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Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sundays.
All right.
So yeah, we're in Ruth four
if you haven't turned there.
Um, and as has been mentioned,
today is Palm Sunday.
Um, this is the Sunday
before Easter Sunday.
It's the day as Kendrick wisely said
that, that Jesus entered Jerusalem
as a celebrated but humble king.
But talk to me, kiddos, did
everything go well for Jesus
between Palm Sunday and Easter?
No, no adults.
Did everything go well for Jesus
between Palm Sunday and Easter?
No.
No, the same Jesus who was highly exalted.
We just sang Hosanna.
We were echoing the hymn, the
song, the praise that Jesus was
receiving as he entered Jerusalem.
The same, the same Jesus who was highly
exalted on Sunday, was killed on a
cross on Friday, a mere five days later.
And so if you, I mean, you look at
that, that's a, that's a quick downfall.
That's, that's a, a fast loss.
Everything seems lost this week.
Everything seems to just unravel.
I, I think about this a lot
from the disciples perspective.
Like what would that have been like to see
this, this culmination of years of walking
with Jesus, seeming like he's being
exalted as king, and then the whiplash
of seeing him dead by Friday evening.
Like everything seems
like it would unravel.
Um, one author that I've been reading a
lot through this series, uh, says that
the last verses of the Book of Ruth are
a passage where we see everything that
had been unraveled at the beginning
of the book, become put back together.
At the end, everything unraveled
gets put back together, and,
and in a, in a huge way.
That's the celebration of Easter.
That's the celebration of a week from
today, all the unraveling of Holy Week.
It gets put back together.
Yes.
For Jesus, yes, for his disciples,
but also the hope for you as well.
'cause.
'cause that is the heart of God.
And, and, and we don't
see this all the time.
We don't understand it all the time.
We don't even accept it all the time.
But whoever you are and whatever
unraveling you have faced our
facing or will face God's heart,
is to put it all back together.
That's the promise of scripture.
And so today we're wrapping up this
story of Naomi and Ruth and Boaz,
and in the final, final verses, we're
gonna see at least three unraveled
things become put back together.
Uh, first, all three characters are
going to be restored and blessed by God.
Second, God's promise itself is
going to be restored and preserved,
and then third God's character and
salvation are going to be foreshadowed.
Um, and all three of those
things mattered deeply to our
life and our walk with God Did.
Uh, so father, would you meet
us in this, in this passage?
Uh, would you help us to, to
resonate deeply and see ourselves,
uh, in this story, not just, uh,
an account of things that happened
centuries, millennia ago, Lord, but
would you help us to find ourselves?
It's in your son's name.
Amen.
All right, so the first putting
back together, um, is that all three
characters are restored and blessed.
And this happens in the first few verses.
So first, Boaz is restored and blessed,
and this is all he gets in this passage.
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.
That's the end of Boaz's
story as it relates to Ruth.
So through this book, and if
you've been walking with us, you've
seen Boaz as a righteous man.
As a man full of integrity.
He at least has some degree of wealth.
He's a landowner.
He is a business owner.
Not everyone was at the time.
Um, we also know he's old.
Um, in chapter three, he celebrated
Ruth for choosing him when he
could have, when she could have
quote, chosen a younger man.
Um, and so very likely the, the biblical
picture of Boaz is he's an older
bachelor, perhaps even a widower himself.
And so an integrity and, and a full of
integrity, a righteous man who is like
every other man and woman, imperfect.
And so in a culture where marriage
provided great social status, this verse
shows just a glimpse of God redeeming,
restoring some form of brokenness.
Boaz is in some senses, put back together.
Boaz is blessed by God.
That's the first blessing.
Ruth also.
Is restored and blessed.
Boaz slept with his wife and the Lord
gave her conception and she bore a son.
Now, we've talked a lot about this
over the last few weeks, the plight
of childlessness women, the plight
of widows, but also I want us to
remember other things we've talked
about over the last few weeks.
'cause what all has God restored in Ruth?
It is not just giving her a kid.
God takes Ruth from being a widow
to being a wife, from, from being
childless to being a mother.
