Celebrating His finished Work
Genesis 2:1-3
What a privilege it is to gather today and worship
together. There is really nothing better
this side of heaven than to be gathered with God’s people to worship and enjoy
God together. Charles Spurgeon called
the local church the “dearest place on earth.”
And certainly Sundays are the dearest day in the dearest place on
earth. Churches enjoy what Scripture
calls “the Lord’s Day” in many different ways.
Some churches gather together for almost the entire day. One church I heard of begins their
celebrations at 9 in the morning with Sunday school followed by worship and
preaching at 11, a luncheon at 12:30. A
short break followed by an hour or so of prayer concluding with an additional
time of teaching in the late afternoon. They
virtually spend the entire day together as a church. Other churches only meet for an hour on
Sunday and leave the rest of the day open.
Some churches don’t even meet on Sunday but a weeknight instead. Our Puritan forbearers considered Sunday a
Christian Sabbath day and dedicated the entire day to worshipping together,
resting, reflecting on the scriptures and doing works of charity. You remember the “Blue Laws”? It used to be illegal to open your business
on a Sunday in
M.G. L. Chapter 136: Section 5. Conducting business
on Sunday; penalty Section 5. Whoever on Sunday keeps open his shop,
warehouse, factory or other place of business, or sells foodstuffs, goods,
wares, merchandise or real estate, or does any manner of labor, business or
work, except works of necessity and charity, shall be punished by a fine of not
less than twenty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for a first offense,
and a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars for
each subsequent offense, and each unlawful act or sale shall constitute a
separate offense.
Now they made so many exceptions in this law in the next
section that it is toothless. Did you also know that the reason
Now you might think all this trivia doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. But it all points to the issue of the Sabbath. As we have found already, the very first chapters of Genesis establish some key themes that we see resonating throughout the bible. One of those is the Sabbath. How we understand this and how we practice this has not only direct bearing on how we view Sundays as a church but even how we view all of life. Let’s take a look at our text this morning, Genesis 2:1-3. Let’s pray before we read.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed
the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work
that he had done in creation." (Genesis 2:1-3, ESV)
1.
The Sabbath in the
OT
We have looked at Genesis 1 and all the glorious work that God accomplished. We have seen that after he created mankind he saw that everything was very good. And now, after six days of glorious creation God rests on the seventh day, having finished his work of creation. Folks, God is a God of rest, not just labor. He not only created the heavens and the earth, he has also created rest. Not only did he create rest but he gave a whole entire day of the seven days of creation to rest. He blessed this seventh day and made it special – he made it holy, because he rested on this day.
Now, we must remember that Genesis 2 was written to the
covenant people of God after being dramatically and decisively delivered from
the land of slavery and oppression,
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days
you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the
Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter,
your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner
who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11, ESV)
So this seventh day, that would be Saturday, is to be a day where the
entire covenant community ceases from regular work and honors God. This command to keep the Sabbath reverberates
throughout the entire Old Testament.
They were to keep it wholeheartedly and strictly. Later on in chapter 31 God says this about
the Sabbath:
“You are to speak to the people of
So this was no light matter. The Sabbath for the OT people of God was a sign of their relationship with God. To break the Sabbath was to profane God and dishonor his covenant with them. In Numbers 15 a guy gets caught gathering sticks to make a fire on the Sabbath and he is put to death. We know the story of the people of God in the OT. We know that they wandered from their covenant obligations and devotion to God and failed miserably to keep the covenant – and in particular, the Sabbath. Nehemiah credits failure to keep the Sabbath for the reason that God exiled the Israelites:
"Then I confronted the nobles of
Furthermore, when God calls the people back to himself, he calls them back to keeping the Sabbath holy. Check out Isaiah 56:
"Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do
righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who
keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will
surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am
a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who
choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my
house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. “And the
foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the
name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and
does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy
mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and
their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a
house of prayer for all peoples.”" (Isaiah 56:1-7, ESV)
So we see the Sabbath in the OT as a key issue for the people
of God. It served as an essential way to
worship God, as a sign of the covenant obedience of the people of God and an
indicator of their devotion and love for God.
It was both a command and a blessing – a whole-hearted and zealous
response of worship to the God who had delivered them from
2.
The Heart of the
Sabbath
But why did God choose the keeping of the Sabbath as an essential part of their covenant obedience? Why make such a big deal about whether or not you rest and worship on the Sabbath? What is it about the Sabbath that warrants such strict obedience? Well, I believe the scriptures teach us three things about the Sabbath and about the God of the Sabbath. Let’s return to Genesis 2.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed
the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work
that he had done in creation." (Genesis 2:1-3, ESV)
There are three words here that are key: finished, rested and holy. Understanding these three words or concepts will help understand why God places such stress on the Sabbath.
