13. THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER (Luke 8:4-15)

BACKGROUND: The parable of the sower was the first parable of Jesus, a kind of an agenda for his three years of public ministry.

1. Why did Jesus compare the Word of God with a seed? Find as many similarities as possible.
   • What did Jesus want to say about his coming ministry through this parable?
      
2. In what concrete ways does the Devil take the Word of God away from our hearts (verses 5,12)?
   • How can we prevent the thing described in verse 12 from happening to us?
      
3. Look at verses 6 and 13. What kind of testing can cause a person to fall away from the Christian faith?
   • What were these people in vs.13 rejoicing about in the first place?
   • What does Jesus mean by a Christian who doesn't have any "roots"?
      
4. How can "life's worries, riches and pleasures" choke the Word of God in our lives (vs. 7,14)?
   • Why do riches seem to be a bigger problem for a Christian than poverty is?
   • What do we have to do if we realize that worries, riches and pleasures are little by little separating us from the Word of God?
      
5. How does bad soil become good soil (vs. 8,15)?
   • What are the conditions on which a human life can bear fruit?
      
6. Which of these four soils fits best into the state of your heart at this moment? (You can answer in your heart.)
    
7. What does Jesus mean by a hundred-fold crop (vs. 8)?
   • Why do many Christians in our day expect "the crop" in their lives to grow overnight?
      
8. What does this parable teach us about evangelism?
   • What does this text teach about "power evangelism"? (If you don't know the term, you can skip the question.)
      
9. In the Bible, Jesus is equal to the Word of God (The leader may read John 1:1). What are the similarities between Jesus and the seed?

GLAD TIDINGS: Jesus said the following during his last night on this earth: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless the kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds... He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die" (John 12:23-33). Accordingly, the seed in this parable is nothing else but the word of the cross.