Turn all the way to page 2 of your Bibles.
We have gotten out of the 1st chapter.
Actually, I don't know what page it's actually on.
I'm speaking figuratively, of course.
We're no longer in the 1st chapter of Genesis.
We have now progressed to Genesis chapter 2.
Now ours is a culture of non-stop engagement, going,
going, going. We don't stop for anything.
We work hard. Some people living just for the
weekend and truthfully I hope you have more to live for than
just the weekend. Some people hit the weekend and
then they live even harder than they did all the rest of the
week before that. Even the time designed to bring
reset and refreshment has been Co opted and turned into
busyness. In recent years Sabbath or
Shabbat has become more popular. My own assessment is that
perhaps it started gaining popularity maybe 6:00-ish years
ago with the series The Chosen. The The Chosen makes frequent
mention of of Shabbat and and observing Shabbat.
Then I think the mainstreaming of names like Dennis Prager and
Ben Shapiro has has further brought about more awareness of
Sabbath. And then in Christian circles,
people like Tim Mackey of the Bible Project and John Mark
Comer of Practicing the Way have have made the practice of
Shabbat a bit more normalized. And then pastors have have also
sometimes picked up on the spiritual discipline, knowing
that we need to faithfully communicate God's desire as it
relates to rest. Even Charlie Kirk's latest book,
which is due out in December, his latest book called Stop in
the Name of God, is all about honoring the Sabbath.
So this morning we're going to look at the origins of the
Sabbath. Now if you're able, would you
stand as we read from Genesis chapter 2 verses one through 3.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts
of them. And on the 7th day God finished
his work that he had done, and he rested on the 7th day from
all his work that he had done. So God bless the 7th day and
made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that He
had done in creation. You may be seated.
This chapter opens with a very simple statement, a very high
level reminder that God created everything.
By way of review. First God created the the
framework for creation. On day one he created light
without any apparent source. And then on on day two he
created the skies and the seas. On day three he created dry land
and vegetation. So this was all the basic
framework for creation and then it was time to fill the creative
framework. On day four he created the sun,
moon and stars, all the celestial objects.
Day 5 was was the birds and fish.
Then on day 6 God created all the creatures of the land, from
the smallest to the greatest. And then he created a Dom
humans. Humanity is different from all
the other soulish creatures because humanity was created in
God's image. Humanity was given the command
to rule over the earth, to reproduce, and to fill the
earth. So that's what chapter 2 verse
one is referring to when it says thus the heavens and the earth
were finished and all the hosts of them.
This serves as a sort of intro to this next session section.
It's a it's a transitional line. The 7th day of creation is a
special day. It's not like the other days.
The other days involved creating and fashioning the world to be
what God desired. Here on the 7th day there,
there's no speaking anything into existence.
The text starts with a simple statement that we haven't seen
before. In chapter 1, we saw the
pattern. There was evening and there was
morning, and then the first, second, third, fourth day, so
on. That's how each day the
description of each day ended. But here the text begins with
the declaration that this is the 7th day.
So this literary change calls us to to pay attention.
This day is important. So this morning we're going to
look at 3 right? Three right, three reasons why
this day is unique. First of all, God finished his
work. God finished his work.
Verse 2 continued on the 7th day God finished his work that he
had done. This short section of three
verses refers to God's finished work of creation a total of four
times. It seems rather repetitive how
many times it says He finished the work, but God was done
creating. There was nothing else left that
He needed to create. So this speaks to the idea of
completion. His creation was complete.
When something isn't finished, there are loose ends to tie up
still aspects to complete and and to flesh out.
However, here there were no problems to fix, no
modifications to the original plan and design.
Everything was complete. Now remember, God had previously
declared each day good and then at the at the end of the sixth
day, he said it was very good. God was done with his work in
and he was quite pleased with it.
Now, I believe the statement can serve as as a rebuttal to the
evolutionary process. When we say that the work was
complete, it serves to refute evolutionary processes.
I believe if we allow for secular evolutionary process and
we hold to a belief that the evolutionary process is still
current and ongoing, then then we can't declare the work of
creation as being done and complete.
Let's get a little sciency here for a moment.
I know you've come to expect that with with this series, the
second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics
is is sometimes referred to as the law of entropy.
Entropy is a measure of the amount of chaos or disorder
within a system. A system with higher entropy has
more randomness and disorder or chaos.
Left to their own devices, systems trend from lesser
entropy to greater entropy, that is, a greater amount of chaos
and disorder. Something left alone will move
from a state of order to disorder.
Systems, Simply put, run down. Now this I think seems fairly
obvious to us, right? When a building becomes
abandoned, it doesn't clean itself up and become organized
and repair everything that needs to be fixed.
