Last year to move down there closer to him, I told him it was something of an offense to us, church, that you would rather be with him than with us. But now I guess I understand. I’m really happy for you guys. It’s great.
We’re continuing this morning our studies on the Bible’s story of salvation. And each of these scenes that we have taken to trace out the Bible’s story of salvation have been huge, big themes, and difficult to handle at one shot. I feel that more this morning than any of the other times. Today we look at the subject of Sabbath rest finally realized. Sabbath rest finally realized. We really ought to take time to stretch this out into several different messages and take our time at several different passages where this theme is developed through the Bible. But I think there is some value in taking the one-shot, big-picture overview, and so that’s what I’m going to go with. But to do that, I’m going to have to assume a lot of you, and that is that you’re familiar with some of the passages that I’ll refer to and, of course, that you can listen fast. If it’s too much too fast, you can tell me that afterwards and maybe we can try it again. But today: the Sabbath rest finally realized.
And to begin, I’d like to look at three different passages of Scripture that we will touch on. First of all, in Hebrews chapter four—Hebrews three and four. And if you would put a marker there in Hebrews three and look back to Psalm 95. Hebrews 3, Psalm 95, and then, of course, Genesis chapter 2 is where we’ll begin. We’ll read Genesis chapter 2, we’ll look at Psalm 95, then we’ll look at Hebrews chapter 4, verses 1 through 3.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them.” You remember what lies behind this. Genesis chapter 1, you have the first, the second, the third day, the fourth, fifth, and sixth day of creation. And now chapter two, we have the seventh day in verses one to three. It’s one of those places where the chapter division really is not at its best. It separates the seventh day from the rest of the week. But we have that then in verses one to three. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.”
And then Psalm 95. This is a psalm that calls the people of God to worship Him. “Come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come to his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make joyful noise to him with songs of praise.” And then he explains, “For the Lord is a great God, a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the heights and the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh, come,” starts the call again. “Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, on the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For 40 years, I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ Therefore, I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.'”
And now in Hebrews chapter 3, beginning with verse 11—I’ll start with verse 7: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts. They have not known my ways.” I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest.'” There you see he’s quoting from a psalm that we just read. “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said today, ‘If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt, led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest. As he said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.’ Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way,” and here he quotes from Genesis 2, “‘God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ And again in this passage he said, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ Since therefore it remains for some to enter into those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again he appoints a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David, a long afterward, in the words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a rest, 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. Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disbelief.”
Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for the salvation that you’ve given to us in Jesus Christ, the one who by himself did the work needed for our rescue. And we’re thankful for the great story of salvation that you have given to us in the Scriptures, throughout the Old Covenant, preparing the way, illustrating the way, showing what he would do; and throughout the New Covenant, showing us what Christ has done in fulfillment of your great promise. We pray that you will give us understanding of that today and strengthen our hearts and strengthen our faith as a result. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Genesis 2: The Beginning Of The Sabbath Theme
In Genesis chapter two, we have the first and the beginning of this Sabbath theme that we find in the Scriptures. The word “Sabbath” is not mentioned in verses one to three here in Genesis chapter two, but the verb is. God rested, shabbat, God rested. In fact, it’s mentioned for us twice: verse two and again in verse three. And this is the obvious beginning of that theme.
Genesis 2:1–3 is pretty obviously the climax of the creation narrative. God has spoken the world into being. He has provided for the world, the created order, for the animals, and also for the human pair, Adam and Eve, that were created as well on the sixth day. He has clothed the earth in appropriate ways. He’s given appropriate inhabitants for every sphere. And now it says in chapter two and verses one to three, his work is finished. And he evaluates the work and says, “It was very good.” Now we have the sense of God’s satisfaction with the work that he has accomplished. There’s a completeness to it. There’s a symmetry to it all. And God says that’s good.
Then in verses 2 and 3, we find that God rested. Twice it is told us God rested. Exodus chapter 31 comments on this and adds the remark that God rested and was refreshed from his labors. Now clearly it’s not telling us that God was worn out from a hard week of work. After all, all he had to do was speak, and it was done. Obviously, it is the refreshment or the rest of satisfaction, the rest of accomplishment—enjoying, taking pleasure in what he had done, delighting in his finished work.
On chapter 1, in the sixth day, we find in verses 24 and following that God creates the first human pair, Adam and Eve. And this is the climax of God’s creation. Man with his wife are made the kings of creation, vice-regents ruling under God over the created order. And they are very obviously the climax of God’s creative activity. But the rest that we read of in verses 1 to 3 of chapter 2—God’s rest, his rest of contentment and delight in his finished work—this is obviously, I think, the climax of the creation narrative. It’s all been leading to this, and now we come to the seventh day where God sits back, looks at what he has done, pronounces it very good, and takes a sense of delight in it. And so we’ve come to the climax of the creation narrative.
But some questions are left open that are not answered here that have to be filled in now in the rest of the book, throughout Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then through on to the New Testament, through to the book of Revelation. Some questions are left open here. For example, why does the week end as it does with the Creator’s rest? Obviously, God was not tired. God doesn’t tire. He wasn’t worn out. So why the rest? What’s the purpose of it? Why does it deserve mention? Why does it deserve the appointed mention that it receives here? In what way is it significant?
And then another question comes up: Was this rest that God has entered on day seven something to be enjoyed by him alone? Or is there a sense in which the created order—in particular, the man and woman that he had created—is to share somehow in this rest of God’s finished work? Another question comes up: why do we not have at the end of verse three the little formula that we have in all the other six days: the morning and evening, the first day; morning and evening were the second day; the morning and evening were the third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day? We don’t have that formula after the seventh day, but somehow, for some reason, the seventh day is left open.
And in fact—and I don’t know how this is significant in terms of interpretation, but it’s certainly worth noticing anyway—that we have in verses two and three “the seventh day,” that phrase, mentioned three times. Three times, in fact, in the Hebrew, in three different sentences. And each of those three sentences is made up of seven words. I don’t know what the significance of that is. But clearly Moses has gone to some creative work here to draw our attention to this seventh day and the rest that God has entered, even if he has left some questions unanswered.
But we are left with those questions. How is all of this significant? Why the bother? Why does he go to this creative work to structure even the sentences in the way that he does to draw attention to the seventh day and to emphasize the rest that God had entered? In fact, we read that God blessed the seventh day (verse three). We find that at the end of chapter one in the last verses there regarding the creation on the sixth day: “God blessed, God blessed, God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.'” And again, we’re left to wonder then: this blessing, is that the blessing of rest? And were these two created to enter into that rest or share somehow in this rest of God in verses one to three?
So Moses has structured this passage to drive our attention to God’s rest as the high point of the narrative. Not in the creation of man, although that’s the climax of creation itself, but the climax of the narrative is God’s rest, and it’s to that that everything seems to be pointed. And it seems, I think, to be a rest in which creation itself is to have a share. That’s the goal of creation—that it will share in God’s rest, the enjoyment of his rest. Well, how do I know that? Well, on one hand, it seems like that. It seems like that just from the narrative itself. God blessed them (verse 28 of chapter one); he blessed the sixth day. And this rest, is it leading toward that? There’s a rest to be enjoyed with this God?
Well, that might be a guess at this point, but when we come forward to the New Testament, we read Jesus saying in Mark chapter two, “The Sabbath was in fact made for man.” The Sabbath was made for man. Even so, with that, we’re left to ask: how so? That’s where we pick up with Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, where the author there links this theme of rest to Genesis chapter 2 and to Psalm 95, and speaks of it as a rest into which we may enter by faith. So there you have the big picture all at once. But at this point, little more is given to us than just this perspective and this hope of entering into rest.
The Restlessness Of Sinful Humanity
Well, then we come to chapter two, verses four and following. And we have the zoom lens on the sixth day: God’s creation of man. And the zoom lens focusing on that with some of the details filled in for us and so on. And with that, of course, is the ominous warning. You may have everything you want in the garden, but just don’t eat of that one tree. And there’s that test, and then after the test, of course, there’s the failure—the rebellion—and after that, there’s the curse, and they are cast out of God’s presence. And as we find, the resulting case is that of labor and toil and sweat and pain and death. Restlessness. Unrest. It’s the state of sin that now dominates.
