Ruth: A Christmas Story - with Ray Fowler

Published Nov 27, 2024, 2:05 PM

What does the book of Ruth have to do with Christmas? The Christmas story has deep roots. It begins in the Old Testament, because the Old Testament points forward to Christ and his coming. Ruth’s story fulfills a vital part of salvation history in preparation for the coming of Jesus. The parallels are not accidental. They are incidental, because the events of Ruth bear directly on the events of Christmas. Author and pastor, Ray Fowler helps us explore the amazing parallels as we read the book of Ruth right alongside the Christmas story.

Well, you are listening to mornings with Eric and Bridget. Bridget? Not here. Jill sitting in Moody Radio 89.3.

And when we think of the Christmas story, we think of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men. But our next guest says we also should think of Ruth. Ray Fowler, welcome to Moody Radio South Florida.

Thank you. Wonderful to be here this morning.

Ray, you are the pastor of a local church, plantation community church, and you've taken messages and form them into these books so we can all be blessed by the study that you go through with your church family. Tell us about the Understanding God's Word series.

Yeah, this is just a series of really taking the messages that we've preached at our church and then adapting them into a book form, and it's just a way of spreading the message a little bit further and putting it in a portable form that people can share and read and study on their own and share with others.

And this is the second in advent series. You've done this release?

Yeah, we did one last year on the the names of Jesus from Isaiah nine six. Name above all names. And then this year, Ruth, A Christmas Story.

And of course, there's not just the advent stories, there's other stories that are part of this series. So maybe before we get into Ruth A Christmas Story, tell us about the other books in the series as well. Yeah, sure.

So the first one was on Habakkuk, A journey from doubt to faith. And so just to walk through the book of Habakkuk, there's a book on the fruit of the spirit growing more like Jesus, a book, Lord, make my life count, where we look at different things, make my work count, make my faith count, make my prayers count. Uh, we actually were here last spring looking at famous mothers in the Bible, some different Mother's Day messages and different women in the Bible. And now, Ruth, a Christmas story.

Okay, you just said it, Ruth, a Christmas story. That's not that's not what you know. That's that's the Old Testament. You're telling us to Ruth the Christmas story. It really does tell us that we should be looking for Christ more often in the Old Testament. We do. Don't shouldn't we be doing that?

Absolutely. Yeah. We often think Christmas begins in the New Testament. No, wait. It begins way back in the old. It has very deep roots. And, you know, the whole Old Testament looks forward to Christ and His coming and and the book of Ruth. It really fulfills a very vital part of salvation history and preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

Well, there are some parallels, then, that you have drawn between Ruth and the Christmas story. So let's look at some of those. What's the first one? Sure.

Well, the first one. And we find it in chapter one. And each one sort of falls into each of the four chapters of Ruth. But, you know, we think about Christmas, what's Christmas? Christmas is the story of a young woman who made a radical commitment of faith to God and then journeyed to Bethlehem, where she gave birth to a child who had changed the world. You say that you ask anybody, what's that? They say, that's Christmas. That's the story of Ruth. You know, Ruth also made a radical commitment of faith to God. She also journeyed to Bethlehem. She also gave birth to a child who had changed the world.

Mm mm. All right. So that's that's the story of Ruth, but it goes even further. You said that's chapter. That's chapter one. The story continues on. So take us into chapter two. Then what do we see.

There in chapter two? You know, we now meet Boaz. And so, you know, we sort of see the parallels between Ruth and Mary in chapter one. You know, where Mary makes that radical commitment of faith. You know, the angel Gabriel comes to her and just hits her with this amazing revelation. And what does she say? I'm the Lord's servant. You know, I will do as you say. You know, let it be as you have said. And you know, Ruth's commitment is, you know, that amazing one. You know where you go, I will go where you live, I will live, you know where. Where you die, I will die. It was a life commitment to the Lord. She was not going to let go of that. And and you know. So now we come to the men in chapter two. And you know what is Christmas? We think of Mary and Joseph, of course. And, you know, Christmas is the story of a righteous man. That's how Joseph is described. He offered kindness, protection and provision to a young woman in her time of need. And then you go back to Ruth, and that's that's Boaz. You know, Boaz is a predominantly a righteous man. The first words out of his lips in chapter two are, the Lord be with you. First in his life, first in his lips. He he is kind to the poor. He offers protection and provision to Ruth. He puts her under his protection. He. He blesses her. He does all of these things for her. And then you come into the New Testament. And what does Joseph do? He puts God first in his life. Uh, you know, God asks him to do some pretty tough things, too. And he says, yep, I'll do those. He watches out for Mary. He extends kindness to her. At first he's willing to say, you know what? I'm not. He doesn't know what's all going on, but he says, I'm not going to put you into public disgrace. He's going to withdraw quietly. And. And then when God says, no, this is what you need to do. And and so now he provides protection and provision. You know, he, you know, protects her and brings her into a husband wife relationship and provides for her as a husband. And so we see all of these same parallels between Boaz and Joseph as well.

