Beginning Point in Actually Doing the Works of Christ.
As you read the Word, let’s first get how Jesus did signs in the New Testament, and then apply it, not as experts hard-boiled in our encrusted preconceptions, but as the young. For that to be even possible, one must be unassuming, even if it’s but for a moment, to regain the grace to be surprised. Going into this we should understand that a New Testament sign prompted a conclusion – like, I believe that opening the eyes of the blind holds this meaning. It induced a thinking process that resulted in apprehension. The sign is now your own. It inspires your whole outlook on life. In spite of the difficulties the sign brings, the changes are worth it. It imparts a virtue beyond yourself, and the truth of that is always on your side. Lean into it.
Jesus did miracles. They are called ‘signs’ because they hold ‘significance.’ Like the old wild-west
with the wooden sign of a hand pointing the way to a bath tub, signs point to a meaning greater than the miracle itself. Jesus did awesome signs and wonders. They were so effective in demonstrating his awe that even a child could gain a clear and complete understanding of his meaning. He called them ‘works.’ The purpose of his works was to reveal his glory, and that revelation generated faith – the point.
Compare: When Jesus and the Twelve were invited to a wedding, to the bride’s embarrassment
they ran out of wine. Jesus directed the servants to fill six big water pots to the brim with water, and serve them to the guests. But, what! The water had now turned mysteriously and fantastically into wine. It was not just the common but the finest wine in memory and a gonzo amount at that! It held so much pleasure, beyond winsome, a heart-throb sign that whispered who Jesus was. But it was a hidden work, for only the servants and disciples knew about it, which was part of the glory of it. John gives us the conclusion of the matter: “This beginning of miracles (lit. signs) did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him” (John 2:11). Signs enable us to be child-like, unassuming, and surprised. They create wonderment. They produce faith that can be experienced. And in the re-telling of the sign others see the same revelation, its glory, its faith, and virtue to change. The sign expands our thoughts as this question so naturally arises: What could Jesus do with my life?
But before the working of this sign, it was first conceived by God the Father. It did not originate
with Jesus. Notice his self-designation: he is not only the ‘the Son of God’ (cf. Mark 14:62 and his deity), he is ‘the Son of man’ (cf. Mark 10:45 and his humanity). And he performed his signs, not as the Son of God which he most certainly was, but as the Son man, as it is written, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8).
Concerning Christ’s dependence on the Father, George Macdonald – the beloved 19th century
literary forefather to G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams – well said in his Love Thy Neighbor (1st series), “Our Lord never thought of being original” [cf. John Warwick
Montgomery, Myth Allegory and Gospel (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1974, p. 12)]. This
conclusion is profound, since Jesus is ‘the author and finisher of our faith.’ Commenting on Macdonald’s aphorism, Montgomery himself, my Professor of Church History and Apologetics, wrote: “To be sure, Macdonald’s remark is paradoxical: No man in the world’s history has ever had the impact on other men’s lives that the ‘unoriginal’ Jesus had. How could this have happened? we are forced to ask. Said Jesus repeatedly: ‘I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me’ (John 6:38; Luke 22:42; etc.). ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,’ preached Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘and all these things shall be added unto you’ (Matt. 6:33). Our Lord’s every word, act, and breath were devoted to the faithful expression of the eternal will of the Father, and thus it was, because ‘he who would save his life shall lose it,’ Jesus’ unoriginal selflessness made Him the most original Person the world had or will ever see: ‘Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Phil. 2:9-11)” [Ibid., p. 12].
If I read the Bible with Jesus doing his miracles as the Son of God, I’m impressed but I’m off the
hook because signs were how the Son of God alone operated; he can’t expect me to do what he did. So I convince myself that it’s okay to not participate in a Gospel of signs. A veiled disappointment I hardly notice settles on me as I conclude this. I reason signs were for the First Century, not now. I train myself with elaborate schemes of thought that are both exhausting to maintain and boring. Yet I know intuitively, in my gut, that something is wrong here.
