Have you ever had one of those moments where your chest feels tight, your mind starts racing, and you think, “What’s going to happen next?” That’s the room the disciples are sitting in when Jesus says these words:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said to a group of anxious disciples. “Believe in God; believe also in me. I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”

And you can almost hear the disciples whispering to each other, “Wait… do we know the way?” Thomas finally says it out loud: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” And Jesus answers with one of the clearest lines in all of Scripture: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

But Philip is still reaching for something he can hold onto. He says, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” In other words, “Jesus—give us certainty. Give us something we can see.” And Jesus says, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

And then Jesus goes even further. He doesn’t just comfort them—he commissions them. He says: “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these—because I am going to the Father.”

Do you hear what Jesus is saying? His time on earth is coming to a close, but his work is not. He’s not lowering the bar—he’s lifting their eyes. He trusts his disciples. He shares his relationship with the Father with those who follow him. And he sends them out with this promise: you will keep going, you will go wider, and you will do even greater works.

Now, let’s be honest—that sounds almost impossible. How could anyone do “greater works” than Jesus? Jesus calmed storms. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. And he did all of that in just a few short years, in one small corner of the world. But the disciples would have a lifetime. And through their witness—through the church that would grow from their witness—the good news would travel farther than Jesus ever walked in Galilee.

So let me bring it home to us. What about us—ordinary disciples, with ordinary lives, and ordinary weeks? Can we really be part of “greater works”? I believe we can. Let me show you what I mean.

Think about the world after World War I. People were surviving the battlefield—only to die from infection afterward. There were no antibiotics. Then, in September 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin at St Mary’s Hospital in London—famously, almost by accident.

So here’s what happened. Fleming came back from holiday and noticed a culture dish he’d left uncovered. Mould had gotten in. But something strange had happened: the bacteria around that mould had died. A mould called Penicillium notatum had landed in a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria, and around it was this clear ring—like a little no-go zone where the infection couldn’t spread. Something was stopping it.

Fleming realised it worked against many harmful bacteria—and that discovery helped pave the way for modern antibiotics. And look at the impact: millions of people around the world have been treated and saved from infections that once killed. Now, I’m not saying this replaces the miracles of Jesus. But I am saying this: in reach and ripple effect, you can see what Jesus meant by “greater works.”

And Fleming even spoke about God’s providence in it. He said, “I thank God for sending me penicillin … God was the first to put it here on earth for the wellbeing of humankind.” In his words, the “invisible hand of God” was at work.

So yes—this is a glimpse of what Jesus is talking about. The one who believes in him will do the works he did—and, in God’s hands, those works will reach farther than we ever imagined.

And that’s why 1 Peter matters so much. Peter is writing to believers who feel small and pressured—who are wondering if their faith can really make a difference. And he reminds them of who they are: “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” Why? So that they can “proclaim the mighty acts” of the one who called them out of darkness and into God’s marvellous light.

So, friends, we follow Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is our way to God—and Jesus is God’s way to us. And when we look at Jesus—his boundary-breaking love, his compassion for the sick and the forgotten, his welcome for sinners—we are looking at God. That means this: because God has come near to us in Christ, we can live as people who do good in his name. We can pray. We can serve. We can speak hope. We can act with courage. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, those ordinary acts become part of God’s “greater works.”