The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide illustrates Jesus’ teaching about the final judgment. In this parable, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a large fishing net that indiscriminately captures all kinds of fish. At the end of the age, angels will separate the righteous from the wicked, just as fishermen sort good fish from bad. This separation is inevitable and emphasizes the reality of judgment and hell. Jesus spoke about hell more than any other biblical figure, highlighting its significance. The parable serves as a stark warning about the eternal consequences of one’s choices and the importance of embracing the kingdom of heaven.
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
By Pastor Delbert Young
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Audio
.
WATCH SERMON VIDEO
.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Scriptures: Matthew 23:33, Isaiah 5:14, Matthew 13:47, 48, 49-50, Matthew 13:41-42, Matthew 5:22, 29, 30, 8:12, 11:22-12, 23:33, Luke 10:15, 12:5, 16:23, Matthew 10:28, Mark 9:48, Matthew 25:41, Matthew 13:51, 52,
How many feel it is a privilege to study and be taught God’s Holy Word? We finish up our Kingdom Parables series today. It’s been a privilege for me to teach you this. I hope it’s been a privilege for you to study it.
- Jesus described the kingdom in a series of seven parables.
The first two parables described the SOWING of the kingdom. They are about the different soils/hearts the message of the kingdom is sown into and how the tares/children of the evil one are sown alongside the good seed/children of the kingdom.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
- The second two parables
The second two parables speak of the POWER of the kingdom as the mustard seed grows to massive proportions, not being limited by its tiny beginning, filling the entire earth. As a piece of leaven mixed into a lump of new dough, the kingdom will permeate the whole earth, affecting every dimension of human life.
- The third two parables
The third two parables – Treasure Hidden in a Field and Pearl of Great Price – speak of the INCOMPARABLE VALUE of the kingdom. A person is a fool not to sell out to acquire it; the only way to acquire the kingdom is to sell out.
Today, we will look at the 7th and final parable of the Kingdom Parables.
- It’s the final parable for all of us and for all everywhere.
It’s about JUDGMENT DAY, which we will each and all encounter. No one is immune to this parable, whether the person is in the kingdom or not. It’s about the separation of the damned from the righteous.
- As I told you, Jesus spoke about the kingdom more than anyone. He also spoke about hell and judgment more than anyone.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Speaking to the legalistic religious generation of his day, the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, Jesus said,
Matthew 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, HOW CAN YE ESCAPE THE DAMNATION OF HELL?
It seems strange to hear those words from our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we portray as always positive and encouraging. However, he said more about hell than he said about love. He said more about hell than all other bible preachers combined. If I modeled my preaching after Jesus, whom I should, hell should be a primary topic. It’s not, and this convicts me. It convicts me because it’s not fair to you. I worry sometimes my not preaching hell more could contribute to some being dammed to it.
A Yahoo question online reads, “I want to go to hell. How do I guarantee to get there?” There are several answers suggested. I saw a web page titled “I want to go to hell.” It’s a discussion page. A primary thought is all their friends will be there, so hell will be fun. They don’t want to be around religious extremists for eternity. So, they are looking forward to death and hell.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
- This is the ultimate deception.
There is no way to describe hell. No horror we know can compare. No living person has any idea of it, and no person ever pictured a place as utterly terrible. Furthermore, no gifted writer ever accurately wrote the description of hell. No nightmare anyone ever experienced produced the terror of hell. No murder scene or sickening wound ever accurately pictured the damnation of hell. In this parable, Jesus Christ warns about hell.
There is a separation of the damned from the redeemed.
Every minute, every person moves toward this separation. Today, 250,000 to 300,000 people will die and enter this separation. Sadly, most will go to hell.
Isaiah 5:14 Therefore HELL HATH ENLARGED HERSELF, AND OPENED HER MOUTH WITHOUT MEASURE: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
There’s no limit to hell’s numbers. Hell does not discriminate concerning a person’s glory, pomp, or attitude. It simply sucks in all it can. What a parable we are about to study! Let’s begin.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Matthew 13:47-50 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven IS LIKE A NET that was let down into the lake and CAUGHT ALL KINDS OF FISH.
- Fishing in this form was something all were aware of as it was with the soils, the tares/weeds, mustard seed, leaven, the treasure, and the pearl.
