Download Session Content
Eating Together
Please refer to the conversation cards sheet above.
Dwelling Together
Matthew 13:1-23 (NRSV)
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!”
10 Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
‘You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. 18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Are there any details that stick out to you?
Do they highlight anything to you that you haven’t noticed before?
Learning Together
The Father Sows The Son
It is Jesus’ instruction to us that, in order for us to operate successfully and intentionally within God’s kingdom and will for our lives, we must first start by sowing Him, the Word, the Master Seed, whenever we purpose to do anything. Jesus tells us just this in Mark 4: 13-14. As Jesus finished giving the disciples the Parable of the Soils, they asked Him to explain the parables to them. He gives them the answer to their question as well as the foundation key to operating successfully in His kingdom— God’s kingdom, as He starts to explain this parable. He says, “The sower sows the word” (v.14).
Don Judd Ministries, 2018, The Master Seed – The Father Sows the Son
What does it mean in my context to ‘sow the word’?
Does it always involve speaking?
Jesus' Parable Sow Seeds of the Kingdom
There is an intriguing, dynamic power in each of Jesus’ parables. Because Jesus doesn’t tell the crowds how to interpret his parables, we know that their special power lay in the way they would draw those who heard them to ponder the many possibilities for understanding them. The many possibilities might each, in their own way, lead listeners, past and present, closer to welcoming the Kingdom of God they were intended to proclaim.
Clifford Yeary, 2015, Jesus’ parables sow seeds of the kingdom
For me, what is the most intriguing or upsetting aspect of the parable of the sower and the seed?
What kind of harvest can I hope for? tenfold? thirtyfold? a hundredfold?
Scattered Seeds
I can imagine that those listening were empathetic with the farmer who had lost his seeds to birds, heat, and weeds. But I also wonder if they questioned the farmer’s gardening skills. This farmer did not seem to be intentional about where he was throwing his precious seeds. Maybe he should have inspected the fields better. Maybe he should have buried the seeds deeper. His methods may have seemed unorthodox, but this story may have a missed meaning for us.
In this parable, we usually like to take the role of the sower…But what if we aren’t? What if we aren’t the ones in control of spreading the seed, but instead we are the seeds—people being spread by God, the heavenly farmer, across various circumstances with the expectation for us to grow where we are?
God wants us to produce fruit wherever we are…He promises that the seeds He sows will not be in vain, but will grow and flourish in peace. (Isaiah 55:10-13).
Rashad Burden, 2014, Scattered Seeds
Should we be intentional about where we scatter seeds?
When I listen to the parable of the sower, do I imagine myself as the sower, the seed, or the soil?
How does this affect my understanding of the parable?
Reflecting Together on: What is Evangelism?
Gathering wisdom from the group:
What is our message?
How would you explain the good news to someone who had never heard it before?
Suggested content from Engel & Norton, What’s Gone Wrong With the Harvest? (1975):
- ‘A simple presentation of the plan of salvation, often containing little more than a few major propositions backed up by several Scripture references, is likely to make little sense to a person who doesn’t know what the Bible is, let alone its claims about God, the nature of man, and the uniqueness of Jesus’ (Engel & Norton, 1975: 47).
- “Success” in evangelism ‘does not require a prayer of commitment, but it does require discernible movement’ along the scale (Engel & Norton, 1975: 58).
Look at the Engel Scale handout – What can we learn about evangelism from the Engel scale?
Suggested content from Laurence Singlehurst’s Sowing, Reaping, Keeping (2006):
- Singlehurst argues that many ‘people’s subconscious definition of evangelism is seeing people saved’ (Singlehurst, 2006: 22). Because this is their definition, they are disappointed and become disillusioned when their evangelism “doesn’t work”.
- ‘So what is evangelism really? It is meeting people at whatever point they are at and, through that encounter, their picture of God and the church is changed. Through this change, step by step, they see that the gospel message is good news for them and relevant to their situation’ (Singlehurst, 2006: 25).
Spend some time discussing and reflecting with the group:
- Could someone be a “good” evangelist while never seeing anyone “come to faith”?
- Would you agree that the evangelist’s role is simply to scatter seed, and that whether the seed produces fruit is God’s concern, not ours?
Group Activities
Group Discussion
John 4: 35-38
- Jesus said to them, “I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”
- What is the difference between sowing and reaping?
- Using the cards, sort the examples of evangelistic strategies into two categories – SOWING and REAPING. You may find that this is hard to do and lots of the examples could be either sowing or reaping. That’s great – talk about why the examples are hard to categorize.
Reflecting together on: What is evangelism?
Suggested content from Everts & Schaupp, Pathway to Jesus (2009):
- Mark 4:26-29
‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
- Everts and Schaupp use these verses from Mark’s Gospel to argue that conversion is both mysterious and organic.
- Mysterious: ‘Again and again we found ourselves marvelling at transformations that we never would have anticipated and shaking our heads in frustration at those who seemed near to faith but never got there. The gospel seeds that had been planted in some grew in spite of the weakness of our efforts. Other seeds which we tended with great care never took root’ (Everts & Schaupp, 2009: 19).
- Organic: ‘The farmer in the parable can see different stages of growth and act accordingly. Seeing this organic nature of heading to Jesus has freed us from the temptation to see conversion as primarily binary’ (Everts & Schaupp, 2009: 21).
- ‘If our most sophisticated understanding of the path to faith says that our neighbour is either a Christian (‘on’) or not a Christian (‘off’), then we tend to have just as unsophisticated a response to them. (Everts & Schaupp, 2009: 21).
- ‘This image Jesus paints is full of tension, isn’t it? At the same time it underlines the mysterious, uncontrollable nature of conversion (the farmer sleeps and yet the seed grows in ways he can’t understand) and the need for work (scattering seeds, harvesting with the sickle)’ (Everts & Schaupp, 2009: 22).
- Everts and Schaupp argue that there are five thresholds that must be crossed in the postmodern path to conversion, outlined in the image below. (Everts & Schaupp, 2009: 23-24).
Suggested content from Ireland & Booker, Making New Disciples (2015):
- ‘Unless rooted in prayer and contemplation, evangelism is always in danger of becoming a merely human endeavour, with success or failure being keenly felt by the evangelist as somehow their personal responsibility’ (Ireland & Booker, 2015: 66).
- ‘The paradox is that evangelism is both God’s work and ours… Intercession is as essential a part of the work of evangelism as proclamation… Furthermore, it is only when we take time to know and listen to God that we are able to align our efforts and energies in accordance with his will’ (Ireland & Booker, 2015: 66).
- ‘The time of greatest spiritual growth is not when all is going well and flourishing, but when everything is stripped away and we are left alone with God’ (Ireland & Booker, 2015: 68).
- ‘Too often we equate the growth of the kingdom of God with the growth of the Church’
(Ireland & Booker, 2015: 69). - Evangelism as risk-taking: ‘perhaps “success” in evangelism should be measured not in how many come to us, our courses and events, but how far we have been willing to go to reach the lonely, the lost and the broken with the good news of God’s grace’ (Ireland & Booker, 2015: 69).
Prayer Activity
We pray for those who hear the word of the kingdom and do not understand it…
For ourselves…
for our local communities…
for our world…
We pray for those who have no roots and fall away…
For ourselves…
for our local communities…
for our world…
We pray for those who are choked by the cares of the world and the lure of wealth…
For ourselves…
for our local communities…
for our world…
We pray for those who hear the word and understand it, who bear fruit and yield thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold…
For ourselves…
for our local communities…
for our world…