November 20, 2022
July 28, 2022
Matthew 13:47-53
Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
Think back to the scriptures we hear in our season of Lent. Luke 18 speaks about those who believe themselves better than others.
Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
While the tax collector wouldn’t even raise his eyes knowing himself a sinner.
We don’t know what we will catch when we cast our nets – only that there will be good and bad.
Who is the bad? Was it the sinner who knew he was a sinner? Or was it the sinner who refused to admit he was a sinner – because he tricked himself into believing it was his works – that he followed all the rules.
The law is important. Jesus was careful to say how important the law was, “Do not believe I have come to do away with the law. I come to fulfill it.”
When we are measuring ourselves in righteousness – don’t use others as our measuring stick. Use Jesus to measure our righteousness.
If we use others, we are using a false positive – made positive due to how we feel about ourselves.
We are all caught up in the nets. Don’t be one of the bad fish that is tossed aside.
At least that’s what I heard Him say…
What I Heard Him Say 