But if Jesus did signs as the Son of man, I’m more than impressed, I’m undone. But not only, I’m
so encouraged. Here’s why. But we have to back up for a second. The term ‘Son of man’, which Jesus most often chose in referring to himself, strikes a chord and stirs a memory in us of a really important moment in messianic prophecy that came from the Prophet Daniel who is in exile in dark Babylon. It’s about the end of the age and the end-all wrap up of the head-stomping defeat of evil as the Kingdom of Christ destroys wickedness. Daniel brings us right into the throne room of God and . . . “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days . . .” and they get ‘er done! (Dan. 7:13-14). The fur is going to fly. I’m almost in tears.
At the Cross Jesus completely identified with us as the Son of man. He gets it. He knows what it
is to be human. The Sacrifice of our Lord devastated the dominion of sin and disease (cf. Rom. 5:17; Matt. 8:16-17). The Resurrection of Jesus brought a catastrophe to every dark power arrayed against us, and is by definition the greatest possible sign to the human race (cf. Col. 1:16-18; I Cor. 2:8).
So I’m undone. Jesus did signs as the Son of man, so much a man that he divested himself of his
own divine powers and even his own will, yet ‘being in the form of God and equal to God’ (cf. Phil. 2:6-7). That opened a door for us. He declared, “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” (John 14:12). On the condition that I believe on him, Jesus sees me doing his works, his signs. That puts me in a crisis about my obvious native powerlessness. The promise of Christ created this tension. So, how can I possibly do what ‘the man’ Christ Jesus did? It begs the question: Has the Son of Man really set me up to do what he did? How are signs really generated?
In answer to these, notice John 5 where Jesus explained the essential workings involved in the
miraculous. At the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem lay a great multitude of sickos, and ‘a certain man’ was there – notice that – who had been sick for 38 years. Amidst a big crowd of needy people, Jesus is led to just one person. We would want him to heal them all, but for reasons internal to God himself the Son is led to this one guy. Jesus doesn’t ask him about how long he’d been there or what had happened or even how he was doing: he very simply asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (v.6). Has Jesus no sympathy for the man? What prompted this seemingly dis-interested, even harsh question? The man puts forth a pathetic answer, poisoned by 38 years of disappointment, repeated over and over again. Our Lord’s response to him, and to us, is too blunt, too unrelated, too other-worldly: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk”- the very thing impossible to do! It wasn’t a prayer, or a suggestion, nothing . . . but a command. And ‘immediately’ he did! Impossibly, he walked. And it was done intentionally on the Sabbath.
Anyone who just witnessed this is unexplainably astonished. How did this profound thing
happen anyway? Jesus’ answer: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (v. 17). That’s it? This is way, way too short an answer. But Jesus takes us deeper into the mystery. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son (shortened from ‘Son of man’ I think) can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise (v. 19) . . . I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (v.30).
We are taught that Jesus can do anything anytime he wants to. But this passage teaches that
Jesus put a holy limitation on himself: he would only work signs when his Father was first doing them. He would only do what he saw his Father doing. In himself he couldn’t do anything. He judges what he hears with justice, he seeks not his own will, only the Father’s. It is a safe-guard. But it’s so unoriginal.
So how has God set you up to flow like Jesus did? First, become convinced that it is God’s will. In John 17:18 he prayed for you, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world.” So, see the glory of the Lord. Again he prayed in v. 24, “[T]hat they may behold my glory”. Try to fathom II Cor. 3:18 – “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” As we ‘with unveiled face’ look into a mirror at the glory of the Lord, we get transformed into the same image with ever-increasing glory by the Holy Spirit. ‘See the glory of the Lord.’ Ask! it will be answered. See his glory first; it’s beyond awesome. It transforms you to be like him. And see what he is doing. See how thrilling it is to do his will, and how empty it is to do yours. Discover that, like Jesus, you also can do nothing else but what he is doing, and though it isn’t original with you, you were born for it! Go for nothing less.
The choice: I can serve myself and my small ideas, or I can look at the Lord and be part his glorious will. To repeat: my starting point in doing the will of God, the works of Christ, his signs and wonders is to behold the glory of the Lord, also known as communion, abiding, or just hanging out with your best Friend ever. Dare to believe that. Next: Be sent to do what you see. “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:22). And let him breathe on you the Holy Ghost.
Tim Halverson
lionsheadcafe.com 