God takes Ruth from being an
immigrant to a place of belonging
to, uh, from, from being an outsider
into being part of God's family.
Uh, Miriam captured it really well.
Moabites were, were considered
the wash basin of Israel.
Wash basin being toilet kiddos
of Israel, and God brought
her into the nation of Israel.
God brought her from being an idol
worshiper to We'll see this in a moment
to being the great, great, great, great,
great, great grandmother of Jesus.
This is God's restoration.
This is God's heart.
Again, for every person on earth,
whatever form of brokenness, and
there's a lot that Ruth embodies,
not just childless to mother.
There's a lot that says she
doesn't belong, she doesn't fit.
She's not something enough.
And God's heart is to say, yes you are.
Yes you are.
And then finally, Naomi is redeemed
and blessed, and Naomi gets a lot
more verses than the other two did.
So the woman said to Naomi, blessed
is the Lord who has not left you
this day without a redeemer, and
may his name be renowned in Israel.
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.
Who, who's the restorer here?
Who's the the object of Naomi Salvation.
It's a baby boy born
to an unlikely mother.
Hopefully that was subtle enough
to foreshadow a little bit of
the rest of the biblical story.
A baby boy born to an unlikely mother,
and then Naomi took the child and laid
him on her lap and became his nurse.
It says, this translation,
Miriam's translation said,
became like a mother to him.
And the woman of the neighborhood
gave him a name saying A
son has been born to Naomi.
You'll pick up the story in just a minute.
Do you get the picture of this
is Naomi's baby more than Ruth's?
Like on one hand I've
seen multiples of you.
Whenever some family in salt
and light has a baby start to
refer to that baby as our baby.
So this still happens
sometimes somehow here today.
Um, but more than that, and interestingly.
After chapter th uh, verse 13, Ruth
and Boaz, they're gone from the story
and the spotlight for the rest of these
verses shines on Naomi and this baby.
I'm gonna put a pin in that for
just a minute, but, but I do wanna
say this is more evidence and we've
been trying to build this over time.
'cause if you walked through the Book
of Ruth before, it's often talked about
as just this beautiful love story.
Um, someone asked if we did Ruth,
um, because it was Valentine's Day
and Valentine's Day happened to fall.
We were walking through this.
No, no, no.
We're doing it because it's Lent.
And Lent is a season of suffering
and belonging, which is kinda the
opposite message of Valentine's Day.
Um, this is way more
than just some biblical.
Rom-com.
Instead, it's a picture of God meeting
every single person and seeking their
good and seeking their restoration.
Because I want you to notice this as,
as we've walked through this, if you
haven't walked with us all, all these
weeks, go back and read the Book of Ruth.
It's a very short book.
All three people are different.
Ruth, Naomi, Boaz.
Their lives are different.
Their stories are different.
Their histories are different.
Their wounds are different.
Their needs are different.
And so does God's blessing
look the same to all three?
Does the way God meets them
and and and draws them in,
does it look exactly the same?
Does God just have one cookie
cutter way to engage people?
Absolutely not.
Does the way God blesses each.
Look exactly what Naomi might
have chosen for herself, or Ruth
would've chosen for herself, or
Boaz would've chosen for himself.
It does not.
Atti, at the time when this was written, a
blessed life said you grew up, you married
someone, you had lot, a lot of kids.
They all worked the farm together.
You left some legacy or
inheritance, and you were done
probably around age 55 or 60.
And, and in some ways other than
the age gap, that, that probably
seems similar to the American dream.
You go to the right schools,
you get the right job, you marry
the right spouse, you have 2.5
of the right kids.
You have the, with the, the right
white picket fence around your house.
You, you, you pursue comfort.
You live a long life, you're happy, right?
The problem with that picture
is no one has that exact life.
Whether in the Old Testament time
of the judges when chapter one tells
us this was written or, or 21st
century North Texas, no one has
that exact perfect utopian life.
And so the Book of Ruth gives us
permission, and I hope you felt this
during the season of Lent of Sacrifice,
of Longing, the Book of Ruth gives us
permission to say, no, life is perfect.
