Taking Up Our Cross
Micah 7:1-9 – New International Version (NIV)
1 What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs that I crave.
2 The faithful have been swept from the land;
not one upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
they hunt each other with nets.
3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire—
they all conspire together.
4 The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The day God visits you has come,
the day your watchmen sound the alarm.
Now is the time of your confusion.
5 Do not trust a neighbor;
put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
guard the words of your lips.
6 For a son dishonors his father,
a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.
7 But as for me, I watch in
hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.
8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
the Lord will
be my light.
9 Because I have sinned against him,
I will bear the Lord’s
wrath,
until he pleads my case
and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
I will see his righteousness.
What doesn’t the gleaner of the vineyard
find to eat (verse 1)?
Who has been “swept from the land” (verse 2)?
What are “both hands” skilled in (verse 3)?
What time has come (verse 4)?
Who should you “guard the words of your lips” with (verse 5)?
Who are “a man’s enemies” (verse 6)?
Who will the writer “wait for” (verse 7)?
What will the Lord be to the writer, sitting “in darkness” (verse
8)?
Why will the writer “bear the Lord’s wrath” (verse 9)?
Who will plead the writer’s case and uphold his cause (verse 9)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In your opinion, what does this
passage teach us about taking up our cross?
Matthew 10:34-42 - New International
Version (NIV)
34 “Do not
suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring
peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
“‘a man
against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members
of his own household.’
37 “Anyone
who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who
loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever
does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever
finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will
find it.
40 “Anyone
who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one
who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a
righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And
if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my
disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
What did Jesus “come
to bring” to the earth (verse 34)?
Where will a man find enemies (verse 36)?
Who is not worthy of Jesus (verse 37)?
What does someone have to “take up” daily to be worthy of Jesus (verse
38)?
What will the person who “loses their life for” Jesus’s sake find (verse
39)?
Who welcomes Jesus (verse 40)?
What will the person who “welcomes a prophet as a prophet” receive
(verse 41)?
Who will “certainly not lose their reward” (verse 42)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about taking up our
cross?
In your opinion, how does Micah’s choice in verse 7 of Micah 7:1-9 help
us understand the choice that Jesus demands us to make in Matthew 10:34-42?
Acts 17:22-32 - New International Version (NIV)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and
said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For
as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: to
an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and
this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is
the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human
hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he
needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and
everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations,
that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed
times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God
did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find
him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in
him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have
said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not
think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by
human design and skill. 30 In the past God
overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere
to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will
judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has
given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the
dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on
this subject.”
What did Paul see about the “People of Athens” (verse 22)?
Why did Paul know they were “ignorant of the very thing
you worship” (verse 23)?
Who “does not live in temples build by human hands” (verse
24)?
What does the one who “is not served by human hands” give (verse 25)?
Why did He make “all the nations” (verse 26)?
Why did God mark out the nations “appointed times in
history and the boundaries of their lands” (verses 26 and 27)?
Where do we “live and move” (verse 28)?
What should we not think that God is like (verse 29)?
What does God now command “all people everywhere to” do
(verse 30)?
How will God “judge the world” (verse 31)?
How did people react “when they heard about the
resurrection of the dead” (verse 32)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion,
what does this passage teach us about taking up our cross?
In your opinion, why does Micah’s message to Israel in Micah
7:1-9 contain his confession of sin and Paul’s message to the Athenians in Acts
17:22-34 contain a command to repent?
In
your opinion, how does Paul’s teaching to the Athenians help us understand Jesus
saying that He “did not come to bring
peace, but a sword” in Matthew 10:34-42?
Philippians 3:3-14 - New International Version (NIV)
3 For it is we who are the
circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ
Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though
I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence
in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the
eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as
for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the
law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now
consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more,
I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I
consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the
righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I
want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and
so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all
this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take
hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers
and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is
ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Who puts “no confidence in the flesh” (verse 3)?
Who though, has “more” reasons for “confidence in
the flesh” (verse 4)?
What was Paul “in regard to the law” (verse 5)?
What was Paul “as for righteousness based on the law” (verse
6)?
How does Paul consider “whatever were gains to me” (verse
7)?
Why does Paul “consider everything a loss” (verse 8)?
What righteousness had Paul found through faith in
Christ” (verse 9)?
How does Paul want to “know Christ” (verse 10)?
What does Paul want to attain (verse 11)?
What does Paul “press on” to do (verse 12)?
What does Paul forget (verse 13)?
What does Paul “press on toward the goal to win”
(verse 14)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
n your opinion, what
does this passage teach us about taking up our cross?
In your opinion, how
does Micah’s simple statement, “Because I have
sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s
wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause” in Micah 7:1-9 help us understand why Paul considered “everything
a loss” in Philippians 3:3-14?
In your opinion, how
does Philippians 3:3-14 help us understand Jesus’s statement in Matthew
10:34-42 that “Whoever finds their life will lose
it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”?
In your opinion, how
does Philippians 3:3-14 help us understand what Paul meant in Acts 17:22-34
when he told the Athenians that God “commands all people everywhere to
repent”?
In your opinion, what do these Scriptures from Micah, Matthew,
Acts, and Philippians teach us about pressing on to win the prize?
In your
opinion, how do we take up ours crosses and follow Jesus in our world today?
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