THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER

Matthew 13:1-23

Key Verse: 13:23

But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Read verse 1-3. How did Jesus manage the large crowd of people who came to listen? What is a parable? 

Read verses 4-9. What were the 4 kinds of soil and the outcome of the seed scattered in each? (Describe each in detail.) 

Read verses 10-13. What was the disciples’ question? Why did they ask this question? Why was it good for them to ask? What has been given to them and not to others? Why? How did Jesus explain his reason for speaking in parables? 

Read verses 14-17. How were Isaiah’s words in Isa 6:9-10 fulfilled? How are the disciples different from the crowd? In what way are they greatly privileged? 

Read verses 18–21. What is the seed? What does the “seed sown along the path” represent? What do the “rocky places” represent? What happens to seed which falls there? What does the hot sun represent? (6,21) 

Read verse 22. What happens to the seed that falls on a thorny heart? What do the thorns represent? Read verse 23. How is the good-soil heart different from the other three? How can soil become good? How can heart soil become fruitful?