Foundations_Seven Days to Sabbath
Notes
Transcript
FOUNDATIONS – SEVEN DAYS TO SABBATH
Text: Genesis 1:1-2:3
When I was at Seminary one of my classmates fell of his bike while riding to his early morning class. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and suffered a severe concussion. As a result, he had complete amnesia. The doctors encouraged his wife to take him to familiar places in order to help him regain his memory. So, on a Monday morning, after he was discharged from the hospital, she ushered him to his seat in our classroom. The professor asked him, “Do you remember being in this class?” He shook his head, “No.” “Do you remember me?” He said, “No.” “Do you remember any of your classmates?” Again, “No.” Do you recognize your wife?” “No.” He had no memory of his past.
Imagine that you lost all your memory that connects you to you past? What would that do to your sense of identity – who you are, who you belong to, what are your convictions and guiding principles of life, what are your loyalties and obligations?
Beginning today, I’d like to take you to the book of Genesis and explore with you the foundations of our faith. I feel that our generation is on the brink of suffering a collective spiritual amnesia – a total loss and disconnect from the origins and foundations of our faith. As a result, we are losing our identity, and our sense of purpose in this world. So, let’s go to the beginning of all things.
Text: Genesis 1:1-2:3
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
WITHOUT GOD’S CREATIVE ACTIVITY EVERYTHING TURNS INTO AN EMPTY DESOLATION.
The story of everything begins with God and the empty desolation. There is God, and then there is nothing. There is the Creator and there is the void – the empty wasteland. And then our benevolent, good God speaks Words of Creation that bring out beautiful, purposeful, fruitful things that displace the oblivion.
The prophet Jeremiah gives us a glimpse of what happens when God withholds His benevolent creative activity. Jeremiah 4:23-26 NIV,
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. 24 I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. 25 I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. 26 I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
The wonderful, beautiful creation is deconstructed into the primordial empty desolation.
Markus Persson who in 2014 sold his Minecraft game empire to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, tweeted these messages recently.
4:50am: Hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated.
4:53am: Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead.
Do you feel like your life is empty desolation?
Only God can speak the benevolent creative Word to make your life into a Garden of Eden.
GOD’S ULTIMATE GOAL FOR HIS CREATION IS TO SHARE IN HIS “VERY GOOD SABBATH REST”
For six days God labored to terraform the Earth and make it capable to sustain life and through eight acts of creation created the ecosystem that is teaming with life. And then came the Seventh Day. It is the only day that God blesses. It is the only day that lacks the refrain, “And there was evening, and there was morning…” The implication is that this day is meant to be a perpetual state of existence.
The Sabbath Day is the goal of God’s creation.
If you want to understand why there is anything in the Universe; if you want to understand what the purpose of your existence is, then you will find the answer in the meaning of the Sabbath rest. God created everything including you and me with the purpose that we might enjoy His very good Sabbath Rest.
God does two things with the Sabbath Day that explain its meaning and purpose. First, He blessed the Sabbath Day. Second, He consecrated the Sabbath Day. The act of blessing is an act of benevolent, beneficial giving. The act of consecration is an act of claiming something. Let’s look closer at each of these acts.
God Blessed (Gave) the Sabbath Rest to You, Me, and All Creation.
1) The Sabbath Day is not only a day of rest, where all work needs to cease, but a day where nothing is left to be done except enjoy the perfection of God’s creation. God blessed the day because everything was now perfect and ready, like a bride for her groom. There was nothing that needed to be added or subtracted. It was ready for enjoyment.
My dad made Sundays such a blessing for his family. Perhaps the greatest reason I am a believer today is because of how blessed Sundays were for me growing up. We were poor and couldn’t afford meat on the table. Most of our food was bread and soup, and vegetables. But on Sunday there always was chicken. My dad and mom made sure we had the best food for Sunday. And after we ate lunch together, there was always singing and rejoicing in the blessings God had given us.
Friends God gave you the Sabbath so you can rejoice in the beauty and bounty of His creation. The Sabbath Psalm 92:4-5 NIV encourages us to,
For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. 5 How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!