Fishing was a huge enterprise and way of life. Some of the disciples did this for their life’s income. There were/are three basic ways to fish. There is the line and hook, which we associate with relaxing and enjoyable, catching fish one at a time (Mat 17:27) and there is casting a net (Mat 4:18). This is a circular net. On the outer perimeter of the circular net are weights. The net is gathered together in a certain manner to be spun out, making a circular net trap that sinks, trapping fish. Pulling a rope attached draws the outer weights together sacking the net capturing everything inside the diameter of the net. I’m very efficient at those two fishing skills.
However, the net in this parable is sagene, which means “seine” for fishing. It’s a seine net or a troll/drag net. It’s a sizeable net from a half mile to a mile let out from a boat. It required a large boat to carry the net. One end is attached to the shore or another boat. As the boat(s) pulled away from the first end, a combination of floats on the top of the net and weights on the bottom caused the net to hang perpendicularly, moving through the water like a vertical wall from the floor to the surface.
The boat(s) moves in a large circle releasing the massive net. As it completes the circle or comes back to shore, everything within the circle is captured and dragged on shore. NOTHING ESCAPES.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
This is the ultimate in capturing/catching fish.
Everything is captured. The catch is a conglomerate – all are captured. No fish, large or small, young or old, escapes. There is no escape from this net.
Matthew 13:48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they SAT DOWN AND COLLECTED the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.
- The central figures in the parable are the fishermen.
They collected the good but threw the bad away. They sat down. It’s a slow, deliberate, unhurried, accurate, knowledgeable process of sorting out all in the net – the good and the bad. This was a common scene to the people watching and listening to him from the shore.
Matthew 13:49-50 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and SEPARATE the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
- There is an angelic separation at judgment.
Jesus emphasized the separation. His entire sermon has been about the good and the evil growing together. God allows evil, but a time comes when he makes a separation. The separation is inevitable. Little by little, seemingly silently, the net moves through the sea of time, capturing all men and women, boys and girls, to the shore of judgment and eternity for one purpose – SEPARATE. This is what Jesus warns.
It is indiscriminating in that it catches everything. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE THIS NET. It moves silently toward your life, directing you, almost unknowingly, to shore – eternity. How chilling!
- Jesus taught this same thing in the parable of the tares/weed and wheat.
Matthew 13:41-42 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is the only aspect of the parables Jesus repeated. He didn’t repeat the soils, the mustard seed, leaven, treasure, or pearl. He repeated about hell.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Matthew 13:49-50 THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE at the end of the age.
No matter how we think it will be, THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE. At the end of your age, THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE. Only two things happen to each and every person. They are #1 born, and they #2 die. You can shorten it or maybe lengthen it, but THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE. Call it the resurrection of the dead. Call it the great white throne judgment. Or call it anything you want. THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE AT THE END.
Matthew 13:47 “ONCE AGAIN, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE A NET…
- Jesus emphasized hell again and again.
He says, ONCE AGAIN. We underemphasize the avoidance of hell (at least I do). However, the net moves every moment of every day. Though invisible and unseen to those far from it, it’s closing in.
How many of us have, at some point, been touched by the net? Perhaps you experienced a close call with death and the grave? As a fish would, you could flip/dart away from the net, postponing the separation. “Whew! It was close.” We made promises. Perhaps we kept them. Probably not. No matter. The net continues to move closer and closer and closer through the deep sea of life. It’s a wall. You will not escape.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Eventually, you dart to only run into the net on the other side. It surrounds you. No matter the flipping and flopping, no matter the promises of change, the net drags you to shore.
People do not see God moving in the world, but he is moving. People ask why there is evil in the world. God’s moving. People do not see God moving on their lives. They dart and flip from the net, but God is moving closer and closer. Every person will be dragged to shore. Eventually, inevitably, the kingdom will engulf them all.
Matthew 13:50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- What a horrible, horrifying, fearful verse of scripture!
Hell is not fun, no matter how many friends you have there. The screams of their torment and agony will only add to yours.
If there were any doctrine of scriptures we wished was not there, it’s this one – hell. However, this does not change the fact it’s there. Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else. It’s because had he not taught it, we would doubt those who did. We cannot conceive eternal damnation and eternal torment. Jesus preached HELL. He talked more about the kingdom than anyone. Also, he talked about HELL more than anyone.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Matthew 5:22, 5:29-30, 8:12, 11:22-23, 23:33
5:22 …But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of HELL.
