"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men..." Titus 2:11
Plowing the surf for the catch of the day
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea.”
Spend any amount of time on the Gulf Coast and you will see the difference between the cast net and the dragnet. The fisherman on the bank swings the cast net over his head at the school of fish blindly swimming into his better view. The net falls, the bell shaped oval sinks and the fisherman draws it back to the beach with the catch.
It’s the shrimp boat whose dragnets sway in the pitch and draw as they plod the surf to the shrimping grounds. The booms hang the nets that will drag through the water indiscriminately hauling in every manner of fish, shrimp, bottom feeder and crustacean… both the good and the bad dumped onto the deck to be sorted by men in rubber boots and strong backs. It’s the dragnet, not the cast net, that the Kingdom of God is like.
For a long time I missed this. Like a political vetting process, I wanted to know the heart before I heard the repentance. Call it discriminating or discerning or being intuitive, in the end it was just short of being biblical. The Kingdom Call is to “whosoever will” and not to the ones that I think are keepers. Though I might fish for a certain species, I don’t cut the line if the bite is not right. The old description of fishing applies… if I always caught the right kind of fish they would call it “catching” and not “fishing.” And so it is in the Kingdom. We are called to fish and to put all of the catch in the hands of our loving God. It’s all about fulfilling our Kingdom commission not about doing things our own way.
Jesus talked a lot about His Kingdom during His final days on this earth. His purpose was not information but inspiration. His earthly mission would be complete through death and resurrection but His eternal mission would just be beginning. That mission was spoken of in His instructions to the eleven commissioned before His ascent into Heaven.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age.”
For centuries the church has fixated on the instructions beginning with “Go” and ending with “I am with you always.” But it is the true beginning and end that hold the power and the purpose. Listen to the words:
- “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth…” Defeating the final curse of death that had reigned since the Garden was the ultimate claim of the cross. Yes, sin was defeated but sin was only the first domino to fall. The curse that reigned supreme was death which held final authority over man. But now Jesus held the keys! His first words to John when He gave him His revelation were, “I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” What an incredibly comforting greeting.
- “… even to the end of the age.” There is nothing that will interrupt the total and complete authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing that will confound the Name that is above all names. There is nothing that can compete, challenge, supplant or take territory away from the Lordship of Christ in this age as well as into eternity. This is the great promise of the complete work of grace that carries the wounded soul into eternal glory.
We are commissioned to go in all of the authority of Jesus until eternity. Our method is to lay out the dragnet bringing all to Jesus… in every way, with every technique, without fear of failure and without becoming weary of well doing. Our goal is not success measured by the catch but to daily leave port and drop our nets. We work for the Lord of the Kingdom who seeks out a catch whether big or small until the end of this age and the new beginning in Eternity.
Relentlessly, unceasingly, deliberately catching souls for Eternity.
So don’t be weary. Palm Sunday and Easter are upon us, two Sundays whose greater attendance is guaranteed. Between now and then, lay out your dragnet and pull in the harvest to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In our own church, special events are taking shape whose success is based on what souls we will catch for the Kingdom. So, GO FISH! What other job could you possibly have where the goal is to fish all day? Not a bad assignment if you ask me.
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