(Ver 1.4)  Caution Men at Work!  This is Part 5 in the advanced study series of Understanding Hard Sayings found in the Bible!  You may not realize it, but this web site is dedicated to doing the greater works of Jesus Christ on the earth today.  I saw a sign that once said when men work they have to put up a sign, but women work all the time and I thought that was a good statement.  I at least had to laugh while I agreed.  However, that is not my primary subject today.  While Jesus walked our planet in the flesh He made a statement to us that many Christians do not understand nor fully accept.  It is just one of the many “Hard Sayings” of the Bible that too many have not received or tried to understand.   Today’s lesson is Part 5 in a series of advanced Christian studies about “Understanding the Hard Sayings” foudn in the Bible and my primary subject is about work.  But, what is work?  How do you define work?  How are we intended to work for God today?  Here is this hard saying from God spoken through the mouth of our Lord Jesus:

Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Do you believe in Jesus?  If you do, then you qualify to do the rest of this verse.  This statement is a conditional statement or command that comes from God and is spoken only to those that believe.  If you believe in Jesus pay very close attention to what Jesus says to you and then see what you should be doing for Him.  In this verse Jesus is speaking of a four letter word called “Work”.  Jesus is speaking about the “works” that He did in this verse on the earth.  What were these works that Jesus is referring to?  How did Jesus work on the earth when He was here?  What examples of work did He do for us?  What did He do on a daily basis?  Where was the majority of His time spent?  In the minds of many Christians there is a wide variety of possibilities for the answers to these questions.  There are many who read the Gospels and see how Jesus healed the sick people, cast out devils, open blind eyes and caused cripple men to walk again.  These are the works of God in the minds of many.  While I do not deny these, I do not believe that the Bible says these were the works of God that Jesus was referring us to in this verse.  Wow, I know I just stepped on some religious toes right there.  Let me see if I can heal your toes that I just stepped on before we go any further.  What is work?  To many people work represents a job that needs to be done.  A job or work can be something that a person is paid for doing, but not always.  A job or work can be something that is fun to do or something that is totally the opposite of fun.  There are people who get paid for cleaning bathrooms and picking up garbage and these cannot be fun jobs, in my mind.  So how do any of these definitions of human work apply to God’s definition of work?  Did God ever get paid for doing work?  Was it fun for God to do this work?  It is interesting to note that God says He is working, but our problem is we do not know what He was doing and why.  How does God work?  I want to shift your focus to a verse that you may or may not be familiar with:

Act 10:38  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Here in this verse God informs us about some of the things that Jesus of Nazareth the man did on the earth.  God says that He anointed this man Jesus to “do” good by healing all that were oppressed of the devil.  This verse clearly tells us where sickness comes from, but that is not the subject of today’s lesson.  So according to God’s definition, healing is doing good and not necessarily work.  Doing good can be work, but I do not believe that it is entirely a one for one exchange of meanings.  Do you understand the difference?  Take the Queen of England, does she work?  No!  Does she do any good?  I guess it depends your definition of doing good?  Anybody can work, but few actually do that which is good according to God’s definition of what doing good is.  So I do not find a verse in the Bible that says work is healing or healing is work.  Maybe I’m being too picky or maybe I’m just seeing what the Bible says.  Let’s go back to the first occurrence in the Bible of the word “work” and see what God reveals to us.

Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

So God clearly tells us that He worked to create our world.  This is the very first time this word is used in the Bible so God must be giving us some insight into His definition of this word by the law of first mention.  So how did God create the world?  If we can figure out how God works then we can better understand this subject of doing the greater works of Jesus.  When you read the first chapter of Genesis and see God’s work, you only notice God doing two primary things.  First you notice God looking at a problem and then you see God speaking words to fix the problem.  God saw darkness in verse 2 and in verse 3 God said “Let there be light”.  This must be work by God’s definition.  So speaking words must be how God works.  Does this make any sense to you?  You should read the first chapter of Genesis and see how many times God said and maybe you will understand this definition better.

Mat 4:23  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

As you can see in this verse the Bible says that Jesus spent a significant amount of His time teaching and preaching the people.  Isn’t this speaking words?  Wasn’t this God’s definition of work from Genesis 1 and 2?  You can see in Matthew 9:35, Matthew 11:1, Matthew 21:23, Matthew 22:16, Matthew 26:55, Mark 4:1, Mark 6:2, Mark 6:6, Mark 6:34, Mark 8:31, Mark 12:14, Mark 14:49, Luke 5:17, Luke 11:1, Luke 13:10, Luke 13:22, Luke 20:21, Luke 21:37,  Luke 23:5, and John 3:2 that Jesus is revealed to be a teacher.  These 20 verses all tell us that Jesus spent a lot of His time teaching the people.  This is clearly speaking words with His mouth so that the people can hear what He said and then hopefully understand and believe.  I believe this was the work of God being stated in the Bible that Jesus was speaking of.  I’ll give you one more very important definition of work found in the Bible that will help you to see what Jesus is teaching us:

Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Here we have the most important definition of work that I have found in the Bible and it clearly states what Jesus was attempting to get people to do on the earth.  So whatever Jesus did on the earth that was good was designed to get people to believe who He was.  Therefore, God’s work was the intentional effort to get people to believe in something that they had never known before.  This is clearly the definition of work to God and the reason why Jesus spent so much time teaching people the truth with His words.  Stop and analyze what is the definition of “believing”?  To believe something means you must have heard something and are now at the crossroads of accepting it or rejecting it.  If I said “God spoke to me today”, you now have to choose, do I believe this since you were not there to hear it also.  If you believe me, then you are accepting my word by faith, since I do not have any proof or evidence of this to present to you.  Wow, this has turned out to be a basic faith lesson today.  Faith is probably one of the top three most important lessons to learn in the Bible, in my opinion.  But, I guess I’ll get back to teaching on doing the greater works that Jesus said we should be doing.

What have we learned today?  Work to God is speaking words to get people to believe in Him.  So what would the greater works be?  I believe that these are just presenting the greater truths that God has given to us to share with others so that they would also believe in Him.  Jesus said we would be able to do the greater works, only because He was going to leave the earth and go back to His Father in Heaven.  Therefore, something that Jesus has now accomplished has allowed us to do a greater work than He could have done here personally.  You see all of the multitudes of the people that Jesus taught, He could not get anyone saved until after He had died on the cross, was resurrected from the dead and returned to heaven.  Helping to get people saved today by preaching and teaching the Word of God is clearly a much greater work that Jesus could not perform while He was here personally on the earth.  Does that make any sense?

Mat 5:19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

In this verse Jesus is contrasting two different types of people on the earth.  Both groups of people are teachers, did you get that?  Did you know that you were a teacher before you got saved?  You might have been teaching in a bar or a strip club, but you were teaching.  It is very clear to me that Jesus said by doing and teaching others the right things that you would be called one of the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  But, by doing and teaching the wrong things you would be the least.  So that is your marching orders today from God.  Do what Jesus said to do and make an effort to teach others so that they can believe and do right things.  Only by teaching others the Word of God will you be able to make a lasting difference in the world.  Only the Word of God and the Spirit of God changes people.  This is why Jesus could say go and teach.

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teach all nations, that is why I can say that this website is dedicated to doing the greater works of God on the earth today.  I am a teacher called by God, anointed by God, taught by God and directed by God.  I hope and pray that you understand the difference between doing good (healing) and doing the works of God (teaching).  I am definitely not preaching against doing good to anyone using God’s definition of what doing good is.  In fact, I embrace it fully.  I also hope you understand how important it is to get God’s definitions for the words that we are studying in the Bible.  By looking up God’s definition of what work is to Him, this helps us to understand how it is even possible for us to do greater works than Jesus did.  Otherwise, you would feel very intimidated by this Hard Saying of Jesus.  Jesus clearly raised the dead, caused blind eyes to open, cleansed lepers and caused cripples to walk; when was the last time you did any of this?  Then figure out if you could do any of this for someone what could you do that was greater than that?  I cannot think of anything.  Maybe in a future lesson we will talk about the “anointing” factor that we read about in Acts 10:38.  Why did God have to anoint Jesus who was God to heal the sick?  If you have never understood about the anointing factor from God it is another subject that you need to study.  I am anointed to teach and that is why it is possible for me to write Bible lessons on the web.  This was God’s doing and not my choice.  I did not pray and ask to be a teacher, God chose me and anointed me and that is why I can do what I do.  It is very much like David didn’t anoint himself to be King of Israel.  God chose him and sent the prophet to anoint him to be king.

You will discover by reading the Gospels carefully that Jesus would almost always teach first and then heal.  I know not always and that you can find some cases where Jesus operated in the gifts of the Spirit of God and just healed someone, like the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda.  But, whatever Jesus did, is what you should be doing in the same way.  Today’s emphasis was on teaching and who knows what I’ll teach on tomorrow.  I enjoy teaching the Word of God and that is why I do what I do.  I reach people all over the world and I hear from them and they are a blessing to me.  I am blessed to be a blessing and so the work of God is spreading around the globe.  I am convinced that doing the greater works of God is first learning what the Bible says, doing it and then going and sharing it with others.  Get involved in what God is doing and see that the time is very short to do it in.  God Bless!

If you would like to read on in the series you may go to “Part 6“.