Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever seen a movie, and at the end of the movie, things just didn’t end like you hoped they would?

Lately, it seems that so many of the movies Lydia and I have watched have had horrible endings.

I mean, the movie can have a great beginning, and a great plot, but something happens at the end that leaves you scratching your head.

When I was younger, I watched a movie about the survivors of a nuclear war, and it was set right here in Texas.

It was an old black and white movie, and it was essentially how a small town banded together even in the worst of circumstances.

I mean, yeah sure, the majority of the population had been wiped out from the bombs, and wide swaths of land had been ruined by radiation; but there was still something special about how everyone in this small town pulled together to survive.

It was a very enjoyable movie.

But then something happened.

It turns out that all of the top soil was too damaged by the radiation, and the movie ended with the last survivors beginning to starve to death.

Why!

That ruined a perfectly-good post-apocalyptic movie!

But thankfully, the Bible isn’t like that, is it?

Obviously, we can read the end of the book of Revelation, and we can see that the ending is very, very good.

The ending was good after the tragedy of Christ dying on the cross, when He rose up from the grave on Easter morning.

The ending was good when Paul survived the shipwreck in the book of Acts, and the emperor allowed him to freely witness from his home.

The ending was good when King Ahasuerus sided with Queen Esther and decided to not commit genocide against the Jewish people.

And church, we are going to see this morning that the ending is very good in the book of Ruth.

This short, four-chapter book started with two women who became widows, and they had little hope of making it in life.

Completely destitute, they decided to travel back to the country of Israel, to the little town of Bethlehem.

And there, when they were trying to scrape by enough food to survive, a man named Boaz took notice of them, and we talked about how Boaz became a conduit of God’s favor to Naomi and Ruth.

Then last week, we explored the topic of God’s Providence, and how God utilizes our strategies and our obedience to accomplish what He desired all along.

This morning, we are going to finish up the book of Ruth by examining a theme that we have hinted at for the past two Sundays, and that is the theme of redemption.

We are going to look at how God redeemed Ruth from a life of destitution to a life of greatness.

And to see this radical transformation, we need to turn to Ruth chapter four, and we will be reading verses one through twelve.

Again, Ruth 4:1-12

“Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, ‘Ho, such a one!

Turn aside, sit down here.’

And he turned aside, and sat down.

And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, ‘Sit ye down here.’

And they sat down.

And he said unto the kinsman, ‘Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s: and I thought to advertise thee, saying, “Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people.”

If thou wilt redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee.’

And he said, ‘I will redeem it.’

Then said Boaz, ‘What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabites, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.’

And the kinsman said, ‘I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.’

Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor: and this was a testimony in Israel.

Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, ‘Buy it for thee.’

So he drew off his shoe.

And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, ‘Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi.

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.’

And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, ‘We are witnesses.

The LORD make the woman that come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem: and let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.’”

Let’s pray.

The title of this morning’s sermon is “Redemption, No Matter What the Cost.”

We are specifically going to look at what Boaz did to redeem Ruth, but then we are going to also look again at how Christ has redeemed His church, and how we are to be about the mission of helping Him redeem the world.

So let’s begin with point number one.

Point #1: The Cost of Redemption

Before we get into this morning’s text, I want to comment briefly on the verses that (insert name) read earlier.

Hopefully you heard the dilemma that Boaz and Ruth currently faced.

You may remember last week that I mentioned that Boaz and Ruth were definitely in love, but I mentioned that there was a hurdle that they would have to leap before they could be together.

The dilemma that they faced was that there was a closer relative than Boaz that would get first dibs on claiming the land of Naomi, and on claiming Ruth as his bride.

I think it’s interesting that this man has never been mentioned before this verse.

We don’t know what kind of man this guy was, but we do know that Naomi intentionally skipped over him when she told Ruth to seek redemption from Boaz.

All we know is that even though Boaz and Ruth both wanted to be together, this one man could shatter that by deciding that he wanted to marry Ruth instead.

So Boaz promised Ruth that he would come up with a plan to win her.

Before I move on, doesn’t that just sound like a kind of chivalry that seems to be dead in most relationships today?

The concept of fighting for the love of your life, and not resting until you’ve won the right to be with her.

I love seeing that quality from Boaz.

But as I was saying, Boaz told Ruth that he would not rest until he had taken care of this other man.

Notice what Boaz does in verse one of our chapter.

“Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, ‘Ho, such a one!

Turn aside, sit down here.’

And he turned aside, and sat down.”

This verse tells us that Boaz went to the gate of the city to look for the man that was the nearer kinsman.

And I know that to us it may seem strange to go to the city gate to look for someone; but in these days, the city gate was like the Wal-Mart of the ancient world.

It’s where you went to run into people.

The city gate was where many of the older men in the city would congregate to talk about religion, politics, and family issues.

In fact, the city gate is where almost all important business took place in ancient Israel.

So Boaz went to the gate and waited for the man to come by.

Maybe Boaz caught him when he was going out into the fields for the day, or maybe he caught him when he was coming home for the day.

Either way, the man eventually came by, and Boaz asked him to come over and sit down.

And he did.

While I am not going to read verse two again, notice how Boaz asked ten of the older men to come over and be witnesses for the transaction that was about to take place.

The Bible outlines how a normal transaction only required two or three witnesses, but this business was so important to Boaz that he asked for ten men to be witnesses, just so that nothing would go wrong.

Look at what verses three and four tell us.

“And he said unto the kinsman, ‘Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s: and I thought to advertise thee, saying, “Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people.”

If thou wilt redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee.’

And he said, ‘I will redeem it.’

” In these two verses, Boaz explained to the man that Naomi was looking to sell a piece of land, and that he had the first option to buy it, and that if the man didn’t want it, that Boaz was going to buy it instead.

And then the man announced that he would indeed redeem the land.

And who can blame this guy?

I mean, the land would have been a good price, and in Israel, buying land was a very complicated thing because every fifty years the land was returned to its original owner.

But buying the land from a relative is a different matter, because it would stay yours forever.

And not only is it a good deal because of its permanent value, the man was also under obligation to buy it to help out his struggling relative.

And just when this man thinks that he has made one of the best purchases of his life, Boaz springs a trap on him in verse five.

Look at what Boaz says.

“Then said Boaz, ‘What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabites, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.’

” Haha!

In this verse, Boaz is like one of those medicine commercials that wait until the end of the commercial to tell you all of the side effects.

You know what I’m talking about.

“Take this medicine to lower your blood pressure and make your life all better.”

And then at the end, a man’s voice speaks about three times the normal speed and saying, “This medicine may induce strokes and/or heart attacks, which could lead to death.”

Boaz informs the man that along with the field comes Ruth!

And then, Boaz reminds the man of the fine print of how this man is supposed to have a son with Ruth so that the name of Ruth’s dead husband will not be forgotten.

Boaz was reminding the man of the high cost of redemption.

For this man, redemption did not only mean forking over a little bit of cash.

No, redemption also meant turning his entire life upside down so that he could take Ruth as his wife and start a family with her.

And that is the first lesson that this chapter teaches us this morning.

Redemption has a very high price tag.

And for this man, the high price tag was not the money.