Rev. Johnson V.
27th March 2011

The world teaches us to look out for ourselves, to stand on our own, to ensure our interests are met first. In contrast, God instructs us to put others before ourselves, to have the heart and attitude of a servant and to benefit from the collective obedience and holiness of believers in our community and even the whole world. In this second part of the study of our Lord’s parables, we will look at Mathew 13:47-52, the parable of the net.

Understanding the Kingdom of Heaven

The parable likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a net. What is the Kingdom of Heaven? There are 2 aspects of the Kingdom.

1. What we see and know about it, from the past and the present - it is a spiritual kingdom, it is temporal and limited.
2. What we understand will take place in the future – the Kingdom of Heaven will be eternal, political and a physical presence.

The Kingdom, as we know it today, is wherever our Lord Jesus is honored as King. If our Lord Jesus is King over all aspects of our lives, nothing else can have lordship and authority. Though the kingdom of darkness will oppose the spiritual growth of a child of God, if we obey and follow God’s principles in our lives, spiritual laws will ensure that we will grow and move forward despite opposition. 

The Parable of the Net

In this parable, the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a large fishing net, a dragnet, that is cast into the sea of humanity to catch people and save them from hell into heaven. Fishing nets are made by intertwining and knotting individual strands to each other so as to create a mesh with holes large enough for water to seep through, but small enough to retain even the smallest fish. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net.

And our Lord Jesus Christ is pulling it through the sea of humanity. Caught in the net are people, who are on their way to heaven, from hell. The Church (i.e. body of believers) plays an important role in bringing people to the point of their salvation. It can be said, that the individual strands of the net are individual believers who are meshed to other believers. Without the net, it would be impossible to catch people and bring them to redemption. God has chosen to work through His people. However, if the net does not move in unison, tension is created which ultimately makes a hole in the net. When holes appear, fish that are in the net will be swept back into the sea. Many times people have turned away from God and His amazing gift of salvation, because they are offended by what they see in the Church. The Church is sometimes known more for disunity, infighting, disobedience to God’s Word, quarrels and corruption, than it is known for being God’s messengers. Let us pray that we never lead a person astray either intentionally or unintentionally.

The parable goes on to say that at the end, just as fishermen separate good fish from the bad, the angels will separate the good from the bad. Just because we attend church, it does not automatically entitle us to a pass to heaven. We must work out our salvation everyday.

God has cast His net into every walk of life, through us, in order to establish His Kingdom. He is waiting to pull us through. O watchman, don’t let anyone get away on your watch!