Well, good morning again, church.
We're looking at Ruth, chapter 2, this morning.
Let me invite you to go ahead and turn there with me.
As we've been saying, this time of year in the church calendar is traditionally called
Advent.
Advent, in addition to being a fun time to put plants that belong outside, inside our
buildings, we also remember Jesus' first coming and look ahead to his second coming.
That's what Advent's all about.
The word Advent actually is just from the Latin word that means arrival or coming.
And particularly the way that word sort of functions in Latin, so I'm told, is that it
doesn't mean just any old thing coming or arriving, but something coming that is worthy and history
shaping, even life changing.
It's a coming pregnant with anticipation.
In other words, kind of like the coming of a king.
And the text we're looking at this Advent season is the Old Testament book of Ruth.
Now, as we said last week, Ruth isn't traditionally thought of as an Advent sort of text.
Some of you probably were wondering, what in the world are we doing preaching through Ruth
at Christmastime?
But actually, you know, it works quite nicely.
You see, in this sort of overarching kind of narrative of the Old Testament, the book of
Ruth functions sort of like a prequel to the story of King David, to Israel's greatest
king.
In other words, Ruth is sort of like the Hobbit is to the Lord of the Rings.
It's kind of the shorter, much-loved prequel or prelude to the bigger epic of wars and kings
and the triumph of good over evil.
So that's why Ruth is a really great Advent book, after all.
It's as we've titled this series, The Prelude to the King.
Prelude to King David, yes.
But you know, even more so, in the arc of the whole Bible, it serves as a prelude to
King Jesus.
So we're going to pick up this story, Ruth chapter 2.
It's page 222 in the Pew Bible, if you want to turn there.
Ruth chapter 2.
And before I read this for us, let me pray.
God, we're so grateful for your word.
We're grateful for the ways in which you have given us not just letters and not just poems
and not just collections of wisdom, but God, you have given us stories, narratives, historical
accounts of the ways in which you've interacted with your people.
Lord, and we know that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So when we read these narratives of your dealings with God's people in the past, we know we can
look to you and know that you are faithful.
You're the same God.
So Lord, as we open up the book of Ruth again this morning, would you teach us more about
yourself, about your great work of redemption through your son, and about your life-giving power
among us by your spirit?
Pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All right, Ruth chapter 2.
Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose
name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of
grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.
And she said to her, go, my daughter.
So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.
And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan
of Elimelech.
And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you.
And they answered, the Lord bless you.
And Boaz said to his young men who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is
this?
And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she's the young Moabite woman who
came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.
So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave
this one, but keep close to my young women.
Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them.
Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?
And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in
your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner?
But Boaz answered, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your
husband has been fully told to me.
And how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you
did not know before.
Therefore, the Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given you by
the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoke
kindly to your servant.
I'm not one of your servants.
And at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some of, uh, eat some bread and dip
your morsel in the wine.
So she sat beside the reapers and he passed her her roasted grain and she ate until she was
satisfied and she had some leftover.
When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the
sheaves and do not reproach her and also pull out some of the bundles for her and leave it for
her to glean and do not rebuke her.
So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned.
And it was about an ephah of barley and she took it up and went into the city.
Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.
She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
And her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean today?
Where have you worked?
Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man's name with whom
I work today is Boaz.
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness is not
forsaken the living or the dead.
Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.
And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close to my young men
until I have finished all my harvest.
And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it's good, my daughter, that you go out with
these young women lest in another field you be assaulted.
So she cut close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat
harvests.
And she lived with her mother-in-law.
Well, at the end of chapter one of the book of Ruth, Ruth has basically ventured everything
on the Lord.
You see, by committing to go with her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to Israel, by committing to take
care of her no matter what, Ruth is pretty much leaving everything and entrusting herself
to the God of Israel.
Now, where you go, I will go, she swore to Naomi.
Where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die.
And there I will be buried.
Ruth is completely and utterly all in.
As Paul Miller says in his little book, A Loving Life, she is loving without an exit strategy.
She was venturing everything on the Lord, the God of Israel.
If you were here last week, you'll remember that Ruth was from a little country called Moab,
a neighboring nation to Israel.
You probably caught it in our text this morning.
A number of times, Ruth is called the Moabite.
So in coming to Israel, you see, in coming to trust in Israel's God, Ruth was leaving her home,
her nationality, her people, her culture, most likely leaving any good prospects of marriage and a family.
