Parable of the Net – 7
When I was a kid growing up in North Queensland we had this holiday house on the beach at a place called Cardwell
• We would spend most weekends up there playing on the beach, swimming, fishing, beach nut tree fights
• The area had islands, rivers and mangrove swamps so it was ideal for all sorts of fishing
• We all loved shrimp or prawns, as we used to call them, and so we would love it when dad and one of the neighbors would get out the drag net and we would go dragging along the beach for prawns
• The net was a rectangular net about ten meters long and about two meter high. It had a pole on each end so the net could be pulled along parallel to the beach, one in the water and one on the beach
• It also had weights or sinkers on the bottom side so as to keep the net on the bottom as it was dragged along
• They would drag the net along the beach for a while then the one out in the deep water would swing his end around towards the beach and when he reached the beach both would drag the net up onto the beach
• You had no idea what was in the net until you reached this point so the anticipation would grow as we watched the net being dragged up onto the beach
• Of course we were hoping for prawns, but the net was indiscriminate in what it picked up as it was dragged through the water
• So besides prawns, there were usually some small fish, like “toadies” or puffer fish, seaweed, and various bits of flotsam and jetsam
• We would gather up the prawns and when we had half a kerosene tin full we would triumphantly march back up to our house to boil them over a fire and devour them
Today we are going to be looking at the last of Jesus’ Parables of the Kingdom – the Parable of the Net
• Matthew 13:47-49 (NRSV)47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous
• So we see the net representing the kingdom gathers up everything in its path, the fish obviously representing human beings but also the flotsam and jetsam representing the rest of creation
• We have already seen in the other parables we have been looking at that the kingdom of God doesn’t just touch human beings it is mysteriously working through the whole creation - “the whole creation groans and travails in pain” Rom 8:21-22
• Its interesting in the Book of Revelation when describing the New Heavens and the New Earth uses similar imagery to describe the new spiritual creation as is used to describe the physical creation
• We have streets of Gold, foundations of precious stones, living waters, the tree of life, the various animals etc
• The whole creation not just humanity will be redeemed by the saving work of the “Lamb” of God
Something important to notice here on the subject of Judging
• No judging is done until the net is drawn up onto the beach
• While the net representing the kingdom is being dragged through the water, it is indiscriminate in what it collects, the good, the bad, the useful and the useless
• In the sea, all kinds of fish and all kinds of junk simply coexist
• A day of judgment is coming pictured by the sorting when the catch arrives at the beach, but prior to that event, nothing is rejected
• But it is an important distinction we need to make as the church representing Jesus Christ’s work on the earth
• If Jesus Himself said, John 12:47 (NKJV) 47 I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. What business then does the church have in thinking it has the right to judge the world
• The church needs to be very careful it doesn’t mount its moral high horse and condemn a world Jesus Himself does not condemn
• We will get to whom He condemns shortly
A second caution for the church is to avoid the temptation of acting like a sports fisherman who is only interested in catching barramundi
• The net of the kingdom does not discriminate and drags all sorts into the kingdom, the old boots, the beer cans, the bottles etc
• So the church needs to avoid the habit of rejecting as junk the flotsam and jetsam of the world
• James in his epistle cautions the church about this type of discrimination in Jas 2 (Rich and poor visitor)
• The churches role now in this age is to imitate the kingdoms non-judgmental way of doing business
• Jesus didn’t shy away from sinners and neither should the church
• Yet too often the practice of the church has been to toss out the rotten members while the net is still in the water
• We happily welcome into our midst week after week those who have itsy-bitsy sins like gossiping and little white lies, but God help those who fornicate or get drunk or lose their will to stay married
• It is only the church that makes the distinction between the gravity of sins
• Too often the church takes on a role that belongs to the Holy Spirit. Reform is His role. He’s the sanctifier, He’s the comforter, He’s the encourager, He’s the Helper
• What happened to the church being a spiritual hospital? Its like tipping the sick patient out of his sick bed onto the street
• Yet what we tend to do as the church is roll out the Ten commandments and decide to give the Holy Spirit a hand to reform the church and the world
• That has already been tried and it doesn’t work
• Galatians 3:21-22 (NKJV) 21 ….For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
• If the Divine Jawboning on Israel at Mt Sinai didn’t work, why do we think it will work now?
