Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.23 – June 1967

 

The Greater Works Of Christ

 

Sermon by Rev. J. F. H. van der Bom on Acts 3:16

Scripture Reading: John 14:12-14; Acts 3

Psalter Hymnal: 170; 51; 309; 140; 463

 

Brothers and Sisters,

The acts of the apostles are in reality the acts (or deeds) of our risen Lord, Who continues, in the Holy Spirit, to live and work in His church.

And our bible book: The Acts of the Apostles, is (as you know) the second volume to the first book of the acts of Jesus, or, as we generally call it: the Gospel according to Luke.

In the Gospel we hear of the beginnings of Jesus’ great work on earth until the day when he was taken up, after he had given his commandments to the disciples’.  Then, the Acts continue the story, telling us what followed.

Now you may remember that Jesus during his earthly ministry had spoken more than once of the ‘greater works’ that would follow.  This is what he said to Nathanael, one of his first disciples.  When Nathanael was so surprised that Jesus had known him, seeing him under the fig tree, Jesus answered: Truly, truly you shall see greater things than these.

The same expression of the ‘greater works’ was used more often.  During the Last Supper, in the night before his death, Jesus spoke of the greater works which he would do through his disciples.  We read the text in John 14:12-14.

Christians have often been puzzled by these words, and declared that they are mysterious, and hard to understand.  They ask, “How can this be possible, and where did you ever see disciples of Jesus, doing greater works than the Master himself has done?” Did any of his disciples ever raise a dead man who like Lazarus had been in the grave for so long?  What could these greater works be like then?  Some Christians seek the solution in spectacular healing miracles, or in the use of foreign tongues by the disciples of Christ.

Still we believe that the answer is simple enough, as long as we would only take, and leave, these words of the Christ in their proper context of His going to the Father.  For: the Father is greater than I, he said (in John 14), and: it is for your advantage that I go to the Father.

These words are an explanation.  The promise of Christ to his disciples (of what He will do for them, and through them, from the throne) gives us the key to understand the second book, the Book of the Acts.  ‘Just wait until you are clothed with power from on high’.

Christ’s farewell was not a real farewell, mind you!  The Acts of the apostles are HIS acts, the deeds of a mighty Son of God Who did not only begin a good work, but who also continues, and makes it a greater work, since He is pleased to do it now throughout the world and by the feeble hands of very ordinary men.

This is what Peter declares after the healing of the lame man: the only explanation of this act is Faith: through His Name.  And when we speak today of the greater works which Christ would work.  through His disciples’, we could simply ask ourselves two questions:
Firstly: Who were these disciples who did such a great thing?
And secondly, What was that greater work they did?

1.  The answer to the first question, who the disciples were, through whom the heavenly Christ worked such a tremendous miracle, is quickly given. It seems to be so simple.  We all know the story.  The apostles, Peter and John went together to the temple service.

Old Israel was still praying in the temple.  But the disciples felt during this early period after Pentecost that they should not stay away from this prayer.

Israel prayed still for the coming Messiah.  Peter and John knew that the Messiah had come.  And still they could join in with their prayers, as they prayed from now on that the Messiah might reveal himself to all Israel, and that the eye of every man and woman would be opened to see their Messiah, to believe and rejoice in him.

Only a few days ago it had been Pentecost.  And you remember what had happened.  On Pentecost, the Messiah had come to Israel in a very special and spectacular way.  In the Spirit, in the sound of a mighty, rushing wind and in the cloven tongues of fire, the mighty Name of Jesus had been present in Jerusalem.  The whole city had been filled with His Name; many eyes had looked up to Him.

Still there were the many more eyes that remained closed.  The majority of the people of Jerusalem, were still in darkness.

So Peter and John went to the temple, at the hour of prayer.  On their way to the temple, or rather; at the very entrance they saw this poor man.  A lame man, begging – at the temple gate.  A very striking contrast: a beggar – at the temple gate, called Beautiful.

