God's Rest
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Text: Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
PRAY
Introduction
How many of you get tired? Maybe you’re tired right now.
Whether you’ve put in a week’s work at your job or chased children around all week (or both!), or even if you’re retired you probably got out and did some things this week. And so, we’re tired. Our bodies need rest.
Do you think Adam and Eve ever got tired in the garden of Eden?
My guess is probably no, or at least not as tired as we get now. Though the Bible doesn’t specifically say this, I think there’s good reason to think that our tiredness and weariness, at least in large part, is due to the fall into sin and its consequences.
What about in the new heavens and new earth?
Again, though the Bible doesn’t tell us for sure, I’d have to guess that in God’s new creation we will not get tired. Once sin is done away with, the weariness and burdensome nature of work and life will turn to restful, enjoyable service to our King forever.
But, right now, we’re tired. Maybe it’s even hard for you to stay awake through the sermon. I understand, and I’ve fallen asleep during more sermons than I’d care to admit.
Sabbath traditions
Growing up, my family had pretty strict rules for observing the Christian Sabbath (Sundays). Our church had Sunday school, a morning service, and an evening service, and with rare exceptions we were there for all three, in addition to choir practice and other church activities. Sundays were set apart as a distinct day of rest, and we were not allowed to play outside (no baseball, no riding bikes, no running around).
Between the morning and evening services, we would go home for lunch, and after lunch we had a required rest time for a couple of hours, when we were to be quiet and resting. I feel like we observed the day much like the Jews would have in the OT.
Maybe some of you can relate to these traditions.
My question for you this morning is this: Are such traditions warranted or even required by the Scriptures for Christians today? What are the practical implications of the Sabbath and Rest for Christians today?
We’ll begin by looking at God’s Rest in Genesis 2, and then we’ll see how rest was lost at the fall into sin, how it is being restored in redemption through Christ, and how it will be fully restored in God’s new creation. Then we’ll consider the practical application of the Sabbath and rest for us today.
We’ll begin with this quote that nicely summarizes much of what we’ll see today:
“The seventh day of rest is an important type and pattern that begins in creation and is picked up in the Mosaic law in relation to the promised land and the Sabbath-day command. More significant, God’s creation rest ultimately points forward to Jesus, who by his work brings salvation rest and restores us to full relationship with our covenant God.”
-from Christ from Beginning to End.
The Goal of Rest
The Goal of Rest
Based in God’s Creation Week (Gen 2:1-3)
The theme of rest in the Bible begins here in Genesis 2, with the final day of creation. The whole creation week is leading up to this day. It seems, in fact, that the goal of God’s creation is this rest.
The number 7 in the Bible is a very important number that indicates fullness or completion. And Genesis 2 indicates to us that the 7th day is the day of completion, when God’s work of creation is fully accomplished.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
Completed. Finished. Accomplished. Done.
God rests from His work, and all creation enjoys God’s rest.
All is at peace.
All is right in the world. Everything is as it should be.
Adam and Eve are in perfect fellowship with God and one another.
God’s presence is filling His creation.
All of creation is enjoying its Creator.
A Day with no End
Now there’s something missing from this day that we find on every other day of creation.
If you turn back to Genesis 1, you’ll find the same phrase repeated in v. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31. Six times, once each day, we have the phrase, “And there was evening, and there was morning, the first/second/third/fourth/fifth/sixth day.”
But not on the 7th day.
There is no mention of evening and morning on the 7th day. It’s like a day with no end. It’s as if the creation was supposed to go on enjoying this 7th day of rest forever.
It’s not as if God’s just taking the 7th day off and then He’s going to get back to work the next day. He’s done. Certainly He continues to sustain His creation, but He’s done making the creation.
The rest is the goal, and it is meant to be enjoyed by God and all His creation forever.
The blessing of God’s presence and all creation properly ordered under His authority is supposed to enjoy the restful presence of God. Forever.
Because we live in a broken and fallen world, we can’t quite imagine what it was supposed to be like. We’re used to brokenness in our relationship with God and with other people. We’re used to things not working the way they’re supposed to. We’re used to the brokenness, the toil, the burdensome labor of every day.
But it isn’t supposed to be this way. And someday, we’ll have rest again.
Rest in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:15)
Even Adam’s work in the Garden of Eden was not difficult or burdensome in any way. It was restful work, carried out in the presence of God, dependent on the grace of God, fully submissive and obedient to God.