Well, this is just fascinating. I don't think I've ever looked at the story of Ruth that way, although we do tend to look at the story and see she has a kinsman redeemer. So maybe the next point is a parallel that we may have drawn to, of course, Boaz and Christ, but maybe not looking at it through the eyes of the Christmas story. So talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, in chapter two, Boy Meets Girl, you know, Boaz meets Ruth and it's a love story. And, and and so you expect it to end at the end of chapter two. And, and Boaz and Ruth got married and they lived happily ever after. And instead you get this. And she Ruth lived with her mother in law and, and I don't know too many romance stories that end that way. And so, you know, obviously there's got to be some twists and turns before, before you get to that happy ending. And, and and so, you know, chapter three is, you know, well, Christmas is the story of a kinsman redeemer who redeemed his beloved from a desperate situation at great cost to himself. And you go to chapter three. And that's what we see happening in Ruth. And, you know, Ruth and Naomi were in a desperate situation, you know. Yes. They were getting food now, but harvest is going to end. Ruth needs to get married. That's the big thing here. And and and because it's a desperate situation, you know, desperate times call for desperate measures. Naomi comes up with this wild plan to send Ruth in there in the middle of the night. And and, you know, Ruth does this, and it's all very circumspect. And, you know, and, you know, Boaz wakes up and finds her there at his feet. She says, spread the corner of your garment over me. And, and and he does. And that was a sign of a pledge of marriage. It's still practiced in some Middle Eastern countries today. And and so they had a desperate situation. And yet Boaz had a very loving and kind response. And and then it was a costly redemption because, you know, he says, I'm going to take care of this. But there's another guy, you know, you know, there's another kinsman redeemer. And and, you know, when he outlined it to him, he said he backed out of the deal. He said, that's too costly for me. I can't do that. I can't do that. And Boaz said, I can, I will. And you know. And so go back to the Christmas story. Who are we? We're the ones in the desperate situation, right? We're prisoners of sin. Held prisoners by the law. God's loving response. God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law. Jesus came as our kinsman Redeemer, one who sticks closer than a brother. And it was a costly redemption, far greater cost than even Boaz had to pay. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and he gave his own life as a ransom for many.

Pastor Ray Fowler is with us, senior pastor at Plantation Community Church. This is an advent series that we're talking about called Ruth A Christmas Story. We have a link at our website, Eric and bridget.org. Ruth was an outsider. She was coming to an area that was not. You said, this place will be my place. Your God will be my God. But she was really she was an outsider. She probably looked at as an outsider by everybody that saw her as she was gleaning in the fields. Yeah, that's where we are also. And through the story of grace in our own lives and in Ruth's life, we see that we are now part of a lineage. And that's where Ruth is, right?

Yep. Absolutely. You know, that leads us right into chapter four. A child is born. And, you know, once again, we look at Christmas. Christmas is the story of a child and the lion of Judah, who was born as a redeemer in the fulfillment of the prophecies leading up to Messiah. We hear that we go, yep, that's Christmas. It's also the book of Ruth. And, you know, you come to the book of Ruth. It's all about the baby. You know, if you don't have chapter four, we never would have heard chapters one through three. It's all about the baby. Just like Christmas. All about the baby. Right. And and so, you know, this is a child who's born in the line of Judah. And so, you know, Jesus also born in the line of Judah, born as a redeemer. Boaz is not only called a redeemer. In chapter three, Obed the child is called a redeemer in chapter four, foreshadowing Christ. And so born in the line of Judah, born as a Redeemer. In fulfillment of the prophecies, we go back to Genesis 49. You know the scepter will not depart from Judah until it comes to whom it belongs, and it's going to belong to Jesus. And, and and so, you know, all of these things are leading up to the birth of Obed. And, and and that's really the big twist. It's the big reveal at the end of the story because, you know, then, you know, Obed is born and we're told Obed was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. And basically, you know, no Boaz, no Obed, no Obed, no David, no David, no Jesus. And so the stories are intricately connected in that way.