And with this state of sin now, there is not rest, but restlessness. So the question then is, how can humanity again enter into and share in God’s rest? And of course, the answer is only redemptively. Somehow, God has to make a way for his fallen and rebellious creatures to enter again into that rest. And so God makes a promise in Genesis 3:15 that he will crush the snake. We’ve seen that theme as it develops. And we also find in the New Testament, in John chapter 5, Jesus remarking that at this point in history, after man’s rebellion and his failure to enter into rest—that’s what Jesus says in John chapter 5—”My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”
And that in the context of discussions of the Sabbath. So it’s, in a sense, it’s not just Genesis 3:15, but also Genesis 2:1–3 that sound the first note of the Bible’s salvation story. And Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 that we’ve seen, and we’ll see hopefully a little bit more of later on, make exactly that connection. This rest in Genesis chapter 2:1–3, and then onward, becomes one of the themes that carries the Bible’s story. Just as we have seen “kingdom” carries the Bible’s story, “eternal life” carries the Bible’s story, “crushing the snake” carries the Bible’s story of salvation, and so on. So now also this theme of Sabbath rest is one of those themes that carries the salvation story of the Bible.
As the Bible narrative unfolds, we have reminders along the way—sometimes very subtle reminders along the way—of mankind’s want for rest. Reminders along the way of the restlessness of sinful humanity. We have that immediately when I turn the page to chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, when God pronounces judgment on the man and also on the woman with the toil and the pain associated with childbearing. But then also on the man, verse 17: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I have commanded, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plant of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
We find another reminder, if you’d like to turn the page again, chapter five, verse 29, where we have Noah first introduced. Noah, his name means “rest.” And then verse 28, when Lamech lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” And here he associates the toil and the labor and the pain and the death that’s associated with the curse with this theme of rest. And he says, Noah, whose name means rest, is the one who will bring us rest.
We find other reminders of it throughout the biblical narrative. In Exodus, in the opening chapters, we find Israel laboring under bondage in Egypt. In Numbers, we find the people in the wilderness with no place to call home. We find in the historical books of the Old Testament, Israel is surrounded by enemies and threats and wars of various kinds. You’ll remember that one book of the Bible is dedicated entirely to this theme of the restlessness of humanity. That’s the book of Ecclesiastes. Every pursuit we have to find happiness, everything “under the sun,” is vanity. Nothing pays off. But left in this world and under the sun, life is full of restlessness. We have the prophets speaking of the nations like the raging seas in this constant state of turmoil and unrest. We read, very interestingly, of the time of the exile when Israel was in Babylon; Lamentations tells us they found no rest.
We come to the New Testament. Israel’s in her own land, but she’s languishing under the authority of Rome and under oppression. And everywhere there’s the portrayal of sickness and suffering and sin and injustice and toil and evil of all kinds.
The Sabbath As A Day Of Rest
Well, that’s the broad sketch. And then we find in the book of Exodus, we have first introduced for us the observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest. Exodus chapter 16 introduces that for us. Israel, you remember, was at the plains of Sinai. God has provided manna for them. But God says you need not gather manna on the seventh day. Provide for both days, and so you need not gather or collect the manna on the seventh day. It is a Sabbath to the Lord. And there we are told just in a subtle kind of way that rest is provided for them in God’s grace. Now this is not quite yet, in Exodus 16, it’s not quite yet the full-blown Jewish Sabbath that we find under the law that will come very shortly. The only restriction, in fact, that’s given in Exodus chapter 16 is “don’t collect the manna.” But it is a preparation for the Sabbath institution as it will come at Sinai, and it is a weekly reminder that God provides rest in grace.
And then we come to the Mount Sinai and the giving of the law. Here Israel is constituted as a nation. The nation has established the law. The constitution is given. The heart and soul of it, of course, is the Ten Commandments. And the heart of the Ten Commandments is several verses explained and so on. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Do not work on the Sabbath.” This is a day of particular importance. It’s a day of particular importance because it is the sign of the Old Covenant. Just as the rainbow is the sign of the Noahic Covenant, circumcision the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, the Sabbath is the sign of the Old Covenant. It becomes a particularly sacred thing, and you don’t violate the Sabbath. You violate the Sabbath, it’s punishable by death. And so you don’t pick up sticks, you don’t light a fire, you don’t carry a burden, you don’t plow, you don’t harvest, you don’t do any of that kind of work on the Sabbath. This is the sign of the covenant, and you will keep this day holy.