There are moments in your
life that you do not like
Justin, and I tell people fairly
often, um, every job has some
perks and no job has all the perks.
And so enjoy the, enjoy the
highs and endure the lows.
Whatever job you have.
But man, the grass is greener, isn't it?
We look at teachers who are off all
summer and we're like, I want that.
And then we realize they make $4 a year.
We're like, I don't want that part.
Uh, we look at folks who travel and, uh,
want that, and they're like, oh, man.
But they're, they're gone from
their family a lot, and the
weariness of travel is real.
And we look at, we just compare it.
We do this.
Every job has some perks.
No job has all the perks.
Everyone has a limited amount of money.
No one has all the money.
Even a lawn, y'all, no one has
all the money, and so to pursue
some priority means they're
sacrificing other things, right?
Nothing is exactly perfect.
Nothing to the images of life that we see.
The utopia that's held up.
Every person has some good gifts.
No one has all the good gifts
and on and on and on we can go.
You agree with this?
Mm-hmm.
And so we've, we've seen
this over and over, Ruth.
This book lets us cry out to God
when we don't like parts of our life.
But it also tells us who to cry out to
because like Miriam so wisely reminded
us, God is not just there when he
is pouring out his blessings on us.
God is there in the parts of our lives.
We don't like God's there In the moments
where we wish something was different,
God's there in our lament, our grief.
I am with you always, Jesus says as he
ascended even to the end of the age.
So the Book of Ruth gives us
freedom to cry out and also a
beautiful reminder that God is at
work in every moment of your life.
Here's the promise.
Will you look at me for just a sec?
Whatever you're walking through, God
will restore you and maybe you're like,
I'm not walking through anything today.
Great.
Hang on to that promise for when not.
If you are walking through something,
and remember looking up here and
me saying, God will restore you.
He may not give you a
marriage like Ruth and Boas.
He may not give you a baby.
Like Ruth and Naomi,
but even for these characters,
for Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, those
things are just glimpses.
They're just examples of God's truer,
greater, bigger redemption story.
They're tangible examples
like each one of us have.
I mean, now may not feel like we
have many, but each one of us has
some tangible example to point to
and say, yeah, God's blessed me.
I don't feel it right now, but
I can look back at my history
and go God's, God's blessed me.
The marriage, the baby, for
these two, for these three were
tangible examples of God's care,
his preservation, his protection.
And those are things that God promises,
care preservation, protection.
And so again, in these final verses,
what we see is the unraveling at the
beginning of this, of, of the book
become put back together at the end.
Do you believe God?
Does that church harder?
Do you believe God will do that for you?
There's a few less nods on that question.
That's the first reality in these
verses, by whatever means and
whether it looks like you think or
looks totally different, God cares.
God covers.
God protects.
God provides for his people,
and God cares and covers, and
protects and provides for you.
That's a promise.
And it's captured in
part by the second truth.
The second promise that we see in these
verses, and that is that God's promise
itself is restored and preserved.
So all the way back, talk to me for a sec.
All the way back in Genesis one, what was
God's purpose of making men and women?
It was the charge he gave him.
Anyone know off the top of your head?
Be fruitful and multiply.
Yes.
Why?
Because God created us in his
image, in the image of God, he
created humans, male and female.
He created them and God what?
Bless them, and said to them,
yeah, be fruitful, multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it.
Which is more common to
our word steward today.
Steward it, have, have dominion,
have display my power over the fish
of the sea and over the birds of
the heavens, and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.
Adam and Eve, every man and woman
and child after them are created in
the image of God with a charge to
fill the earth with the image of God.
This is a precursor to even Jesus
saying, go and make disciples.
We talked about this on
the day we moved in here.
Jesus's charge.
Go make disciples, hearkens
back to our original purpose.
You're created in God's image.
Go display and declare that
image everywhere you go.
We're created in his image to
fill the earth with his image.
How long do Adam and Eve do that for?
About a page and a half of the Bible,
and then sin enters the picture.
And death and brokenness flow from sin.
But in God's original design for
the world, there is no death.
There is no brokenness.
The the first and last couple pages
of the Bible, we see this God's design
is, is there would be no widows there.
