Sermon Study Guide

Q1: What is a period in your life when you experienced the most growth? What were the circumstances around that time?

Q2: Jesus spoke in parables because the listeners were proving to have all sorts of different responses to the Gospel. Even in the face of undebatable holiness and miracles, the scribes and Pharisees were adamantly against Jesus. The parables were not meant to hide, but to be revealed. Thus, the listener (like the soil) had a role to play in the fruitfulness of the Gospel being sowed. Which of the soils do you find yourself relating to the most?

Q3: The Parable of the Growing Seed describes the mystery of how the seeds grows to fruition. There is no mathematical formula for how the Gospel grows, and it cannot be coerced. How does this alleviate your stress knowing that God has His own way and timing for things of the Kingdom?

Q4: The Parable of the Mustard Seed describes something small growing into something huge proportionally. The Kingdom of God was something the people at the time expected to start off big. But God’s design was something small, the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and growing up in Nazareth. Would this be how you expect God to change the course of history?

Q5: There have been countless positive effects of the Kingdom of God as inducted by Jesus. The caring for the marginalized (orphans, widows, the poor, the sick). A community of equal worth and dignity for all. And a framework of ethics, justice, mercy, and love. Which of these do you feel is most important for a follower of Christ today in 2025 and why? Which do you feel has been most lost in today’s Christian landscape and churches?

Q6: Which part of this message on the Parables of the Kingdom of God surprised you the most? Which part resonated with you the most? How do you feel knowing that even just a tiny ounce of Kingdom of God can have a massive impact?