February 21
“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these…” (John 14:12)
Yesterday, we talked about nominal Christianity vs. normal Christianity. Nominal Christianity is all about human effort, producing all-too-human results. Normal Christianity is all about God’s efforts, done through us, producing God’s results.
Jesus’ promise is that “whoever” truly believes in Him can live normal Christianity. Doing what Jesus did. Impacting the world as Jesus does. That’s exactly what we see when we read the Book of Acts… normal people living normal Christianity – changing their world.
Today, I wanted to return to Jesus’ words in John 14:12 and pick up the foundation for our thoughts in the days ahead.
Jesus says something even more amazing than those who believe in Him “will also do the works that I am doing.” He goes on to “crank up the volume” when He declares: “He will do even greater things than these…”
What?! It’s pretty amazing that normal Christianity does what Jesus does… but greater things??
In the near future I plan on talking about what “greater things” actually means… but for our purposes today, I just want to bring our focus to one key thought.
Whether we are doing what Jesus was doing, or doing greater things than what Jesus was doing… everything boils down to one incredible fact: Normal Christianity is superhuman. It is beyond natural human beings. It is not in our natural frame of reference to even think about doing things that Jesus did.
Think about it. When was the last time you had the notion that a blind person just might see again IF you could only touch their eyes? What about a deaf person? Or lame? Or one with an incurable disease? Your touch… God works… a miracle happens!
We don’t often think about doing these types of things because human beings just can’t do these types of things. But Jesus did. Often. He was even able to touch dead people and bring life back to their lifeless bodies. This was the normal Jesus. This was His normal daily life.
And He plainly tells us that “whoever believes in Me” will DO the same!
Here’s the great problem. This world, in which we live and move daily, keeps reminding us that we are just human beings. We are limited. We are frail. We have so many flaws. We have boundaries… and impossibilities. And it is useless to think otherwise. We cannot go beyond what we are… and what we are is severely miraculously-challenged.
“Do what Jesus did? Fairytale talk. Idiotic faith. Human beings don’t do God things. End of story.”
But Jesus came… to actually tell us a different story. It is a story of almost unbelievable potential. That human beings can live this life enabled with a power beyond human limitations and impossibilities. It is a story that is remarkably true for “whoever believes in Me.”
Jesus said so…
Here’s what we so often miss… everything Jesus did, when He came to this earth, was to enable us to discover that the story is actually true. It is possible. It is exactly what God has provided to us through the work of Jesus. It is the ability to live each and every day in the new reality of “greater things” as normal Christian living!
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