No. When a building is abandoned,
natural processes start to take over and nature naturally wants
to reclaim the space where that building was and it starts to
decay. So.
So why are we talking about the second law of thermodynamics
here on the 7th day of creation? Well, the second law of
thermodynamics negates any possibility for life to progress
forward on its own. A single cell left to its own
devices remains in that form and is not going to become something
more complex. We can't begin with a with a
single cell and eventually arrive at humanity.
As far as evolutionary processes go, atheistic evolution believes
life is still progressing and evolving, but since God's Word
is the standard, God's word is our final authority.
We maintain that the creative act is done.
I would add that atheistic evolutionist, which I haven't
really talked about, that theistic evolutionists might say
that well, God help the process along at each step.
I appreciate their approach and trying to help God out, but one,
I don't think he needs it and two, evolution doesn't mesh with
what scripture teaches us. The writer of Hebrews comments
on creation and its decay. Hebrews 1 verses 10 through 12.
And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the
beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain.
They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe.
You will row them up like a garment.
They will be changed, but you are the same, and your years
will have no end. I would also add it seems to me
that if the universe is more than 13 billion years old, which
is what modern science has proposed, something like 13.8
billion. Not sure how you parse out those
those in degrees, but they say 13.8 roughly.
Then I can't help but think that according to the second law of
thermodynamics, if the universe is that old and the Earth just a
little a little bit younger, the Earth 4.5 billion years old,
then I think things might have run down by now.
That's kind of how I look at it. I can't help but think that
things would have decayed if if the Earth and the universe is
really as old as modern science does try to tell us.
So God finished the work of creation in six days and
everything was functioning exactly as he intended.
So the next thing this passage tells us is God rested.
God rested. Verse 2 continues on the 7th
day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested.
It's important for us to understand what it means when
the text says that that God rested.
Our natural inclination is to think of rest as something that
we do when we are tired and and we're worn out.
However, God doesn't get tired. God doesn't get tired.
He has no need of rest in the way that you and I think of
rest. Isaiah 40, verse 28.
You probably know this passage. I'm sure you've heard it.
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the
earth. He does not faint or grow weary.
But then the Psalms 121 verse 4. Behold, he who keeps Israel will
neither slumber nor sleep. God doesn't sleep.
He doesn't get tired. His strength and power are
infinitely capable. He could have created everything
in a single moment, or if he'd wanted, he could have taken
years and not been exhausted by any of it.
He is, in the truest sense of the word, all powerful and
incapable of exhaustion. Now the root word translated as
rest here in verse 2 is actually the word Shabbat.
This word is familiar to us. The word Sabbath is basically a
respelling of the word Shabbat into English.
When we think of Sabbath, we naturally think of the day that
God told the Israelites to honor.
A day extending from Friday evening at sundown going through
Saturday until Saturday evening at sundown would be the end of
Shabbat. The word Shabbat actually means
to cease or to stop in its use here in verse 2 means God ceased
his creative activity. God ceased his creative activity
here on the 7th day. On the 1st Shabbat, God stopped
creating. He'd been actively creating for
six consecutive days. And then on the 7th day it comes
to an end. Exodus 3117 tells us.
On the 7th day, God rested and was refreshed.
He wasn't refreshed in the sense of rejuvenation and regaining of
energy. He does not run out of energy.
Rather, God was refreshed in that he was delighted by the
work that he created. This rest and refreshment is is
figurative. I think we could think of an
artist, the artist having completed his work, his
painting, whatever, whatever the project is, whatever the piece
is, the artist stops. Rest, if you will.
The artist stops and and admires his work is is refreshed as he
looks upon it and takes joy and delight in it.
Now when we say that God rested, it doesn't mean that he removed
his providential hand and ceased working in the world all
together. God continued to sustain and
govern all of creation. God continues to sustain and
govern all of creation. Even still consider Jesus words
in John 5/17 Jesus says my father is working until now and
I am working here. In this verse in John 5 the
father and son are seen to be working and active in the world.
If God wasn't continuing to work then then we would just be
deists. Deist may be a new term for you,
but but deist look at God as some sort of watchmaker type.
You see the watchmaker creates or or makes the watch and and he
sets it in motion and then the watch runs as he takes his hands
off of it. The deist looks at God in that
manner, beginning things starting, starting the hands of
time, setting things in motion, and then taking his hands off.
But that is not who our God is. God is active in our lives even
though He is no longer in the creative act.
So God finished his work, then God rested and the third thing,
the third, the third verb that we see is God blessed the 7th
day, God blessed the 7th day. God had hallowed this particular
day. It was it was set aside as a as
a sort of memorial, a reminder of the glory of both the Creator
and the creation. God had now set the standards
for how time should be governed by by weeks of seven days.
