Kingdom parables receive a major emphasis in Matthew 13. The first 52 verses either give a kingdom parable or explain a kingdom parable.

1. What is a sower?
   1. What kind of seed was he planting?

   2. How did a person sow seed?

2. Some seed fell on the pathway.
   1. Why was that a problem?

   2. What happened to that seed?

3. Some seed fell on rocky ground.
   1. What is rocky ground?

   2. Why was that a problem?

   3. What happened to the plants that sprouted from this seed? Why?

4. Some seed fell on among or upon thorns.
   1. What does that tell you about the presence of the thorns?

   2. What happened to the plants that sprouted from the seed? Why?

5. Some seed fell on good soil.
   1. What happened on the good soil that did not happen on the rocky soil or the soil with thorns?

   2. Was all of the good soil equally productive? Explain your answer.

   3. Please note that the soil that produced thirty measures and the soil the produced a hundred measures were both "good soil." So, what made soil "good soil" in this parable?

   4. In this parable, what would be considered "good soil" in the kingdom?

Jesus' explanation of the Parable of the Sower:

1. In the parable, what do the four kinds of soil represent?

2. The "pathway" heart:
   1. How does this person respond to "the word of the kingdom?"

   2. What does the evil one do?

3. The rocky ground heart:
   1. How does this person respond to the word of the kingdom?

   2. What is the problem within him?

   3. What does his response to the word of the kingdom produce?

   4. What immediately happens?

4. The heart with thorns:
   1. Does this person respond to the word of the kingdom? Explain your answer.

   2. What chokes the word of the kingdom in his/her life?

   3. What happens to the word of the kingdom in his/her life?

5. The good soil heart:
   1. Describe this person.

   2. Do these people produce the same results in fruitfulness?

Things to note in regard to the kingdom:

1. The word is sown indiscriminately; the sower did not pick his soils.

2. It was not regarded to be a waste of the sower's time or seed to sow on every type of soil.

3. The internal reality, not external realities, determine a person's response to the word of the kingdom.

4. External factors do not make one truly receptive; one's receptivity is determined by his or her heart.

5. It is a kingdom disaster when people have hard hearts, shallow hearts, or crowded hearts.

6. The basic purpose for being in the kingdom is not to claim citizenship, to affirm credentials, or to evaluate the claims and credentials of others; one is in the kingdom to be productive.

7. Share any important lesson the parable teaches.

David Chadwell

Jesus' Kingdom Parables Study Guide (part 2)
Wednesday evening Bible class, 10 June - 18 November 1998
West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR

Copyright © 1998
Permission is granted to freely copy and distribute with text unchanged, including author's name.

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