Dr. Mike Jones

Q: What Jesus Meant By The Church Doing Greater Works?

Q: Can You share insight on what Jesus meant when He said, “We would do greater works than He?”

A: Thanks for your question. There are two schools of thought as to what Jesus really meant by that ‘loaded statement, because, as a student of theology and biblical apologetics, I can’t wrap my brain around the idea of someone in human flesh doing greater works, that our Lord; when the Bible stated in the writings of the great Apostle John 21:25, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

But, nevertheless, we have people on TV and other venues of media, raving about the great miracles that their ministries are performing, and divine healings that [to some extent] have surpassed, those that Jesus [Himself] performed, during His 3-1/2 years of earthly ministry. And some have gone as far as to say that God speaks to them directly – thus, making the 66 books [The Bible] that God uses to speak to His people, ‘second class.’ That misnomer is debunked in Hebrews 1:1-2, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.”

The first school of thought is: we as a corporate Body of Believers will do more miracles than Jesus did personally. As I briefly stated earlier, the problem that I have with this concept is that the word ‘MIRACLE’ is grossly misused in the modern day church. We see those selling small vials of ‘miracle water’ that was brought back from Israel; we hear about sending a ministry $100 and in 7-days, receive a ‘financial miracle;’ and the list goes on. Theologically and biblically, contrary to popular beliefs, though miracles still exist today, they aren’t as common today as they were in the Old Testament and in the First Century New Testament Church; partly because the world didn’t have the complete ‘Canon’ of sacred Scripture. Until we acquired the complete Word of God, miracles in the Bible served significant purposes in God’s redemptive plan at the time. I like what noted Theologian Dr. Wayne Grudem said about this subject matter, “Miracles still happen, and Christians should avoid the two extremes of seeing everything as a miracle and seeing nothing as a miracle.”

The second school of thought (which is the one I lean more toward) says: the greater works than He that we will do as a Body of Believers, points more to the scope of the impact that we as Christians – in the Church of our Lord – will have on the world, such as caring for the fatherless and homeless, building charitable hospitals, teaching Christian education, etc. I believe this is clearly seen in the sayings of Jesus, throughout sacred Scripture, in Luke 14, Galatians 2, James 1 & 2, Acts 20, and 1Timothy 5.