2009-10-18
The Parables of Jesus - The Last Fishing Trip,
and the Shepherd and His Sheep
Steve Lane

A. Introduction/Review
Stories that Jesus told to make a point - deeper than just an intellectual level.
The faith that says, but does not really do, is unbelief. A tree and its fruit. (Talk is cheap.)
A sower went out to sow (Matthew 13: 3)
Fruit-producing soil (Matthew 13: 1 - 9)
The seed produces new life (James 1: 21, 1 Peter 1: 23, Colossians 1: 5 - 6)
Two things listed as the barrier in the first soil...
Next is the seed that produces a crop.
The parables of the Hidden treasure and the Pearl. (Matthew 13: 44 - 46)
Whatever is stopping us from forsaking all and following Christ is silliness, compared to...

B. The Final Fishing Trip

Separating the fish: Throwing out the inedible, and placing the good into baskets.
Matthew 13: 47 - 52
The meaning is obvious here. At the end of the age, there will be a judgment.

Matthew 18: 15 - 17
How to deal with sin and offense in the church.
The only problem is that all of us are bad fish!
Romans 3: 10 tells us that there is no one righteous - not even one.
Ephesians 2: 1 tells us that we were all in darkness and dead in our sins and separated.
Romans 3: 20 - No one will be declared righteous by observing the law, but rather...

2 Corinthians 5: 21
Ephesians 2: 7 - 9 - You are a new fish.
Like the merchant, quickly sell the pearls of your own righteousness and get the Pearl.

The truth is, there will come a day of reckoning.

C. The Good Shepherd and the Sheep Pen

The sheep must come through the gate to safety.
The shepherd knows His sheep, and the sheep know the Shepherd.

John 10: 1 - 21