Sermon Transcript

0:00:14.0

In the game of football like most sports, there is something called a timeout.  Timeouts are used for a number of purposes.  A coach might call a timeout to change the momentum of the game.  I was looking for the SMU coach to call a timeout once in a while yesterday to change the momentum of the game, but he didn’t.  Timeouts are also used to maybe discuss game strategy and think a little bit more about the next play.  Some timeouts are injury timeouts.  Other timeouts, if it’s a televised game, this is a commercial timeout.  One of the unintended consequences of a timeout though is that the players get to rest.  In the game of football there are four quarters, 15 minutes each.  That’s 60 minutes of playing time.  If a player played all 60 minutes, that’d be a tough game.  But with offense and defense, with a 15-minute half, with scheduled timeouts, with commercial timeouts, players get to rest once in a while.  Now, this is probably not the theological language that you're used to using.  But in the creation story there is a time when God called timeout.  When He rested after all that He had created.  If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Genesis 2.  We finally made it chapter 2 after we got through the six days of creation.  Now we come to chapter 2 and verses 1-3.  And these verses read as follows.  “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.  By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”  Now, there are several key words here that I want you to circle.  First is the word “completed.”  It appears twice here, the idea that God completed His work.  He finished the work of creation.  The other key word is the word “rested.”  God didn’t need to rest because he was tired, because He needed a nap, because He wanted to take a coffee break, because He had an injury and needed an injury timeout.  That’s not why God rested.  He rested because He had finished all His work.  There was nothing more to create.  The crowning achievement of His creation was when He created you and me in His image.  He was done.  He was finished.  What did He do when He rested?  Well, He delighted in all that He had created.  Remember at the end of day 6 He said it was very good.  He goes into day 7 and He rests.  He delights in what He had created.  But He stopped working.

0:03:15.7

And we get the sense that this was a very special day, this day 7 was, because a couple of other key words there.  Verse 3 is the word “blessed” and also the word “sanctified.”  When God rested on the seventh day, He didn’t just rest, but He blessed this day.  And He sanctified it, meaning He set it apart for a special purpose.  And the question before us today is, what is that purpose as it relates to us as New Testament believers?  The title of the message is “Sabbath Rest.”  You won’t find the word “Sabbath” in these three verses here.  But these are the verses.  This is the example from which, as you read through the rest of scripture, we run into this thing called the Sabbath or the Sabbath rest- an Old Testament law, a New Testament principle, and a New Testament picture that we’re gonna see.  Let me suggest that there are three implications or applications for us this morning with regard to Sabbath rest.

0:04:19.9

First, the Sabbath was a sign of the covenant relationship that God made between Himself and Israel.  Hold your place here in Genesis, and let’s first stop off in Exodus 20.  Again, the word Sabbath doesn’t appear in Genesis 2:1-3, just the example that God provides.  But the first time the word Sabbath appears is when God established a covenant relationship between Himself and Israel.  This is was a conditional covenant ratified by something known as the Ten Commandments.  And in Exodus 20, beginning in verse 8, the fourth of those Ten Commandments reads this way.  “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”  And then this particular command has expanded commentary that takes us back to the book of Genesis.  We’ve looked at this before in our study of the early chapters of Genesis and the creation story.  But let’s read them again, beginning in verse 9.  Here is the rationale for the Sabbath.  “Six days you shall labor to do all of your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God.  In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.”  Now, verse 11, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”  Now, again, we’ve looked at these verses before as it related to the six days of creation.  And we said that these verses interpret for us what a day meant in Genesis 1.  Six days meant six days.  We weren’t talking about keeping the Sabbath day-age.  We were talking about keeping the Sabbath day here.

0:06:17.7

But it also becomes an example and a pattern of life for Old Testament Israel.  It became a sign of the covenant relationship with God.  If you move on in the book of Exodus to chapter 31, we’ll run into that word “sign.”  Exodus 31:12, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely observe My sabbaths;’”—notice the plural there—“‘for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”  And then verse 17, “‘It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.’"  The Sabbath was first a sign of the covenant relationship between God and national Israel.