5:29-30 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into HELL. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into HELL.
8:12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 11:22-23 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to HELL
23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of HELL?
Luke 10:15, 12:5, 16:23
10:15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to HELL.
12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into HELL; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
16:23 And in HELL he lift up his eyes, being in torments…
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
This was a constant part of what our Lord Jesus taught. Jesus told an entire story about a man who died and went to hell. Hell is difficult for us to believe. It’s so terrifying we can’t relate, and I don’t preach it much.
- However, I must preach hell.
(1). HELL IS A PLACE OF UNRELIEVED TORMENT.
Hell is horrible misery. It’s OUTER DARKNESS. It is darkness with no pixel of light. It is black, black darkness. It’s darkness all around. You don’t know which way you face. You can’t determine your next step. There is no hope of light forever. Have you ever been in darkness and longed for a glimmer of light? In hell, there is no hope for a glimmer. Darkness forever, but not only darkness – FIRE. It is tortuous, unrelieved fire. It won’t stop burning, and the burning is agony and pain all over.
The response to hell is not fun with your friends. It’s weeping and wailing in such intense suffering your teeth will not stop grinding. It’s hell.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
(2). HELL IS UNRELIEVED TORMENT FOR BODY AND SOUL.
Not only is the body in torment, the soul is in torment. The worst migraine cannot compare to hell. It never stops. It’s eternal, with no hope of the pain in your soul ending. You who have migraines perhaps have a glimpse of hell. Those of you who experienced a heart attack have a glimpse of hell. It is unrelenting pain in your heart with no hope of the pain ever ending or relenting. Those in hell are forever tormented in soul and body. Those in Christ receive a new, healthy, energetic body and soul.
Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in HELL.
Mark 9:48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
- Interestingly, Jesus said, “Their worm does not die…”
Worm is skolex in Greek, which means grub, maggot, or earthworm. Have you ever witnessed maggots alive in anything? It’s disgusting. They work and burrow and wiggle by the thousands in the decaying body. Jesus describes the most disgusting, horrible thing to relate to hell. Your own maggots never stop eating, working, burrowing. The one in hell is in eternal decay, eaten by their own maggots. The fire – the worst pain imaginable – never stops burning. The brain never stops hurting. The heart never stops hurting.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
(3) HELL IS NOT MEANT FOR YOU. HALLELUJAH!
Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels
- Teaching the separation of the sheep and goats, Jesus said hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.
You don’t have to go there. You select to go there. By rejecting the king and his kingdom, you decide to go there. You go there by being path soil, stony soil, or thorny soil, and by being a tare/weed, you go there. Also, you go there by not planting the mustard seed or allowing the leaven to ferment. Furthermore, you do not acquire the treasure or pearl, and you go there. These are the parameters of the kingdom. These choices determine what those angels, separating at the collection of the net, do with you.
- Jesus, after explaining the parables privately to his disciples, asked,
Matthew 13:51 “Have you understood ALL these things?” Jesus asked. “Yes,” they replied.
Understood is suniemi meaning to put together, i.e. (mentally) to comprehend. Jesus asked, “Have you put all this together in your minds? Have you comprehended what I’ve taught?” They said, “Yes.” Have you? Do you get it? Have you understood ALL these things? Oh, YES, we reply, but do we? All these things establish the parameters of the kingdom and what the angels will do with each of us. If we truly got it, how can we not harass our loved ones until their or our last breath?
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Matthew 13:52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
You can’t teach the true gospel—good news—much less understand the kingdom unless you get this. Jesus said, “If you get it, then (therefore) you are like a person with the new and the old. You bring them out when necessary.” You have the Old Testament and the New Testament—Old and New. So, you have the Old and New Covenant to work with. Having this is a treasure.
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
The Net Parable: Embracing the Reality of the Great Divide
Other Related Sermons:
Kingdom Net – sermon video audio notes
Cast Your Net sermon video audio
Hell – What About Hell? sermon video audio notes
Parables of the Kingdom sermon series video audio notes
Coming Of The Lord Part 1 Audio
Also see: