Welcome to
Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday, 29th October 2023

Pastor Jonathan Chow (Senior Pastor of BOL in Taipei)

1. Seeing God’s heart for the new immigrants and for the church from the perspective of Ruth

Compared with 20 or 30 years ago, New Zealand today has undergone great changes in its demographic structure. There are many new immigrants from different countries among us. God brought all nations to New Zealand and gave our church the mission of serving these new immigrants. Currently, our church has Sunday services in three languages ​​every week. Today we will use the Book of Ruth to lead our brothers and sisters to think more about God’s intentions for the new immigrants and how we should respond. Because Ruth was a new immigrant from the land of Moab to Bethlehem.

2. The Three Redeemers in the Book of Ruth

The vision of our Mother Church this year is “total surrender and total redemption.” And the entire book of Ruth is about the concept of redemption through total surrender. The close relative with the right of redemption mentioned in Ruth 4:13-19 refers to the redeemer. Because of this redeemer, Naomi’s life changed from bitter to sweet again.

If we look carefully at the entire book of Ruth, we will find that there are three redeemers. The first was Boaz. Not only did he redeem Naomi’s land, he was also willing to marry Ruth, a Moabite woman considered cursed by Israel, and gave birth to a child with Ruth who belonged to Naomi. He could inherit Elimelech’s estate.

The second is Ruth, the hidden redeemer, who knew that Naomi would not be able to survive when she returned to Israel alone. So she was willing to sacrifice her right to stay in Moab and risk being humiliated, rejected, despised, and looked down upon, just to let Naomi go back to her live in Israel.

The third is the Lord Jesus, the ultimate redeemer. Like Boaz, He cancels all our sin debts so that we can enjoy abundant life in an intimate relationship with Him. Like Ruth, He gave up everything to become a human being, becoming a new immigrant from heaven to earth, sacrificing Himself so that we could have life.

3. God’s church enables new immigrants to find their calling and destiny

Many servants of God are new immigrants who left their familiar hometowns and went to an unfamiliar environment. But when they are loved and accepted by the local churches, they can respond to the call and build a glorious church with us. We can serve these new immigrants and new residents because we have met the Lord Jesus Christ to whom Boaz and Ruth represented, and He redeems our lives. God not only uses us to bless these new immigrants and new residents, God also uses them to bless us and enter into God’s glorious destiny together.