0:07:18.0

The church that I served in Texas before I came to Immanuel was located on major freeway between Dallas and Fort Worth.  And when I say a major freeway, estimates were that 250,000 people drove up and down this freeway every day.  And so we had a great location as a church, just right off the freeway there.  But we had no visibility.  Because of the topography of the land, the building of the church was kind of hidden, and you couldn’t see it from the freeway.  So for a long time we talked about putting a sign out on the freeway.  Our land kind of butted up next to the feeder road there.  We were gonna put a sign up there so that 250,000 people would know where the church was, and they’d all show up the next day.  That was the idea.  And we talked about that for years.  It was an expensive project.  One of the estimates was in the six figures.  But we needed a sign, and I’m glad to hear that after coming here, shortly after I arrive, they completed the sign project.

0:08:19.6

Well, the Sabbath was meant to be a sign of that covenant relationship between God and Israel.  Every time Israel worked six days and then stopped working on the seventh day it was a sign.  It was a reminder not only to national Israel of their conditional covenant with God, but it also became a sign to the surrounding nations.  We don’t have time to go to Deuteronomy 5:15, but there we learn as Moses was talking to the nation of Israel before they cross over into the Promised Land, reminding them of the covenant agreement they made with God.  They needed that reminder before they went into to take possession of the land.  And one of the things he reminded them of with regard to the Sabbath was that the keeping of the Sabbath was a reminder to you and a witness to the pagan nations surrounding you that you serve a God that can deliver people from the slavery of bondage of Egypt.  Okay?  So whenever Israel kept the Sabbath, they sent a clear message to the surrounding nations that their God was a God that had the power of free people from bondage and slavery.  It was a sign.

0:09:38.0

There were other covenants that God made with His people in the Old Testament.  One was a covenant He made with Noah.  After the flood He said to Noah, “I will never flood the whole earth again and wipe everybody out.  I make that covenant with you, Noah.”  And He says, “Here is a sign in the sky, the rainbow.  There will be a sign of that covenant.”  When God made a covenant with Abraham and He said, “I’m gonna give you a son, a promised child.  And through you, Abraham, and this child, I’ll make a great nation of you.”  He said, “Here is the covenant,” and the sign was circumcision.  That was a sign.  A reminder of that special relationship that God had with Abraham.  And the Sabbath was that sign with Israel.  Unfortunately, Israel did not keep the Sabbaths.  In fact, there were a number of ways that they celebrated the Sabbath.  Not just by not doing any work on the seventh day of the week, but they were also to give the land rest every seven years.  Israel was an agricultural community.  And they would work the land for six years.  They would plant, and they would harvest.  They would pant, and they would harvest.  They would plant, and they would harvest.  But on the seventh year they were to give the land rest.  It took faith for them to believe that God would still provide for them even though they didn’t plant and harvest that year.  But for 490 years—can you imagine that—Israel broke covenant with God and didn’t keep the Sabbaths.  And that’s why God judged them by sending them into captivity with the Babylonians for 70 years.  What’s the math there?  Well, it’s one year for every Sabbath year they didn’t give the land rest- 70 into 490.  You do the math there.

0:11:29.3

Now, that was Israel, but that’s not us, is it.  We are not Israel.  The Church is not the new Israel.  Don’t make that theological mistake.  But we need to understand the background here of how important it was, how serious God was when He gave Israel the Sabbath law.  But we are not under the law as New Testament believers, which brings us to the second implication or application of the Sabbath principle or idea for us as New Testament believers.  It’s not only a sign of the covenant relationship between God and Israel, but it’s also a shadow of things to come.  And this is what Paul says to us in Colossians 2:16-17.  Follow along as we read this.  Paul says, “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.”  Now, listen to this.  “Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”  Paul viewed through his New Testament lens.  He viewed the dietary laws, the festivals, the holidays, the special days, even the Sabbath days that Israel celebrated in the Old Testament, he says those were mere shadows of things to come.  But when Christ showed up, the reality is here.  The substance is now here, and the shadows disappear.  The Sabbath day and the festivals and those dietary laws and all of that were sort of like training wheels on a bicycle.  Once you learn how to ride a bike, you take the training wheels off and you just ride freely.

