Please turn with me to Matthew 13 - starting at verse 47.  We’re looking at Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God - what it means for us to live subject to the reign and movement of the sovereign God within His universe.  We’ve been seeing Jesus teaching large crowds of people using parables.  Illustrations using what was familiar to His hearers.  But illustrations which prompted questions and gave Jesus an opportunity to explain in more detail about the Kingdom of God.  If you’ve been with us that should sound pretty familiar.  Right?!!?

Beginning in Matthew 13 - verse 36 - Jesus and His disciples leave the crowds and go into a house that was there in Capernaum - on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee - a house that was a base operations for Jesus.  They go into this house and Jesus begins to explain in detail what He’s been teaching the crowd - again using parables.  But, with more explanation.  Its kind of a small group study where the disciples get the inside information about what God is doing in His Kingdom. 

Coming to Matthew 13 - starting at verse 47 - we’ve come to the last of these parables - the parable of the Dragnet.   Look on the screen or your Sermon Notes and let’s read this parable out loud together.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away.  So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

A dragnet was a long net - spread out in the shape of a semi-circle - weights on the bottom - floats on top - dragged through the water up to the shore. The purpose of the dragnet is to gather good fish.  But its indiscriminate.  It gathers all kinds of fish.  Some fish are good - edible - having retail value.  Bad fish were rotten - ceremonially unclean - not good eating.  Until the net gets dragged onto shore we really don’t know what’s been gathered.  So sorting begins.  Good fish are gathered into containers.  Bad fish are thrown away.

One fish.  Two fish.  Good fish.  Bad fish.  Its like Dr. Seuss. There is an ordered certainty to this.  Its what happens when the net gets dragged up on the beach.

The dragnet symbolizes what?  The Kingdom of God.

The sea is what?  The world.

The fish are who?  People - all kinds of people.

Do you remember the four notes to Dragnet?  Try it.  Dumm de dum dum…  Dragnet is what Jesus is talking about here.  Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon - or if you really want to date yourself - Officer Frank Smith.  “This is the city.  Los Angeles, California…”   A police dragnet sweeping through the City of the Angels - bringing in all kinds of people to be investigated - judged - as to their being good or bad.

In verse 49, Jesus ties the familiar imagery to the end of the age.  Angels do the sorting.  The wicked are taken out - and thrown in the furnace of fire - a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

That should sound familiar.  Jesus said something similar when He was talking with the crowds about the weeds and the wheat.  (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)   Remember this?

Jesus sows good seed - God’s people.  The enemy - Satan - comes and sows weed seed in the same field - those who are following Satan and working against the Kingdom of God and God’s people.  The plants grow up together - indistinguishable.  Can’t really tell who’s a weed and who’s wheat.  Good seed - bad seed.  At harvest - when Jesus returns - the weeds are taken out - separated from the wheat - and burned.  Judgment that’s coming.  The weeds get bundled and burned - forever.  Unending weeping - sorrow - gnashing of teeth.

But, the wheat - those who love God - the wheat is never in danger.  God is in control.  God’s people are protected - gathered into God’s barn - heaven.  There, they shine - glowing in the presence of God forever.   Which is Jesus’ emphasis.  Leave the weeding to God.  Be His seed where He’s planted you.  God is taking care of the rest.

In the parable of the dragnet - even though there’s similarity - Jesus’ emphasis is different.  Here - with good fish - bad fish - Jesus’ emphasis here is on the what happens to the bad fish.  He briefly mentions the good fish being saved in containers - in heaven - with God.  But, he emphasizes the fate of the wicked.  Eternal separation from God.  Eternal torment.  Hell.  Nasty place.  Very real.  Things are not looking good for the bad fish.

In verse 51 - Jesus takes everything He’s been teaching the crowds - all of the small group discussion He’s been having with His disciples - the parable of the dragnet - and brings it together - applying it to the lives of His disciples.  Verse 51 - Jesus asks His disciples a question.  “Have you understood all these things?”  They said to Him, “Yes.”

A scientist was using the inductive method to observe the characteristics of a flea.  Plucking a leg off the flea, he ordered, “Jump!”  The flea promptly jumped.

Taking another leg off, the scientist again commanded, “Jump!”  The flea jumped again.

The scientist continued this process until he came to the sixth and final leg.  By now the flea was having a little more difficulty jumping, but it was still trying.  The scientist pulled the final leg off and again ordered the flea to jump.  But the flea didn’t respond.

The scientist raised his voice and demanded, “Jump!”  Again the flea failed to respond.  For a third time the scientist shouted at the top of his lungs, “Jump!” but the hapless flea lay motionless.

