1. Our Lord often used parables to teach His disciples (cf. 13:3).
2. When Jesus spoke of "the kingdom of heaven" (13:47; cf. 13:11, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 52), He was referring to the expansion of God’s rule or reign as it breaks forth here on earth.
3. The Scofield Study Bible says, "The phrase, kingdom of heaven (lit. of the heavens), is peculiar to Matthew and signifies the Messianic earth rule of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. It is called the kingdom of the heavens because it is the rule of the heavens over the earth (Matthew 6:10)."
4. The term "kingdom of heaven" is used in different ways in the Bible.  Here in Matthew 13, we have several parables dealing with the "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (13:11), which have to do with the sphere of Christian profession during this present age.
5. There is also a prophetic aspect. The kingdom of heaven is to be set up after the return of the King in glory (cf. Matthew 25:31-46).
6. The parable of the net is the seventh parable in Matthew 13, and is similar in many ways to the second parable, the tares among the wheat (13:24-30).
7. In the parable of the tares among the wheat, the wheat and tares are mixed together, but will eventually be sorted out.  At harvest time the tares will be bundled up and burned (13:27-30, 36-43).
8. In the parable of the net, "every kind" of fish is in the net (13:47).  But soon the Lord will send His angels to separate the good fish from the bad (13:47-50).

I. THE CASTING OF THE NET (13:47, 48).

1. Several of our Lord's disciples were fishermen, and all of our Lord's listeners were familiar with the dragnet.
2. Every time the Gospel is preached, our Lord is dropping His big dragnet.  This week at NBT/VBS the net will be dropped again, and Lord willing many children will hear the Gospel and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
3. Interestingly, this building used to be a fish store. Our Lord said in Matthew 4:19, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
4. Therefore, the net represents the proclamation of the Gospel, and the fishermen are those who proclaim the Gospel.
5. The sea represents the nations of the world. Isaiah 57:20 and 21 says, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
6. Revelation 17:15 says, "And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."
7. Notice in Matthew 13:48, the fishermen did not sit down until the net was full.
8. Too many Christians are slacking off while the world is going to hell. There will be a time to rest, but not now. Now is the time to drop down the net.
9. In many of our Lord's parables, He emphasized the urgency of the Gospel call. In the parable of the wheat and tares, we read in Matthew 13:25, "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way."
10. In the parable of the ten virgins, "they all slumbered and slept" (Matthew 25:5).  The foolish virgins ran out of oil (25:8-10).
11. Now is not the time to slack off. Now is not the time to slumber and sleep. There will be a time to rest, but not now. Now is the time to drop down the net.
12. In Luke 5:4, our Lord said to Simon Peter, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught."  Peter and the others obeyed and when they did, there was such a great multitude of fishes that their net brake and their boat began to sink.
13. In John 21:6, our Lord said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."

II. THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE (13:49, 50).

1. The expression, "the end of the world" (13:49) literally means, "the end of the age" or "the consummation of the age" (Scofield margin; cf. Matt. 24:3).
2. Harold Camping has confused many people with his crazy "end of the world" warnings.  He said the rapture would take place in May, and "the end of the world" will be in October.
3. This is all contrary to Scripture. The Bible teaches that the consummation of the age will take place when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Mr. Camping was wrong about May, and he is wrong about October (cf. John 14:1-4).
4. The Bible teaches that the rapture is imminent. The Lord could return at any moment. But no one knows exactly when.
5. Our Lord said in Matthew 24:36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
6. After the rapture, a confederacy of nations will emerge, headed up by a ruthless dictator, who will attempt to solve the problems in the Middle East.
7. Revelation 13:7 says, "Power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations."
8. Second Thessalonians 2:9 says, his "coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders."
9. The antichrist will make a covenant (a peace treaty) with Israel, apparently guaranteeing their borders and promising protection from attack from their Muslim neighbors.
10. This is prophesied in Daniel 9:27, where it says a covenant of seven years will be made by “the prince that shall come” who is the head of the revived Roman empire.
11. Despite this peace treaty, war will break out when Russia attacks Israel, according to Ezekiel 38 and 39.
12. In the middle of the seven-year tribulation period, the antichrist will deceive Israel and break the covenant.  He will declare himself to be god, and all unsaved people will bow down and worship him.
13. Revelation 13:8 says, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
14. Second Thessalonians 2:4 says, "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
15. All the armies of the earth will meet at the Battle of Armageddon.   But they, along with the antichrist and his false prophet, will be defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ at His second coming (cf. Rev. 19:11-21).
16. This gives us the time frame for "the end of the world" (Matt. 13:49).

III. THE CONDEMNATION OF THE WICKED (13:49, 50).

1. The angels will "sever the wicked from among the just" (Matt. 13:49). Psalm 141:10 says, "Let the wicked fall into their own nets."
2. All throughout Scripture, we see God separating the godly from the wicked (13:49).
3. Way back in Genesis 1:4 we read, "God divided the light from the darkness."
4. Way back in Genesis 6, God told Noah He was going to separate the godly from the wicked.  The godly got on the ark and lived, but the ungodly perished in the flood.
5. In Genesis 18, the LORD told Abraham He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.   God told Abraham, "I will not destroy it for ten's sake" (Gen. 18:32), but there weren't even ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah.
6. These judgments all foreshadowed the future judgment of God.   Both II Peter 2:6 and Jude 7 teach that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was for "an example unto those that after should live ungodly."
7. Psalm 9:17 says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."
8. Matthew 13:50 says the wicked will be "cast into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
9. Psalm 21:9 says, "Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them."
10. Many people deny the reality of hell, but Jesus spoke of it often (13:49, 50; cf. 10:28; 11:23; 13:41, 42; 18:9; 23:15, 33).
11. In fact, our Lord used similar language in Matthew 25 when He described how He will separate the sheep from the goats (25:31-46).
12. Whether it is wheat and tares, sheep and goats, or good fish from bad fish, the idea is the same -- there is coming a day when God will judge the wicked.
13. A day when He will say to the wicked, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:23).
14. A day when He will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41).
15. In Luke 16:23, Jesus said that "in hell he (the rich man) lift up his eyes, being in torments..."
16. "Torment."  Hell is a place of eternal torment!

CONCLUSION:

1. Marvin Vincent, in his Word Studies in the New Testament, compares this frightening picture of God's judgment in Matthew 13:49 and 50 with a graphic passage in Homer's Odyssey.
2. Ulysses has just returned home to Ithaca, and has killed all his wife Penelope's suitors. Homer writes, "He saw them all lying in heaps amid blood and dust, like a great haul of fishes which the fishermen have drawn into a bay with a wide net; poured abroad upon the sand, while panting to return to the salt sea, they lie till the hot sun takes their life from them."