Our Redemption Story: The People of God
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Our theme for 2020 is “Seeing Spiritually”.
God is all about redemption.
Understanding the Bible centers around reading it with the plan of redemption in mind.
It is also the key to navigating life and circumstances: to know that God is redeeming the world and you too!
This series is called “Redemption Stories”.
There is a short book in the Old Testament called “Ruth” which tells the stories of the ancestors of King David.
Redemption always makes a great story.
We rejoice when someone who is the underdog ends up on top.
We use “redemption” to describe second chances, stories that go from tragedy to triumph, from rags to riches and from failure to success.
We have looked at three such stories in this one little book.
Naomi - a story of tragedy and of recovery.
Ruth - a story of finding love again after loss.
Boaz - a story of a truly good man and what it really means to be successful.
We now have to tell one final story, our story.
Because woven through these three stories is the idea that God has always had a plan for our redemption.
Each of us can have our own redemption story because we have a God who specializes in turning bad things into good things.
Today is Resurrection Sunday, the day that we celebrate Jesus as risen from the dead and alive forever.
Nobody expected this amazing plot twist.
Jesus’ own disciples didn’t see it coming even though Jesus tried to tell them what was going to happen.
Jesus’ death and Resurrection made a way for our redemption as well.
Nobody saw it coming, but it was all predicted hundreds of years before by the Old Testament Prophets.
And not only by the prophets but even in stories like are told in the book of Ruth.
Yes these are redemption stories, but they also tell our redemption story.
Let’s see how the story of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz ends?
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Obed means “The Servant of the Lord”
This child is the culmination of these three stories and they give him the name, “servant of the Lord”
What does that mean except that the path to redemption is simply serving God.
That name is also applied to Jesus Christ, the God-man.
Jesus, the Messiah, is called “The Servant of the Lord”
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
It is through Obed, Jesse and David that we come to Jesus, the promised Messiah and the ultimate fulfillment of God’s redemption story.
Jesus is faithful.
Jesus is faithful.
Faithfulness is God’s character.
We saw that when Naomi was discouraged because she had lost everything, she was still able to believe for God’s favor on Ruth.
8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
The Hebrew word for kindness is ‘hesed,’ God’s covenant faithfulness from which we have come to understand God’s unconditional love.
We see it again in Ruth 2:20 when Ruth happens to find herself gleaning in Baoz’ field.
Naomi sees it as a sign of God’s goodness and redemption of their tragic circumstances.
20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”
Lastly Boaz recognized God’s favor in that Ruth would choose him, when he apparently doesn’t consider himself to be “ a catch.”
10 And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.
So what difference does it make that God is faithful, loving and kind?
It makes all the difference!
God loves you and He won’t let you go.
If you know that God is good and that he loves you, you can make it through any difficult circumstance.
Why? Because you know instinctively that the pain of the present is not what God has intended for you.
Pain is temporary.
God doesn’t cause pain, but he allows it.
God uses pain and trials to help us to become better people.
God redeems - he sees value in you because he made you.
That value may be hidden.
God’s image is tarnished by sin.
God is working to restore His image in you.
Jesus is the image of God. We are becoming more like Jesus.
Our faith is a reflection of God's faithfulness.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Did you know that “faith” and “faithfulness” are the same?
We know that to believe in Jesus we have to have faith.
Do you believe that God is good?
Is God faithful? Can you trust Him?
If you believe it then you have faith. You are beginning to trust God with your life!
Your faith is a reflection of God’s faithfulness.
You are beginning to reflect God’s image back to Him.
Ruth reflected Gods’ faithfulness back to Naomi.
16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
That’s what it means to have faith!
Think about this, Ruth was not an Israelite. She was a Moabite and grew up worshipping pagan gods who demanded human sacrifice.
Some commentators wonder why Ruth didn’t have any children. Could it be that they had been sacrificed?
Ruth bound herself body and soul to Naomi and in doing so was no longer a foreigner, but one of God’s people.
Boaz recognized this and became a covering to Ruth.
Jesus covers us.
Jesus covers us.
Sin leaves us vulnerable.
In the story of Ruth and Boaz, we see a woman who is vulnerable and a man who protects her. It’s a beautiful love story!
At the climax of the story, Ruth comes to Boaz on the threshing floor and makes herself even more vulnerable.
Some would say that what she did was a bit reckless, but it worked.
Boaz, instead of taking advantage of her, protected her.
He literally covered her with his garment.
