An Immigrant’s Courage

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Spirituality

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It takes tremendous courage to leave the land you’ve always lived in and permanently move to another land. People don’t usually do it unless they expect a better life. In the book of Ruth, we have the story of two immigrant women—Naomi and Ruth—who forge an amazing interracial sisterhood. But these women immigrate expecting to have not a better, but a worse life. Naomi’s an old widow without hope, because in that society, she’s bereft of everything that could give her meaning. So Ruth goes with her to Israel, despite knowing that because she’s a Moabite, she’ll be hated. And yet, at the end of chapter 4, there’s joy. Why? Naomi has been redeemed. If you look carefully, there’s an ambiguity in the text that points us to the secret of the story and the secret of our lives. To see this, let’s look at three redeemers in this story: 1) a formal redeemer, 2) a surprise, hidden redeemer, and then 3) a real redeemer. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 19, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Ruth 4:13-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gospel in Life. This month we're looking at directional signposts
0:06.5	through history that point us to Christ. All through the Old Testament from
0:10.9	Genesis to Jonah, you see signs that point us to Jesus. Listen now to today's
0:15.8	teaching from Tim Keller on pointers to Christ. Turn to the passage in your
0:21.0	bulletin which is the climax of the book of Ruth. It's the last virtually the
0:25.7	very last verses of those short little book of Ruth. I'll read it. Ruth
0:33.7	chapter four verses 13 to 17.
0:39.3	Suboaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her and the Lord
0:48.7	enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. The woman said to Naomi
0:54.5	praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a Kinsman
1:00.3	Redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and
1:05.1	sustain you in your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is
1:10.3	better to you than seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child
1:16.0	laid him in her lap and cared for him. The woman living there said Naomi has a
1:23.2	son and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This
1:31.6	is God's word. It takes tremendous courage to leave the land. You've always lived
1:40.9	in and to permanently move to another land, a whole other country, another nation,
1:44.7	another culture. It's a death-defying feat. Kathy's, my wife's great grandfather at
1:54.1	the end, sometime at the end of the 19th century, moved, left his pregnant wife
1:59.2	behind and went to Western Pennsylvania, left Croatia, left Zagreb, or the
2:06.1	vicinity of Zagreb, went to Croatia and there went from Croatia to the Western
2:11.0	Pennsylvania, worked in the mines. For eight years, didn't communicate with his
	...

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