Quality Prayer
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask for anything in my name, and I will do it” John 14:12-14
In the Upper Room Jesus gave His disciples three reasons why He had to leave them:
(1) only by leaving them could He prepare a home in the Father’s presence for them, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be where I am” (14:3).
(2) only by leaving them to die and then be resurrected could they fully grasp how He has embodied the heavenly Father’s words and works, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9).
(3) only by going away could He equip them to live for Him and effectively fulfil His mission in the world. “Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you” (16:7). The ‘Counsellor’ is of course the Holy Spirit.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” In context “what I have been doing” relates back to the verse before where Jesus has just said “at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves” (14:11). The word translated ‘miracles’ here is the usual word for ‘works’ and in John’s gospel is used of (1) evangelism (4:34) (2) specific healings (5:20; 7:21; 9:3,4) (3) miracles generally (7:3; 10:25,32,33,37,38; 14:11,12) (4) Jesus’ teaching (14:10) and (5) Jesus entire ministry generally (5:36; 17:4). So the disciples would continue the kinds of things Jesus had been doing.
“He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” The word “greater” is a qualitative and not quantitative word. Jesus is telling the disciples they will perform even greater qualitative works than He did. A possible explanation is: the disciples’ works in one way were greater than Jesus’ works because they testified by word and deed to His finished work and the fuller coming of the kingdom it ushered in, while Jesus’ ministry prior to His death and resurrection only foreshadowed these things.
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask for anything in my name, and I will do it.” The success of the disciples’ mission is intimately connected to their praying in Jesus’ name. This is the first of four places in Jesus’ final few hours with His disciples where He makes promises about the effectiveness of their praying (14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23-26). Asking in Jesus’ name means more than tacking on “in Jesus’ name” to the end of a prayer. It carries the thought of asking through the authority Jesus has gained for us by His death to stand boldly before the Father to make the request. But beyond this, in context, it means to ask ‘for Jesus’ sake.’ In this sense our praying is “so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” Asking in Jesus’ name (for Jesus’ sake) is asking for things that will enable Him to bring glory to the Father.
How is glory brought to God? John mentions numerous situations that bring God glory (among them the raising of Lazarus [11:4], Jesus going to the cross [12:28; 13:31,32], fruit-bearing in the life of the disciples [15:8], Jesus completing the work the Father gave Him to do [17:4]). These all have in common obedience to God’s will, our playing the part given to us in God’s redemptive plan.
Whether we think our part great or small, we must play it well. We are all called to continue Jesus’ works and prayer is the key that will make the difference. As the Nike symbol says, just do it.
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