She was leaving all that was comfortable and familiar, all that she had constructed and built her life around,
and she was entrusting it wholly to this God.
And the question, sort of lingering as chapter 2 opens, is,
is she going to be okay?
What's going to happen to her?
And more directly, more particularly, is she simply going to remain empty?
She's a young immigrant widow caring for her aged, widowed mother-in-law in a place where she knows no one.
That's about as empty as you can be in the ancient Near East.
Is she going to remain that way?
And I think in a lot of ways, these are the questions that we ask, too.
I think it goes something like this.
If I follow God,
if I leave my old life to go after him,
to believe in him,
to trust him,
to do what his word says,
if I make that step and venture my whole life on him,
am I actually, at the end of the day, going to be okay?
Or, having left everything,
will I simply end up empty?
Alone?
Having given up everything,
will I end up with nothing in return?
Maybe you're here this morning and you've been wrestling with that for actually quite some time.
You've been wrestling with all that you'll potentially need to leave behind
if you become a Christian.
Maybe you're compelled by the picture of God that Jesus Christ reveals to us.
Maybe the fact that he would come and he would live and die for you
is drawing your heart out to him.
And yet, when you hear his call of discipleship,
to leave everything and come follow me.
To take up your cross and come follow me.
Suddenly, everything that you realize you might potentially need to leave behind
becomes for you the great sticking point.
Maybe you are a Christian.
And all that you potentially stand to lose
by actually following what Jesus says as one of his followers
is becoming very difficult.
But here's where Ruth chapter 2 comes in.
As we watch the chapter unfold,
we see how God works in Ruth's life.
Until by the end of the chapter,
Ruth's emptiness has been met with what?
With a surprising fullness.
Even bereaved and bitter Naomi
by the end of chapter 2
is beginning to hope again.
The empty are made full.
The hopeless are suddenly hopeful.
The one who's ventured everything on God
finds that the Lord doesn't leave her empty.
How does God do it?
Well, we see in this text that God meets Ruth
and he meets us
in at least three ways.
First, he meets her through his law.
Second, he meets her through his providence.
And lastly, he meets her through a person.
So let's just look at each one of those in turn.
First, God meets Ruth in her emptiness
through his law.
Did you notice when we were reading this
how many times the word glean
comes up in this chapter?
You think, man, these Hebrew narrators
need to pull out a thesaurus from time to time.
Come on, it's like 12 times
in like 20 chapters.
Well, you see the backdrop to this whole chapter,
this whole scene,
is this special provision in the law of Moses
about gleaning, about harvesting.
In places like Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 24,
there are laws that allow for the socially
and economically disadvantaged,
the fatherless, the widows, the sojourners,
to actually come and glean the edges of the fields
and to gather what's been dropped
or passed over by the reapers
so that they can provide for themselves.
In other words, landowners were commanded by God
to leave parts of their fields
for the use of the poor.
And they were even commanded
not to utterly strip bare everything
from what they did harvest
so that the needy could have something
to gather there as well.
And God tells his people to do this for two reasons.
First, because all this is meant to be a picture
of the kind of God he is.
God's people were meant to display
his generosity and his compassion
and embody it even and especially
in their economic practices
and how they manage their fields.
After all, there were very few sort of hobby farmers
in ancient Israel, right?
Like this was their livelihood.
This was their base economic structure.
And secondly, God tells them to do this
as a reminder not just of who he is
but as a reminder of who they are.
Remember, God says in Deuteronomy 24
after giving them this command,
remember that you were once slaves in Egypt,
he says.
Remember that you once had nothing
and that you were once destitute
and I rescued you.
In other words, these laws
about keeping some of your fields
for the poor and the needy
and disadvantaged
were meant to be an overflow of God's grace,
an overflowing sign of his redeeming love
that they had received.
God had rescued them from their emptiness
and now they were to act towards others
to make provision for them.
So when Ruth in verse 2 says to Naomi,
let me go to the field and glean,
she's probably thinking about
these kinds of provisions
in Israel's law, in God's law.
And what does that mean?
Well, it means that God's word,
God's law,
had provided this framework,
had provided this beautiful structure
where Ruth's emptiness could be met.
God had inscribed his very generosity
and compassion
into the very way his people
dealt with their finances,
with their fields.
And in that God-centered structure
or framework that's articulated in the law,
Ruth, this empty immigrant widow,
found a place of provision and protection.
You know, sometimes we go back
and we read the Old Testament law
and we think this stuff
is just completely and utterly bizarre.
