Greater things

Greater Things the Disciples would do John 14:12 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever In salvation history, God started the world from a small Garden. It was a test run of what the bigger world was going to be. He had everything all marked out. He planned that, with him guiding the first duo of creation, he was going to affect the whole of creation. The first pair muddled up his plan so that God had to resort to a plan ‘B’. He sent Noah and others to keep up with his saving plan for humanity, but the world was not quite ready for what God was doing. This gospel passage (John 14:12)bears semblance with the account of how God decided, through Jacob, to raise twelve nations, coming from the twelve sons of Jacob, to reach out to the world that was in desperate need of protection from her own self destruction. These 12 nations stood a better chance at proclaiming God’s goodness to the nations that surrounded them. They were to become burden bearers for God in evangelizing the rest of the world but they too, under the Old Covenant comingled with the world God wanted to save through them. Picking 12 spies from the 12 tribes, as you find in Numbers 13, was symbolic because God was sending the entire nation of Israel through the selected 12 to go and look into the place of promise on behalf of the rest of the nation. Their view and attendant conquering of the Old Covenant type of eternal Promised land was reminiscence of what Jesus was going to do with the 12 disciples thousands of years later. God describes the Garden to the first family and tells them what was acceptable; Jesus Himself describes the new Promised Land to another twelve, so that their vivid imagery would in turn become the imaginations of those who would hear about the kingdom through them. But he gives them the best recipe for carrying out the task, 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever. The Nations The nation, Israel, was the first that God set aside to strengthen for the purpose of making her a witness to the nations that surrounded her. Though these nations were not very friendly and were a constant threat to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, God was interested in saving them through Israel. The antagonism of the nations toward Israel has a long history behind it running back to Genesis. The nations had negative sides to them, through which the nation Israel assessed them. The nations that occupied the territory between the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and Nile River were wicked nations. Therefore, God will take away their land and give it to the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 15:16, 18-20). Incestuous relationships, adultery, homosexuality, and sexual relationships between men and animals characterized the nations and incurred God’s distaste (Leviticus 18). The nations were involved in unwholesome practices, like spiritism, augury, witchcraft, necromancy, acts that Hebrews are warned to stay away from (Leviticus 19:26; 20:6). These nations were polytheistic, and had as part of their worship system the sacrifice of human beings (Leviticus 20:1-5; 2 Kings 17:29-34). The prophet Isaiah referred to these dastardly acts when he queried that it was unreasonable to worship an image carved out of the remains of what was used for firewood (Isaiah 44:12-20). What God meant with the prophecy of Isaiah to the nations (40-55) was first, to pass judgment on them, because of their involvement with Baalim and Ashteroth, fertility gods of the Canaanites, which was a constant source of temptation to the people of Israel; and secondly, to fortify Israel with his word so that Israel would become the medium through whom he saves the nations. Jesus Christ raises twelve people, who would in turn raise thousands to propagate the gospel of the kingdom of God. In their hundreds and thousands they were going to do much more than just one person because he will be with the Father after his victory over sin and death. Although, not just because of their numbers, but because Jesus would conjoin with his Father to send the Holy Spirit who would help them cover more areas, starting from Jerusalem. Remember that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit would work in the Blessed Virgin Mary to bring Jesus in the flesh to the world (Luke 1:35). In the same way, Jesus goes to be with the Father; together they send the Holy Spirit to aid the disciples in doing greater works. Looked at from a different point, the twelve would stand a better chance because of Jesus’ exaltation. That he was truly the God that he had described in his communion with the Father couldn’t be in doubt anymore to those who would hear about him even after he is gone, because his rising from the dead would make the testimony more authentic as the disciples would tell it and convince many to see that Jesus was truly the God-man. The accounts of the first crusade in Acts 2:41 tells us about how three thousand people became believers in one day on account of the work of the Holy Spirit working through the disciples. It is not strange that their lives would truly manifest the miraculous in more ways than they the disciple could ever have fathom. Jesus had promised them from the account of Luke in Acts 1:8 that they were to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued from Heaven. The Holy Spirit truly came as the Lord promised, and they became the instruments through whom the new world would hear the gospel of salvation. This gospel message will be authenticated by signs and wonders. Jesus, in John 14:13 told them that they were going to be able to do whatever they wanted in his name. Similar promise was made in Mark 16:9-17-18, the popular verses from which the great commission was established. The signs, from the gifts of the Holy Spirit testified to the genuineness of the reality and truth of the gospel. Check page1522 of spirit filled bible