Our Response to The God of Life
Notes
Transcript
I thought I’d briefly explain why I’ve gone back to the beginning of things.
The current generations don’t just want to know the whats of something but the whys as well.
So we started with being pro-life. Why are we pro-life? Because God is the God of life and God asked us to cultivate and keep the life that He created as an act of worship to Him. And we talked about how the Garden in Eden was very similar to the womb. And we’ll come back to that in a future sermon.
Today, we are looking at our response to the God of life.
We are commanded to keep the Sabbath? But what are its roots?
This is not an exhaustive teaching on the Sabbath, but just its beginnings.
This is not about the whats of Sabbath, or even the whens of Sabbath, but the whys of Sabbath.
God’s Finished Work (vs. 1)
God’s Finished Work (vs. 1)
Heavens and Earth completed
All their hosts - shined in their brilliant array.
God’s creation shined. The heavens declare His glory.
The Heaven’s Response:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
The Proper Response to the God that gives life is Worship.
Worship Comes From Old English Worthship
declaring the worth, honor, and respect due someone.
worship is an outgrowth of relationship.
To know God.
To honor God.
To thank God.
To thank God for the work that did get done this week.
To thank Him for His blessings to us.
Futile speculations - To think about God.
To learn about Him.
We celebrate God’s goodness.
We celebrate God’s good creation.
Foolish hearts - To love God.
God’s Response To His Work (vs. 2)
God’s Response To His Work (vs. 2)
Work is complete
God’s physical creation had reached maturity
Nothing more is needed.
He has provided everything that we need.
Work can be translated as workmanship or craftsmanship.
You are a work of art.
One of a kind.
Special.
A sculpture carved in His image.
He rested in His completed work
God does not speak, God does not work...
God did not need to rest
He does it as an example and pattern for us.
Creation ordinances - given in perfection…The issue of the Sabbath transcends the 10 Commandments.
His resting was a act of completion - “It is finished.”
but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
His resting was a foreshadow of things to come.
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
Nor did He cease to be involved with His creation.
The rest of achievement, but not inactivity. He nurtures what He creates.
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
His work may be complete, but His plan is not.
Theistic evolution - He didn’t just wind it up and then step back and let it go.
On the 7th Day
God Blessed The 7th Day (vs. 3)
God Blessed The 7th Day (vs. 3)
Christians seem to focus on the do’s and don’t’s of the Sabbath rather than the purpose of the Sabbath.
Afraid of becoming legalistic, we miss the blessing of the Sabbath. It’s why God blessed the 7th day.
God Blessed The Fifth Day - Life in the sky and sea.
God Blessed The Sixth Day - Life on the land. Specifically Adam and Eve.
God Blessed The Seventh Day - Life with Him.
I have finished fulfilling my purpose for my people (good) and now I want you to to enjoy my finished work, forever.
Creation is a gift.
I want you to enjoy life.
Life is a gift.
Creating Life is a gift. Be fruitful and multiply.
I want you to enjoy me. His desire was for us to spend time with Him.
God’s presence is a gift.
It was never supposed to end. No evening and morning.
Relationship.
God Sanctified The 7th Day (vs. 3)
God Sanctified The 7th Day (vs. 3)
Make holy
Set apart for special use
By sanctifying it, God is laying claim to it.
This day is my day.
It is the non-ending Lord’s Day.
God’s Example Of The 7th Day Is For Us
God’s Example Of The 7th Day Is For Us
The 7th Day Lost.
Since Adam and Eve defiled the non-ending 7th day, they were removed from its blessing and sanctification.
Creation was a gift, now its cursed.
Life was a gift, now there’s death.
Babies were a gift, now the whole process is going to become painful and difficult.
God’s presence was a gift, now we are excluded from His presence.
In addition, worshipful, joyful work was now going to become tedious and laborious to the point of cursing it.
The Resting On The 7th Day Is For Us
Since we are created in the image of God, the rest of God is a promised rest for mankind.
God’s Rest Is Still Available
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
The Partial Rest - from this root word the noun for Sabbath originates
“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 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. “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.
It’s a rest from the curses.
Rest from the cursed ground. Work.
Rest from the cursed life.
Death, destruction, decay.
Relief from the difficulties of life.
partial because its not our final rest.
It gives us a reminder of what is to come.
It’s a day of Life
Rest from our separation from God.
re-breathing of the breath of God into our souls.
6 days of death and one day of life.
The Sabbath is for us, but it is not to control us.
Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
The Blessing Of The 7th Day Is For Us
God Doesn’t Need a Break, but We Sure Do.
“Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.
“You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.
To Walk Under the Blessing of God.
“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the Lord, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
To Fellowship with God - obtained through the sacrifice of Jesus. God’s rest is still available
The human community that was broken at the Fall, then, the Sabbath is God’s invitation to form a new kind of community. A community around the cross.
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
To Rest in Jesus’ Finished Work.
God rested in His completed WORK.
Christ’s finished work on the cross
This is THE Promised Rest
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
Take Christ’s yoke - what is that yoke? Yoke made of wood. Cross made of wood. Trees made of wood. The yoke of life through the tree of death.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “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. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The Sanctification Of The 7th Day Is For Us
We Set Aside a Day to Worship and Remember Who God Is.
‘Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’
6 days are yours, one day is mine.
Pause and reflect on the Lord our God (Elohim) Our Creator.
Pause and reflect that life is a gift and we are to thank God for this gift.
A reminder that the world is safely in God’s hands.
A reminder that the world relies on God’s promises and not our efforts.
“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Rest, not panic.
Rest, not fear.
Rest, not worry.
To Remember Who Has Redeemed Us.
‘You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
a reminder to find our security in Christ.
a break from every effort to achieve our own salvation.
to stop trying to make the world into our image and not God’s
To Remember Who Sanctifies Us.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
That God is still working on us.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Not only do I know you, I know what you’re going to become...
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
To Remember Who Glorifies Us.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
To Remember The Promised Inheritance - The Promised Land
For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
A reminder of how creation was intended. And holding on to how it will be restored.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
Obtained in the future New Heaven and New Earth.
and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
In Summary: The Why and Purpose of Sabbath
God rested on it
God blessed it
God sanctified it
As a pattern for us. Even though we messed up the 7th Day,
God’s rest is still available to us.
God still wants to bless us
God still wants to sanctify us
And the 7th Day is set aside to remember these things
The Sabbath was made for man.
The Sabbath is a day of celebration.
of God as Creator
of God as Redeemer.
In The House - David