Entering God’s sabbath rest
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11-2-25-Entering God's Sabbath Rest- Hebrews 4:7-16
Pastor Mike: [00:00:00] Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter four
and we are gonna read the first 13 verses. So again, if you're able, please stand Hebrews chapter four, verses one to 13, and I ask that you hear this for what it is, the living, the true, the authoritative word of our God. Hebrews chapter four. Therefore, let us fear.
Let us fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 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 [00:01:00] finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and again, in this passage, they shall not enter my rest.
Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formally had good news preached to them, failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day. Today. Today saying Through David, after so long a time, just as has been said before today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after this.
So there remains a Sabbath keeping for the people of God, for the one who has entered his rest, has himself also rested from his work as God did from his. Therefore, let us be diligent. Let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through. Following. The same example of disobedience for the word of God is living and active [00:02:00] and sharper than any two-edged scalpel and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and morrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, and there's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of him.
Whom we have to do. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the correct understanding of his word. Please be seated.
Number one on your outline, and there's a couple of things in your bulletin. There's a sermon outline with some fill in the blank, and it's just a place that you can take notes and then there's another outline behind that. Uh, with some, uh, tables, some questions, stuff like that. We'll get to that momentarily.
But number one on your sermon outline is summary of previous thought. Summary of previous thought. If you look at, uh, chapter four verse one, he begins with therefore the word. Therefore, therefore, let us fear [00:03:00] if while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
And we always wanna pay attention to that word, therefore, because the word therefore always points back to what has come before. And we want to take that into account. And often it refers back to everything written up to this point. But specifically here, I think it refers back to chapter three verses six to 19.
And you'll note, especially if you were here last week, that there's gonna be a lot of the same subject matter that's gonna come up today. But you'll also probably remember that last week we actually only made it up to about verse 13, and I told you we, we ran outta time, so we didn't have time to finish the very last part.
But look at chapter three, verse 14. We're just gonna do this real quickly because again, if you heard the rest of the sermon, this just falls into place. It makes sense. But I do want you to notice a few things because there's some parallels going on here. If you look at chapter three, verse 14, we read.
For, we have become [00:04:00] partakers of Christ if, and that's a big if not necessarily a big if in our life, but it's a significant, an important, if we have become partakers of Christ, we have been joined to Christ. If we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. If we hold fast, our profession of faith, if we hold fast to the faith.
That we have professed and now we're to live out And look at the very last verse or the last two verses, verses 18 and 19. 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 not able to enter because of unbelief. And there's two things I wanna point out.
First of all, that section of scripture, chapter three, verses 14 to the end of the chapter, it begins with a warning and it ends with a warning. And we'll see that our passage does the same thing today. And the other thing that that passage of scripture does is it ties faith [00:05:00] to obedience. It ties faith into how we live our lives.
And we're gonna come back and we're gonna address that in, in the in between verses, verses 15 through 17. It presents our context and the Old Testament example that the author of Hebrews is going to continue to refer to, and he's gonna continue to refer to it in chapter four, are the people who left Egypt.
The people who, according to Exodus 20, were redeemed, rescued from Egypt, given the law of God. Notice the order after redemption. Here's how you're supposed to live. It's not live this way and I'll redeem you. I will redeem you, and because I've redeemed you, you're to live this way. And yet they didn't.
They failed and thereby illustrated demonstrated that they did not have saving faith, so they did not enter his rest. So with all of that background, we return to chapter four verse one. Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise [00:06:00] remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short. And the first thing I wanna point out is this word fear.
It means to be afraid. It means that salvation should be significant to us. It means that we should be aware of the remaining center our lives. It means we ought to be aware that we are prone to fall. We are prone to get distracted, and so we should fear that we should do things to prevent that we should hang out with other Christians.
We should be in a habit of confessing our sins and repenting. We should be in the habit of reading the Bible on a regular basis of going to church every Sunday. It. We should be afraid. We should be literally terrified. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 31, the author puts it this way. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
You see, the author is presenting two choices continue to persevere. Continue to believe [00:07:00] in Jesus, continue to trust in Him, or be afraid. In fact, this word, and it's the same word in both verses, you could literally, uh, translate it. It is a horrifying thing to fall under God's judgment. And then he brings up his rest.