2) After the fall of mankind into sin, the purpose of the Sabbath rest was upgraded. Now, in addition to rejoicing in the bounty of creation, it also came to signify God’s completed act of salvation and redemption. We read in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NIV,
12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, …
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
Now we rejoice that the salvation from our sins and its deconstructive power. Now we celebrate because sin’s deconstructive power has been vanquished by our Lord Jesus Christ. God made the Sabbath so you and I and all creation can rejoice in the salvation and redemption Jesus accomplished fully for us on the Cross. Nothing can be added or subtracted from His work of redemption. The only thing that remains for you and me is to rejoice in it.
3) But there is third purpose for the Sabbath blessing. It signifies the final stage of God’s creative activity. It points to the New Heaven and New Earth where a perpetual Sabbath Rest will be granted to the children of God. We read in Hebrews 4:1, NIV,
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it… 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Eternity, Paradise, the New Creation is called the Sabbath rest of God. The day without ending of enjoying perfection where nothing is amiss, nothing needs to be added or subtracted is the goal for God’s creation. This is why God blessed the Sabbath Day. It is a gift of God to you and me.
Now comes the second part of God’s pronouncement about the Sabbath Day. In Genesis 2:3 we are told that God sanctified the day and made it holy.
God Sanctified the Sabbath day for himself.
When God sanctifies something, He is claiming it for Himself. In reference to the Sabbath Day this means that the Day of Rest is not meant to be holiday for you and me to just enjoy any fun under the sun. It is a Holy Day that belongs to the Lord and must be used for worship of our God and rejoicing in His presence. Isaiah 59:13-14 NIV reminds us,
“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
So, God both gives the Sabbath to us and claims it for Himself. God and his creatures share in the celebration of the good creation. A famous Jewish Rabbi of our times said of the Sabbath,
“It is a day on which we are called upon to share what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
GOD’S SABBATH REST DEPENDS ON THE ‘SONSHIP’ LIFESTYLE OF MANKIND.
Every Detail in the creation story that leads up to the Seventh Day makes the Sabbath Day possible.
Notice the processes God uses to make the Sabbath possible. As He creates, He separates, sets boundaries, and defines everything according to their kinds. The creation is given a structure of boundaries, limitations, and distinctions that make the world a predictable benevolent, and life supporting/blessing place.
The great Architect of the universe does not permit the colors of his canvas to run together.
Imagine if light and darkness suddenly decided to be interchangeable, rather than separate with set limitations. One moment you are threading a needle and the next – lights out – all light sources go dark. Imagine if dry land and water decided all of sudden to become interchangeable at any given moment in time? One minute you are on dry land, and the next you are drowning in the ocean. Imagine if 30% of flowering plants decided to change their gender? Where will your bread and vegetables come from? Imagine if 30% of cows and pigs decided to become gender neutral? Where will your milk, beef, and pork chops come from?
No! The perfection of the Sabbath Rest depends entirely on creation functioning within the precise limits God has established.
A few days ago, I read an article where the Canadian Astronomers had calculated that if an asteroid were to hit Mercury and change its trajectory even for a 0.1% it will destroy the entire solar system.
And the most important piece of the puzzle for the endurance of the Sabbath is the behavior of mankind.
We are told that we are made in the image of God. I can’t tell you how many speculations there are on what that means. But we have one clue in Genesis 5:1-3 NIV,
5 This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Seth, Adam’s son is said to be in the image of his father. So, “image” in this context largely means sonship.
God created mankind to endow them with the privilege of being His sons and daughters. What that implies is that we not only get the privileges of sons, that is to rule in God’s stead, but also to be obedient to the Father as a good son is supposed to be.
The Sabbath was shattered because mankind was not content to live as God’s son and daughter. So, God put His plan in motion to have the Eternal Logos be born as a Second Adam to live His life in perfect obedience as a Son of God and shed his perfect lifeblood for the redemption of all mankind.
Are you ready to celebrate the Sabbath? You must be born again in the image of God’s only Son Jesus Christ. You must believe on Him and submit to Him as Lord and Savior. Then Sabbath will be a day of rejoicing over the beauty, pleasure, and satiating power of God’s creation. It will be a celebration of God’s forgiveness of, and redemption from my sins. It will be an anticipatory joy of the coming Sabbath Rest that Christ is preparing for us in Heaven. It will be a hand in hand celebration with God! Sabbath will be as David sang in Psalm 122:1 NIV,
I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”