GREATER WORKS - Reed Swindle - Lectureship 2025
Teachers
Lesson Summary
Reed Swindle taught a thoughtful examination of Jesus's promise in John 14:12 that believers would do "greater works" than he performed. Swindle began with a vivid personal anecdote about a Fourth of July fireworks accident, using it as an illustration of how small things can trigger much larger events—a metaphor for how the disciples' early works, empowered by the Holy Spirit, would ignite the spread of Christianity. He then addressed the apparent contradiction in Jesus's statement: how could ordinary believers do greater works than Jesus, who walked on water, fed five thousand, healed the sick, and raised the dead? Swindle argued that Jesus was not speaking to all Christians throughout history but specifically to the apostles who would establish the church. The early disciples, empowered by miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, performed extraordinary signs and wonders recorded in Acts—though Acts only highlights key accounts while countless other miracles occurred. Swindle emphasized that Jesus's promise was contextual to that unique historical moment when the church needed authenticating miracles to prove its message before the New Testament scriptures were written. He clarified that modern Christians should not expect to replicate apostolic miracles, acknowledging the tension this creates for faith while remaining biblically accurate about what Jesus actually promised his immediate followers.