Right?
But when you start to see
how it's functioning in the context,
you realize that it's a picture
of God's mercy and compassion.
Here is a space created by God's word,
by his law,
where one who had nothing
could still find the means to flourish.
Now, of course, for us today,
living on this side
of Jesus's death and resurrection,
these particular Old Testament civil laws,
in other words,
these laws about Israel
sort of ordered its kind of political
and financial life together,
they're not in effect in the same way,
just like the ceremonial laws
have been fulfilled
through Jesus for us today.
But the overarching point
is still the same,
that God's word to us today,
his commands and instructions
for how to order our lives together,
more particularly,
all those imperatives
that we find in the New Testament
gospels and epistles,
friends,
they're there for our good.
They're there indeed
for our flourishing.
God still wants to display
his character in the world
through his people.
God still wants the overflow
of his redeeming grace
to be exhibited in our lives.
And how do we do that?
How do we take part
in that great privilege?
We do it through patterning our lives
in accordance with his word.
After all, friends,
God made us
and he certainly knows
how our lives work best,
doesn't he?
And moreover,
this is actually one of the ways
that God meets us
to fill us.
God's rules aren't there
to kill all of our joy
or to make our lives
excruciatingly difficult.
Just the opposite.
My wife will often
make fun of me
for the fact that I took
swing dance lessons
in high school.
I often make fun of myself
for that fact.
But I learned one thing
taking swing dance lessons.
You know,
when you're learning
a new dance step,
at first it feels
a bit awkward.
It feels like something
you're never going
to get the hang of.
And sometimes it feels
so difficult
and so complicated
that you just want
to give up.
And of course,
what's true of real dancers
and not just amateur
high schoolers
trying to impress
their girlfriend,
what's true of real dancers
is that learning the dance
is not just difficult,
but it's actually costly.
It's time,
it's energy,
it's discipline.
But friends,
look at the end result.
Look at a ballet dancer.
How she can move
with complete control
and grace.
look at a whole company
of ballet dancers
and see the beauty
and the synchrony
and the symmetry
of their motion together.
Yes,
you have to change your diet,
I'm sure,
to be a good ballet dancer.
You certainly have to change
your posture,
at least I would,
as I hunch more and more.
And you know,
you'll probably get some bruises
on your feet along the way.
But the end result,
on the far side
of the awkwardness,
the frustration,
and the cost,
the end result
is the beauty
and the deep satisfaction,
the fullness
of participating
in that dance
that God has choreographed
for his glory
and for our good.
And what's more,
when you become a Christian,
or if you already are a Christian,
God actually comes
to live inside of us
through his Holy Spirit.
And he begins working in us
this transformation,
making us,
making all of us together
through the awkwardness
and through the frustration
and through the cost,
making us into a thing of beauty.
Paul says,
keep in step
with the Spirit.
Speaking of this very thing,
God's making us holy
through his grace
and through his word.
So friends,
God doesn't leave us empty.
Like we see here in Ruth,
he gives us his word,
he gives us his law
as the structure,
as the framework
of our flourishing.
But next we see
that it's not just God's law,
but it's God's providence.
In verses one through three,
the narrator does
this incredibly artful thing.
Maybe you noticed it.
In verse one,
what does he do?
He introduces a new character,
Boaz.
Ah, but Boaz
hasn't entered the story
just quite yet.
The narrator is just making sure
that we, the audience,
know who he is ahead of time.
In other words,
he's building
some dramatic irony,
he's building
some dramatic expectation.
And then,
with this figure of Boaz
in our minds
and all the anticipation
of what part he might play
in the story,
in verse three,
Ruth goes out into the fields
and lo and behold,
what happens?
She happened to come
to the part of the field
belonging to,
you guessed it,
Boaz.
Ruth happens
in the field
It's wonderfully
understated.
But at the same time,
it's so clear,
isn't it?
That here we see
God is at work.
That through his
providential hand,
Ruth happens
into just the right field
at just the right time.
And of course,
notice here
that Ruth is still
making real choices.
It's her initiative
to go out
into the fields.
But friends,
this is the wonder
of it all.
That in and through
Ruth's own initiative,
in and through
her own agency,
in and through
her own responsibility,
God sovereignly
orchestrates
his wise
and good plan.
Now,
I don't know
about you,
friend,
but I think
we stand
on the edge
of a deep mystery
here.
How God's sovereignty
and our human agency
and responsibility
are both fully
and completely true
is something
that we can speak
intelligently about.