0:13:21.3

Another way of saying this is that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest, okay.  He’s the reality.  He was the fulfillment of the picture or the shadow that God established all the way back in the creation story by example.  That He rested on the seventh day.  It was really meant to be a picture of how we enter into our Sabbath rest in salvation.  We enter into a relationship with Jesus who is our Sabbath rest—listen to this—by resting from our own works as a means of trying to enter into a right relationship with God.

0:14:03.3

Now, here is the connection to Genesis.  Remember those words that we circled back in Genesis 2:1-3.  I had you circle the word “completed.”  It appears twice there.  At the end of the creation week on the seventh day of creation it says that God completed His work.  He was finished.  He was done.  There was no more work to be done.  He rested.  He delighted in what He had created because there wasn’t anything else to create.  On the cross Jesus said this, didn’t He?  He said, “It’s finished.”  Actually it’s a financial term that literally means “paid in full.”  When He said, “It is finished,” He, in effect, was saying the Sabbath rest has come full circle, and all the work that is necessary to be done in order to purchase your redemption is completed.  It’s finished.  It’s done.  You don’t have to do anything.  And that’s why Jesus said to us in this great invitation in Matthew 11, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you,” say it with me, “rest.”  He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am humble and gentle in heart and I will give you rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Now, that’s an invitation I want to respond to.  You want to know why?  Because religion—works-based, guilt-driven religion—wearies the soul because you never know whether you’ve done enough.  You’re like that gerbil, you know, in the wheel, in the cage just trying so hard, doing whatever you can.  I’m going to church.  I’m reading my Bible.  I pray.  I’m keeping the Sabbath.  I’m trying to keep all the commands, doing as best as I can hoping, hoping that God will receive me.  And Jesus says, “Hey, come unto Me.  I’ve got rest for you.  I want you to rest from all of your weary, guilt-driven work that you're trying to do to please Me.  Everything I did on the cross, I purchased it in full.  And I said, ‘Listen, it’s finished.  It’s done.  It’s completed.’”  And when He said those words, it was a flashback to Genesis 2:1-3 where God too had rested from His works.

0:16:42.9

Now, I know a lot Christians who are confused about that.  They wonder, how do we as New Testament believers relate to the Sabbath law, let alone the Sabbath principle?  The Seventh Day Adventists take a very rigid, legalistic approach to this and say that the Sabbath still applies.  Interestingly enough, the Sabbath has nothing to do with the day we worship.  Did you know that?  Seventh Day Adventists worship on Saturday because that’s the Sabbath.  But all the way back to the creation story, Sabbath had nothing to do with worship.  It has to do with the cessation of work.  And that happened on the seventh day, which is Saturday.  As New Testament believers, we worship on Sunday as an acknowledgement of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on the first day of the week.  That’s probably how worship on Sunday emerged in the early church.  But really, as New Testament believers, we have the freedom to worship on any day of the week as a congregation, as a community that gathers.  And I hope that worship is something that you have woven into the fabric of your life seven days a week.  But we can worship on any day of the week, including Saturday if we want to.  But a legalistic, guilt-ridden, soul-wearying approach to the Sabbath misses the whole point of the shadow that it was.  It was a sign between God and Israel, and He had a particular relationship with them.  But Jesus is our Sabbath rest who invites us to get off the religious treadmill and rest in Him.

0:18:29.0

And this is why Jesus treated the Sabbath differently when He was here on this earth.  When you have time, go to Matthew 12, and you’ll run into one of those occasions where Jesus and the Pharisees, you know, kind of locked horns a little bit.  And the Pharisees were always looking for a way to, you know, trip him up with a trick question or something like that.  Jesus walks into the temple one day, and there is a man with a withered hand.  And those Pharisees come to Him and say, “Hey, Jesus, is it lawful to heal (0:19:00.1) on the Sabbath?”  And they’re over here in their little huddle saying, “We got Him now.  We got Him now.”  And Jesus comes back with a story or two and an answer that kind of makes their heads spin a little bit.  And He heals the man with the withered hand, violating the Sabbath.  But as He did that, He also declared Himself the Lord of the Sabbath, meaning, “I can do whatever I want with what I created in the first place.”  The reality is in the Gospels Jesus affirmed nine of the Ten Commandments that were part of that ratified treaty between God and Israel.  Can you imagine or guess which one He did not affirm?  It was the Sabbath principle.  Why?  Because He understood that it was a shadow.  He’s the substance.  He’s the reality.  And once He shows up, the shadows disappear and the reality is in Christ.  He is our Sabbath rest.

