about it. What they care about, they talk about constantly, even when they do not yet live up to their doctrine.
When it comes to education, capitalism, democracy, even film watching and beer drinking, you will never hear the end of it from these “God-centered” people. Oh! You cannot get them to stop. They are so interested. They keep on and on. They are such experts. They have such strong opinions. But when it comes to power from heaven, and when it comes to taking Christ’s healing to people, or his prophetic direction and encouragement, or his other benefits, they harden their hearts.
When we study and teach, we find that our knowledge indeed increases. When we declare God’s word in the face of contrary circumstances, we find that we indeed make progress. What should we do then, if our experience falls short of what Jesus promised? I will throw the theologians under the bus and make roadkill out of them. I will completely flatten them and move on in faith. I will talk about faith, healing, miracles, and all that Jesus said about these things more and more, over and over again, in different ways, and all over the place.
Commit to Jesus’ doctrine even more. Invest everything into it. This is the way. Many preachers and theologians should dedicate their lives to offer extraordinary prominence to this aspect of Jesus’ teachings, in order to combat centuries of anti-Christ orthodoxy, and its denial of this aspect of the gospel. Then God’s people can move forward in truth and power. We should exercise a comprehensive ministry, but no ministry is complete, and no theology is authentically Christian, unless it teaches something so basic to the gospel that it applies to “anyone who has faith.”