The Sabbath day then, the seventh day of the week, served then as the basis of Israel’s other holy days. In Israel, there was the year of Jubilee following seven cycles of seven years. It was a year of Jubilee. And we have other holy days that were Sabbaths to the Lord. We have the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. All of these were Sabbaths to the Lord. The sabbatical year in particular, and especially, of course, the year of Jubilee, shouted of rest and of freedom and of restoration. There the debts were to be forgiven, slaves were set free, land was to revert to its original owners, and there’s this theme of release coming and rest being given in the year of Jubilee. So the sabbatical year, the Jubilee year, the shout of rest, and all of these Sabbaths to the Lord were reminders then of this theme of God’s rest—a theme that was born at the climax of the creation narrative and continues to grow with multiple reminders that God in grace gives his people rest.
Now more significant than that, I think, is that in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, we find two explanations given, and in fact, two different explanations given for why God gave the Sabbath command. Two different explanations, but as we’ll see, they are very related. The Sabbath command was both commemorative, looking back to God’s creative work and the work that he did redeeming his people from Egypt, and it was also prospective in a greater redemptive work that God would do.
So in Exodus chapter 20: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Why? Because in six days God made heaven and earth. That is, it reaches back to Genesis chapter 2—that this Sabbath that God entered at the end of creation week. So it’s reminiscent of that, at the same time that it’s prospective of a rest that we may enter someday with him. The toil and the unrest that has been imposed on man because of sin and because of the curse will one day be lifted and we will enter into God’s rest.
And that, then, is the connection in Deuteronomy chapter 5. I won’t take time to turn there as usual; the clock is running out before my message does. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 12 to 15, we find that the Sabbath command, when it is reissued (remember in Deuteronomy, when it is given again), he says, “You remember the Sabbath day, you keep it holy.” And here he does not say, “because in six days God made heaven and earth.” Here, he says, “You will remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that God brought you out by a mighty hand.” So here, the connection between the Sabbath that is made with redemption: you enter this rest on the seventh day as commemorative of the rest that God brought you into in redemption. And there we have the redemptive link that’s connected to the Sabbath. And again, all of this is tied to the prospective look that is developed later in the Scriptures as well. So the Sabbath then spoke of God’s rest in creation week, which itself spoke of a rest that God would bring to his people eventually.
Rest In The Finished Work Of Christ
Well, we have other Old Testament developments of the theme and of the rest. Terminology becomes increasingly obvious in the Old Testament narrative that the rest that God wanted his people to enjoy was not only found in a day, but it was to be found in the land that he would provide for them. With Joshua, the people of God entered into that land. David, with his military exploits, secured that rest for them, and he found for them a dwelling place that was peaceful and safe, and a place they could call home. When Israel enjoyed deliverance from her enemies, the resulting peace is described in the Old Testament as rest. David was a man of war. He was successful against Israel’s enemy, but by those wars he brought about rest, peace, and safety for the people of Israel. Solomon, in turn, was not a man of war. He was a man of rest, a man of peace.
The prophets, especially in Isaiah, connect salvation promises to this rest. We don’t have time to track those down. In exile, interestingly, Lamentations tells us Israel found no rest, but again the prophets pick up this rest theme and announce a coming age of prevailing peace and prevailing rest that will come. The rule of Messiah would come and he’d rule over the world and enter into this time of rest that God had promised.
And then we have to look just briefly at Psalm 95. Psalm 95 that we read earlier. As I mentioned, it’s a call to worship God in the opening six, seven verses. And then he gives a call to the people of God. “Today, if you hear his voice, don’t be like the Israelites who angered God when they had to have him provide water from the rock.” That was a time of particular unbelief that angered God against them, making him prove, even though they had seen signs before, prove his provision for them. But he says today, “If you hear His voice, don’t miss that rest that they missed. You may enter that rest today.” Keep that in mind. We’ll come back to that when we get to the book of Hebrews.