0:19:59.3

Are you here (0:20:00.0) today and you really haven’t quite figured out what Christianity is all about?  That “For by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”  The work that was necessary to purchase your redemption and my redemption, it’s completed.  It’s done.  It’s finished.  And we by faith receive that.  For by grace we’re saved, not by works.  It’s another way of saying here’s your Sabbath rest.  Enter into it.  “My yoke is easy.  My burden is light.”  This is not meant to be difficult.  It’s not meant to be wearisome to the soul.  It’s meant to bring us into a relationship with Jesus that is easy and that’s restful.

0:20:49.7

So the Sabbath is a sign.  It’s a shadow.  But there is principle that I think we can apply to busy Americans, even ones living in Washington, D.C.  Does anybody commute into the District around here?  I think we can also, by way of application, say that the Sabbath is an encouragement to simplify our lives and to slow down.  Mark 2:27-28.  This is the occasion that I was referring to in Matthew.  This is Mark’s rendition.  He says that Jesus said this to the Pharisees.  “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”  Let me say that again.  Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”  Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.  I take that to mean that the Sabbath and the Sabbath rest as a principle of life, God gave it to us as a gift.  A gift and an encouragement that says, “Hey, slow down.  I created everything in six days as an example for you to follow, not in a rigid, legalistic kind of way.  But you need to know something.  This is the way I designed you.”  I know what you’re saying.  You need not just seven days to get her all done, but you need eight days, maybe nine days to get it all done.  And that’s why you’re working 12-, 13-, 14-hour days.  You’re up at the crack of dawn because the early bird catches the worm.  And you come in late at night just to tuck your kids in bed.  And you work long, long hours.  Well, I think the Lord would say to us, “Listen, that’s not the way I designed you.  I gave you a pattern for life and a rhythm of life that is more healthy than that.”

0:22:42.2

Last week we talked about being created in the image of God and the multiple facets of that.  I think we can add to that picture the idea of Sabbath rest.  And the Imago Dei principle I would give to you at this point goes something like this.  We work because God worked, okay.  Work is not a bad thing.  It’s a divine thing.  It’s a gift that God has given to us.  But we too should rest.  Take times to stop working because God stopped working as well.  He rested.  It’s an example.  It’s a rhythm of life.

0:23:23.1

I was reading an article this week that talked about this, kind of, frenetic pace that we’re on.  Tell me if this describes you.  I know it describes me.  This author says, “We are overscheduled, tense, addicted to hurry, frantic, preoccupied and starved for time.”  He says, “Cramming as much as possible into our Blackberrys and to-do lists, we battle to make the best use of every spare minute we have.”  Is anybody feeling that twinge of conviction just as I read those words?  I do, okay.  That describes me.  Just trying to make it happen as best as I can and to take every minute of the day, even using the technology of the day to try to get things done.  This author goes on to compare the Sabbath rest principle to what he calls a heavy snow day.  Now, my kids are really warming up to the idea of northern Virginia because there is snow here.  We didn’t have much snow in Texas.  And they’ve learned that there are things in school called snow days.  That’s when they cancel school.  And not only the schools close, but businesses close.  And Dad gets to come home from the office, and lots of other things shut down.  A snow day is kind of one of those days where you don’t have to do anything.  You just do whatever you want to do.  You turn off your cell phone or your Blackberry.  And you say, “I’m not gonna answer any email.”  You crumple up your to-do list, and you go sledding with the kids.  Sounds kind of counter-cultural, doesn’t it.  It’s hard to do.  Oh, I love all the technology we have today, but it means I can be connected to my work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, whether there is snow outside or I’m at the beach.  And I’m not sure that’s a healthy way to live.

