Big Idea

The Kingdom of God is like a fishing net set to collect as many souls as possible. The concern is not with the kind of people “caught” in the divine fishing net, rather, the concern is just for the net to be filled. We are to join God in spreading the Kingdom net by sharing the good news of Jesus. Our job is not to offer the Kingdom only to people we see as worthy. Our job is to offer it to as many as possible and let God deal with sorting it all out in the end.

Prayer

“Gracious Father, give us the wisdom and courage to partner with you in spreading the Kingdom Net as far and wide as possible. Help us to become unconcerned with who is in the net and deeply concerned with how many are gathered.”

Introduction

Today we begin a 3-week series called Hooked. And because I know some of you are wondering, it’s NOT a series about pirates. However, it is a series about fishing, fisherman, nets, and the wide open (metaphorical) sea.

In Jesus’ time fishing was a very common and important activity. In fact, many of the original disciples were fishermen, many of Jesus’ parables involve fishing, and the area around the sea of Galilee was where Jesus did the majority of His earthly ministry.

Fishing was an integral piece of New Testament life, and learning to become “fishers of men” was an integral piece of New Testament discipleship.

And unless you’ve never been fishing before or never seen a Bass fishing tournament on ESPN you know that fishing requires: Patience, Skill, Mental and physical strength, A willingness to get your hands dirty, The right tools.

Actually, now that I’ve said all this out loud, it seems like fishing sounds a lot like ministry. Maybe that’s why Jesus made the connection in the gospels. Maybe that’s why the metaphors and parables still hold so much value for us today, even though we’re thousands of miles and hundreds of years apart from the original disciples and their communities.

So what’s so special about fishing? And why would we spend the next three weeks talking about nets, fishermen, and the sea? The short answer is, because Jesus did.

Our job, as ambassadors of Christ, is to join God in spreading the kingdom net by sharing the good news of Jesus.

Main Teaching/Body

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves we need to talk about the kind of fishing we’re referring to in this series which is the kind of fishing Jesus was referring to in the gospels.

Specifically, we’re talking about net fishing as opposed to line fishing. And net fishing is, as you’d imagine, the practice of throwing a large net into the water either from the shore or from a boat and scooping up as many fish as possible in the net as you pull it up. This is generally speaking, the practice referred to in our main passage for the day from Matthew 13:47-48;

“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 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.”

Like a Net

Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a net ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium