John 6:39

6:39 Now this is the will of the one who sent me – that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up ¹  at the last day.

John 7:18

7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority ²  desires ³  to receive honor ⁴  for himself; the one who desires ⁵  the honor ⁶  of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, ⁷  and there is no unrighteousness in him.

John 14:9

14:9 Jesus replied, ⁸  “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known ⁹  me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:12

14:12 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁰  the person who believes in me will perform ¹¹  the miraculous deeds ¹²  that I am doing, ¹³  and will perform ¹⁴  greater deeds ¹⁵  than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:21

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ¹⁶  them is the one who loves me. ¹⁷  The one ¹⁸  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ¹⁹  myself to him.”

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¹ tn Or “resurrect them all,” or “make them all live again”; Grk “raise it up.” The word “all” is supplied to bring out the collective nature of the neuter singular pronoun αὐτό (auto) in Greek. The plural pronoun “them” is used rather than neuter singular “it” because this is clearer in English, which does not use neuter collective singulars in the same way Greek does.

² tn Grk “who speaks from himself.”

³ tn Or “seeks.”

⁴ tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”

⁵ tn Or “seeks.”

⁶ tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”

⁷ tn Or “is truthful”; Grk “is true.”

⁸ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

⁹ tn Or “recognized.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

¹¹ tn Or “will do.”

¹² tn Grk “the works.”

¹³ tn Or “that I do.”

sn See the note on miraculous deeds in v. 11.

¹⁴ tn Or “will do.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “greater works.”

sn What are the greater deeds that Jesus speaks of, and how is this related to his going to the Father? It is clear from both John 7:39 and 16:7 that the Holy Spirit will not come until Jesus has departed. After Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit to indwell believers in a permanent relationship, believers would be empowered to perform even greater deeds than those Jesus did during his earthly ministry. When the early chapters of Acts are examined, it is clear that, from a numerical standpoint, the deeds of Peter and the other Apostles surpassed those of Jesus in a single day (the day of Pentecost). On that day more were added to the church than had become followers of Jesus during the entire three years of his earthly ministry. And the message went forth not just in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, but to the farthest parts of the known world. This understanding of what Jesus meant by “greater deeds” is more probable than a reference to “more spectacular miracles.” Certainly miraculous deeds were performed by the apostles as recounted in Acts, but these do not appear to have surpassed the works of Jesus himself in either degree or number.

¹⁶ tn Or “keeps.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

¹⁹ tn Or “will disclose.”