Adam probably didn’t sweat. His back didn’t hurt when he bent over to pick something up. He didn’t get sick or tired. Work was not a burden. It was restful.
15 Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
The word here translated “placed” or in other translations “put” or “set” referring to what God did with Adam, is not the typical word for placing or setting something down.
It is from the verb נוּחַ (nûaḥ) which typically means to cause to rest, give rest to, bring to a resting-place.
This is the same verb used in Joshua 21:44 and 2 Samuel 7:1, for example, where it says that the LORD gave rest to Israel from all their enemies and the LORD had given rest to David from all his enemies. It’s the exact same word. It’s also related to the name Noah, which means something like, may he give rest.
And so the usage of this verb here in Genesis 2:15 implies that Eden is the resting place that God is bringing Adam to. Eden is a place of rest, a place to enjoy the presence of God and walk in unhindered fellowship with Him forever.
But rest doesn’t mean no work. God “rested” Adam in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it, or to serve it and to guard it.
So rest doesn’t mean a lack of activity - doing nothing - but rather activity that is enjoyable and life-giving rather than draining and burdensome.
The rest is an active rest, and the activity is restful activity.
This is the way it was in the Garden of Eden, and this was the rest that Adam and Eve were supposed to enjoy forever.
But this is not our experience, is it? Our work is not restful. Our lives are not restful. We are tired, drained, burdened, not at rest.
Why are things this way? What happened?
The Loss of Rest
The Loss of Rest
Rest lost after sin (Gen 3:17-19, 23-24)
Because of sin, our rest has been lost. Our work is no longer easy, enjoyable, and restful in the way that it is supposed to be. It drains us rather than energizing us. It sucks away our life rather than giving us life. Genesis 3 tells us of the way our lives and work are affected by sin:
17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
But not only would work be burdensome and tiring, the place of rest is now gone - the Garden of Eden is no longer Adam’s home:
23 Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
Rest longed for in Noah’s day (Gen 5:28-29)
Ever since, humanity has been longing to return to that rest which was lost. Several generations after Adam, over 1000 years after his sin, his descendant Lamech expressed his longing to return to rest.
He expressed this in the name he gave his son:
28 When Lamech was 182 years old, he had a son.
29 And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.”
The name Noah means “rest” or something like he will give rest/relief. Clearly, his father Lamech is troubled by the burdensome nature of his life and work, and he hopes that maybe with this 10th generation from Adam, humanity may regain the rest it has lost.
The Restoration of Rest
The Restoration of Rest
Rest in the Promised Land (Israel) - (Joshua 21:43-45; Hebrews 4:8)
Throughout the story of Scripture, there are hints that God is at work to restore the rest that was lost. One of the pictures along the way that leads us to hope for a restoration of rest is Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.
The Promised Land is like a new Garden of Eden. It is the place where God will dwell with His people and they will enjoy fellowship with Him.
Consider the words of Joshua 21 when Israel had conquered the land:
Josh 21:43-45
43 Thus the LORD gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled in it.
44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel had failed; everything was fulfilled.
But, although this was a dream come true for the people of Israel, and an amazing blessing from the LORD, this was still not the ultimate rest.
The author of Hebrews says that as good as the Promised Land was, it was not the ultimate rest.
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
That was not the ultimate rest, because for there to be true rest, there has to be an unbroken, unhindered relationship with God. And for that to happen, there can be no sin.
So as good as the Promised Land was, it was still just a taste of what God is going to do someday.
And sadly, that rest didn’t last long. Just like Adam and Eve forfeited their rest in the Garden of Eden, the people of Israel forfeited their rest in the promised land by their disobedience to God’s covenant. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, and the people of Israel were expelled from their land into captivity.
Eternal, Spiritual Rest in Christ (Hebrews 4:1-11)
But with the coming of Christ, true rest has come. The full rest will not be here until He makes all things new, but He has already begun His new creation by conquering sin and death through His death and resurrection.
The author of Hebrews speaks of the eternal spiritual Sabbath rest that believers have in Christ.
1 Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it.
In context, he is using the example of Israel at the border of the promised land refusing to enter because of their unbelief. The whole older generation (20 years old and up) missed out on the promised land because they refused to trust and obey God’s promise.
The author of Hebrews shows us that this was a type, a physical example of a spiritual reality, that warns us of the danger of unbelief in our own lives.
