Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Jesus healed the sick, restored missing body parts to maimed people, raised the dead, prophesied of things to come, changed water into wine, fed multitudes with just a little food, walked over water, commanded storms to be still, and performed other mighty miracles that no man had ever done before (Jn. 15:24). The night before he died, however, he told his disciples, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father" (Jn. 14:12).
It is difficult to imagine a man working the same miracles Jesus performed, much less greater miracles, but if Jesus said it, then that is the truth. Nevertheless, there are two things that Jesus' disciples did after his departure that were far greater than anything Jesus ever did while on earth.
First, Jesus was unable to lay his hands on a person and cause that person to receive the holy Ghost. Jesus had to die and ascend into heaven to offer himself to God for the sins of the world before the holy Ghost would be made available to mankind. Only after he returned to his heavenly Father did the holy Ghost baptism come (Acts 2). The apostles were then given power to lay hands on people so that they would receive the holy Ghost baptism. That experience of being born again by being baptized with the holy Ghost into the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:13) was an experience that Jesus could give to no one while he was here on earth, and it is a greater miracle than any miracle Jesus ever performed.
To be born of the Spirit is greater than being healed of anything. It is greater than being raised from the dead. It is immortal life entering into a mortal body. It is the promise of the Father that makes a human being a partaker of God's divine nature. It is the gift of God that "maketh rich". It is "the pearl of great price", for which a wise man will give all that he has, including his own life.
When Jesus' disciples returned to him rejoicing for all the mighty miracles that they had done in his name, he told them, "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Lk. 10:20). The baptism of the holy Ghost is the proof that your name is written in heaven. How precious it is! But it is an experience no one could have until after Jesus ascended to God, and for Paul or Peter, or anyone else, to lay hands on someone to receive the holy Ghost is greater than anything Jesus did or could do while he was here on earth. His death was the price for that blessing.
The second work that Jesus' servants performed that was greater than any work Jesus did while on earth was to take the message of the gospel beyond the boundaries of Israel. Jesus was sent only to Israel (Mt. 15:24; Rom. 15:8), and he refused to go beyond his mandate from God (Mt. 15:21-26). He dropped a few crumbs of blessing along the way for non-Jews, as it pleased his Father, but that was not his mission from God. When Peter was sent to a Gentile's house to bring the light to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, the saints in Jerusalem rebuked him (Acts 11:1-3). They did not expect that to happen; it was something more than Jesus did. More than that, it was something that Jesus has explicitly told his disciples not to do (Mt. 10:5-6). But after Jesus ascended, he kept giving commandments to his disciples. His commandment to Peter to go to Cornelius' house contradicted what he had commanded to his disciples previously, and Peter had a little difficulty believing it himself (Acts 10), but he obeyed Jesus' new commandment to go farther than Jesus had ever gone, and the door to the kingdom of God was at last opened to all people. By obeying Jesus, Peter had used his last "key to the kingdom" to open the door to the fountain of life for all nations. That was a far greater work than Jesus did, or was able to do, while he was on earth.