Jesus Is Making Us Into Something
“And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
—Matthew 4:19
Jesus did not merely invite His disciples to follow Him. He also made them a promise:
“I will make you.”
Those four words tell us something essential about discipleship. Jesus receives us as we are, but He does not leave us as we are.
A disciple knows Jesus savingly and is growing to look like Jesus visibly.
When Peter, Andrew, James, and John began following Jesus, they did not instantly understand everything. They did not immediately shed every sinful habit, conquer every fear, or comprehend God’s entire redemptive plan.
They had much to learn, and Jesus had much to change.
The Patient Work of Jesus
Peter is perhaps the clearest example.
In Matthew 16, Peter correctly declared that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commended him and explained that this truth had been revealed to him by the Father.
Only a few verses later, however, Peter attempted to rebuke Jesus for speaking about His coming suffering and death. Jesus responded with the startling words, “Get behind me, Satan!”
One moment Peter was confessing Christ correctly. The next moment he was opposing the very mission Christ had come to accomplish.
Peter truly belonged to Jesus, but Peter was still being shaped by Jesus.
The same is true of us.
Following Christ does not mean that we immediately become perfect. Christians still stumble. We misunderstand. We fail to obey. We sometimes speak with confidence when we should remain quiet, and remain quiet when we should speak with courage.
But Jesus does not abandon His disciples when they stumble. He continues the work He began.
From Head to the Heart
Cultural Christianity allows knowledge about Jesus to remain safely in the mind without changing the heart, character, priorities, or conduct of a person’s life.
Biblical discipleship is different.
What we know about Jesus begins to move from our heads into our hearts. His truth changes what we love, what we pursue, how we speak, how we treat others, how we use our time, and how we respond to sin.
This transformation is not produced through willpower alone. Everyone who truly belongs to Christ has been given the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works within us, progressively making us more like Jesus.
The blood of Christ is not only powerful enough to forgive us. It is powerful enough to make us holy.
That does not mean Christians never sin. It means that sin no longer has the same welcome in our lives. The things that once appealed to us begin to lose their taste. Conviction becomes sharper. Repentance becomes more regular. Love for Christ grows stronger.
There should be a visible pattern of change.
Perhaps you are more patient than you were a year ago. Perhaps you are quicker to confess wrongdoing. Perhaps your appetite for Scripture is growing. Perhaps you are becoming more generous, more compassionate, more courageous, or more willing to serve unnoticed.
The growth may feel slow. At times, it may seem almost imperceptible. But the question is not whether you have reached perfection. The question is whether Jesus is making you into something increasingly recognizable as one of His disciples.
Clay in the Potter’s Hands
Scripture compares God to a potter and His people to clay.
Clay cannot shape itself. It must remain beneath the potter’s hands.
Sometimes that process is uncomfortable. God exposes our pride, interrupts our plans, removes things we have trusted, and places us in circumstances that reveal how much growth is still needed.
But the Potter is not careless. He knows exactly what He is making.
The pressure of His hands is never meaningless. His correction is not rejection. His pruning is not abandonment. He is shaping His people for their eternal good and His eternal glory.
We should therefore ask ourselves:
Where is Jesus presently changing me?
What sin is He calling me to put away?
What act of obedience have I been resisting?
What characteristic of Christ does He want to make increasingly visible in my life?
Jesus calls us to follow Him, but He does not leave the work of transformation entirely to us. He makes this gracious promise:
“I will make you.”
Let us remain humbly and willingly in the hands of our Savior.
This article was adapted from the sermon “A Disciple Knows, Grows, and Goes,” based on Matthew 4:18–22, preached by Doug Modic at Cornerstone Bible Church on October 1, 2023.
—Matthew 4:19
Jesus did not merely invite His disciples to follow Him. He also made them a promise:
“I will make you.”
Those four words tell us something essential about discipleship. Jesus receives us as we are, but He does not leave us as we are.
A disciple knows Jesus savingly and is growing to look like Jesus visibly.
When Peter, Andrew, James, and John began following Jesus, they did not instantly understand everything. They did not immediately shed every sinful habit, conquer every fear, or comprehend God’s entire redemptive plan.
They had much to learn, and Jesus had much to change.
The Patient Work of Jesus
Peter is perhaps the clearest example.
In Matthew 16, Peter correctly declared that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commended him and explained that this truth had been revealed to him by the Father.
Only a few verses later, however, Peter attempted to rebuke Jesus for speaking about His coming suffering and death. Jesus responded with the startling words, “Get behind me, Satan!”
One moment Peter was confessing Christ correctly. The next moment he was opposing the very mission Christ had come to accomplish.
Peter truly belonged to Jesus, but Peter was still being shaped by Jesus.
The same is true of us.
Following Christ does not mean that we immediately become perfect. Christians still stumble. We misunderstand. We fail to obey. We sometimes speak with confidence when we should remain quiet, and remain quiet when we should speak with courage.
But Jesus does not abandon His disciples when they stumble. He continues the work He began.
From Head to the Heart
Cultural Christianity allows knowledge about Jesus to remain safely in the mind without changing the heart, character, priorities, or conduct of a person’s life.
Biblical discipleship is different.
What we know about Jesus begins to move from our heads into our hearts. His truth changes what we love, what we pursue, how we speak, how we treat others, how we use our time, and how we respond to sin.
This transformation is not produced through willpower alone. Everyone who truly belongs to Christ has been given the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works within us, progressively making us more like Jesus.
The blood of Christ is not only powerful enough to forgive us. It is powerful enough to make us holy.
That does not mean Christians never sin. It means that sin no longer has the same welcome in our lives. The things that once appealed to us begin to lose their taste. Conviction becomes sharper. Repentance becomes more regular. Love for Christ grows stronger.
There should be a visible pattern of change.
Perhaps you are more patient than you were a year ago. Perhaps you are quicker to confess wrongdoing. Perhaps your appetite for Scripture is growing. Perhaps you are becoming more generous, more compassionate, more courageous, or more willing to serve unnoticed.
The growth may feel slow. At times, it may seem almost imperceptible. But the question is not whether you have reached perfection. The question is whether Jesus is making you into something increasingly recognizable as one of His disciples.
Clay in the Potter’s Hands
Scripture compares God to a potter and His people to clay.
Clay cannot shape itself. It must remain beneath the potter’s hands.
Sometimes that process is uncomfortable. God exposes our pride, interrupts our plans, removes things we have trusted, and places us in circumstances that reveal how much growth is still needed.
But the Potter is not careless. He knows exactly what He is making.
The pressure of His hands is never meaningless. His correction is not rejection. His pruning is not abandonment. He is shaping His people for their eternal good and His eternal glory.
We should therefore ask ourselves:
Where is Jesus presently changing me?
What sin is He calling me to put away?
What act of obedience have I been resisting?
What characteristic of Christ does He want to make increasingly visible in my life?
Jesus calls us to follow Him, but He does not leave the work of transformation entirely to us. He makes this gracious promise:
“I will make you.”
Let us remain humbly and willingly in the hands of our Savior.
This article was adapted from the sermon “A Disciple Knows, Grows, and Goes,” based on Matthew 4:18–22, preached by Doug Modic at Cornerstone Bible Church on October 1, 2023.
Posted in Multiplication Moment
Recent
Archive
2026
January
March
No Comments