Making Disciples - who are transformed

As we read the disciples stories in the New Testament, we see the advances and the mistakes they made in the process of “becoming” like Jesus.

Mark 1:17

Being made as a disciple, finding our true self, we must surrender all. And that, we all find difficult.

In Tasmania, in a little town called Derwent Bridge, you will discover a place simply called “The Wall”. It is a sculpted wall of Huon Pine, 3 meters high and over 100 metres long, in progress since 1 March 2005. As you walk along its length, you discover sections that are just starting with pencilled sketches, other parts roughly chiselled, some that are being smoothed and rounded, and final sections that are complete down to the minutest of detail. The pictures carved out of the timber show the story of pioneering life, fauna and flora of Tasmania. Greg Duncan, the sculptor, seems to make the timber come alive, almost to breath.

As followers of Jesus, his disciples, we have the carpenter's hands shaping and moulding us. Being transformed into the likeness of the one who loves us and gave himself for us. When Jesus invited the disciples to journey with him, it was an invitation into adventure and pain, purpose and transformation.

And Jesus said to them, “follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” (ESV) Mark 1:17.

As we read the disciples stories in the New Testament, we see the advances and the mistakes they made in the process of “becoming” like Jesus. Being made as a disciple, finding our true self, we must surrender all. And that, we all find difficult. We want to hold to our own control, even when it is hurting us.

The picture of an iceberg in our Making Disciples diagram helps us understand that when Jesus said he would “make” them, it meant he wanted to shape all of the disciples' lives—their attitudes, thinking, the interaction with their feelings, their past hurts, their wrong assumptions and expectations and more.

My encouragement to us today is simply this, surrender all to Jesus and work with him in the process of transformation. He knows you, loves you and sees all that you can become in him. He will not force his way, but through his steady and creative hands, yielding ourselves, great works of wonder come forth.

God bless

Pastor Stephen