The promised land was a picture of the true rest, as he says in v. 8-9.
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
The real Sabbath rest is our eternal home with God in His new creation, the new heavens and new earth. The promised land was just a picture of that reality.
But just as the Israelites missed out on the blessing of that physical rest because of their unbelief, people today miss out on the true rest of heaven because of unbelief.
Only those who trust in Christ and persevere in their faith will inherit that rest.
Hebrews 4:3 (BSB)
3 Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’ ”
The author of Hebrews makes the connection between God’s rest on the seventh day in Gen 2 and the eternal rest that believers hope for:
4 For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this manner: “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.”
5 And again, as He says in the passage above: “They shall never enter My rest.”
And his plea with us is that we would listen to God and enter His rest by faith:
6 Since, then, it remains for some to enter His rest, and since those who formerly heard the good news did not enter because of their disobedience,
7 God again designated a certain day as “Today,” when a long time later He spoke through David as was just stated: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
The true rest is still to come, though there is a sense in which we enjoy it to some extent even now in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
10 For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.
11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.
Verse 10 tells us a little of the nature of that rest - it is to rest from our own work like God did from His - not referring to physical rest from our labor, but to stop trying to work our own way to God. We can never be good enough to earn our way to heaven or get into a right relationship with God. The way to get into His rest is to stop working and trust His work instead. Stop trying to earn your salvation by doing lots of good things, and instead trust that what Christ has done is enough. He has taken away your sin by His death on the cross, and He gives you the free gift of His righteousness - all the good things He has done.
So enter His rest, not by doing anything to earn it, but trusting that Jesus Christ is sufficient, giving your life to Him by faith.
And faith is an ongoing battle in the Christian life. True believers will persevere in faith, but we are called to fight for faith, fight against unbelief in our hearts, keep trusting Christ. Because if we give up and walk away, it means that our faith is not genuine. That’s why he says, to Christians, make every effort to enter that rest.
Fight for faith. Fight against your sin and unbelief. Keep your eyes on Jesus, keep trusting Him.
And one day, by God’s grace, faith will no longer be a fight. It will be sight. We will see Him face to face and enjoy being with Him forever.
The Command to Rest
The Command to Rest
Israel’s Observance of the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11; 31:12-17; Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:15; Leviticus 23:3; Exodus 34:21; Jeremiah 17:22; Exodus 16:29; Ezekiel 20:12)
In the 4th commandment, God instituted the Sabbath as part of His covenant with Israel:
8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
The Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel, to be celebrated on the basis of the creation order as well as God’s redemption of them from Egypt.
Interestingly, there is no command given to observe the Sabbath before the time of Moses. If you look again in Gen. 2, you will not find any command regarding the Sabbath, and as far as we can tell, no such command was given to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or anyone in their generations.
There is no command regarding the Sabbath given until after Israel left Egypt. The first mention of the Sabbath after Genesis 2 is Exodus 16, where Israel was first commanded to keep a Sabbath in regard to the manna in gathering twice as much on Friday so they could rest on Saturday.
This seems to indicate that the Sabbath played a special role in God’s relationship with Israel as a nation that it did not have before that, and interestingly, there is no command given to New Testament believers regarding the Sabbath. (We’ll talk more about that in a minute, though). This seems to mean that the Sabbath was a picture that Israel was to practice in anticipation of the ultimate rest, which has now been fulfilled and accomplished by Jesus Christ.
Sabbath Day
God told Israel to practice Shabbat (Sabbath rest) every 7th day, both looking backward to God’s rest which was lost because of sin, and looking forward to the ultimate restoration of that rest. So the Sabbath is not ultimate - it was a picture to remind them of the true rest that belongs to those who trust and obey God.
Sabbath Year
Not only was there a Sabbath every seventh day, but there was also a Sabbath Year every seventh year. We read in Leviticus 25 of the regulations God gave them:
Leviticus 25:2–4 (BSB)
2 “When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. 3 For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops. 4 But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD.”
Jubilee
Also, after every 7 Sabbath Years, there was an additional year of rest called The Year of Jubilee. Every 50th year, all the slaves were to be freed and all land was to go back to the original owners.
So the weekly Sabbath, the Sabbath Years, and the Year of Jubilee all were symbols pointing to a greater reality - the true rest found in an eternal right relationship with God.