There would be no idol worshipers.
There would be no poverty.
There would be no barrenness.
There would be no outsiders
'cause everyone belonged.
There would be no pain,
there would be no suffering.
There would be no Mara bitterness tears.
But after the world became broken
in Genesis three, all, all those
things became part of our experience,
real and functional, widows and idol
worship and poverty, and barrenness,
and outsiders, and insiders,
and pain and suffering and loss.
And bitterness and sadness and death.
But in God's first words, he
actually spoke it to the serpent
who introduced sin into the world.
Some of his first words in Genesis three,
after death entered the world, after sin
entered the world, he promised a savior,
one who would, who would go to war
with Adam and Eve in their offspring.
And we even bite at their heel.
It's a good Friday, but that the
offspring, their kids, kids, kids,
grandkids, grandkids, grandkids,
grandkids, would crush the head of the
one who brought brokenness into the world.
That's Easter Sunday.
We believe that the promised Savior,
the one who would come make everything
right and fix all the brokenness in the
world, has a name, and his name is Jesus.
And so again, starting in Ruth four
verse 14, the last verses of this
book are about Naomi and this baby.
Who, who we're gonna learn is named Obed.
And through him, the book ends with
this reminder of God's promise.
The promise that was started in
Genesis one, the promise that God
reaffirmed in Genesis three saying,
I'm going to send a savior who
will one day make everything right.
So in verse 17, the woman of
the neighbor, women of the
neighborhood gave the boy a name.
I mean, Ruth and Ruth and Bo don't
even get to name their own kid.
This is such an naomie's kid.
They're like, they're gone.
They just produced a child
and cut off from the story.
I I, there's a lot of questions
I have about the Bible.
That's one of 'em.
Like, what?
Where'd they go?
Like, did they ever get to hold their kid?
Um, the women gave him a name saying
his son has been born to Naomie.
They named him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse
and the father of David.
And then these are the generations
of Perez per from before Paris.
Fathered Hezron, Heran fathered
Ram Ram fathered a miab, a miab
fathered Neha Neha fathered salmon.
We call it salmon today.
Um, salmon fathered.
Boaz Bo Boaz fathered Obed obit.
Father, father Jesse and
Jesse fathered David,
who did Jesse father.
David, David, not a trick question.
Who did Jesse Father, David, David,
into What line was Jesus born into?
David, the line of David?
So, so don't miss this.
Friends, God restores preserves his
promise from all the way back in Genesis
one that the enemy tried to thwart in
Genesis three, and that frankly, like
we don't do a great job with today,
even in our own brokenness and need.
But not only did God restore and
preserve his promise in general,
he did so through an immigrant,
childless, pagan widow named Ruth,
and a widowed, voiceless, bitter woman
named Naomi, and a righteous but older.
And broken because we all are
kinsman redeemer named Boas.
And all I'm trying to say is
that God works through the most
unlikely means to fulfill his
will and to preserve his promise.
And that includes you.
And that includes me.
'cause it turns out we ain't that great.
In some form of brokenness, whether it's
the exact form of brokenness, these three
carry or something totally different.
We get it.
We feel it.
We're taught to not acknowledge it in
our self-sufficient, independent society.
Mm-hmm.
But we know it's there.
Yes.
As much as the Book of Ruth shows
God redeeming and blessing specific
people, Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, apparently
all the, all the women of the city.
There's also more than that because the
book shows God redeeming and preserving
his promise of salvation, not just
for the City of Bethlehem in this one
moment, but for all people at all times,
and so and so here.
Here's the truth to clinging to as we
wrap up this book beyond this book, beyond
these verses, whenever and however, and
wherever you see God's restoration and
grace, and goodness and kindness in life.
Wherever you see the tiniest glimpse of
his restoration, grace, his, his, his
provision, his goodness and kindness,
no matter how small, no matter how big,
no matter how expected, how unexpected,
that's God's character on display.
That's his, that's his promised salvation,
eternal life being foreshadowed.
The Book of Ruth focuses more on human
relationships than it does on God.