And we mentioned that last week, and I'm going to expand upon it today because the author of Hebrews does. But I told you last week, and I just want to remind you that when the author refers to rest, we have to pay attention to the context because it can mean several things. It can refer to entering the land of Canan.
When he refers to Joshua and the people entering the land that was referred to as God's rest, it can refer to creation, rest, and we'll see that again on day seven. God rested from his work and he named that day the Sabbath and it was his rest. It can refer to faith in Jesus Christ or rest in Christ Jesus, but it also has an eschatological function [00:08:00] and I will explain that and f flesh that out as we go along.
In other words, it's something bigger. It's something yet coming, it's also something present, and we need to keep track of that as we go through this verse. In fact, in your bulletins, if you grab your bulletin and you grab that second handout that I've given you, there's kind of a table slash chart and it's titled Entering God's Rest.
And I just want to run you through Hebrews chapter four really quickly because I want to, I want you to see the back and forth. I want you to see what theologians have called now and not, yes, not yet. Now. And not yet. We have that rest. But there's something still coming. There's something still eschatological.
There's a goal yet to be fulfilled. So if you look at that outline, you'll see if you look at, uh, the way I've got it labeled, verses one and two, it begins with a warning. And then if you jump, jump down to verse 11, it ends with a warning. So there's, there's kind of the same layout as chapter three. It begins with an A warning and it [00:09:00] ends with a warning.
It also ties faith and obedience together in this chapter. And then beginning in verse three, you'll see this pattern where he says is basically, if I can paraphrase, the opportunity is still there. We can enter God's rest. But then he reminds us the Israel's Israelites in the wilderness failed to do that.
Verse four, he speaks of God's Sabbath or creation, rest, and he starts to introduce that this rest is something bigger. It's something bigger than Canaan. It's something bigger than what we're even experiencing right now. And so were to keep striving. And then he reminds us, the people of Israel did not enter in.
It's much bigger than Canaan. And then in verse six, again, the possibility remains in verse at the end of verse six. Israelites didn't do it. Verse seven, the possibility remains. And then again in verse eight, Christ is our rest. Christ is the rest that we sit, think, and then verses nine and [00:10:00] 10. And we'll spend a little bit of time there because scholars and theologians and pastors don't agree on what these verses mean, and yet they're vital to the proper understanding of this text.
Is it us or is it Christ? Who has entered that rest? And what do we mean by a Sabbath rest? And literally when we get there, basically the word means a continual Sabbath celebration. What does the author mean by that? But by the time we get to the end of the chapter, by the time we get to verse 16, we're encouraged again.
Therefore, let us draw near with confidence. So the author of Hebrews continues to treat his readers as believers, so let us fear. Lest we fail to enter that rest. Verse two, for deed. We have had good news preached to us. Literally, we've been evangelized, we've heard the gospel, we've heard the message, but so did they.
And let me just stop and and say one thing, because sometimes we read the Old Testament and we act as if they didn't know much. [00:11:00] But the writer of Hebrew says they had the gospel preached to them and the gospel was given immediately after Adam and E fell. God promised that the woman Eve would at some point, have a seed, would have a male child, and that male child would crush the head of the serpent, and these people would've known that promise, faith in the Old Testament is identical to faith.
Now, except we looked backwards to that seed. They were looking forward, they were evangelized. They had the message preached to them, but the word they heard did not profit them. It provided no aid because it was not united by faith in those who heard it was not united by faith in those who heard faith.
And we've talked about it. We've talked about it several times, and I just wanna remind you, and I wanna make sure that we're on the same page here. We [00:12:00] cannot confuse the order of faith and works. You see there are some groups that would argue that it is faith plus works that leads to salvation. That is a damnedable heresy, amen.
