8/30/25 The Hand II The Hand You Follow

Day to day we typically follow patterns of activity. For those who are punching a clock, for those who are caretaking, raising children, teens and young adults, routine is what keeps you on track & how you tell whether you are ahead of schedule or behind schedule. Through the structures of the routines in your life we gage our effectiveness & or influence over our purposes in having these set routines. These routines though are what we follow. Sometimes following can be influenced by the culture. The culture around us that we operate in can influence these followings because as we know trends in technology, as well as what is culturally acceptable influence what we follow or how we follow.

Last wk. we discovered the Potter who formed us a vessels to carry his Holy Spirit also laid the foundations of all that has been created, material, immaterial & life both in the physical & in spiritual realm. We left off by discovering some of those in creation have become sworn enemies of God & are filled with malice toward mankind despite being made to dwell in harmony & created in love by the hand of God. That hand is the Messiah. He built this place, all you see came from him.

The creation however went astray. Just as the fallen angels, mankind fell. Destruction, terror, mayhem has resulted. Eventually resulting in the state we are in now. Remember a wayward creation is on longer in unison with the creator, when this results dysfunction occurs, corruption emerges. This dysfunction is a sign that the world is run by the enemies of God & they want to lead you, your life, you direction & use the emotions God put inside you to lead you astray. The disciples, the original 12 lived in this kind of world. They were ruled by foreign occupation, they had corrupt leaders spiritually who covered their tracks well enough it was not exposed and they dictated cultural leadings, but yes they were still corrupted. So if you cannot follow a cultural leading because it is corrupted what do you do?

Not ironically the Potter, the hand of God has a solution.

https://www.newstartdiscipleship.com/post/21-times-jesus-said-follow-me

1. Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17 “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus is addressing a small portion of the original disciples. They were professional fishermen. Not educated, working third shift, but dedicated to their faith, raised in a household with traditions to the torah. So why would Jesus say follow mw & emphasize their priority of what they are fishing for? He is talking about how they support their family here so what is wrong with what they are doing, & their following tradition?

2. Matthew 8:22, Luke 9:59– To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” …”Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

The audience here was a young man whose father had not passed, but he wanted to do this in his retirement. In other words he wanted his inheritance first. We can all somewhat identify with this because the money equation is a worldly good & the love of it is the root of all evil, not money itself. The question we can ask is why this young man could not have both. Perhaps there is something about following Messiah that is not clear by the literal reading of this.

3. Matthew 9:9, Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27– After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”

Levi who you would know better as Matthew is the audience. This man is one of the most hated in all of the culture. Tax collectors in the Jewish culture were people who became rich by selling out their own people and took a cut before giving it to the Romans who ruled over them. They were not loyal to their people and definitely not loyal to the torah. Money was their love, and Jesus says to him what he says to the young man who wanted his inheritance first. Levi would not be considered a church going guy. In modern church circles it would be like inviting a pagan to take the Messiah. The chances of success are pretty nil because there is a huge contrast in values. But what if there is something we do not see in this?

4. Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23 – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Messiah speaking with the 12 here. Let’s look at the sequence, to come after they have to deny the self. That is not be selfish, not give into the sin nature having self-control. Then taking up the cross an instrument of death & transporting it on the regular as you follow Messiah. This is a journey, Messiah is in the lead, the call is to let him lead even if it is to the point of persecution & death. This is heavy. Now we can see the weight of the call but the value of which is not yet stated without an understanding culturally.

5. Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22 – Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Here Messiah is speaking with a very wealthy young man who is wanting to be affiliated with the first celebrity who drew thousands & cultural attention without provoking it. We see for a 3^rd time that money is a factor in the call before following him. The invitation comes with a command to give up wealth for the gain of treasure in heaven, this is immaterial invisible treasure of unspecified value because it requires faith. The same faith in the one you are called to follow. Essentially it is worldliness aspect of what we are almost all guilty of overconsuming in the world. Lord help us in that.

6. Luke 14:27 – Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Messiah points out the goal of following him as we get deeper into the cultural understanding. Emulation. He wants us to be a disciple. One who practices, preaches & models who he is to the world boldly. This is last mentioning by Luke on this. Notice the cross is ours. We own it & it must be bared. This means die to the self & emulate Messiah.

7. John 1:43 – The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

Phillip comes from a Greek background, heeded this call & became more than a disciple, he became an apostle. This should give us an idea as to what to expect when we follow him.

8. John 10:27 – My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Here is the key aspect, realizing who we are dealing with here. Messiah is also a shepherd, embodies the character traits of such, that would make us sheep which is less than flattering but definitely the truth. The key here is recognizing the need for a shepherd and following his voice.

9. John 12:26 – If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Here is where we conclude our depth, there are 3 more left but this will complete our understanding of the aspect of following. John 13:36, 21:19, 21:22 are what remains. Here the hand that we are following calls us servants, the reward of which is being honored by the Father.

So how do we do this exactly? Anyone ever remember back in your childhood, you would grasp hands with your parents, or your grandparents and letting them lead you? You trust them, you willingly followed when you gave up your self, what you wanted, how you wanted because you trusted them.

The Hand of God, righteous & mighty wants you to take his hand and follow him from day to day, hour by hour & let him lead you through the dysfunction & Corruption of this life because he has something better than what this world offers!