Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource you to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Well, thanks for joining us again on the Life Group Leader podcast. This is a chance for Jeremy and I to have a great conversation about our leader guide as we're walking through our series, of course, connected to the weekend message.
And so we are finishing up the book of Ruth. We've been studying a series called Return to Love, and it's been this amazing picture of looking at a narrative book out of the Old Testament. And it's been beautiful to see the gospel present in the story of Ruth and Naomi, and then Boaz. And now, as we get into the final segment of this series, we're gonna be looking forward.
So we're gonna study an Old Testament passage that just not exclusively talk about Jesus. And yet, we're gonna find Jesus. And I can't wait for us to look into the future, which of course is now our past. This is not getting very meta now, Jeremy, but you know what I'm saying.
And we're gonna find Jesus in the story of Ruth. And so Jeremy, why don't you open us up with just what the big idea for this week is? Well, one of the great things about this week, this closing week in the book of Ruth, is that not only do we see all these themes that point to Jesus and kind of represent Jesus and the work that he will do as our ultimate redeemer and the long-awaited future king, but we're gonna see how the closing lineage there, when we have this closing few verses that we'll look at, the ancestry that comes through this relationship between Ruth and Boaz, ultimately points to King David, which ultimately will become the line of Jesus. So not only do we see this representation of themes that point us to Christ, but we'll see that this actually becomes the very literal lineage of Jesus Christ and his family line.
So this is an exciting week. You know, when we talk about lineages, it's one of the rare occasions in my family where my kids will join opening up the guys, opening up guys were and finding their names in the Bible. And so my son and myself are both listed in lineage passages. You see Jared and you can see Asher.
And this is a point of contention in my house because my two girls, my wife and my daughter, they're not in there, I'm so sorry. But it's one of those places where most people gloss over a list of names because they look at it and they go, what could I possibly learn from that, right? But you know that there's an opening section, right here in the look-down section of our study guide, you have two lineages that you've written out. Kind of what's behind that for you, why did you include that for us?
What can we find in it? Sure, so I love what you said that so often, and I do it too, that it's tempting just to skip over these names, say like, what's the big deal? There's two things that are really important about lineages. One, they're tracing, you see the historicity, that these are real people, that this is historical account.
So we see again, that this is more than just kind of spiritual ideas, but that we're seeing God work throughout the generations and we're seeing his faithfulness from family to family generation to generation throughout time. So we see the historicity, that these things are true, but we also see a sense of authority, usually when we trace family lines, there's something that we're seeing, and in this case, we're tracing the line ultimately to King David and then to Jesus. So at the close of Ruth, the story in the Old Testament, obviously written well before the time of Jesus, the story of Ruth is pointing us to King David and we see God's promise to provide a king for his people. And so Ruth becomes what the grandmother of David, and then we provided the passage from Matthew where it parallels this, but then takes it several generations further to show us that ultimately this lineage of this woman who was forgotten, felt forgotten, we've kind of gone through her story and the way God provided for her, that ultimately she becomes part of the lineage of Jesus himself.
And so we see not just the royal lineage of David, but then we take that even further and we see Joseph and then Mary and Jesus Christ himself. It's one of those things where you can kind of nerd out on God's word for a few minutes and you can just go, this is remarkable. So, you know, verse 17, Matthew 1, 17, so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and then David to exile was another 14 and then from exile until the Messiah, which is Jesus is another 14, right? So what does all that really mean?
There's something profound about Jesus being the seventh seven. So there's this scriptural picture of numbers that, you know, we don't want to get caught up in the numbers and try to find hidden codes and all that stuff. You don't need to get sidelined on all that, but there is something beautiful about the number 49 because that is the year of Jubilee. So in the Old Testament, the year of Jubilee is when all debts would have been forgiven, meaning you would have purchased land or cattle or something like that.
And if you were indebted into the 49th year, the year of Jubilee, those debts would have been canceled. And so I know you're on the edge of your seat, you can feel it already. So that means that Jesus is the generation. Jesus is the one who cancels all debts.
And so what's our debt? Our debt is of course our sin. It is the thing that we will never be able to outwork. We will never actually be able to cancel our own debt.
So Jesus is the one who cancels our debt. I've given away where you're going Jeremy, but I got excited for a second. No, that's great. And hopefully that helps leaders.
There's a question about what point is Matthew making at the beginning of his gospel by dividing history, evenly between Abraham and David, the exile and the Messiah, Jesus. And it's exactly what you just said. There's all this imagery, the original audience, these Jewish people would recognize as being significant. So you see seven, the number of completion and wholeness.
You see this idea of Jubilee and being set free and redeemed or restored, things being made new and set back to right. And then again, just the people named with Abraham and David, and then the exile being a low point in history, but God's promise of faithfulness. You see Matthew also tracing just those covenants and those promises that God has made over the course of history, even in the low points, promising that this, he had plans to prosper them, right? And not to harm them, but to see their good.
