John 14:12-14 Greater works?

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

This is a pretty amazing passage, is it not?
Does anyone besides me hear the theme for Mission Impossible playing? I mean no sacrilege; how in the world can we, as mere followers, do something this huge, this impossible?
Greater works?
But our Savior did not, could not lie. And He said it.
Let's dive in!

First, let's look at the things that Jesus did . . . we can find examples in His feeding over 5,000 people with just a boy's lunch; He walked on water; He told the wind the waves to "be still" and they did.
Are we going to do greater miracles than our Savior?
Nope.
He said we would do greater works. Let's look back at some ground that we already plowed, OK?

            For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he
           will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
           ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the
           Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father
           judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may
           honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the
           Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.“Very truly I tell you, whoever
           hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be
           judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, a time
           is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
           God and those who hear will live. (John 5:20-25)

There's that term, greater works, again. To put this in context, we remember that this was when the man who'd been an invalid for over thirty years was healed. He was lifted up physically.
Even greater than lifting up someone physically is lifting them up spiritually. The greater work is salvation -- when people pass from spiritual death into spiritual life.
Even though Jesus performed many miracles, His primary work was not healing people, walking on water, etc. The primary thing that Jesus was concerned about was seeking and saving those who were lost!

            For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
            (Luke 19:10)

Jesus wanted to see sinners saved -- and then He says we will do that, too!  Remember the scene at Pentecost? More people were converted in that one day than were recorded converted in the whole three years that Jesus was teaching and preaching here on earth. Remember the verse where Jesus says the fields are "white unto harvest"? He is talking about a harvest of souls . . . we are building on the foundation that He laid!
Jesus began the work; we are supposed to work hard to bring it to completion. Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that we would have the privilege of "harvesting" many souls; we are able to tell many people of His love.
The darker the world gets, the more brightly our light can shine. And now it can shine through radio and television, across our land, and across the globe. Our light can shine further now than could even be imagined before.
Think of all the way we have to witness -- a word for Christ to a neighbor or acquaintance, giving money for missions to spread His gospel -- I'm sure that you can think of many other ways that we can fulfill this verse:

             But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you
             will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
             to the ends of the earth.  (Acts 1:8)

In our passage, He promises to do these works through us. And this applies to our witness here at home, and our witness around the world . . . when we ask something that is according to God's will, and we know it is His will, He promises to make it happen!
We are able to bring glory to God by seeing people saved. That's worth devoting our lives to. That is worth committing ourselves to doing. It's way, way bigger than us, or our problems. We can do greater works, with His power and Spirit.
We have a great commission, and we can tell of a great salvation; it can conquer a great need, and bring glory to our great God!
Let's get busy!