The Net

Matthew 13:47–50 NASB95

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Introduction

When I was a young man I got to spend my summers in Bolivar, right off the jetty. My cousins and I would take the seine net and make a pass to get shrimp for bait or to get shrimp and fish for food. It was a slow deliberate process. It was hard work, but if it was done right the payoff at the end was good. You never knew what you were going to get until you got the net out of the water and to the shore. Then the sorting would begin.

Jesus told the disciples he would make them fishers of men. So, this is a fitting parable that his fishermen disciples would understand.

Outline

There will be good and bad until the final Day of Judgment

Matthew 13:47 NASB95

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind;

Every kind is gathered into the net. This type of fishing isn’t what we think of as fishing. No rod and reel. This is a drag net.

The fishermen don’t pick out fish while they are still fishing. When they are dragging the net, they get whatever gets caught in it.

It is not our job to separate them.

Much like the wheat and tares, the good and bad fish will live together until the Day of Judgment. As much as we would like to separate ourselves from the world, that is not going to happen. We are all in the same net.

iii. Even then, the angels will do the separating not man.

b. When we fished fishing the last thing we would do is sort the catch. We would catch sand trout, mullet, gaff tops, shrimp, crabs and other stuff we couldn’t name. We kept the good stuff and discarded the bad.

You don’t know what you have until the very end

a. When your fishing with a dragnet, a heavy net is encouraging, but we did not know if it was all good or all bad until we were on the shore. It is no different in the church.

We don’t know what we have in the church and around us until the end.

A large church doesn’t guarantee that everyone is saved.

It is not about mere numbers. We have people around us who profess to be Christians that are not. It is not our job to sort them out. It is our job to love them and teach them and help them grow. After all, who are the only people who know if you are saved, or not? You and God.

ii. We have people around us who profess to be Christians that are not.

1. Like with the net, you may get a glimpse of one that you know is promising. We would look down every now and then and see a good looking fish down in the water. As we do life together, we get a glimpse of God’s big fish around us, but that is not the whole picture.

We will be surprised by what is, and isn’t in the net.

Devout men and women are drawn in.

People who are truly looking for God are drawn to Jesus Christ and as we discussed a few weeks ago, people who aren’t looking for Jesus are drawn in.

Others are drawn in for social reasons, but not for the gospel.

Some people come to church because it is the right thing to do. That is not a bad reason to come here, but it is not the reason that will keep them here. We see churches uses all kinds of methods to get people in the door. I am all for most of these if they bring people in where they can hear the gospel message. But we have to be careful that church does not merely become a social club. There will be people, even in church, who are not saved. We need to know this.

Others are drawn in because it looks interesting.

Some people who are in church got here because it looked interesting. The fellowship may interest them, the food, the break from tending their children. It may be they heard the preacher is someone they would like or that there is a Sunday School class they would fit int. We can’t assume that because they are here, they are saved.

1. – Not everyone who says to me…

Matthew 7:21 NASB95

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

A sifting will occur

a. The gospel message is to be proclaimed in all the earth, to every nation and tongue. It is like the net being cast wide.

i. – wills that none should perish.

2 Peter 3:9 NASB95

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

There are those drawn to the kingdom who are not part of the kingdom..

c. The fishermen were looking for specific fish that met their criteria. Anything else was not acceptable.

i. Illustration - The fishermen have no problem casting aside fish that don’t meet the standard. It may look like a good fish, but the fisherman knows what is valuable and what is not. Deadliest Catch - only looking for crab, everything else gets tossed.

ii. God’s standard is not movable. It is not on a sliding scale or a bell curve.

God’s standard is not movable.

It is not on a sliding scale or a bell curve. It is not negotiable. When we try to change God’s standard, we are saying that we know better than God what is good. Rewriting the rules is our way of calling “tov.” Just because we call something good, does not make it good.

John 14:6 NASB95

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 3:16 NASB95

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Conclusion:

2. – Whoever believe is Him shall not perish

Conclusion:

Jesus gives this simple short parable in a manner his listeners would understand. Remember, he is teaching on the beach, with his disciples, who were fishermen.

· Everything looks the same while the net is in the water. We cannot judge. We are not cleaning the catch, we are casting the net. Every now and then we think it is our job to stop pulling the net and start sorting. That is not our job! Don’t make final judgments on people or situations that we know are not final.

· The good is mixed in with the bad.

· It is not until the sorting that we will see God settle His accounts.

· A good fisherman understands that when he casts his net, everything that comes up will not be keepers. That doesn’t stop him from sweeping wide.

· As the gospel is spread, the net is cast. It takes time. Sometimes it takes several passes to get the fish you want.

· Our job is to fish. God will determine how good our fishing was, not us.