Doing Greater Works

I have spent most of my life in vocational ministry. I have done children's ministry. I have done youth ministry. I have been the pastor of a church with a handful of members and one that had over 200 in worship. I have been a church planter. I have been an interim pastor. I have been a denominational worker. I have always worked hard in my service for the Lord. 

There would be people who would say I have accomplished a lot through my work for the Lord, and yet the spiritual brokenness around me remains so great. What I long for is a movement of God that would change our culture and point us back to the Father. At times it seems like that is an impossible dream. But I am reminded of what Jesus said in John 14:12 "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."

The work I have accomplished on earth is the tiniest fraction of a dot compared to the work Jesus did. Yet Jesus says that we will do greater works than He. That is almost too overwhelming to comprehend, but Jesus said it, so it must be true.

Accordingly to this verse, we will be able to do greater works because Jesus has gone back to His Father having already completed the greatest work of all, the atonement for sin for all who believe. In that single work Jesus changed the playing field. Any small thing any of us might accomplish stands on top of what Jesus has already done. Though sometimes we may feel like we are starting at zero, we are actually starting at the finish line, with the race already won by our Lord. In that sense, if we take even one step in the right direction, it is a "greater work" because of where the work starts.

As we go through our ministry today, may we rejoice that Jesus has already won the victory, and everything we do is just part of the victory lap!

Terry Dorsett has been a church planter and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. Find all of his books at:           http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY