Outdoing Jesus: Seven Ways to Live Out the Promise of "Greater Than", (Paperback)

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…" Greater things...than the miracles of Jesus?? Is this something that you or I think about or acknowledge in our lives? Have any of us ever even heard a sermon about surpassing Jesus' miraculous signs? Yet, Jesus Himself made a definitive declaration. They "will do even greater things than these." Outdoing Jesus by Doug Pagett explores this promise, this statement, this word of Jesus. Yet, he points out, perhaps these "greater things" are not "bigger miracles" as we might think upon an initial reading. The miracles themselves usually pointed to larger truths about the nature of God and humankind's response. No, Jesus said "GREATER things," not necessarily "BIGGER miracles." Pagett outlines the miracles in the Gospel of John. With each miracle, Pagett details at least one way that this miracle on a larger scale would better humanity and the human condition while in these earthly bodies. He then looks at ways in which humankind is indeed now tackling these issues on a larger scale, affecting larger amounts of people rather than the few that each of Jesus's miracles physically helped. For the typical individualistic American Evangelical reader, books like this may make them uncomfortable at times, as it seems to advocate for works of social justice to be done both inside and outside of the church. Jesus Himself however said to "love your neighbor as yourself," not "love your neighbour as an agenda to get him to attend your weekly meeting." As members of Pagett's Minnesota Church Solomon's Porch recite as part of their weekly liturgy, followers of Jesus are therefore called "to be a benefit and blessing to all the world." Indeed, when asked about the nature of "who is my neighbour," Jesus responded with the least-likely, highly despised, apostate of people, indicating that indeed everyone fits into the category of "neighbour."