Lesson 60: Power for Praying and Working, part 1
John 14:12-13 - Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
As the Savior opened His public ministry with His disciples by the Sermon on the Mount, so He closes it by the Parting Address preserved to us by John. In both He speaks more than once of prayer…but with a difference. In the Sermon on the Mount it is as to disciples who have only just entered His school, who scarcely know that God is their Father, and whose prayer chiefly has reference to their personal needs. In His closing address, He speaks to disciples whose training time is now come to an end, and who are ready as His messengers to take His place and His work. In the former the chief lesson is this: Be childlike, pray believingly, and trust the Father that He will give you all good gifts. Here He points to something higher: They are now His friends to whom He has made known all that He has heard of the Father; His messengers, who have entered into His plans, and into whose hands the care of His work and kingdom on earth is to be entrusted. They are now to go out and do His works, and in the power of His approaching exaltation, even greater works. Prayer is now to be the channel through which that power is to be received for their work. With Christ’s ascension to the Father a new epoch commences, both for their working and praying.
See how clearly this connection comes out in our text. As His body here on earth, as those who are one with Him in heaven, they are now to do greater works than He had done; their success and their victories are to be greater than His. He mentions two reasons for this. The one, because He was to go to the Father, to receive all power; the other, because they might now ask and expect all in His Name. “Because I go to the Father, and—notice this and—and, whatsoever you shall ask, I will do.” His going to the Father would thus bring the double blessing: they would ask and receive all in His Name, and therefore, would do the greater works. This first mention of prayer in our Savior’s parting words thus teaches us two most important lessons. He that would do the works of Jesus must pray in His Name. He that would pray in His Name must work in His Name.
Prayer: Oh my Lord! I have this day again heard words from You which pass my comprehension. And yet I cannot do anything but in simple childlike faith take and keep them as Your gift to me too. You have said that in virtue of Your going to the Father, he that believes on You will do the works which You have done, and greater works. Lord! I worship You as the Glorified One, and look for the fulfilment of Your promise. May my whole life just be one of continued believing in You. So, purify and sanctify my heart, make it so tenderly susceptible of Yourself and Your love, that believing on You may be the very life it breathes.