Our works do nothing to save us absolutely nothing. However, if we are saved. Our lives will change. If I have truly put my faith in Christ Jesus. I am a new creature. I have been recreated from the inside out. I have the spirit of the living of God dwelling within me and my life ought to show it. And that's what the author is talking about.
Every time he un, he unites faith and obedience. It is an obedient faith. It is a faith that changes a life. As James says, faith without works is dead. It is a faith like Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, actually prepared by God beforehand, it's actually [00:13:00] works are actually part of the package of Salvation.
Verse three, for we who have believed. Enter that rest. Just as he himself said, as I sworn my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. So just as surely as they didn't enter, just as surely because of their lack of faith, because of their disobedience, which demonstrated their lack of faith, God swore and later he'll pick up on that language in, in, uh, the book of Hebrews.
God can't lie. So when God swears something, you can count on it. And just as surely as we can count on those people did not enter that rest. We can surely count on the fact that if we believe and if we persevere in that faith, we do enter that rest. And I wanna point out a few things because the grammar here is very ambiguous.
And there's actually a couple [00:14:00] of ways you could translate this. The New American standard translates it for if we believe we enter that rest. But you can look up online, you can Google different translations and some translates it. Some translate it. We are entering. It's an ongoing process. We are entering that rest.
Others we have entered and others will translate. We will enter. And the other thing that we see here is this rest is bigger than Canaan. Because when he quotes Psalm 95, he's referring to Canaan. But when he quotes Psalm 95, David wrote it. So when David wrote Psalm 95, the people were in Canaan, and yet he says, they're still not in my rest.
There's still a day that people can enter my rest. So this is what we see here, and this is really important for not only understanding this chapter, but understanding the rest. Of the book of Hebrews, there is an eschatological bent to what the writer is saying. And let me explain eschatology, ' because it can be very [00:15:00] confusing.
When we hear the word eschatology, we automatically think of end times. You know, when is Christ going to come back? Is he going to set up a millennial kingdom before he comes or after he comes? What's it going to look like? Is the millennial kingdom in heaven, which millennial views is, and yes, eschatology can refer to that, but at its core.
It just means the goal of all things and that goal can play out in different ways and theologians much because of this book. Theologians have arrived at an understanding that there are some things that are now, there are some things that are present, and I've shared this with you. We have new life right now.
We're in a new world right now. We're in the new creation, and yet it's not consummate. There are things to come death. We still die. And I believe that Paul, in one Corinthians 15, there's a day when death will end. There's a day when these things will be consummate. I do believe in a second coming of Christ, Jesus, there's a day when [00:16:00] he'll come back and he'll set up the eternal kingdom now and not yet.
And that's what we see in this thing. Rest is present, it's also past, and it's also future. And so the author is setting this up and he gives us a hint in verse four, number two on your outline, Sabbath rest. Sabbath rest. Look at verse four. And there's a lot packed into verse four. I'm gonna read verses four and five for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his work.
And again, in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. So the first thing you need to recognize is he's bringing together Genesis chapter two verse two. With Psalm 95, and he wants you to see that there's, there's a connection. The rest at creation is connected to the promised rest that we still have an opportunity to enter.
He's bringing these [00:17:00] things together, but he starts in an interesting way for, he has said somewhere, and I find it interesting because some scholars approach this book and they'll say, well, obviously he didn't know where he was quoted. If you read the book of Hebrews, the one thing you ought to walk away with, whether you're a believer or not, is this was a brilliant author.
This guy was brilliant. His Greek is brilliant, his argumentation is tight, his logic flows alright. He knew what he was talking about. In fact, he's already used this language. In Hebrews chapter two, verse six, he writes, but one has testified somewhere saying, and he cites soulmate. He knew where he was going.
So why does he talk this way? It is to engage our thinking. It is to engage our thinking. Remember I told you, and I'm gonna keep repeating myself here, every time a New Testament author cites a passage, they are not proof texting. There's only one example of proof texting [00:18:00] in scripture, and that was Satan.