The scientist then made the following observation in his notebook:  “When you remove the legs from a flea, it loses its sense of hearing.”  Have you heard that?  (1)

There is a point where we do understand what Jesus is saying.  God’s people end up with God.  Satan’s people end up with Satan - tormented forever.  We’re living side by side now.  But God’s going to sort it out in the end.  So, keep living for God today.  There was the teaching about the mustard seed and the leaven.  Those were part of the same explanation.  The greatness of the Kingdom - what we are a part of.  The unstoppable spread of the Kingdom.  Confidence building illustrations for the seed.  Hang in there.  Trust God.  And then there was the hidden treasure and the pearl - the greatness of God’s love that compels our giving everything in response.

Do we understand that?  Did the disciples understand that.  Well, yes.  To a point.  Their answer isn’t dishonest.  Its just incomplete.  Whenever someone thinks they have a complete grasp of spiritual realities, they don’t.  Intellectually they got it.  But the implications.  We see from the disciples actions that come later - that what Jesus meant was beyond where they were at.

Which brings us to verse 52 - which is the point of Jesus’ application - the next step - what to do with what we know.  And Jesus said to them.  “Therefore - because you understand what I’ve said - therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure new and old.”

Back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah - when the Jews returned from exile - from being held captive in Babylon - they arrived in Jerusalem and found the place in ruins.  The Temple - the center of worship - was destroyed.  As the people are rebuilding the city and the Temple - in order to guide the people - keep them moving forward trusting God - Ezra - who was one of the leaders of the people - took the law of Moses and began to teach the people - interpreting, explaining, and applying what Moses had written.  That was the beginning of the ministry of the scribes.  Ezra was a scribe. 

Scribes - when we think of them in the New Testament - tend to have a bad reputation - a group of legalistic self-righteous teachers.  Which is sadly what happened in the 450 or so years after Ezra.  Men went on to rigid and legalistic interpretations that were based more on their opinions that the teaching of Scripture.

But the heart of scribal ministry is interpretation - explanation - leading people closer to God.  When Jesus calls His disciples “scribes” He’s not trying to be insulting.  He’s making a point.  “You disciples are scribes.  You’ve been trained for the kingdom of God - discipled - given knowledge and understanding about Scripture and God’s Kingdom.  There are expectations of what you will do with that understanding.”

You’re like the head of household - possessors of a treasure.  You’re to bring out of your treasure new and old and use it.

The old is what?  The old covenant.  If a bull of a son of Jobab shall be let free to run without restraint and if the bull of a son of Jobab shall trample the ox of a son of Nun so that the ox of the son of Nun dies then the son of Jobab shall offer three chickens and an unblemished male goat sacrificed on the fourth day of the month of Kislev as atonement for the death of the ox of the son of Nun.  I made up the part about the chickens.

These were the Scriptures that they had.  The old covenant promises of the Messiah and the Kingdom - along with the old covenant standards of piety and law.  All of which finds its fulfillment in the new - in the living presence of Jesus Christ - His person - His teaching - His life - His death and resurrection - the reality of God’s Kingdom brought to us - here and now.  The disciple - the scribe - the householder - has both - new and old - in his treasure chest.  The scribe sees the reign and movement of the sovereign God within His universe.  That understanding has been entrusted to the scribes to be used according to God’s purposes.

Two thoughts of application.  Taking what Jesus says here and thinking it through for ourselves.  First:  The Process Of Being A Disciple.  Say that with me, “The process of being a disciple.”

How would you answer Jesus’ question?  “Do you understand what I’ve been teaching you?”

A student once asked the president of his school if there was a course he could take that was shorter than the one prescribed.  “Oh yes,” replied the president, “but it depends on what you want to be.  When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, it only takes six months.”  (2)

Discipleship involves a long - steady - purposeful - process of growth and maturity.  “Do you understand?”  “Yes” is a place to begin - a point along the way in the process.

The word here for “understand” - in the original Greek - is “sunekate” -which has the idea of perception.  Perceiving something - looking at it - understanding it - but adding to that perception - adding understanding as we go along studying what we’re looking at.  Here - what it means to live subject to the reign and movement of the sovereign God within His universe.

Many people think that becoming a Christian is like fire insurance - a way to avoid the fires of Hell and all that wailing and gnashing of teeth stuff.  Some people think that becoming a Christian is like life insurance.  Being a Christian gives us a higher set of morals - gives us a better way to go through life - provides better answers.  Some people think that becoming a Christian is like health insurance.   People come to Jesus because they’re looking for some kind of physical or mental healing.  Which - praise God - as fringe benefits of being a Christian - being a citizen of His Kingdom - God does bless us with what we need for today and an amazing future to come.

