Are words necessary for evangelism?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. This last week, you may remember, we began a series studying the book of Ruth on what it has to tell us about the gift of relationships. Ruth, Chapter one. We see Ruth convert to biblical faith. And we said, that seems to be from Naomi’s selflessness for the benefit of Ruth, that Naomi put Ruth ahead of herself, Ruth’s future ahead of her own future.

And Ruth found something compelling about that, somehow intuited that it must have something to do with Naomi’s God. And so she wants to pledge herself to the God of the Bible, Yahweh, who she makes a covenant with there in chapter one. May Yahweh deal with me ever so severely if I’m not with him, if I’m not with Naomi.

We said in the sermon that Naomi’s life was preaching a message that her words weren’t, because the only words she used were the problem of evil. That God has done this, you know, given me this tragedy, and she’s lashing out at God, and yet Ruth commits herself to this God.

So the question this week is, are words necessary for evangelism? Can we just selflessly love people and that be enough to bring them into the kingdom? I’d say yes, words are necessary. People will never be able to discern, simply from our lives, the specific information of Jesus died for our sins.

That is, on the cross, he rose to life again.

We place our faith in his work on our behalf to take the guilt, take our guilt, and give us his elevated supreme status in God’s kingdom. And the substitution that happens when we put our faith in Christ. There’s no way that people would gather all of that information simply from our lives. It’s probably fair to assume that since Ruth had been married to one of Naomi’s sons, Naomi and her husband and her sons all came from this Hebrew background, biblical faith.

In their time together, in their marriage, Ruth must have heard stories about the God of the Bible somewhere along the line.

But what brought her across the finish line, it appears, was not those stories. It was Naomi’s life. Maybe for the first time, Ruth saw the effect of all of these stories on Naomi’s heart. And it dawned on her that, oh, this is real. Stories of God liberating his people, stories of God, I mean, all the way back to the garden, promising that there would be a deliverer for them that would conquer evil and reunite people to God.

All of these stories that are incorporated into the Israelite faith that she’s been told all this time. Maybe for the first time, Ruth saw, oh, those actually have an effect on people. That has actually formed Naomi’s heart. Because now she is acting in this redemptive way that I have heard that her God is for all of these other years.

But now I see it in, you know, living, breathing action for my benefit.

And so it’s not just philosophy. It has actually formed the heart of this person. So it must be real. So I’m in. That’s a lot of assuming, but it’s fair assumptions.

Because she has been married into this Jewish family for a long time. She must have heard these stories and now she finally sees it. What we know is she hadn’t. She doesn’t seem to have crossed the finish line until Naomi has acted so selflessly toward her. So are words necessary?

Yes. Because you’re never going to know the, you know, specific information of what’s required for salvation unless there’s words. But also our actions are necessary. They’re so necessary. Sometimes actions are on the front end.

You know, if we act selflessly toward everyone around us, that might be their first window into Christianity. And hopefully they turn and ask, why are you like this? Why do you put others ahead of yourself all the time? Right. I mean, that’s.

That would be eye grabbing in our culture. And we say, because I serve a God who put me ahead of himself. Right. And then other times, like what happened with Ruth and Naomi, it seems like maybe the information was on the front end over the whole course of Ruth’s marriage and then the action was on the back end.

But in Ruth’s case, it seems like if that action weren’t there, maybe she wouldn’t have crossed over into biblical faith.

So are words necessary? Yes. Are actions necessary? Yes. Love people, tell them about Jesus.

We got to do all of it. So thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.