It's something
that we can live
faithfully and light of,
but it's not something
that our finite minds
will ever fully grasp.
Not in this life.
And I'm wondering
probably,
maybe even not
in the life to come.
And yet,
it's a sweet reality,
isn't it?
It's a reality
that's actually here
for our comfort.
I've always loved
the way the Heidelberg
Catechism talks
about God's providence.
This is how it describes it.
It says,
God's providence
is his almighty
and ever-present power
whereby,
as with his hand,
he still upholds
heaven and earth
and all creatures
and so governs them
that leaf and blade,
rain and drought,
fruitful and barren years,
food and drink,
health and sickness,
riches and poverty,
indeed,
all things
come to us
not by chance,
but by his fatherly hand.
Friends,
make no doubt about it.
In this fallen world,
Christians will experience,
as the old catechism says,
drought and barren years,
sickness and poverty.
There are no guarantees
for health or wealth
in the gospel,
but we are assured
that even the barren years
are not meaningless,
that they are not
the mere doings
of a cold,
faceless fate.
They're not by chance.
But actually,
that they're wrapped up
in the great story
that God is weaving
in our lives.
Paul Miller,
who wrote an excellent book
on prayer,
by the way,
he puts it this way
in his book in prayer.
He says,
if God is sovereign,
then he's in control
of all the details
of my life.
If he is loving,
then he's going to be
shaping the details
of my life for my good.
If he's all wise,
then he's not going
to do everything I want
because I don't know
what I need.
And if he's patient,
then he's going to take time
to do all this.
And when we put
all these things together,
he says,
God's sovereignty,
his love,
his wisdom,
his patience,
we have a divine story.
And if you immerse yourself
in that story,
friends,
you begin to see
that it's often a story,
in fact,
almost always a story,
of great reversals.
Blessed are those
who mourn,
Jesus said,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit
the earth.
Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst
for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
I remember sitting
with a friend
not so long ago
while he was reflecting
on the cost
of discipleship.
He was in a particularly
trying season.
And as he looked out
at the road before him,
at the road of following Jesus
and what that would mean,
all he could humanly see
was loneliness
and unfulfilled longing.
But friends,
you know,
the truth is
that that would not
be the only reality.
Of that leg of the journey,
for him or for us.
God's providence,
his care,
his almighty
and ever-present power
would also be at work.
And even the steps
that may have led him
through mourning
or hunger
or thirst
or loneliness
would be the very same steps
that led him ultimately
to glory
and to joy.
friends,
Ruth has not just
God's law
but also
God's providence
meeting her
in her emptiness,
leading her
to fullness
and so do we.
But finally,
God meets her
in a person.
Amidst all the danger
of being a single
vulnerable woman
in a time of political
and social chaos,
verse 22
alludes
to the threat
of living
in the time
of the judges
as the narrator says
in chapter 1.
Amidst all that,
Ruth finds
a person
who will actually
extend her
favor.
Enter Boaz,
the one described
in verse 1
as a worthy
man.
Strong,
wealthy,
honorable,
the word
can mean
all of the above.
It's funny,
when Beth and I
were thinking
of names
for our sons,
it struck us
that Boaz
is one of the
few characters
in the Bible
about whom
nothing bad
is ever really
said.
You know,
you sort of
rifle through
the list of names.
Abraham,
well,
there was that
whole thing
with passing
off Sarah.
Jacob,
well,
okay,
he had his
issues.
And you just
keep going
down the list.
And then you
meet Boaz.
So there it was,
if we were going
to go with a
biblical name,
Boaz Lauer.
We went in a
different direction.
Okay.
But it's still
a great name,
isn't it?
Go ahead.
It's all yours.
Take it.
But you see,
friends,
in many ways,
Boaz represents
and he embodies
here what Israel
was all along
supposed to be.
God honoring,
generous,
strong,
compassionate
to the weak
and lowly.
This is all
that God's people
were meant to be
and he's living
it out.
And as a result
of Boaz
showing favor
to her
and ordering
his men
to do the same,
hey,
by the way,
when you're gleaning,
don't just leave
some on the ground
but actually pull
some out
and leave it
on the ground
for her.
That's what he
says to his men.
As a result
of Boaz
showing all
that favor
to her,
Ruth ends
up going
home
in one day
with almost
two weeks
worth of grain
for her
and Naomi.
That's what
one ephah
would have
amounted to.
That's a pretty
good yield.
