Matthew 13:47-52
What Happens When You Die? Jesus' Warning About Judgment Day
Everyone will stand before God at the end of this age, and the sorting will not be by who was better but by who is clean. In the parable of the net in Matthew 13:47-52, fishermen pull in everything and separate the good from the bad. Only the blood of Jesus, our great high priest, makes us clean, and those who understand this are sent to bring the treasure out of the storeroom.
Message notes
Thomas Costello, our executive pastor, preaches while Pastor Pat is on sabbatical, in the middle of a run of short parables from Matthew 13. He jokes that this one is a sequel to his message on the parable of the weeds, since it covers much of the same ground, and the only sequel he will vouch for is Terminator 2: Judgment Day. So he calls it “Parables on Hell, Part Two: Judgment Day.”
His first observation: “Jesus needs his disciples to know that this age will come to an end.” Thomas explains that the net in the parable is not a throw net. It is a dragnet, weighted on the bottom and floated on top, pulled in by several fishermen so that everything in the water comes in. That is judgment day. “Everybody is going to stand before the Lord, and we’re going to have to give an account.” He compares our avoidance to his own habit of skipping the bathroom scale when he knows the news is bad, and loving it when he has been eating well. The scale tells the truth either way.
The second observation is that a sorting is coming. Thomas tells how his father, a spearfisherman on the Big Island, described pushing fish aside to pick the best one. Many people imagine God’s sorting that way, a curve where the better half gets in. A Jewish audience would have heard something different. Leviticus 11 made fish with fins and scales clean and the rest unclean, so the question is binary. He explains the 613 laws and the Day of Atonement, when the high priest shed the blood of a lamb in the Holy of Holies, and how Jesus raised the standard on murder and adultery. Then he points to Jesus, our sinless high priest, whose blood washes us clean. No one earns heaven by being good.
The third observation comes from verse 52. Disciples who understand are like a homeowner bringing out treasures new and old. Thomas tells of a woman from our church who asked him to pray over each of her coworkers’ desks, and who now has a coworker asking for prayer. He has started a document called “People I love who don’t yet love Jesus” and asks everyone to pray for the name at the top of their list.
He closes with two questions. Are you clean or unclean? And who is on your list? He invites anyone ready to hand their life to Jesus to pray with him.
From the message
Jesus needs his disciples to know that this age will come to an end.
Everybody is going to stand before the Lord, and we’re going to have to give an account.
So the question is not so much good or bad or preference. It’s clean or unclean.
Life Group discussion guide
What Happens When You Die? Jesus' Warning About Judgment Day, Matthew 13:47-52. June 14, 2026.
Start here
What is a sequel, movie or otherwise, that you think was better than the original?
Read Matthew 13:47-52
Open your Bibles and read it out loud together before you start.
What does it say?
In Matthew 13:47-48, what kind of net is described, what does it catch, and what do the fishermen do once it is full?
According to verses 49-50, who does the separating at the end of the age, and what happens to the wicked?
What does Jesus ask the disciples in verse 51, and what does he compare a teacher of the law who becomes a disciple to in verse 52?
What does it mean?
Leviticus 11:9-12 says which water creatures Israel could eat and which were unclean. How would that background change the way first listeners heard this parable?
Thomas explained the Day of Atonement and Jesus as our great high priest. Why can’t being on the better half of people make anyone clean?
Scribes are usually the villains in the Gospels. What does it mean that Jesus pictures a teacher of the law becoming a disciple in verse 52?
What do we do with it?
Where do you avoid stepping on the scale spiritually, keeping busy so you don’t have to think about standing before God?
If you made a list called “People I love who don’t yet love Jesus,” who would be at the top, and how will you pray for them this week?
What is one way you could bring the treasure out of the storeroom at your workplace or in your neighborhood, the way people in our church are praying over their coworkers?
Pray
Thank Jesus for his blood that makes us clean, and pray by name for the person at the top of your list, asking God to open their heart and give you an opportunity to share the hope you have.
New Hope Hawaii Kai. Watch the message and read the notes at newhopehk.org/sermons/parable-of-the-net/