010 – Foundations 010 – The Holy Day of Rest

Foundations

010 - Foundations 010 - The Holy Day of Rest

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Jarod Hinton

Intro:

Significant Seven

• Root word = Shaw-bah = to be complete, to “seven” oneself. To repeat something seven times.
• The number of completion in the Bible. (First time mentioned.)
• A very significant number in the Bible. (Seven lean cows/Seven fat cows of Pharaoh’s dream, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, Seven days of Passover, Consecration of the Priests lasted seven days, Every seven years was a year of rest, Jesus said to forgive 70×7… just to name a few!)

The Father here sets a pattern that is to have continuing impact for the rest of history. From this point on, the number seven is very important.

• If God hadn’t reached a point of completion…
• God’s work was accomplished. Completed.
• Jesus work on the Cross is accomplished also. It is complete. (“…finished.”)
• Heb. 10:10-14,
• That’s why Jesus said “It is finished.”

Sanctified Sabbath (vs. 3)

• What is Sanctification? – Sanctification, to make something holy, is a very deep and important doctrine in Scripture, and deserves its own sermon.
  • Illust: Basketball shoes, Sunday clothes – Temple furnishings
• God has sanctified his people Israel, and by extension we are engrafted into that sanctification. He has set us apart to be a “royal priesthood.” (1Pet. 2:9)
• In this passage we find the first mention of God sanctifying anything. He made it holy!
• Sanctified = kaw-dash – to consecrate, prepare, dedicate, be holy, be separate
• To make something holy essentially means to set it apart for special use or service. To separate something or someone unto service. (Especially God’s.)
• John Wesley and Matthew Henry call this first sanctification “the beginning of the kingdom of grace.”
• This seventh day, the Sabbath, was the first thing God ever made holy. He made it special from that very moment. We don’t even need the Ten Commandments to know that this is a very special day worthy of incredible honor. 

And what did he set apart this day for? Rest.

Righteous Rest (vs. 2)

• God accomplished everything there was to be done in creation, and so he rested. He didn’t continue to work…he stopped. (Do you suppose he sat down with Adam and Eve and talked with them? Relationship shows up again!)
• Rest = shabath – to repose, desist, to cease.
  • Important to note that God did not rest out of weariness. Wasn’t tired.
• He chose to rest 1) to enjoy his creation 2) to give us an example.
  • Later on, God commanded Moses that his people should rest on the Sabbath. (Ex. 20:10)
  • Rest is so important to God that he made it one of the Ten Commandments
• To rest upon the Sabbath is something that many Christians simply ignore. We have fallen into the trap of treating God’s holy day like any other day.
  • Mow the grass? Study for a class? Go pay someone else to work for you? (Needs to be reasonable discernment applied. “Ox in ditch”, etc.)
• May apply for you different than others. (Football, etc.)
• Not a little thing. Sabbath is the oldest instrument of God.
  • Illust: Ark of Covenant used as Picnic Table
• The Sabbath is the very first thing that was ever sanctified or made holy and it was set apart to be a day of rest. A day when we remember our Father in heaven and his son Jesus Christ!
• Are we remembering to honor the Sabbath day?

The Significance of Rest

• Through out Scripture we find the importance of rest emphasized.
  • To cease from our spiritual labor and simply rest upon the merit of Christ is the heart of the Gospel!
  • Our own labor is nothing! – Eph. 2:8-9
  • Jesus provides rest to us. – Matt 11:28-30
• Our walk with Christ is to be a walk of rest.
  • Can we be saved by simply trying harder to be righteous? NO!
  • Can we become more righteous as Christians by trying harder? NO!

Read Galatians 2:16, 20 and 3:1-7

Faithful Abraham – when God cut the covenant with Abraham, was Abraham working really hard or doing some labor that accomplished his side of that bargain? Look at Gen. 15 and you will see that Abraham was asleep during the covenant ceremony. He had a “go-between” that represented him before the Father.

Closing: To cease from our own labors and trust upon the finished work of Christ, both for our salvation and the continuing work of sanctification, is the message and the heart of resting. And God set aside a special day, at the very beginning of the world, to remind us of the importance of rest, and then he led by example. What example will you set for those around you?