Well, we move forward to the New Testament. We come to Matthew chapter 1. Interestingly there, Jesus is introduced to us with a name. “He will call his name Jesus,” which as you know in Hebrew is Joshua. You’ll call his name Joshua. He’s the real Joshua. It’s not that Jesus is named after the older Joshua, but that the older Joshua was a type of this one who will bring his people into real rest. He will save his people from their sins.
Luke chapter 4, Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth, goes into the synagogue, opens the Isaiah scroll, you remember, and begins to read from Isaiah chapter 61, where it is there prophesied that the servant of the Lord would come, he would be anointed of God’s spirit, and he would proclaim the year of Jubilee. And Jesus closes up the scroll and says, “This day, this prophecy is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of what the year of Jubilee anticipated.
And then a very significant development: we come to Matthew chapter 11. When Jesus finishes pronouncing all of the terrible woes on the cities of Galilee that have rejected Him, you remember what He says: “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” In Matthew’s Gospel, the very next verses, we come to the Sabbath controversy (Matthew chapter 12), where Jesus’ disciples are plucking grain—just grabbing some heads of grain on the Sabbath as they walk past this field. The Pharisees are all over them, complaining about it; they’re violating the Sabbath. And rather than simply saying (and ending the whole thing, as Jesus might have done), “What they are doing in grabbing a few heads of grain as they walk by does not constitute harvesting. They are not violating the law of Moses; keep to your own business”—that’s not what he says. Instead, he turns it around into a great Christological manifesto and says, “I’m the exception.” And he ends up the whole thing by saying, “I’m the Lord of the Sabbath.” And you’ve got to think, what in the world is going on? Here he says he’ll give his people rest. Here he says he’s Lord of the Sabbath. He has authority over the Sabbath. What does that mean? And at the very least, what it means is Jesus is filling that Sabbath rest theme full of its redemptive-historical significance. All of it was pointing ahead to a rest that I will give.
I’d love to spend more time there. We move forward to John chapter five, and here we have another Sabbath controversy. Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath. Jesus looks back, as I mentioned earlier, and says, “My father has been working to this point, and so have I.” And Jesus claims that there’s something particularly appropriate about his healing a man on the Sabbath. “This is what I’ve come to do—to give rest.” He connects it all to his saving work and then again links it all back to Genesis chapter 2.
And that explains why, then, when we come to places like Romans chapter 14, when we have these quibbles inside the church with some people saying, “Oh, you’ve got to observe some days as holy,” and others say, “No, you don’t.” And Paul answers, “There are no holy days.” This is a new day. The reason he can say that is that days no longer matter because their significance has found fulfillment now in Jesus. And in fact, that’s exactly what he says in Colossians chapter two, where he says, “Let no one judge you in terms of Sabbaths.” These were, he says, a shadow. A shadow. But the reality is Christ. Just as through the Old Testament, when we read it now with our New Testament lenses, the priest was Jesus, the king is Jesus, the prophet is Jesus, the son is Jesus, the shepherd is Jesus, the temple is Jesus, the sacrifice is Jesus, so also the Sabbath points to Jesus and the rest that he gives.
And then we come to Hebrews chapters three and four that we read, and I want you to see that quickly. Hebrews chapters three and four. Notice that the writer here focuses on Psalm 95, quotation beginning in verse 7. He mentions it again in verse 15. He references Psalm 95 again in chapter 4 verse 3, verse 5. Again, in verse 7. Obviously, this is a point of reference for him. He also references Genesis 2 in chapter 4 and verse 3 here. So he has this rest theme in mind.
But notice how he emphasizes the word “today.” Verse 7, chapter 3, verse 7: “Today, if you hear his voice.” Chapter 3, verse 15: “Today, if you hear his voice.” And then we have it again in chapter four, in verse seven: “Today, if you hear his voice.” And he begins to explain that in verse eight: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” So he’s looking at his Bible and he’s just reading it chronologically. And he says, “Okay, we have the rest theme in Genesis introduced. And then we have it coming to a real high point in Joshua, where he leads the people into rest. But then isn’t it a curious thing that we come to David’s time, the time of Psalms, he picks up this rest theme, and he says, ‘Today, today, if you want to enter into rest, don’t miss it by unbelief’?” And he says, “Now, if in David’s time, God says, ‘Today, you can enter into rest,’ whatever else we have to conclude, we have to conclude that whatever else Joshua gave was not an exhaustion of that rest that God had promised.”