0:25:36.4

And some of you are saying, “Well, Pastor, I understand that.  But you don’t understand the competitive environment that I’m in.”  I may not understand it, but God does.  Israel had to give rest to the land every seven years, and they had to trust God to provide for them in year seven when they didn’t plant and when they didn’t harvest.  And there is a faith principle for you and me too where we have to trust God to multiply our time, even though our friends and the culture around us says that a Sabbath day or a snow day…or, as Pastor Pete says, a “no obligation day.”  When was the last time you gave yourself a “no obligation” day?  But your friends, the culture around you will say that is unproductive, inefficient, wasted time, okay, when in reality, if you press the pause button, it’s part of the rhythm of life.  One day out of seven.  You’ll probably be more efficient, more productive, more creative, more energized and more clear-thinking.  That’s the way it works for me.  I mean, when I am overloaded, when I fail to build margin into my life and into my time, when I fail to take that Sabbath rest as a principle of life, things just being to bog down, okay.  And I think that’s what Pastor Pete was getting at here.  He says, “God has given us 52 snow days a year.”  That’s seven weeks’ worth of snow days where you don’t have to do anything.  A friend may call you up and say, “What are you doing today?”  “Nothing.”  “What?”  “Nothing.  I’m taking my Sabbath rest.”  “Why didn’t you answer my email?”   “I’m doing nothing today.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”  That’s Sabbath rest.

0:27:38.4

And I think if we begin to live that way, in much the same way that the Sabbath law became a witness to the pagan nations around them…imagine if God’s people just began to live counter to the culture a little bit.  It might open up the door for a spiritual conversation, wouldn’t it?  And for an opportunity for you say, “Hey, the God that I serve is able to multiply my time and make me even more productive if I choose to just shut her all down for one day.”  And not come to worship on Sunday and rush off to the office as soon as soon as the pastor pronounces the benediction.  Hey, I’m preaching to myself as much as I am you, okay.  This is convicting for me.  Sabbath rest.  Will you bow your heads with me?

0:28:32.3

And with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to ask you a question this morning.  One has to do with your relationship with Christ.  Maybe you're here this morning and you’ve been trying to figure out what this Christianity thing is all about.  And to you it’s been all about religion.  You know, religion is spelled D-O.  It’s a spiritual to-do list.  Do this.  Do that.  Attend church.  Read your Bible.  Pray.  Keep the Sabbath.  Be kind to your neighbor.  Do all of that, and maybe God will smile upon you and give you a home in heaven one day.  That’s religion.  It wearies the soul.  Sabbath rest, though, is spelled D-O-N-E.  All that was necessary to purchase your redemption, all the work that went into that, Christ completed on the cross.  And for some of you the light bulb is going off in your head, and there is something exploding in your heart right now as Jesus is saying to you, “Come unto Me.  Come unto Me all you who are weary and heavy-laden.  I’ll give you rest.”  You want to come to Christ today in salvation?

0:29:47.0

Others of you know Him.  You know that your salvation is by grace and through faith, but you haven’t learned to live that way.  You’re still on the spiritual treadmill trying to maintain your relationship with God.  Rest in Him.  Rest in Him.  Rest in His grace.  Rest in His completed work.  And He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.  That’s good news.  Others of you, as a principle of life you're saying, “I’ve got to slow down.”  I mean, the hypertension, the heart disease, all that kind of stuff that’s happening in our culture today, I just need to slow down and take a Sabbath rest.”  If you’d like for me to pray for you regarding any of those circumstances, you lift your hand.  Because I’m lifting my hand today as an acknowledgement that in the latter part, I need to slow down.  I need this principle of life built into my schedule.  Safe place to be honest.  Thanks for the hands.

0:30:58.3

Father, thank You so much for Your Word.  We thank You for Your example to us that You set, rooted in creation, and the many implications and applications of it.  There are some here today, Father, who are heeding that invitation to come and find rest in Jesus Christ.  We thank You that we serve a Savior whose yoke is easy, whose burden is light.  We thank You that it’s not by works, that Sabbath rest.  And, Father, others who are a bit of a treadmill or like that gerbil in the wheel and need to slow down.  Father, give us the courage and determination and willingness to do that, to trust You to make us even more productive, even when we take the day off.  And we’ll give You the praise and the glory for all that You're doing and going to do and have done in the name of Jesus, our Sabbath rest.  Amen.

0:32:31.1