So these are some parallels that you have drawn. But really, I don't think there's any accidental ness to this. These are parallels that are so obviously foreshadowing Christ for us, aren't they?

Absolutely, absolutely. Even the town of Bethlehem. There's a reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And you find that reason in the book of Ruth. It's interesting. The the book of Ruth begins with a flight from Bethlehem. There's a famine in Bethlehem. And so they leave. And and that's how Naomi meets Ruth and and brings her back. And and the story of Christmas ends with a flight from Bethlehem. You know, they're in Bethlehem because it's the city of David, which is because it was the city of Boaz and Obed and Ruth. And then and they're both tragic circumstances. You know, there's a famine in chapter one of Ruth and then obviously the slaughter of the innocents. And so you have two flights from Bethlehem, but they're connected. There's a reason everything takes place in Bethlehem.

There is, um, a mystery to all of life. We don't understand the sovereign hand of God and a lot of these things. We don't understand providence and all these other words that we use. We try to grasp them. We try to figure them out. But, you know, Ruth could have made a decision and she could have been a lost name in history. That's right. She could have said, um, your place is your place. My place is my place. And I wish you well. And I'm going to go back home. Yeah, that's not what she said. As believers, we've made that decision also. But there was a point in our life where we could have made a different decision. Right? Absolutely. But it's a story of grace. We don't understand the Lord's calling, but he does call us, and he might be calling somebody today. And there's a decision that needs to be made. Right?

Absolutely, absolutely. And that takes faith. And sometimes God calls us to those very radical commitments of faith, where we're going to have to make a real break with our past. As Ruth made a break with the false gods in her past and and committed herself to the true God of Israel. And, and and so we make those breaks with our past when we commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So talk to that person who maybe is hearing for the first time that like, uh, like Ruth and Boaz, they can have that kinsman redeemer in their life. How do they come to a relationship with Jesus?

Absolutely. You know, that's what the Christmas story is all about. God so loved the world. He sent his son. And and so, you know, Jesus came into that world to be our Redeemer. And we just need to put our trust and our faith in him. It's interesting, at the beginning of Ruth, there's famine in Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means house of bread. There's no bread in Bethlehem. But you come to Christmas, and now there's bread in Bethlehem. Because Jesus Christ, the bread of life, who came down from heaven to give his flesh for the life of the world is in Bethlehem, and he's come as a Savior for the whole world, and he's come as a Savior for you. You just need to put your faith and your trust in him.

Uh, we said this just a few minutes ago as we were talking to Ron Hutchcraft. We'll say it again if you text the word Jesus (561) 737-6035, you can make that decision to follow him right now, at this moment, just by declaring to him, yes, I've not done this right, and I know there is a better way, and that is through Jesus and accepting him as your Savior. You can you can make that that declaration to him right now. Amen. But if you'd like some first steps, some help in that process, text that word Jesus to (561) 737-6035. We would love to to help you. We've got there's a phone number you can call if you'd like to talk to somebody there, but there's also a video you can watch and some things to read. Really. We would we'd love to make this the best Christmas ever. And that that first Christmas. Okay, maybe you can't top that, but this could be the second best one. How does that sound?

Right? Sounds real good.

Well, one great way to do that is to pick up a copy of Ruth A Christmas Story, part of an advent series. The author, pastor Ray Fowler has been with us this morning. Ray, thank you so much for talking us through how Ruth is a picture of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you so much. And let me just.

Ask real quick is your church going through? Is this from last year or is this something.

From last year? This was last year's advent series.

Okay. So this year you're lighting candles, doing the same advent type of deal. All right. Do you have a special feature you're looking towards this year? Yeah.

This year we're just going to be walking through the first two chapters of Matthew. We're just going to verse by verse. So I'm actually preaching on the genealogy of Jesus this Sunday. But by the way, it's interesting. The very last verses in Ruth are repeated in Matthew chapter one, because we get the genealogy of David, then that's included in the genealogy of Christ. And so once again, another major connection between Ruth and Matthew. They run right into each other.

So as you finished Ruth last year, did you say to be continued?

I should have. Man, I missed out on a good one.

Oh, pastor, thank you for coming in and really encouraging us this morning. We really do appreciate it.

Awesome. Thank you.

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