Of course, as he works it out here in Hebrews chapter four, that rest is found then in resting from our works as God did from his, and resting in the finished work of Christ to enter into his rest. Don’t miss it, like they did, by your unbelief. But in faith in Jesus Christ, we enter into God’s rest that we enjoy in Christ. And that is exactly the testimony of every believer. That coming to Jesus Christ, the struggle with sin was over. Coming to Jesus Christ, the struggle with conscience is over. Coming to Jesus Christ, there’s satisfaction and rest to be found that could not be found anywhere else. We have forgiveness. We have access to God. We have fellowship with God. We have the assurance of sonship. We have a sense of the love of God shed abroad in our heart by his Spirit. All of this in fulfillment of this rest theme that we are brought to share.
And as I say, this is the testimony of every believer. This is the salvation we enjoy in Christ, resting in him. And yet, as we’ve said throughout this series, “now and not yet.” And yet, there’s still a marked restlessness about every one of us. It’s the mark of our age; it’s the mark of this life. There’s still disappointment, there’s still toil, there’s still struggle, there’s still disease and suffering and death and pain and toil. And life is still marked by unrest and curse. We enjoy this rest today, but then in another sense we don’t. Surely there must be something more to come.
At that point we’re brought to all of these other passages in the Scripture that pick up this theme in a way that looks forward to its climax in the end time. In Romans chapter 8 we’re reminded—the prophets and Paul in Romans all anticipate a time when all of creation will enter into a final rest that will include even redemption of the body. Revelation chapter 14 verse 13 describes the state in just exactly these terms: “We who have followed the Lamb will finally enjoy,” it says, “rest from our labors.” I think that expression is just wonderfully suggestive. That finally, finally, we will enjoy rest from our labors. No more toil, sweat, and disappointment, and sickness, and disease, and failures. We will enjoy rest from our labors. And by contrast, Revelation 14 verse 11 tells us the wicked, in the end, will have no rest day and night forever.
And this rest that we have then, we’re told, will be in the very presence of God. God will dwell with his people. He will be their God, and they will be his people. And we read then in Revelation 21 and 22, there will be no temple there and no need for it because God and the Lamb are there. No sun, no moon there because it’s not needed; God and the Lamb are there. And with that we read there’ll be no more crying and no more sickness and no more pain and no more death because it tells us there will be no more curse. In Revelation 21 and 22, as we’ve seen before, we have all of these Genesis Garden of Eden themes brought to a climax. We have there the tree of life. We have the water of life flowing from the throne. We have no more curse. And there’s this theme of back to Eden, and even better, entering into God’s rest.
Just as the creation narrative itself climaxed in God’s rest, so history itself climaxes in the people of God enjoying rest with God. So the Sabbath pointed forward to a rest-giver, a redeemer—one who would come and usher in the rest that God had promised and bring us to share in God’s rest with him, redemptive. He came and he did the work himself, and he did it by bearing the sin of his people, and exhausting the curse himself on the cross. Having exhausted the curse, rising from the dead in triumph over it, and entering into rest himself and taking us with him.
And so the warning, of course, goes out: this is God’s rest accomplished by God’s work. Don’t you do a bit of work. Don’t you lift a stick. This is God’s work. Christ has done it all, and we find rest in him. Well, this is very simply then a Sabbath theme. This is what we enjoy today in Christ, and all of it is prospective of the fullness of rest that will come when he comes again. And again, we end up where we have every time, with the rest of the church of all the centuries saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.”
Let’s pray. Our Father, this story of redemption is laid out for us in such graphic ways. We love to see it. It causes our hearts again to rejoice with thanksgiving for the great work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that if there’s anyone here today who is still restless, Lord, we ask that you’d make him or her more restless still until they find that peace and rest and joy comes by faith in Jesus Christ alone. May this joy then be realized in every one of us. May every day of our lives be marked by the joy that we have in Jesus Christ. And enjoy the liberty and the freedom and the rest that we have in him. In his name we pray, amen.