Jesus told His own that we were to do greater works than He had done while on earth. Is that true? Of course it is. And it’s also true that the great works we do are done only when we are in vital union with the Lord Himself. As He put it, “Without Me, nothing.” That should be clear enough.
What isn’t clear is this—where are these “greater works” in our day? We might well ask with Gideon (Jud. 6:13), “Where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of?”
On a recent trip to Northampton, England, I had opportunity with my host for some short jaunts to nearby towns to revisit some great men. Our first stop was just outside the Northampton town limits at Moulton. Although William Carey was born to a weaver’s family in the Northamptonshire village of Paulerspury in 1761, it was in Moulton that he heard the missionary call. While living there, he read The Last Voyage of Captain Cook and the Lord used this account to lay on his soul the burden of the lost. Though an unlettered cobbler, Carey gave himself to study every subject that had any bearing on missionary enterprise. By the age of 21, he had mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Italian. Yet when Carey asked “whether the command given to the apostles to teach all nations was not obligatory…to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying promise was of equal extent,” Dr. Ryland retorted, “Young man, sit down! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine.”
Whatever Carey’s seeming deficiencies, as he would say of his later ministry, “I can plod!” Plod he did, eventually publishing Enquiry Into the Obligations of the Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen. It was a masterpiece on missions, answering objections, surveying the history of missions, and detailing the world by country, population, size, and religion. He called believers to rise up to reach the world for Christ. Emblazoned on the side of the church building he attended are his stirring words: “Attempt great things for God. Expect great things from God.” Almost single-handedly Carey inspired the modern missionary movement.
A few miles southeast of Northampton is the quaint village of Olney, remembered as the locale of the ministry of John Newton. By his own description once a libertine and slave trader, Newton began his seafaring life at the age of 12, and, after becoming a slave himself in Africa, escaped to become captain of his own ship. On May 10, 1748, he was caught in a fierce storm and, fearing for his life, called to God for mercy. Later, as he contemplated this in his cabin, he discovered what it was to receive the gift of God by grace through faith. Newton’s prolific hymnody includes “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” But of course the most memorable is “Amazing Grace,” the best-known hymn in the English-speaking world. Thus his work still ministers to sin-sick hearts around the globe today.
Further southeast at Bedford, we see the statue of its famed tinker, John Bunyan. Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford jail for his unregistered preaching—from 1660 until 1672, with only a few weeks of freedom in 1666. He was again imprisoned in 1675 for six months, during which time he wrote the beloved Pilgrim’s Progress. Along with his well-known Grace Abounding and The Holy War, he wrote scores of other books and pamphlets, including A Few Sighs from Hell and Vindication of Some Gospel Truths. Next to the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress was the second book on most shelves in early America, influencing generations with the gospel.
A cobbler, a sailor, and a tinker from three small towns in England. Great men because they knew they served a great God, because they rejoiced in being recipients of His great grace, and because they fearlessly proclaimed the great message of the gospel. God give us more like that!