You may recall that God had already issued blessings to His
living creations on days 5:00 and 6:00, but now here God is
blessing the dimension of time. The verse continues as God
sanctified the 7th day and he made it holy.
Now this this declaration that the 7th day is holy.
This is the very first time in Scripture that anything is said
to be holy. This day isn't like the other
six days as it's set apart from the others.
It's different. Now, when something is is
declared holy, that means it's set aside to serve a specific
purpose. The 7th day was declared holy
because of its special relationship to God.
The 7th day belonged to Him. It was His day.
When the prophets speak of the Sabbath, they denote it as
belonging to Yahweh. Next, the 7th day is a witness
to God's finished work. Now, whenever we go on vacation,
especially if you have kids or or loved ones at home that you
really wish could have been with you on this trip, what do you
do? You buy souvenirs, right?
The souvenir represents a a place and an experience.
And every time you see that item, that souvenir, it reminds
you of that trip and the various experiences that that go along
with that trip, the wonderful times that you had, hopefully
wonderful times. Hopefully it's not reminding you
of when everything went just completely sideways on a trip.
Those do occasionally happen. Now Saturday is our souvenir, if
you will, of creation. We weren't there at the
beginning of creation, but God has given us this gift, this
souvenir that that reminds us of the moments of creation.
Every time the last day of the week comes around, our attention
should instantly be given to considering the Creator and the
great work of creation. Saturdays should remind us to
praise God for bringing everything into existence.
Now, how else is this day set apart?
Well, it's the 7th day, and the number 7 usually carries A
deeper meaning in Scripture and it and it's used all throughout
the text to symbolize completeness.
The number 7 symbolizes completeness.
God could have created all in a single moment, but taking seven
days for the creation week shows intentionality.
It shows purpose in the way God designed creation.
It's a meaningful process, as we've seen in the fact that we
spent four weeks just on the 1st chapter, the first six days of
creation. There's much meaning to be
discerned in the creation narrative and process.
So as you read through Scripture, you'll find the
number 7 and derivatives of seven used over and over again.
There was the leprous name and he bathed 7 times in the Jordan
River in order to be cleansed. Joshua and the people of Israel
marched around Jericho for seven days and then on the 7th day
they marched around the city of Jericho 7 times.
And then the seven priests blew 7 trumpets as a signal for when
the people were supposed to shout to help bring down the
walls. Then we come to the end.
We see Revelation. Revelation uses the number 7
more than 50 times and in various contexts.
There are 7 letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor and this
represents completeness of the body of Christ.
There are 7 spirits before God's throne, 7 lampstands, 7 stars in
Christ's right hand, 7 seals of judgement representing the
fullness of God's punishment on sinful earth, 7 angels with 7
trumpets, and the list goes on and on.
As this is only just 7 examples of all the sevens that are in
the Book of Revelation, The number sevens meaning first
shows up here in this first creation week, and it indicates
the completeness of God's work in creation.
So that's that's our text for this morning.
Now let's consider some practical implications of the
seven day creation week and its impact on our lives.
But as we do that, first of all, we start from the place of of
saying that the giving of the Sabbath was intended for the
people of Israel, the Old Testament people of Israel.
They first received the ceremonial Sabbath and
restrictions while they were wandering the wilderness.
It was part of how they maintained their relationship
with Yahweh. And then these restrictions were
ceremonial in nature. And as such, these restrictions
were abolished under the new covenants along with the Old
covenants, priestly and ceremonial commandments.
So Paul, in his context, he was combating false teachers who
were who were advocating for various Jewish observances.
These were Judaizers. They argued for strict Sabbath
and festival observance, and they said that it was necessary
to strictly keep the Sabbath and and festivals in order to grow
spiritually. So then in Colossians 2 Paul
writes. Therefore let no one pass
judgement on you. And questions of food and drink,
or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance
belongs to Christ. Paul's saying that that we have
liberty here as it relates to these issues of festivals and
areas that relates to Sabbath's or what you eat and drink,
because all of these things points to something greater.
These observances weren't the goal in and of themselves.
They merely pointed ahead to Jesus.
There was a future reality in Jesus Christ that each
observance signalled. So Sabbath keeping is no longer
required under the new covenant. It's no longer how we maintain
our relationship with God. Sabbath was originally
instituted to give humanity rest and Jesus incarnation had a had
a more complete rest in view. When Jesus came the Sabbath rest
that he was looking to implement was was rest from working for
our salvation. You see under the law it was
more difficult, if you will, it was it was harder in the sense
of trying to keep the law. Hebrews 4 verses 9 and 10 reads.
