Lesson 13 – The King’s Kingdom Described
Read Matthew 13 – www.bible.com/bible/59/mat.13

We who are humans, living with minds that cannot understand eternity, have no way of understanding God’s kingdom. So Jesus used a series of stories to tell us something about His kingdom – Heaven. From Jesus’ explanation to His disciples of two of these stories, or parables, we can understand the rest as well.

The parable of the sower and seed tells us that Jesus casts His invitation to be part of His Kingdom without regard to where it falls. We read in 2 Peter 3:9 that God wants all people to come to repentance, so He gives everyone an opportunity to hear and understand. But just as some ground will not accept the seed, so some people will not accept His invitation. The second parable (starting in verse 24) is almost the same, except here we see the influence of evil trying to keep the seed from being fruitful in the ground where it is able to root. In Ephesians 6 we read that our enemy is one we cannot see, so we cannot fight him by ourselves.

The parable of the mustard seed tells us Jesus’ kingdom will be much greater than the part of it we can see with our eyes.


So far we have seen a logical progression from beginning to the end of kingdom growth. The next two parables tell us how Jesus bought the kingdom. For the Jews, Christ came to purchase (redeem) Israel, God’s treasured possession. For the Gentiles – the pearl is from an unclean sea creature so it cannot represent the Jews – Jesus gave His life to provide redemption for the church.

The parable of the net tells us at the end of time God will gather together all human beings who have ever lived on earth – good and bad. He will sort through them according to His “book of life,” as we are told in Revelation 20:11-15.

Even with the stories Jesus told us in this chapter about His kingdom, the Bible still says in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that we have not seen or heard or even imagined in our minds what heaven will be like – it is far more glorious than we are able to comprehend! It’s more important than anything this world can possibly offer us, for all that is here is only temporary – Jesus’ kingdom is eternal.

*What is the seed that’s planted for the kingdom (see verse 19)?
*Why did Jesus tell about His kingdom in parables (see verses 10-13)?
*Thought questions: What is more important to you than His kingdom? What does God ask you to give up for Him?