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In this parable about the dragnet in Matthew Chapter 13 verses 47 to 52, Jesus encourages us to regard these spiritual matters seriously. He certainly did. This parable is about sorting, separating and judgment.

God and sin are incompatible. God and sin do not mix.

There are so many people who know very little about Almighty God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and heaven and grace and mercy and forgiveness.

Many people have been used and misused and abused and discarded when they are no longer of any use and such people need to know of the God of grace and mercy and the way he accepts men and women who come to Him seeking or searching or just curious to begin with.

These seven parables give us a whole range of teaching and instruction with regard to Christian service.

They give encouragement, and reassurance, and they produce a certain degree of excitement, and they should give us a degree of confidence in what we do in Christian Service.

But we also see the reality of how things can go wrong, and how people can disappoint. We see that so clearly in the sowing of the seed.

We could become demoralised, and we could have a sense of failure, and that can in turn distract us from our Christian service.

These parables are given in a background of considerable solemnity – read again verse 39 and verse 49.

Grinding of teeth suggests rage and resentment rather than repentance.

There is the end of the age, and a judgement.

The net comes last in this section. You keep on fishing, and it is not just one throw of the net. As long as there are fish, the fishermen will cast their net.

There was never a perfect catch – all kinds of people get gathered in – and there had to be a separating. There is a terminus.

Jesus asks in verse 51, “Have you understood?” “Yes!” Then, do not keep it to yourself.

It is present there in the first parable in Chapter 13, about the sower and the seed. All this is so much more than intellectual acceptance. Understanding means and includes our turning or returning to Almighty God.

In verse 52, we read about the storeroom and going in and taking things out to give to other people. That can be teaching – testimony – money – fruit – truth – there are no restrictions or limitations.

We are back to treasure again. There is treasure to be received and gained in Christ. There is provision to be gained from Christ. There are riches to be given away. As we have freely received, so we freely give, and we do all this in the light of an eternal destiny.

When Jesus taught, the people were astonished. How can he know all these things? How did this man acquire all this wisdom? Now, we need to teach our people the whole truth.

As you read on, the people say that they know his father and mother. They thought they knew his family well and probably they did – in one sense! We have his half brothers named here!

But – virtually the entire community had closed its mind to Jesus Christ. They knew so much about Jesus over a considerable period of time, but they were closed to who he really was.

The community limited Jesus Christ, and that is a significant and tragic insight.

When God moves and speaks people have to make a decision, either in faith or in unbelief.

Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost, and lost implies that there is value. People are disconnected from God and deceived by Satan, and diverted from God’s plans, and sometimes even defeated by their own impulses.

Note the reality in these parables. The message of Jesus rang true and rings true. These were not just mere words. There was power behind the words which his hearers could not explain, and sometimes neither can we.

Life with Jesus Christ has meaning and relevance. Jesus gripped these people and got their attention – for a season. His words must have been like earthquakes in people’s hearts and minds.

They can still be like earthquakes as they shake our lives.

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

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