And so throughout history, God's proven his faithfulness over and over and over. And ultimately we see the completion fulfillment of those promises in Jesus. And so as believers, we can even still look forward knowing that the promises that we've not yet seen fulfilled in scripture, that God will be true and trust worthy in those as well. And so as our leaders are preparing for this week, I think understanding some of that scriptural background is super helpful.
Are there other things that you would want our leaders to prepare for as they get ready to enter into this week's conversation? So one thing that's just always helpful as you wrap up a series. So in this case, we're wrapping up just the short book of Ruth. I'd encourage leaders to just take a few moments and read through the story again, just so you can kind of recap and discuss with your group.
It's always good to think through what has God taught you during this series? Like what have you seen that you didn't see before? What has God either brought to mind or put on your heart in a fresh way? And so what has God taught you about who he is?
What have you learned even about yourself? And what are some of those moments maybe where you stepped out in faith or you felt the spirit prompting you in certain ways that you've responded? Just think back on those and be ready to share those with the group and encourage people just to discuss how have they seen God's love? How have they seen his loyalty?
What has he taught him in this series? I always appreciate it when a group can pause and praise God for what God has done. And I never want us to lose sight of why are we in life groups. Right.
We're in biblical community, which means that the source of our community is God and His Word Himself. And all the good things that happen within a group, all the things that happen from our group into our surrounding communities is all intended to build up the body of Christ and to make a profound impact in the world. And sometimes we can forget that there is this presence of God in the midst of every one of these discussions. And so that's a super long way of me saying, when somebody has scriptural insight, when somebody shares something that they're learning about God's Word, as a life creator, that's such a great moment to pause and to affirm that.
That somebody has a Holy Spirit alive in them. That's allowing and enabling them to understand God's Word, to apply truth into their life. And then of course, to practice it, right? That we don't just study God's Word that we actually want and practice it.
So you got me thinking about that Jeremy, because I just love how when we end a series, it's a time for us to reflect. We can look back as we close out a series, and that's a great way for us to put a little cap on this one. And knowing that next week, we're gonna start, we're gonna start a brand new one. So with that, any kind of pitfalls or any things that we wanna make sure that we avoid in this week?
Well, I think the main pitfall would just be, kind of like we mentioned at the beginning, sort of skipping over this, thinking that it's just a list of names, what does God gonna teach us through that? For me, I'll just share the two main things that for me in the Book of Ruth and looking at this study that God has reminded me of is one, that temptation to give up personally or feel like maybe God has given up on me. And we see in the story of Ruth, not only does she not give up, but we see how God was always working, both behind the scenes and in very tangible ways to provide for her needs and ultimately to carry out his plans. So don't give up and God doesn't give up on us.
And then not only that, not only does God not give up on us, but he uses us and he includes us in his work. We get to be a part of the story. So you see such ordinary people become part of just this extraordinary work that God is ultimately gonna do through Christ. And so we never know how God wants to use us as well.
And so I would just encourage people to remember that and to remind our group members of that, to not think as that pitfall, to think that my life is insignificant or what could God do through me, we have no idea. And the story of Ruth is just a great reminder that we could never know ultimately what God wants to do through our seemingly ordinary life. And a lot of times our very challenging circumstances. And then the final thing I would say is that this is just a great way to lead into Easter.
Not only do we see God's faithfulness throughout the generations, but that's kind of one of the closing question in the leader God this week is how does this kind of prepare our hearts for Easter? And we see the very obvious work through the lineage, how it's pointing us to Christ's life in Easter, but also just reminded that the cross and what happened to Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, God has known from the very beginning. He promised Redeemer and Genesis three, that the sea of a woman would ultimately crush the head of the serpent and kind of restore that relationship that's broken. And so now we see generation after generation, those promises ultimately that points us to Easter.
And so I'm excited about this upcoming series to get ready for Easter Sunday. Yep, I'm looking forward to it as well. So next week we'll be back with a new series from the cross. We're gonna be walking through six weeks of the seven sayings of Jesus as he was on the cross, not his final words, but his dying words, the words that he shared while on the cross.
And so before we close out this series and this episode, this week in at church, Eric took some time to talk about the multiply campaign. And I really hope that as a leader at our church that you're prayerfully considering, what it would look like for you to contribute to this campaign. I know that for myself, my wife and I, we have been a part of every campaign since we've been here starting in 2002. We love being a part of the story that's being written through Mariners Church, that we get to be a part of Kingdom Impact both in our time and in our engagement, but also in our financial contribution both regularly and as a part of these campaigns.
So I would encourage you as a leader that you would lead the way with your groups and that perhaps if a conversation lends itself that you would talk about it in your group as well, just to re invite people to see that there is a beautiful story being written right here in Orange County and now into broader kind of North San Diego County online and through some really incredible global partnerships as we build out that school, that church-lantic school. So I would really encourage you to have a conversation about it if it makes sense in your group because I wouldn't want to miss being a part of the story that God's writing if this is my church. And so I'd love for you to be a part of that as well. So with that being said, we're grateful for you.
We hope that you have a great week in your group. I wish you a close out. Return to Love, the study of Ruth, and we will see you next week.