Admittedly, but Naomi and Ruth and Boaz
all see God's hand throughout this book.
Here's a few reminders that
we've shared on Sundays.
The narrator tells us that Ruth just
happened upon the field where Boaz
had his crop, shares his timeshares,
and just happened to show up in
Bethlehem at the time of the first
harvest after years of famine.
That's the hand of God.
Boaz praises God for
Ruth's kindness, not Ruth.
That's the hand of God.
Naomi praises God for boaz's kindness.
Naomi also even blames God for her
misfortune, like in the highs and lows.
The humans are seeing
God's hand everywhere.
They all had a huge, hugely
high view of God in his work,
and it's God who ends famines.
And it's God who creates life in
people's wombs and it's God who directed
the lineage and legacy from Perez all
the way down to David, all the way
down to Jesus and beyond, and church.
It's God who keeps his promise
of salvation and it's God who
re, who drew Ruth into his family
and on and on and on and on,
and God is still showing his.
Restoration, his grace, his promise,
his goodness, his kindness today.
The question for you is when you see
glimpses of that, when you see good
things, when you're reminded of a good
thing, when God meets you in the midst
of suffering, when God shows up in an
unexpected way, when you see something
that sparks a memory, when a verse
comes to mind, whatever it may be, and
all those seemingly little things, do
you recognize that as the hand of God?
Because each time that
happens, it's a tiny glimpse.
A friend who calls it a grace note,
it's a foreshadowing of the day when,
when all pain and all brokenness, and
all suffering and all death and all
widowhood, and all outsiders and all,
all, all, all the suffering will end
and it only ends through the great,
great, great, great, great, great,
great great grandson of oped.
And the great, great-great,
great, great great grandson of
Ruth and the great, great-great
great-grandson of Boaz and Naomi,
whose name is Jesus.
And so any glimpse you get of
restoration, something broken,
being made right of grace, receiving
something you don't deserve of promise.
Whether directly from God
or anyone keeping a promise.
'cause let's be honest,
like that's rare today.
Any glimpse of goodness, any glimpse
of kindness, you see if it's true that
every good gift comes from God, then
every one of those things is a tiny
foreshadowing of a day when all the
unraveling will be put back together.
And as followers of Jesus, we
believe this is happening in part.
And will happen in full and
only happens as you trust Jesus.
And that's what we get to
celebrate at communion.
'cause only God knows what
all unraveling exists in the
world and in your life there.
There's things that are unraveled
in your life you don't even know.
There's things that are unraveled in the
world we can't even name, but God knows.
For some, it's a little bit for, for
some of us, it's a lot of unraveling
for many of us, again, like there's more
unraveling than than we can imagine.
But whether you see it
or not, God is at work.
God is meeting you in the unraveling
and in some ways God is working
to put those things back together.
And so five days after Palm Sunday
is what's called Good Friday kids.
Any idea why it's called Good Friday?
Anyone know?
Yes, ma'am.
'cause Jesus died for our sins.
Jesus died for our sins.
And why is that good?
Um,
because then we're forgiven.
So every year someone asks me
why it's called Good Friday.
I'm just gonna send 'em
to Kate from now on.
Nailed it.
It's good because.
Okay.
While Palm Sunday looked great from a
world's perspective of Jesus being raised
up as a king, and while Good Friday looks
evil and wrong and bad, from a world's
perspective of a king being put to death,
that was the, the enemy promised
in chapter three, nipping at the
heels of the offspring of Adam and
Eve, and Ruth and Naomi and Boaz.
But what the enemy didn't know is that
God was in that moment putting back
together things that have unraveled.
It's Jesus's.
Jesus's sacrifice was the greatest
display in all of history of
God's restoration and grace, and
promise, and goodness and kindness.
Good Friday's good because
it's only through Jesus's
death that you receive life.
It is only through Jesus's own unraveling
can your unraveling be put back together.
Is that good news?
And if you believe that God did,
sorry, I'll say it again.
If you believe that God did that
in you or is doing that in you, or
even if you haven't believed that
before, but, but want to believe that
God is starting to do that in you.
Then that's what we get to celebrate
every time we take a communion.