I am a Jesus pusher!!! While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus confronts Peter and Andrew again. He calls these fishermen, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). He wants to make (poieo) them into something new. What they are is what they know. What they know is their present security. It is comfortable. It may not always be pleasurable; but it has the feeling of certainty. The disciples are quite willing and even anxious for the Roman domination to end. They are willing for their situation in Galilee to be different. They readily see the need for change all around them, but they do not yet comprehend the needed change must come in them. At this moment they have no way of visualizing Jesus forming them into the moving force that will utterly change the world in seventy years. They will indeed become fishers of men. Their response must be “faith!” They must invoke the activity of the Second Party. Will they trust Him to reform them?
Paul vividly describes this formation for us (2 Corinthians 3:7-18). His illustration is the face of Moses. The presence of God planted the glory of God in Moses’ face. The children of Israel demanded a veil to cover it. But when we turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. We stare into the very glory of His person; we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). We cannot possibly do this; will we let Him? It is by faith. I am a Jesus pusher!!