And from that moment on he sought to make his role as her protector complete.
That is a picture of how we come to God, vulnerable and in need of his covering.
We try to protect ourselves by hiding the fact that we are sinners.
We are better off just admitting the fact and coming boldly into God’s presence like Ruth came boldly to Boaz.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
God has provided for our protection.
Covering is a metaphor that speaks of protection.
In the beginning of the Bible when mankind fell, God covered them.
At first they made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves.
Then God made covering for them out of animal skins = the first substitutionary sacrifice.
The word “atonement” means to cover.
The first time we see it used in the Bible, Noah is covering the ark with pitch to make it waterproof.
Then the Ark of the Covenant is covered with gold and the presence of God hovers over and covers the tabernacle.
That was to be a picture of God covering the sin that was atoned for as symbolized by the blood on the mercy seat.
What Jesus did on the cross was the fulfilment of the whole concept of atonement once and for all!
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Jesus not only died for our sin, but He rose again that we too may live a new life.
Let me spell it out more clearly:
When God looks at you He sees Jesus.
Remember how you were made in the image of God?
And then that image was tarnished by sin; it was made unrecognizable.
Jesus is the exact image of God. He is the pattern, the template and the die by which we are re-stamped into God’s image.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
When you become “impressed” with Jesus you begin to look like Jesus.
It’s a Divine exchange, our sin for God’s glory in Jesus.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus is our Redeemer.
Jesus is our Redeemer.
A redeemer preserves the value of another.
Boaz refers to himself as a “redeemer” for Ruth and Naomi.
In Deuteronomy there is a law of “levirate marriage”.
Basically it ensures that a man who dies without children has an heir that can take possession of his inheritance.
A man is supposed to marry his brothers wife and the child will be considered his brother’s child.
This law also obligates a relative to buy land that is being sold to pay a debt or if a person is being sold into slavery to pay a debt.
It’s all about keeping the family’s assets in the family and being able to pass it on to the next generation.
The redeemer restores the one who is childless, who has fallen on hard times or who is sold into slavery.
He brings them back into their rightful place, their promised inheritance and their destiny in God.
Boaz did that for Alimelech’s family.
And Jesus did that for us!
A biblical redeemer is one of your family, your next-of-kin.
We see also that in the story of Boaz and Ruth, the redeemer needed to have the right DNA.
Boaz wasn’t the first one with the ability to redeem Ruth, there was one closer, but also unwilling to do his duty.
That is true in that larger redemption story too.
We see in the Bible that mankind could not redeem itself.
The flood, the law and even the Davidic throne could not redeem God’s people.
The problem was much deeper than morality or authority could cure.
The problem is sin and we are all infected with it.
We needed a new beginning, someone to undo the fall.
Jesus is God become man to redeem mankind.
Jesus is our kinsman redeemer!
Like Ruth, we were destitute and strangers, but God saw value in us.
God became one of us so that we could become like Him.
Jesus brings you back to your rightful place as a child of God.
God chose Israel so that He would redeem a people for Himself that would be a light to the whole world.
That people now includes the Gentiles, just as Ruth was a Gentile.
Ruth is one of three or possibly four Gentile women listed in the ancestry of Jesus Christ.
It was always God’s plan to bring the Gentiles into His kingdom.
It was always God’s plan that you would find your place in His family.
Jesus restores you to your rightful inheritance.
We talked about this when we preached through the book of Ephesians: You inheritance is to know God.
You are not a slave to your flesh or to the devil. You get to walk with your head held high as a child of God.
You can live above the cares of this life as a citizen of heaven.
Jesus restores you to your destiny, the purpose for which God made you.
Alimelech had a destiny, but his life choices led him farther from that destiny. His destiny was to show that God is king.
Boaz not only redeemed Alimelech’s family name and his property but he also became the ancestor of King David and an everlasting dynasty.
God has a purpose for you too! And its more than just existing, He wants to show the world who He is through you.
Questions for reflection:
Questions for reflection:
Do you know Jesus as your Savior and as your redeemer? Why not use Ruth’s words to express your faith? God, wherever you go, I’m going to go. Your people are going to be my people. And you are going to be my God!
Have you exchanged your life for His? Maybe you are trying to live your life on the fence? Don’t try to hide from God. Be bold and let His grace cover you.
Finally, wherever you are in your walk with God today, know that He loves you and He is faithful to complete the work that He has begun in you. Today is Resurrection Day! Where is God restoring and bringing new life in you?