One day,
two weeks
pay for two
people.
She goes
home incredibly
full,
overflowing.
You can see
in verse 19
that Naomi
is just
shocked
by the amount.
Who put
his eyes
on you?
Golly!
And Boaz,
in fact,
allows Ruth
to come back
day after day
for the rest
of the harvest
as the chapter
ends.
come back.
Stay with
my women.
Drink
from my
well.
Eat
with my
men.
And take
all you
need.
And friends,
on the one
hand,
we see
here how
God works
through his
people,
don't we?
If Boaz
is an example
of a,
is a representation
of what the
Old Testament
church was
supposed to be,
he still
functions that
way for the
New Testament
church today.
that we
too ought
to meet
the sojourner,
the widow,
the fatherless,
the weak,
the empty,
with compassion,
with generosity,
with friendship.
Did you
notice here
that Boaz
goes simply
over and
above what
the law
prescribes?
He doesn't
just allow
Ruth to glean
the edges
of his field
or follow
the reapers.
Take even
more,
Boaz
says.
He even
shares his
own meal
with her
and she
can eat
and drink
until she's
satisfied.
And friends,
just like in
Ruth's day,
there are
those among
us who are
especially
vulnerable
today.
and the
church ought
to be like
a harbor.
It ought
to be like
a safe
field during
the harvest
where those
people can
come and
be shown
favor and
be allowed
to flourish.
and like
Boaz,
that's going
to mean
perhaps making
a financial
investment.
One wonders
how many
landowners
in Bethlehem
in the time
of the judges
actually followed
the Mosaic
law with
respect to
these gleaning
laws.
Did they
actually bear
the cost of
leaving their
field a little
under harvested
just for the
sake of the
sojourner or
the widow?
Were they
willing to
lose some
of those
profits just
to care for
the needy
around them?
Friends,
that's the
opportunity
that's before
us as a
church.
To leave
some margin
in our
budgets.
To maybe
forgo some
of our
expenses so
that we can
be generous
to those
in need.
To make
some costly
moves so
that we
can be the
place where
the empty
or filled.
But of
course our
time,
right,
is probably
more precious
than our
money.
And the
emptiness that
so many
people around
us face
isn't necessarily
financial,
is it,
but it's
relational.
There's a
deep need
for friendship.
Friends,
when I look
out at the
world,
I think it's
one of the
greatest needs
that I see.
people hungering
and longing
for friendship.
There's a
deep need
in our
world for
the costly
work of
knowing one
another and
being known.
And as we
find when
Boaz approaches
Ruth, what
does she
find?
Ruth finds
that he
actually knows
her, that he
knows her
story.
He knows
what she
had given
up to
come to
Bethlehem
with Naomi.
He actually
knew her
and he
viewed her
with favor.
Again and
again in
this chapter,
there's that
motif, that
theme of
being seen
with favor
at almost
every move
in the
narrative.
It's
mentioned.
Ruth sets
out and
says, I
hope I
find someone
in whose
eyes I
can find
favor.
And when
she meets
Boaz, she
says, what
have I done
to find favor
in your eyes?
And at
last, Naomi
kind of gets
the last
word and
says, someone
must have
seen you
and shown
you favor.
Friends, what
if someone
knew that
they could
walk into
a church
and be
seen with
that kind
of gracious
favor?
That they
could be
valued as
a person
made in
the image
of God
regardless
of their
background.
And that
they could
be accepted
as someone
for whom
Christ died
regardless
of their
personality
quirks.
that they
could be
seen as
someone
headed
towards
unimaginable
glory when
Christ
returns.
Not a
place where
sin is
excused.
No, but a
place where
we stick
with one
another through
the hard
work of
change.
church.
In other
words, a
place where
we love
each other.
A place
where we
take friendship
building as
a serious
calling.
After all,
it would seem
that that's
something of
what's forming
here between
Ruth and
Boaz, isn't
it?
And how
unlikely a
friendship it
is.
She's a
Moabite
after all.
the people
of Israel
and the
people of
Moab didn't
necessarily like
each other a
whole lot.
But isn't
that how it
is in the
church?
Don Carson
puts it this
way.
I like this.
He says,
the church
itself is not
made up of
natural friends.
It's made up
of natural
enemies.
What binds
us together
is not
common
education,
common
race,
common
income
levels,
common
politics,
common
nationality,
common
accents,
common
jobs,
or anything
else of
that short.
I might
add common
marital
status,
common
family
sizes.