• Our problem is we don’t trust the process God has put in place
• We don’t trust the sanctifying role of Holy Spirit. We think its too slow, its ineffective, and it doesn’t work
• But this is part of the mystery of the Kingdom of God. Whether or not we can see it working it is there, just like the leaven is unseen or the seed unseen, or the treasure hidden in the ground is unseen
• Yet this parable shows God is happy with the progress of His kingdom is making and after all, it His fishing business?
Let’s move on to the sorting process
• Finally the whole mess, the prawns, the toadies, the good, the bad, the flotsam and jetsam, the beer cans, the bottles is dragged up onto the Millennium beach
• Its interesting that at the judgment, everyone experiences the power of the resurrection
• Everyone is raised to stand before the righteous Judge Jesus Christ, so everyone experiences His resurrection power
What is the criteria by which the fish is sorted? Good and bad
• We automatically assume that the separation is based on the goodness or badness of the person, in other words a moral decision
• But is this what is meant?
• When we went fishing for prawns, what were we after? Prawns, so what did we keep?
• What did we do with the Puffer fish? Does that mean the puffer fish were bad morally?
• So the criteria we used to decide what was kept and what was ditched was by species, we put the prawns into the kerosene tin and ditched the puffer fish
• What would we do if some of the prawns were diseased? Throw them out! Does that mean those prawns were morally bad?
• What if we caught a barramundi while we were dragging the net? Would we throw it out because it was not a prawn?
• In all of this, who was deciding what was kept? The fisherman
• So the criteria for acceptance is based on what is acceptable to the fisherman, not their moral status
Now I can see some minds churning right now and some furrowed brows
• All I will ask at this stage is, “Was the thief on the cross accepted on his moral status?”
• He was put into the “save” bucket purely on His acceptability to Jesus
• On what basis then was He accepted? Faith in Jesus
• And this had better be true because if it isn’t, none of us will be accepted! Know Why?
• Romans 3:23 (NLT) For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
• And what does Jesus say about how many are “good”? Matthew 19:17 (NKJV)17 No one is good but One, that is, God
• We need to believe one undeniable fact. No one goes to heaven because of a good track record any more than anyone goes to hell because of a bad one
• Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV)8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
So we see Jesus on the millennial beach with the whole world standing before Him
• Which is precisely what He said would happen, “If I am lifted up I will draw all men to me. John 12:32
• And He basically says to them;
o I have already lived the perfect life you could not live for you
o I have already paid the death penalty for all your sins with my death on the cross
o I have already defeated spiritual death by rising from the grave so you can be Born Again so you can spend eternity with me
o All you have to do is accept my sacrifice on your behalf and you can join me at the heavenly party. What do you say?
• And it is how we answer this question that decides who goes in to the good bucket and who is left flapping on the beach
• The only ones left flapping on the beach are those who willfully reject the free gift
• Some of these unfortunately will be those who still think their “works” play some part in their acceptance
• And as we get into the next set of Jesus’ parables, the Parables of Grace, this will unfortunately become all too evident
• So the sorting, fortunately for us, is done by the same Savior who hung on the cross beside that thief who accepts us according to His criteria not necessarily the criteria of our fellow Christians
• The same God who stands there as our Judge fortunately also stands there as our Savior
• John 5:22 (NKJV)22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
• No one else, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit, and certainly not the church gets in on the act
• The angelic bailiffs under the direction of Jesus Christ get to do the separation
• And its interesting that the word used for “evil” here is much stronger than the one used for “bad” in the v.48
• It has the sense of being “willfully bad” and is the word used to describe the “evil one” himself
• So the angelic bouncers take these willfully bad ones and pitch them out on their ear so they don’t ruin the heavenly party to which they too were invited but they refused the invite
• This is why heaven will be populated by forgiven sinners and Hell will be populated with forgiven sinners. The difference is one group accept the forgiveness while the other rejects it
