The greater works of the believer.
I. THE NEED OF THESE GREATER WORKS. We know the works of Jesus in the flesh—certainly not all he did; but still we know the kind of things he did. And we know, too, that if nothing more had been done, the greatest things would have been left undone. A diseased and defective body is bad, a physical leprosy is a great pollution; but a distracted, passion-ruled heart is infinitely worse. The miraculous healings and alleviations worked out by Jesus are very beautiful, but they were only deeds by the way; having in them something preparatory and illustrative, but always looking to fundamental renovations, which would bring all other renovations in due course. We should ever aim to look at need according to the gradation which Jesus gives. We easily become "the fools of time and sense." What shall it profit a man if he practically learns the secret of vigorous health, and a long, enjoyable physical life, if it leaves him, all through, self-indulgent and self-asserting? The abiding ministry of Jesus, through the ministry of those in every generation whom he chooses and qualifies, is a ministry to the greatest needs of men. For temporal and physical needs they can often do little or nothing; but Jesus fills them with a spiritual energy which works out results, making many increasingly grateful to them, and through them to the supreme Savior himself.
II. THE PERFECT SUBORDINATION OF THE SON TO THE FATHER. What consciousness there is here of a plan and an order! What humble and beautiful recognition of the place of Jesus and of his servants respectively! Jesus says it without the slightest hesitation that his servants would do greater things than himself. Here are the words of One who was ever thinking, first of all of the glory and will of his heavenly Father. So the thing be done, what matters it whose is the visible hand? Nothing good can be done, whether in higher or lower degree, without the enabling energy from on high. So long as the greater works are continually going on, and men being regenerated and sanctified, what we may call the mere reputation of Jesus is a small matter. There is no fear but what Jesus will get full recognition from those in whom the greater works are being done. Such recognition is no trivial part of the proof that the greater works are being done.
III. THE CAUSE OF THE GREATER WORKS. The apostles do not merely take the place of Jesus. His departure out of the ordinary conditions of human life is part of the qualification of his servants for the greater works. He is with the Father now in a sense in which he was not while here in flesh and blood. Even as Paul said, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord," so Jesus, absent from the body, was present with the Father. Let us, indeed, fully admit that the cause Jesus here gives is one we are little able to comprehend. But it is the real cause, and we should rejoice in its being mentioned; for what we know not now we shall know hereafter.—Y.
Asking in the Name of Jesus.
I. CHANGED METHODS OF COMMUNICATION. The prayers of the disciples were probably very shallow and vitiated expressions of feeling during the days when they knew Jesus according to the flesh. We know something of their misapprehensions and self-regarding ways—and how could these be kept out of their prayers? For a while Jesus came between them and God; as he himself suggested, he was a stumbling-block. But the happy day was coming when the disciples would be thrown upon the unseen. Intercourse with Jesus in flesh and blood was pleasant enough, but it had no special enrichment in it, and it had to be taken with all its drawbacks and limitations as well as its pleasures. No wonder the disciples so abounded in prayer after the ascension of their Master. All the way in which he had taken them led up to this. Becoming invisible, he did not become inaccessible; yea, rather, he became more accessible than ever.
II. SPECIFIED TOPICS OF SUPPLICATION, All that is asked must he asked in the Name of Jesus. Asked with confidence and understanding, even as a servant does in the name of his master. If a known servant goes to the bank with a check signed by his master, he gets the money at once; for his master has a claim there, and the claim is recognized, as a matter of course. Jesus was One who had great stores of wealth treasured up in the bank of heaven, and for a while he made application himself, whereby to do his wonderful works. He himself, dwelling on earth, had asked in his own Person, and for his own direct ministrations from his heavenly Father. And now that he was going away to the far country, the works had still to be done—yea, even greater works—and the heavenly treasury had to be in constant requisition. The greater works were impossible unless as answers to truly Christian prayer.
III. GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT FOR ALL WHO SEEK THE GOOD OF OTHERS. A large amount of good, of a certain sort, may be done without prayer. There are physical wants of men and there are physical supplies. But he who would do the highest good must ever be asking himself what Jesus would do, if he himself could be thought of just as one of his own servants. We are to live lives of ministry to men as the servants of the Lord Jesus. Our ministry is to be measured, not by what men ask for, but by what Jesus seeks to give. We have greater boons at our command for a needy world than anything nature can supply.
IV. THE REPLIED MEDIATION OF JESUS. He and his Father are one. Whatever is asked in the Name of Jesus will be done as by Jesus himself. Notice how soon opportunity was given to try the reality of all this. Look at the lame man laid at the Beautiful gate of the temple. He is asking, but his desires do not go beyond alms. He has long learned to be contented, if only he can drag on existence. But to Peter the opportunity is given of something far beyond an alms, and he speaks to the lame man, not in his own name—that would have been all in vain but in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth. Here is a revelation many of us have yet to discover, that we may become blessed channels of the highest power flowing from the mediation of the Lord Jesus.—Y.