Of course, this temple gate may have been a very common place for beggars, because here they could expect to get most profit out of the many people passing by.  And nobody can tell, how many days, or weeks, or even years of this man’s life have been spent in begging, here.  We read that the man was born lame.  So he may have been in this place his whole life.  He may have become fully acquainted with the art of begging.

Still this does not at all lessen the starkness of this contrast.  A beggar – in the city of God, at the Beautiful Gate – but didn’t the law forbid that very thing?  There should not be any beggars among God’s people.

Imagine the reality, that here on earth there is God’s house, His city, with a door of hope, a door that leads to heaven, a gate called beautiful…!  But at the very gate there sits a man who cannot enter.  Lame people were not permitted to enter under the Old Testament law…!  The beauty and holiness of God’s house are so close.  Still here is an outcast.

Could this be God’s will, even after God’s own Son Jesus has given his life for outcasts?  He suffered outside the gate…!  And His cross is the door of hope, the beautiful gate for everyone who believes in Him…!

Then the two disciples came along.  The road must have been familiar to them.  They had been in the temple before.  It is quite possible that they had also seen the lame beggar before.  But then it is most probable, that they had never given any attention to the beggar.  They had never taken any notice of the man, neither of the terrible contrast, we have mentioned.

You know, there are so many things of which we don’t take any notice.  We don’t even see them.  Miseries, suffering people are always very near.  But our eyes may be so closed, so blind spiritually…even though we call ourselves disciples (followers!) of Jesus, the Healer, the Relief-bringer.

The whole gospel is there to tell us that Jesus is altogether different.  His eyes were never closed for any misery.  His ears were not deaf to the cries that came to him.

The Son of God did not come into the world to leave things as they were.  He came to change, that is to redeem the world.  He came to open the prison doors and see the lame on their feet.  He is the Son of God, the Saviour, who came to take away the cause of all our sins and misery, namely sin.  And in Him the Father has revealed his will for the redemption of mankind.  He came to make all things new.

Blessings abound wherever he reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest!

This is the gospel; the good story of all that Jesus “began both to do and to teach” when he was on earth.

But now, has Jesus stopped doing good?  Or has the gospel changed, after He was taken up?  Oh no!  But he will continue the great work.  What was begun in loneliness and on a cross will go on in the wonderful dispensation of a Christian church which receives its directions from the throne of glory.

Jesus is still the same, yesterday, today, and forever.  And this is what he told his disciples: “It is for your advantage that I go.  So then, wait, until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Don’t you think that we, with the whole church of to-day badly need to remember these words of Christ?

‘It is for your advantage that I go’.  The works of Christ did not diminish after his ascension.  The world has not lost by it.  No, you shall see greater things.  And you, as my disciples, shall do greater things.  Just ask my Father.  Ask Him everything in my Name….!

It seems that suddenly the apostles remembered these words of Christ.

They went to the temple in the hour of prayer.  They may have passed by the same place, and the same man, very often.  Just like us so very often who pass by the greatest contrasts without giving any attention – nor to the beauty of the great gate, nor to the misery of the needy men.

But now, all of a sudden, you see them stop.  ‘Look at us,’ they say.  What happens?  And who are these men?  Are they sort of miracle workers, magicians?  No, they are not.

The disciples are fully aware of the fact that in them there is no power at all.  They are nothing.  And they have nothing.  “I have no silver and gold,” says Peter.  But I will give you what I have.  In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!  Yes, this is the greater work which the Holy Spirit will do through the disciples.  He will glorify Christ.  The Holy Spirit is My witness.  And you shall be my witnesses.

This is what the church may possess: the Name of Jesus.  And where two or three are gathered together in my Name, or: where two or three agree upon something that might be given them, from my Father, just wait and see what I shall do!

And we may all have our share in this greater work.  We may all ask the Father in His Name.  And our poor lives, which have nothing, will become full of blessing through faith in His Name.

We may expect great things from Jesus, and so attempt great things for Jesus, through faith in His Name.

