For Part 1, go to my website: www.sandrakingministries.com
Jesus says that “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish, and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones.” Matthew 13:47-48
Jesus says that “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish, and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones.” Matthew 13:47-48
Separation of
fish began in the Older Testament. God made a distinction in the Law about what
He considers clean and unclean fish. The Older Testament always ties into the
New Testament. In the Law, God is distinguishing between earthly (natural) fish
that are edible from those that are not. Jesus takes the natural into the spiritual because He is spiritual. Clean
and Unclean Fish According to the Law – Leviticus 11:9
“This is what you may eat from all that is in the water: You may eat
everything in the water that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or
streams. But these are abhorrent to you: everything in the seas or streams that
does not have fins and scales among all the swarming things and other living
creatures in the water. They are to remain abhorrent to you….” Vv9-12 In the Law, God had restrictions upon what the
Israelites were to consume. He had clean and unclean animals, aquatic animals, birds,
flying insects, swarming creatures. God distinguishes between the clean and the
unclean. God is teaching His people about clean and unclean, holy and unholy,
so they will receive the fullness of His blessing. In the New Testament, God
distinguishes between the righteous (clean) and the wicked (unclean).
It is not what we eat that concerns the Lord in the New Testament, but how we
walk. Are we walking in the righteousness of God in Christ? God wants to us to
differentiate between the holy and the profane and between truth and false
doctrine.
Peter in
the New Testament had a vision of clean and unclean in Acts 10:11-47. In God’s vision to Peter, the sky opened
and “an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to
the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling
creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up,
Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never
eaten anything unholy and unclean.” V11-14 Peter was a Jew who obeyed the
Law. He did not want to disobey it. God came to him a second time and said, “What
God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” God was using the clean and
unclean of the Law to speak a spiritual truth to Peter. God tells Peter that he
is to no longer consider what God has cleansed as unholy. Peter did not
understand what God was saying to him at first. Everyone who believes in Jesus
are considered clean to God. They have been cleansed by the water and blood
that flowed from Jesus’ side. Peter was
somewhat confused by this. It was when he got to the house of Cornelius that
Peter understood the vision. He knew that God did not show partiality “but
in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to
Him. The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through
Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all_-- (both Jew and Gentile). Israel as
well as the Gentiles must receive God’s Son Jesus in order to be declared clean
in God’s eyes.
The dragnet is the
final parable of the seven in Matthew 13. The fishnet and catch of fish
represent the final judgment. Hebrews 9:27-28
“Do
you understand these things?” Jesus asks His disciples – Matthew 13:51
It
was important to Jesus that His disciples understand what He was teaching them
in the parables. They answered, “yes.”
It is important to Jesus that His disciples understand and know the
Truth. Jesus told His disciples in John 15:15 and Matthew 13:16-17 that
they are blessed because they see (understand) and hear the truth. “For
truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people (Older Testament
saints) longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear
the things you hear but didn’t hear them.” In John 15: 15, Jesus
tells His disciples, “I have called you friends because I have made known to
you everything I have heard from My Father.”
A friend learns who we are and love us. Those who love Jesus and
learn of Him are His friends.
The
Storehouse of Truth (The Head of the
Household)
Jesus says every teacher of the Law who becomes His disciple should
bring treasures out of His storeroom both new and old – out of the Old and New
Testaments. The Godhead used the “earthly” in the Older Testament to paint a
picture of the New in Christ. We are to draw truths from the Older Testament as
well as see their fulfillment in the teachings and acts of Jesus. Jesus brought
the Older Testament scriptures into the New to show that He was fulfilling that
scripture in their seeing and in their hearing.
There is a
distinction between the Old and the New. “But Jesus has now obtained a superior
ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has
been established on better promises. For if the first covenant had been
faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one.” Hebrews 8:6-7 “For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days: I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I
will be their God, and they will be My people.”
It
is the fullness of Truth in Jesus and the New Testament that helps us
understand the Older Testament. Jesus fulfilled and explained the Older
Testament, so His disciples understood. We must appreciate the treasure of the
Word of God that He has given us. The Older Testament points us to Christ.
Knowledge and understanding of the Word is the purpose and duty of the Body of
Christ. Those who follow Christ’s teachings are taught about the kingdom of
heaven and do it. They are knowledgeable and full of wisdom. They will instruct
others in both the Older and New Testaments. Peter did this in His first sermon
in Acts 2:14-16. Paul also did this. It is thought that Paul wrote the
book of Hebrews which contrasts the Old with the New.
Proverbs 24:3-4: By wisdom a
house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the
rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 3:13-15: How blessed is the
person who finds wisdom and the person who gains understanding. For her profit
is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is
more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.
The promises made
to the patriarchs were not made through Law, but through faith. Jesus’
fulfillment of the Law opened the door for the Gentiles to be included in the
promise God gave to Abraham that through Abraham’s natural see a spiritual Seed
Jesus would come to conquer the land of earth and multiply like the stars of
heaven.
The dragnet is used in the last chapter of John. Some of Jesus’
disciples are fishing with a dragnet when Jesus in His resurrected body
appeared on the shore. While He was on
earth in His flesh body, He taught the parable of the dragnet to His disciples.
He returns to them in His resurrected body to find them fishing with a dragnet.
He will use this fishing trip to further teach them about His Kingdom. Jesus
had told them earlier that they would be “fishers of men.”
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