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The parable of the Fishing Net

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[Matthew 13:47-50]

"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. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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When Jesus talked about heaven, he often used stories to make it easy to understand.  Today, Jesus is telling us another story called a parable.

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There were some fishermen.
Today, they loaded a big net to catch lots of fish.

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They sailed to the middle of the sea to catch the fish. In the sea, they threw out the net to the water, hoping they would catch a lot of fish. The net went inside the sea water.

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After a while, they started to drive the boat.
For fish to enter the net, they started to move the boat forward. The fish started to fill the net.

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The fishermen thought there were enough fish in the net so they dragged the net back into the boat. Sure enough there were lots of fish caught in the net.

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Then the fishermen brought all of the fish back to shore. Then, they started to take a closer look at each fish one by one. They chose only the fresh and good fish and put them into baskets. The baskets were filled up with only the fresh fish.

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Therefore, the fishermen threw out the useless and bad fish in a hole beside their boat.  The hole became filled with all of the useless and ugly fish.

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The fishermen brought only the fresh fish. However, the useless fish, that were not chosen by the fishermen were just thrown away. Then, no one would care about those fish and let them spoil there in that hole.

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After telling this story, Jesus said.
“On the last day of the world, the same thing like this will happen.”
Jesus explained the underlying meaning of the story.

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On the last day of the world, the angels are going to come down from heaven. Then, everyone in this world is going to be divided into two groups. People will be divided to the righteous who believe Jesus or the evil ones who do not believe Jesus.

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On that day, no one will be able to hide from the eye of the angels. No matter what excuse you try to do or say, it will be useless. The righteous and the evil will be separated.

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Among them, the righteous, who believe in Jesus will be led to heaven. In that place, they will live forever with Jesus. In heaven, there is no pain nor tears but only glorifying the LORD forever.

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However, the angels will throw the evil ones into a blazing furnace. The evil ones that are thrown to that place will gash their teeth in pain and cry out. They are going to live forever in that hell.

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The reason why Jesus told this story is to let people know that there is judgment on the last day. There is only one way to enter heaven on the last day of the world. That is to believe Jesus and accept Jesus as our savior. If we do so, anyone can enter into heaven.

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Those who already believe Jesus and have become the righteous ones should live having loving hearts towards Jesus and do good in deeds. However, for those who have not accepted Jesus yet, you should accept Jesus in your heart now. I hope you will do this and have the blessing of having angels lead you into heaven.

(You can change the conclusion of this sermon best suiting to your listeners of this sermon. We want to make it clear that the provided conclusion is only a sample conclusion provided by CTM.)