So very often our eyes are blind, and our lips dumb.  Even the eyes of us who call ourselves disciples can be so blind that people around us may wonder: who are they?  Are they disciples of Jesus?  And that church… who are those people who celebrate Pentecost?  Are they the people of that Jesus who said, it was for their advantage that he went to the Father, and that they would do greater works?

‘Through faith in His Name…!’

No, this is nothing of our own effort.  There is no magic power that lies somewhere in our immortal souls.

Faith in His Name, it is the secret of the new born life, of a new being that lives from God and through God, and unto God, and for which God receives the glory.

But people who have the eye of faith fixed upon the living, mighty Son of God, will also begin to look with a different attitude at the needs and miseries of the world around them.  Faith in the Name of your Saviour, means also to have an eye of expectation for others, on Him who is able to save all those who through Him go to God!

‘And his Name, by faith in His Name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Jesus, has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.’

2.  We began to say that we were not to forget that the acts of the disciples are acts of Jesus Himself.

In the second place, we may not forget either that there is still a beggar in the entrance of the temple gate to-day.

God’s people may gather together in the beauty of His presence.  But on the steps before the beautiful gate, there is still the dreadful contrast.  And the beggar is still with us.

Yes, here on earth there is the beautiful temple of God.  And disciples of Jesus know it.  They come to church to pray that His kingdom may come.  They rejoice in the riches of salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice.  They pray, and they sing, because a door was opened for them.  Jesus is the door.  He is the gate, called beautiful.

Still even now it seems that many disciples give that terrible contrast little attention.  This may be so, because there are many disciples in the church who are not spirit-filled, which means that their eyes are not fixed upon that Name of Jesus.

And nothing seems to happen to the lame beggar still waiting at the church door.

Who is sitting at the gate today?

In the first place we think of the position of Israel.  Yes, we think also of modern Israel today.  It sits at the gate, and still it cannot walk.  It makes itself ready for war, it fortifies itself with army tanks.  Still it cannot walk into the house of the Father, where the beauty of the gate of heaven is seen.  It is high time Israel woke up.  Can we do something about it?  Do you ever pray for them?

Then, there are the millions of Asians who lie at the doorstep of our wealthy country.  They know there is the Christian world with its gate beautiful.  But they cannot walk through the gate.  Whose fault is this?

Let us stay a little closer to home.  Do you ever pay attention to your neighbour, the boy, the girl, the old woman next door?  How many lame beggars are there in every Australian city?  They drive beautiful cars, perhaps.  Still they are lame, as they can- not walk through the Gate Beautiful.

Many of them may think this is quite normal.  But you should know better.  What are we going to do?

Some people say, if only the days of the apostles came back.  If such miracles as Peter and John performed happened more often…!?!

Some people even call this healing miracle of the lame man the first miracle that has happened in the church.

But this is a mistake.  It is not true.

The first miracle in the church was not a healing miracle, but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, on old and young, free men and even slaves…!  This was the first miracle; that in ordinary people, the promise of Christ was fulfilled, and his glory began to shine out.  And on that day about three thousand souls were added to the church.

The healing of the lame man was just another sign of the real presence of the Spirit of Jesus in the church.  As a result of which two thousand more were added, making a total of five thousand who entered through the gate called beautiful!

What are we going to do?

In our church, some have become active in youth work or in organizing holiday camps or vacation bible schools, which is a splendid effort to call the children from the street and show them something of the beautiful gate of Jesus Christ.

Other members of the church are active in hospital visitation inviting the old and the sick to enter through the beautiful gate through their singing.

Students have their evangelical mission at the university to call their fellow students.

What are you doing?

Let’s all do at least something!  Lame humanity is the Christians opportunity.  Have you faith in His Name?  Then there is no limit to what you can do.  Paul says: the power at work in us is the same as the mighty strength which God used when He raised Christ from death, and seated him at his right side in the heavenly power!

How great is the power, then, of Faith in His Name!  Christians can do greater works because they are so dependent on Christ.  With the eye on Christ they dare to say look at us!

And people, looking at such Christians will say we can see that they have been with Jesus!

Amen.