A.W. Tozer wrote this:  “May not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the Kingdom like children through the marketplace, chattering about everything, but pausing to learn the true value of nothing?”  (3)

When Jesus addresses His followers as disciples He’s going much deeper than the fringe benefits.   

You’ve seen the bumper sticker, Christians aren’t perfect.  Just what?  forgiven.  That can be such a cop out - an excuse for bad behavior - sin - cutting people off in traffic because God forgives us.  But, despite the wonderful testimony there is a truth here.  We’re in process.  A process of going deeper with Jesus.  

Church is on the front lines of a war zone.  Church is a place where stuff happens.  Church is not some marble edifice - a museum - erected to impress visitors.  This isn’t a place to hide out from whatever is out there.  We’re a gathering of real people with real issues.  Where every imaginable struggle takes place.  Where every sin is committed.  Where we’re learning to hang in there with each other - put up with each other - correct - encourage - uphold - seek God together.

On our bulletin every Sunday is our purpose statement.  “Leading people into a relationship with - who? Jesus Christ and equipping them to serve God.”  Based on what God has been doing around here there’s another way of putting that.  Hurting people helping hurting people to follow Jesus.

Church is a place where Jesus is at work transforming disciples into scribes.  Growing a Kingdom community.

The world today is desperate for true disciples of Jesus Christ.  Who understand what Jesus is saying to His disciples.  The awesome reality of the Kingdom - right here - right now.  But disciples who are willing to go deeper - to let it all hang out - to put it all on the table - to go through Jesus’ process of training - shaping - molding each of us into the people and community that He has brought us together to be.

Second thought of application.  The Purpose Of Being A Scribe.  Say that with me, “The purpose of being a scribe.”

At the heart of scribal ministry is what?  interpretation - explanation - leading people closer to God. 

There are currently 195 million unchurched people in the United States.  The United States is now the 3rd largest mission field in the English-speaking world and the 5th largest mission field globally.
70% of people in the United States have no meaningful church relationship.
Every week 53,000 people leave church, never to return.
Nearly 1,500 churches close their doors every year.

Let me bring that a little closer to home.  14.8% of Californians attend church each week.  In Merced County that number is 12.5% of the population.  That’s down from 13.1% a decade ago.  In Merced County - the number of people attending an evangelical church is only 5.8% of the population.  If we were to average out the average number of people attending churches and balance that against population growth.  To keep up with population growth - providing seats in churches for people moving into Merced County - we’d need to plant 118 churches per year.  Presently evangelicals are planting 30 churches per year.

Gene Mims writes, “A local church exists to reach people for Christ in a given location.  Its primary responsibility is to reach the people God has placed near that congregation.  Size is never the issue here.  The issue is not how many members there are but how willing those members are to see the real issue - eternal life for those who do not know Christ and are separated from Him.” (4) 

That’s the purpose of being a scribe.  That’s what Jesus is talking about.  What we need to be focused on.  What we need to give ourselves for.  All the treasures that we’ve been given - new and old - all of what we steward as householders - all of what God is doing in our lives - it all comes together in one singular purpose.   

There is a crucial importance to global missions.  I don’t want to give the impression that we’re to abandon that need.  But, the strength of the local church is that we have the opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission right here.  We are in the flash point of conflict between the Kingdom and the world.

Merced needs those who understand that the sovereign God is at work in the world and that there are temporal and eternal consequences for how we live today under His sovereignty.  It doesn’t matter if those around us are of a different race or language or culture.  It doesn’t matter if things get hard for us or we face an uphill climb.  It doesn’t matter if it means sacrifice on our parts - doing without our own gratification.  Its our responsibility - following the directions of Jesus - in obedience to Jesus - -using everything He has blessed us with - facilities - finances - abilities - gifting - time - to overcome those barriers - to do whatever it takes - to evangelize - to reach to those around us with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It would be so easy to say, “Well, a scribe sounds a lot like what the pastor should be doing.”  And write off what Jesus is saying.  But, remember, not all of the disciples had the gift of pastor - or teacher - or evangelist.

It would be easy to say, “Well, I don’t have the training or knowledge or - and let’s be honest - or the courage to do all that.”  But, remember, when Jesus asked the disciples, “Do you understand?”  They didn’t have all that either.

Fellow disciples - for that is what each follower of Jesus Christ is - fellow disciples - we are all in a process of training.  We may not understand everything yet.  But, we do know enough to perceive that God is at work and to see what He is doing and why.  We know enough to trust God and seek to follow Him in His work of redemption.

There’s a dragnet that’s moving through the water.  Soon it will be hauled up onto the beach.  We know the outcome.  Good fish.  Bad fish.  If you understand what Jesus is teaching, use the treasure He’s given you to reach others with His gospel before the net gets dragged out of the water.