First “finished”, we see that God finished his work by the
seventh day, the work of creating the heaven and the earth, that place by which
and in which he displays his glory.
Remember what he did? He took a
formless and empty universe and created the realms of earth, sky and sea and
the filled each of these realms with plants and animals and light. Then he made the crowning work, mankind, and
set him over his creation to image his glory.
This is what he did and he finished the work. We see the same Hebrew word a couple of other
places in scripture.[1] Exodus 40:33 (ESV) “And he
erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of
the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.” And 2 Chronicles: “ Thus
Solomon finished the house of the Lord
and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he
successfully accomplished.” 2 Chronicles 7:11 (ESV). We see the pattern of a context for
the worship of God being created and finished.
It is after finishing this most important work that God rests. Again, God creating a context to express and
magnify his glory and the idea of it being finished reverberates not only
throughout the OT with the creation of the tabernacle and the
So God is a God who finishes his work. The work of creating a context to express his
glory and receive worship – first in the original creation, then in the
tabernacle and temple, foreshadowing the ultimate finished work of His son and
all that came with that, ultimately the consummation, the final finishing of
all things, when he returns for his own and completes his reign. If we are to understand the Sabbath we must
understand it as something that celebrates His finished work.
Not only are we to celebrate this work but we are to rest in
it. That is what God did and what God
does. He rests in His work. We too are to rest in His work. That is what the Sabbath is all about, it is
a sign and celebration of our resting in his work. For the OT believer working on the Sabbath
was a failure to rest in God. It was to
shun God as God and to assert self as more important. It was to say in essence,
who cares that God finished creation, who cares that God delivered us from
Many of us must learn to keep the Sabbath in all of life. Do you guys know the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10? Jesus comes to visit the home of Mary and Martha. While he is there Martha is busy running here and there trying to get things ready for their special dinner. Mary, her sister, sits at Jesus feet just to soak up time with him. Martha gets all upset at Mary and vents to Jesus. She says, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone, tell her to help me!”. Jesus told her Mary had made the better choice. Mary had chosen to be with her Savior and listen to him. Martha chose to take on all her responsibilities probably with little regard for what her preparations were supposed to be all about. You and I must be careful to follow Mary’s example and not be like Martha. We need to take time to rest and realize that all our work must ultimately be in the context of resting in our Lord and His finished work. And we must take time to rest in Him.
(Illustration from Pastor Paul’s life here)
3.
The Sabbath in
the New Covenant
What is true for the OT saint is true for the NT saint. We also are called to rest in the finished
work of God. But there are some changes
brought by Jesus that change how we practice our Sabbath rest. First, the scriptures teach us the OT
practice of keeping the Sabbath was a foreshadowing of the ultimate
Sabbath. Take a look at Colossians: “Therefore
let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard
to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of
the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”- Colossians 2:16-17
(ESV).
You see, the Sabbath pointed forward to resting in the ultimate finished work – Christ’s perfect work of obedience in his life and death on the cross – to the glory of the Father and to pay for and redeem his people. Colossians says the OT law and ceremonies were a shadow of things to come but the substance belongs to Christ or exists in Christ himself. The believer who belongs to Christ, united to him by faith, having repented from sin and believed in his substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, is experiencing already the reality of resting in His finished work and is therefore no longer bound to the shadow of the ultimate reality, the OT Sabbath. Furthermore, we see in Hebrews 4 that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. It is in him that we rest not in our works but in his finished work. The Sabbath for the believer is not just one day of the week, it is every day of the week. We are to always rest in His finished work.
John Calvin says about this: “But there is no doubt that by the Lord Christ’s coming the ceremonial
part of this commandment was abolished.
For he himself is the truth, with whose presence all figures vanish; he
is the body, at whose appearance the shadows are left behind. He is, I say, the true fulfillment of the
Sabbath…. This is not confined within a single day but extends through the
whole course of our life, until, completely dead to ourselves, we are filled
with the life of God. Christians ought
therefore to shun completely the superstitious observance of days.” – John
Calvin. [2]
Now, while I think the scriptures clearly teach that all of the Christian life is to be a Sabbath, where we rest in the finished work of Christ , we must be careful to not abuse this truth. Let’s spend our remaining time in discussing how we are to honor the Sabbath as New Covenant believers.
First, we honor the Sabbath by meeting regularly to celebrate the finished work of Christ. While one might argue any old day will suit, we see in the scriptures that the practice of setting apart Sundays as a day of corporate worship replaced the Jewish practice of keeping Saturday as the Sabbath. Check out these verses:”7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.” Acts 20:7 (ESV), “2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” 1 Corinthians 16:2 (ESV), and “10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” Revelation 1:10 (ESV). So, we don’t merely say, “everyday is a Sabbath” and then fail to make any day a Sabbath. No, we recognize that an important part of resting in God’s finished work is gathering together corporately as the people of God to celebrate this finished work, remember it together and walk in its implications together. We are to do that throughout the week but also set apart Sundays as a special day for this according to the NT pattern. Yes, I think the scriptures allow us to work on Sunday and watch football and play games. But this mustn’t be done to the exclusion of corporate worship and fellowship together. Sunday is the most important day of the week. It is to be the happiest day of the week based on the biblical pattern. We must give ourselves to this. I would suggest the following practices.
1) Pray for our Sunday worship during the whole week.
2) Consider how you may serve on Sunday. Is there a scripture to share at the mike? Is there a brother or sister to encourage that day? Is there a need in children’s ministry? Can you help usher or set-up and take down? Can you sign up for the usher team? Can you have someone over after church?
3) Prepare your children for Sunday and lead them in enjoying this day. Prepare them for worship Saturday night, pray together. Spend time on Sunday discussing the message and making application together.
4) Get the day off if at all possible.
5) Get adequate rest Saturday night.
6) Prepare yourself spiritually for Sunday morning – ready to give and receive when you come in the door versus coming in half-asleep and dull of spirit, mind and body.
7) Be on time! Better yet, be early!
8) Finish the day reflecting on the truths learned and applications gained and thanking God for His finished work.
(Illustration on
Sunday as privilege versus empty duty).
Another way we walk out the Sabbath as New Covenant believers is by recognizing the wisdom of physical rest. We are limited beings and we can only work so much. God gave the Sabbath to rest in his finished work – spiritually and physically. We can not divide these two aspects of who we are, they are very much interrelated. We must rest in Christ and we must rest our bodies. It is very wise to use Sunday not only to celebrate the fulfillment of the Sabbath in Christ but to express our dependence on God by physically resting. I used to take a nap on Sunday afternoons. O boy, did that help so much in laboring the rest of the week. Some of us need to be careful to take naps or just slow down for half a day, maybe we can’t do that on Sundays, but find some day to get some substantial rest. This is how God has made us and we need to be careful to enjoy the blessing of physical rest and thus celebrate the Sabbath.
A final key way we live out our Sabbath is how we view the Christian life. Hebrews says we are to strive to enter the rest of the Sabbath. What a curious combination of words. Yet, God often speaks this way. We are to strive to enter rest. Why does he say this? Well, first, we are all like Martha left to ourselves. We all want to strive, not to enter his rest, but to rely on our own works. The gospel of Jesus Christ leaves no room for our works. The only thing you contribute to the gospel is your sin. If you want to contribute to the gospel than go ahead and sin. You didn’t do anything to save yourself from your sin. Christ did it all. You were not around before time began when God determined he would rescue you from your sin. When he chose ahead of time to turn you around from your stubborn rebellion against him. You weren’t part of that decision. You weren’t around when he determined to send his Son. You weren’t even around when he walked the earth in perfect obedience and fulfillment of all that mankind was supposed to be. You weren’t there when they crucified him, when he hung alone, abandoned by God himself, suffering and dying for your sin. You weren’t there. You didn’t do anything. You weren’t there when he said, “it is finished”. You weren’t there when he rose again out of the tomb on the third day. He finished this work. He himself. And now he calls you to rest in his finished work. He calls you to turn from self-effort and self-works and self-worship, called sin, to believe in Him and His finished work for your sins and for new life in relationship with him as King. Are you resting in his finished work or are you relying on your own work? Strive to enter this rest. Make every effort to make no effort but believe in Him. Rest in His finished work. That is true Sabbath keeping. No, this doesn’t mean your rest does not include labor for him and walking out the implications of belonging to him. It does include all these things. It clearly does mean putting forth an effort, under his power and grace, to follow and obey and become like him. But this must all be in the context of resting and relying entirely on His finished work. Everything else flows from this. To be a Christian is to be an active Sabbath rester. Let pray.
[1]. Adapted from Ligon Duncan, Genesis 2:1-3, Genesis The First Things: The Creation of Sabbath, http://www.fpcjackson.org/
[2] John Calvin, Institutes, Book II, VIII, 31, John T, McNeill Ed., Ford Lewis Battles, Trans., Westminster John Knox Press, 1960, p. 397