Jesus’s Observance of the Sabbath (John 5:16-18; Mark 2:23-28; Matthew 12:1-8; Luke 6:1-5; Mark 3:1-6; Matthew 12:9-14; Luke 4:16-19; 6:6-11)
All of these symbols were shadows, pointing to the substance. They were not the ultimate rest, but they were pointing to that rest.
Luke records for us that when Jesus came and began His ministry, one of the very first things He did was go preach in a synagogue. And in that very short sermon, He declared that the ultimate rest has come. The true Sabbath, the true Jubilee is here.
16 Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read,
17 the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him,
21 and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The year of the Lord’s favor, the Ultimate Year of Jubilee had come. And Jesus says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” What Isaiah prophesied has happened. The true rest is here.
And Jesus calls us to come to Him for rest.
28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
True rest is yours if you come to Him. If you trust Him, if you follow Him, you will have the rest that you long for.
You will not experience it fully in this life, but you will have a certain degree of rest now, and full ultimate rest in the life to come, forever.
There’s a lot more that we could say about Jesus and the Sabbath. Probably most of you know that Jesus got into trouble a lot with the religious leaders because of all the times He healed people on the Sabbath day. They had added all kinds of extra requirements onto God’s law in their self-righteous attempt to keep the law perfectly. Jesus broke their traditions, but He did not break the Sabbath. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, but He submitted Himself to its regulations. He perfectly kept God’s law.
Christians’ Observance of the Sabbath (Hebrews 4:1-13; Acts 20:7; Colossians 2:16-17; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Romans 14:5-6; Matthew 11:28-30)
How did Christians in the NT observe the Sabbath? Or did they observe the Sabbath? Let’s consider what we find in the NT.
The Sabbath command is not repeated in the NT as an obligation for Christians. All 9 others of the 10 Commandments are repeated in the NT, but not the Sabbath day command.
The perfect opportunity to do so would have been at the church council in Acts 15, when all the believers gathered to discuss how Gentile Christians should relate to the Jewish law. There is no mention of observing the sabbath given to Gentile believers.
In at least a couple of places, we find believers meeting on the first day of the week (Sunday) for worship, and Paul assumes that the Corinthians will be meeting on the first day of the week in 1 Cor 16. The early church met every day, but it does seem that the first day of the week became the holy day for Christians to regularly meet, in honor of Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the new week.
Paul commands Christians not to judge others for their preferences or practices of the Sabbath or other matters of conscience.
5 One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 He who observes a special day does so to the Lord; he who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
And
16 Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.
How we observe the Sabbath is a matter of personal conviction, and we need to show love and respect who choose to practice it differently.
To embrace Christ is to fulfill the Sabbath and have the rest to which the Sabbath pointed. Ultimate rest is fulfilled in Christ. To have Him is to have the Sabbath rest.
Now,
Gathering for worship is still important - we are commanded to do that; and Christians have been gathering on Sundays for the last 2000 years.
Also, physical rest is still necessary. In this broken world, we will get tired and worn out, and we need to learn to rest at proper times. Those times of rest, whether it’s Sundays, Saturdays, or other days, are a great time to reflect on our ultimate rest in Christ, as we long for Him to make all things new.
Sunday is a valuable time to pause in gratitude and celebration of the rest offered us in Christ; it is not a day that is bound by detailed prescriptions concerning the minutiae of its use. The rest achieved through Christ’s redemptive work fulfils the law and relocates rest within a relationship with Christ (Matt. 11:28–30).
The Application of Rest
The Application of Rest
Have you come to Christ for rest? Keep coming back to Him!
28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take time to rest in anticipation of your eternal rest.
use days off to reflect on what Christ has done and the hope of eternal life with Him.
faithfully gather with other believers to encourage each other in our hope.
Important Passages: Hebrews 4:1-13; Exodus 20:8-11; 31:12-17; John 5:16-18; Mark 2:23-28; Matthew 12:1-8; Luke 6:1-5; Mark 3:1-6; Matthew 12:9-14; Luke 6:6-11; Exodus 23:12; Leviticus 25:1-7; Isaiah 58:13-14; Deuteronomy 5:15; Leviticus 23:3; Acts 20:7; Exodus 34:21; Colossians 2:16-17; Psalm 95:11; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Jeremiah 17:22; Luke 23:56; Exodus 16:29; Ezekiel 20:12; Hebrews 3:11; Romans 14:5-6; Matthew 11:28-30; Joshua 21:43-45; 2 Samuel 7:1, 11.
