Sermon Tone Analysis

Parable Of The Drag-Net

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Parable Of The Drag-Net Series

Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Jan 25, 2007

Scripture:

We see in the word that when things are said twice, it is important and we should pay attention.

Seven times throughout Matthew ch13, Jesus says “The Kingdom of heaven is like”.

I think we can say it is very important for us to study to get revelation of what Jesus is saying to us.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like:

A man who sowed good seed in his field

Denomination: Baptist

A mustard seed

Leaven

Treasure hidden in a field

A merchant seeking beautiful pearls

Summary: We live in the days of ’invitation’, but there is coming a day of ’separation’ as God examines all those pulled up in the net.

A dragnet

A householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old

Parable of the Drag-Net

Over the past few weeks we have heard from Ps John, sharing o the mustard seed and the leaven.

William shared what are you allowing into your heart, for out of flows the issues of life

Ps Derrin has spoken on the hidden treasure.

We see in the word that when things are said twice, it is important and we should pay attention.

Seven times throughout Matthew ch13, Jesus says “The Kingdom of heaven is like”.

I think we can say it is very important for us to get revelation of what Jesus is communicating to us.

The Seven

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like are:

A man who sowed good seed in his field

A mustard seed

A leaven

A treasure hidden in a field

A merchant seeking beautiful pearls

A dragnet

A householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old

Fishers of Men

Of all of Jesus’ parables He has now given to His disciples, I’m sure this is the one they could relate to the best because it uses an illustration from the fishing world, and most of these guys had backgrounds from that industry.

Many of them left their nets when He called them saying, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Of all of Jesus’ parables He has now given to His disciples, I’m sure this is the one they could relate to the best because it uses an illustration from the fishing world, and most of these guys had backgrounds from that industry.

Many of them left their nets when He called them saying, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Of all of Jesus’ parables He has now given to His disciples, I’m sure this is the one they could relate to the best because it uses an illustration from the fishing world, and most of these guys had backgrounds from that industry.

Many of them left their nets when He called them saying, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Types of Nets

There were 2 different kinds of nets used by fishermen.

A casting net is small, bell shaped, and an individual could use it by himself.

The other kind of net is a drag-net, and is much larger.

In Bible days a drag-net could cover as much as 1 square mile of water surface area.

A group of fishermen would spread out the drag-net between 2 boats and would drag it toward the shoreline.

By the time they got the net to shore it would be filled with all sorts of sea creatures.

Men on the shore had the task of going thru the catch and separating the good from the bad.

It was simply man making a living.

They would separate the useful from the useless, the edible from the bluegill!

It was discrimination which led to separation.

Invitation and then Separation

This parable reveals to us tonite what God is doing among lost people today.

The gospel of the kingdom involves two things: invitation and then separation.

The sea in the parable is representative of lost humanity.

It’s a sea of despair and hopelessness.

It’s a deep, dark abyss of iniquity.

The net is the church, extending the gospel invitation.

In this day of grace God is using us to throw out the gospel invitation.

I, for one, am very glad to live in this age of grace, where I could so freely be saved, and now can freely invite others to do so as well.

May we never get tired of casting the net / giving the invitation at the end of the service / witnessing to others in the sea.

But then once we get to shore, there will be a separation.

I.

The Invitation

The gospel is available to the entire sea of humanity, people of every kind.

Nobody is so high the net cannot reach them, and none are so low that the net cannot descend to them.

None are so small that the net cannot embrace them.

None are so big that the net cannot wrap around them.

None are hopelessly lost.

v. 47 The gospel is available to the entire sea of humanity, people of every kind.

Nobody is so high the net cannot reach them, and none are so low that the net cannot descend to them.

None are so small that the net cannot embrace them.

None are so big that the net cannot wrap around them.

None are hopelessly lost.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

2 of the most beautiful words in the Bible are ‘whosoever will’!

The up and coming folks and the down and out.

Religious Nicodemus needed to be born again, and so did the thief on the cross.

The gathering.

The ideal church will have mixture of rich and poor, black and white, and everything in between.

Lady Huntington, a 19th century wealthy noblewoman, was personal friend of w/ George Whitfield, the great evangelist.

She had gotten saved during the great Welsh revival.

Someone asked her how a woman of her background came to be saved, she replied,

…not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

She continued, “notice that it does NOT say, ‘not any’, but not ‘many’.”

Not many rich get saved because their wealth gives them a false sense of security.

Jesus said such conversions ‘hardly’ happen.

But he also said, what does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul!

The gospel net does indeed gather fish of every kind.

William Colgate founded his company over 100 years ago.

He was an avid Christian, and his church were praying for souls to be saved, and for church growth.

A poor woman had been attending and came forward for membership.

Churches in those days would take a vote on receiving someone new into the body, and someone voiced opposition to the poor woman joining.

Colgate stood and said, “we need to go back and re-make our prayers.”

He elaborated, “we have been praying for God to save sinners, but we need to specify what kind of sinners we want Him to save!”