So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for
whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works,
as God did from his. Try as we might, works could
never save us because we can't live up to God's standard.
So now we find ourselves in in a state of Sabbath rest as we
trust in Christ's work for our salvation.
So we don't have to follow the Sabbath.
It's not required of us in order to maintain our relationship
with God. But the creation week
establishes a work, a work rest rhythm that is applicable to all
of human life. No, we don't have to engage
Sabbath to maintain our relationship, but the creation
week establishes a work rest rhythm for all of human life.
So since we've been created in God's image, we're programmed to
live under a pattern of work and rest that parallels God's
activity. In the creation week, God worked
for six days and then rested on the 7th.
Now when we neglect to follow God's design, what happens if we
don't take time to stop and rest?
We become exhausted. We become weary and worn out.
We fall into the temp. We can also fall into the
temptation to try to control everything ourselves and as life
gets busier and busier we may even start to push God out of
the way is life just becomes more hectic.
Now not everybody can relate to this, but Sabbath keeping is a
weapon of sorts against workaholism.
Being a workaholic is a very real and actual problem.
Scripture says much about the lazy person.
As you as you read through the pages of of Proverbs, you will
find proverb after proverb speaking to the lazy person.
And so we often can sometimes ignore the passages that call
for a better work rest balance and and so we neglect to take
notice of of what happens when we work in the extreme as a
workaholic for the type A person.
This is a very real temptation. We can think of even Martha now,
how busy she was, so focused on the things that had to be done
that when Jesus is in her home, she neglects to stop and be with
Jesus. Next, observing, observing
Sabbath grows our faith and trust in God's provision.
And I should tell you, Banu, that I moved some things around
here. So that's, that's what just
happened there. I was working on my sermon this
morning and decided I didn't like that order of things.
So I moved some things around. I think it should be OK now.
But observing Sabbath grows our faith and trust in God's
provision. You know how it is these days.
I suspect life may have perhaps been a little more simple and in
times when we didn't have kids to haul around to this activity
or that activity, this sports event, to this school event,
this extracurricular activity. Life has become so busy now and
and we have less time to get done what needs to get done.
So when we engage in Sabbath keeping, true Sabbath keeping,
we essentially eliminate time for productivity.
This causes us to rely more on God and His provision for the
time that we have allocated to us for being productive.
So, for example, on Mondays I try to Sabbath to the best of my
ability. In an ideal world, this involves
reading a book that is outside of scripture and going for a
long bike ride. I find these activities
refreshing and they fuel me up for the week ahead.
And I I try to avoid being productive on Mondays.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
But I find that when I'm busy and and productive on Mondays, I
become more irritable because I haven't forced myself to slow
down. So slowing down is an integral
part of trusting in God. It's not easy.
Lastly, Sabbath teaches us discipline.
Sabbath teaches us discipline. We learned discipline a few
ways. First of all, we learned
discipline in our resting and working.
It takes a substantial amount of discipline to keep the two in
their proper spheres. Work during work times and rest
during rest times. It may sound a bit ridiculous,
but learning to Sabbath can be a lot of work, especially when
you're new to it. Secondly, we learned discipline
and preparation for the day off. You see, if you're going to
Sabbath in a manner that doesn't involve work or productivity,
then we have to Orient our days accordingly in order to get done
what needs to get done and at the same time afford us the
opportunity to rest. So Sabbath keeping teaches us
discipline and I'm just going to say I am not that good at it.
I have a lot of growth to do in this area.
People who keep a fairly strict Sabbath observance I am fairly
impressed by because it is hard, is really hard to not just want
to go through that list of things to do.
In a world where our worth is often measured by our
productivity, God calls us to slow down and rest.
This rhythm of work and rest is holy.
It's a time that He set part for His purposes in order to cause
us to be refreshed in Him. As we're refreshed in Him.
We look forward to the day when all striving, all working, will
cease here on earth. Someday we'll find ourselves in
heaven where where things will be returned back to the garden.
Like states, work will again be easy and enjoyable, and we'll
find ourselves delighting in God's eternal rest.
Let's bow our heads and hold our eyes.
God, we come to you this morning and we thank you for this
pattern that you have set up. You have you have designed us to
live life where we spend part of our time working.
And then, and then we set aside a segment of our week for
resting in you. God would you help us to be able
to slow ourselves down, to not be consumed by the rat race as
it's so easy to just be consumed by all the busyness and the
hurry and the hustle. But God, may we rest in you
declaring that that you are our provision.
Would you teach us discipline that we need in order to slow
down and be with you? Thank you for for this gift to
us, this gift of rest. May we be good stewards with our
time. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.