Christians
come together,
he says,
not because
they form a
natural
collocation,
but because
they have
all been
saved by
Jesus
Christ and
owe him
a common
allegiance.
In the
light of
this common
allegiance,
in the
light of
the fact
that they
have all
been
loved by
Jesus
himself,
they commit
themselves to
doing what
he says,
and he
commands them
to love
one another.
In this
light,
they are a
band of
natural
enemies who
love one
another for
Jesus' sake.
Why does
Boaz love
Ruth?
Because they
both know
the same
Lord,
under whose
wings you've
come for
refuge.
So friends,
on the one
hand,
we see in
Boaz how
God works
through his
people to
meet us
in our
emptiness.
And let me
just say,
if you're
feeling empty
this morning,
are you a
part of his
church?
Are you
pushing into
the fellowship?
It's part of
the means that
God's given
to meet you.
But you
know,
on a much
deeper level,
Boaz,
as a
representative
Israelite,
as a
truly
worthy
man,
does he
not
prefigure
the one
who would
come and
truly be
and do
all that
Israel was
meant to
be and
do?
You see,
friends,
Boaz,
in obedience
to God's
law,
was willing
to sacrifice
a little
so that the
needy and
weak could
be fed.
But the
one who
would come
after him,
Jesus Christ,
sacrificed
everything in
obedience to
his father
so that you
and I could
be satisfied
eternally.
The
apostle Paul
puts it this
way,
he says,
for you
know the
grace of
our Lord
Jesus Christ,
that though
he was rich,
yet for your
sake he became
poor,
so that you
by his
poverty might
become rich.
And isn't
that what
Christmas is
all about,
after all?
That he
was willing
to leave
everything
behind,
he was
willing to
lose
everything
for us,
so that now
when we
come to
him,
what we
lose is
nothing
compared to
what we'll
gain.
Friends,
you see the
blessings and
the fullness
of coming to
know Jesus
Christ,
the forgiveness
of sins,
to at long
last have a
conscience
utterly at
peace,
knowing that
God is
now
reconciled
to you.
To have
membership in
God's own
family,
knowing that
the almighty
God loves
us and
cares for
us as
his own
daughters
and sons.
It's
increasing
holiness by
the presence
of his
spirit,
sanctification,
finding more
and more of
the very
purpose for
which we
were created
to reflect
his beauty
in the
world.
God's
glory.
It is the
participation
in God's
own glory
that one
day we
will be
radiant,
glorified
when he
comes to
make all
things new.
All of
this we
have in
Christ.
On more
than one
occasion during
his earthly
ministry,
Jesus fed
hungry crowds
of people
from just a
few loaves
of bread.
In the
gospel of
Mark,
both times
he tells
about those
events,
says,
and they
all ate
and were
satisfied.
And they
all ate
and were
satisfied.
Ruth
meets
Boaz and
her emptiness
is filled.
Friends,
it's the same
way with
everyone who
meets the
Lord Jesus
Christ.
He will
fill your
emptiness.
You will
eat and
you will
be satisfied.
in just a
second we're
going to go
to the
table.
We're
going to
go to
the
Lord's
Supper.
And
friends,
this is
the place
for believers
to take
that truth
and press
it down
into your
heart.
That his
broken body
and his
shed blood
were for
you.
So that
you could
be filled.
So when
we come
to the
table,
we get
to come
and we
get to
bask in
the beauty
of what
he's done.
So bask
in the
beauty of
what he's
done for
you.
And
remember
the cost
of what
he's done
for you
here.
And do
all that
so that
you can
be renewed
and so
you can
be filled
again.
And
Jesus
gave us
this
great act
to do
together
as his
church.
And we
do it
together.
God
and we
go out
and we
reflect it
in the
world.
Let's
pray.
Lord Jesus,
would you
fill the
hungry?
Would you
give hope
to the
hopeless?
And Lord,
as we come
around your
table,
pray that
those who
are anxious
to come
after you
would see
that there
is great
gain in
following you,
our Savior.
Jesus, we
remember the
words that you
said that
whoever has
left father
or mother,
relatives,
or houses,
or lands,
whoever has
left all that
for your sake
and for the
gospel,
will receive a
hundredfold in
this life,
and in the age
to come
eternal life.
Lord, help us
to embrace that
truth and to
follow you, we
pray.
Amen.
Well, friends,
we come to the
Lord's Supper,
as we said.
I wonder if
those who are
helping to serve
would come
forward.