17: The ministry of the Gospel, the Word of God (Luke 8:1 – 21)

This chapter opens by identifying those who supported the ministry of the gospel. It then reveals the nature of that ministry by showing how different kinds of hearts respond to God’s word, and how those responses determine its fruitfulness. Finally, it teaches that receiving and obeying the word of God gives rise to a new community—a new family—namely, the family of God.

👉 Read Luke 8:1 - 21

Q1. Who helped Jesus' ministry? 

ANS: They were twelve disciples, women who were healed, and women who supported and followed Jesus' ministry. 

A small Jesus' community started. Note that women participated in Jesus' ministry which was not usual in those days’ culture.

Q2. Why did Jesus explain in parables? (v9-10)

ANS: It was to enlighten the truth only through an encounter with Jesus. When the disciples did not realize it, the Lord explained the parables.

Understanding the Bible is the same. Only with the enlightening of the Holy Spirit and the Lord's grace can you understand the words correctly. The religious leaders failed to understand the gospel because they had rejected the Lord.

“The one who has ears to hear had better listen.” This statement confirms the dual purpose of the parable: hiding and revealing.

Q3. The four places where the seed falls represent four kinds of hearts. The seed represents the word of God. The heart of the roadside has the word snatched away by the (      ), and thus fails to believe. The rocky soil receives the word with (    ), but has no (    ), so it quickly falls away in a time of (    ). The heart among thorns is crowded with (     ), riches, and the pleasures of (     ), and therefore the fruit never ripens. The heart of good soil (   ) to the word with an (   ) and good heart, and bears fruit with steadfast (    ).

The heart of the roadside has the word snatched away by the ( devil ), and thus fails to believe.

The rocky soil receives the word with ( joy ), but has no ( root ), so it quickly falls away in a time of ( testing ).

The heart among thorns is crowded with ( worries ), riches, and the pleasures of ( life ), and therefore the fruit never ripens.

The heart of good soil ( clings ) to the word with an ( honest ) and good heart, and bears fruit with steadfast ( endurance ).

Interestingly, in the case of the roadside, the Bible describes the Devil as the one who snatches away the word, making it seem as though the field itself is innocent. Yet responsibility still remains with the heart. Regardless of who causes the loss, the roadside heart is accountable for the consequence—failure to believe and, ultimately, no salvation. The problem of such hearts was being like roadside that doesn't receive God's word at all.

Unless one earnestly longs for and guards God’s word, the Devil will snatch it away as soon as it is sown. 

And surely, a time of testing will come.

Not ‘pleasure of the world’ but ‘please of life (βίοs).’ He is not talking about life in a spiritual sense (like zoē, ζωή, eternal life), but rather ordinary worldly living — work, money, comfort, enjoyment, and material pursuits.

Q4. The one who has will be given more. The one who does not have will be taken away what he thinks he has. Why is it so? (v16-17, hint: 'what he has' refers to something other than material)

ANS: “What he has” refers to the knowledge of Jesus and the gospel. God reveals the truth to us not so that we would hide it under a bed, but so that it may shine brightly. Therefore, when we proclaim the Lord to the world, God entrusts us with even more, so that the gospel may spread further. However, if we keep the gospel to ourselves and fail to share it, our faith weakens, and we may begin to doubt even what we once knew.