Satan proof texted when he tempted Jesus. See only example of proof texting. Every other citation of scripture should be treated as a hyperlink. It means we go back to that citation and we have to understand and read the entire context, and we bring the entire context back to understanding our passage.
So when he says, someone has said somewhere, he wants his readers to think. He wants them to think of the creation account. He wants them to think of God's rest on day seven. He wants them to think of the subsequent fall. He wants them to think of Cain and Abel coming back, and all of a sudden there's this sacrificial system that's been set up.
He wants our readers to think. And here's the interesting thing, and this is important for our passage. Genesis chapter two, verse two. On the seventh day, God rested from all his work. It is only cited three times in the Bible. It is cited here. It is cited in [00:19:00] Exodus chapter 20, verse 11, the fourth commandment, and it is cited in Exodus 31, verse 17, with reference to the fourth commandment.
In other words, every time it's cited, it is tied to the fourth commandment and the, the writer of scripture wants us to understand that and bring that understanding with us into this passage. Something else. It says God rested on the seventh day from all his works and the writer has made clear, and he's gonna continue to make clear that there's still an opportunity to enter that rest commentators.
Some commentators will tell you, and it's usually tied to an eschatological view, but some commentators will tell you what that means is the seventh day continues. The seventh day hasn't ended. But if you go back to the context, there's no way that you can get that from the context. And he's not saying, the writer of Hebrews is not saying, the seventh day continues.
What he's saying is the rest that God entered into on the seventh day continues, and [00:20:00] that's how we should understand that. Third thing we need to understand about this verse. Is throughout this passage in both chapter three and chapter four, and, uh, we'll get to it in a minute, but I think it's like 11 times in like 15 verses.
The author uses the word that we translate rest, and he uses the same word every time. He, he brings it up except. For verse nine in verse nine, let me make sure. Yep. Verse nine. He uses a completely different word and we need to key in on that if we're going to understand the passage.
One last thing before we can move on. The reason he says it the way he says, the reason he says somewhere has, someone has said somewhere the reason he brings up God's rest. The reason he says that it continues, and this may blow your mind. But there have been many theologians that will tell you that the Bible actually [00:21:00] starts with eschatology before it gets to salvation, or the technical term is soter.
Soteriology. The Bible starts with eschatology, and it's true. Think this through. On the seventh day, God rested, God called it a Sabbath rest. So think about it. When was Adam and Eve created? Day six. What would've been the first full day of their life, the Sabbath day, they would've woken up on day seven of creation week.
They would've woken up. It would've been the first full day of their life, and it would've been a Sabbath day. They would've woken up to rest. But what happened? They chose the wrong tree. They chose the wrong tree. And now I can't prove this. Nobody can prove it. I think, I think logic dictates that Adam and Eve would've sinned right away.
And the way I understand the, the story is they would've woken up on day seven. They [00:22:00] would've wandered to the center of the garden and they would've seen two trees. The tree of life, they were allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They weren't on day seven on that first Sabbath.
They chose. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they ate and they sinned and they fell. And guess what happened? Rest was taken away. The rest was removed. They started their day with rest. They ended their day with toil and sin and work, a sinful kind of work, a toilsome kind of work. They were kicked out of the garden.
And God puts this flaming Cher in front of the garden to make sure that they don't return. Because again, the garden was God's throne room. And if you look at the, the description of creation and the description of the garden, it was a temple. And God guards his temple and we're not allowed back in because rest has been removed.
But the whole story starts with rest. And the whole point of the writer of Hebrews is we're trying to get back to that rest. [00:23:00] And Jesus has made it possible. Look at verse six. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, enter that rest. And those who formally heard good news preached to them, failed to enter because of disobedience.
And it's important. This word translated disobedience. Literally, you could translate it a couple ways. They weren't convinced is what the word communicates. Or another way to translate it is disbelief. And it's just another way that our author continually ties faith. And how we live our lives together.
And really, when you read the whole book and you understand it, it's perseverance in faith. You see, if you believe in Christ Jesus, if you really believe that he went to the cross, you really believe that he took your sin to the cross. You're going to want to change. Not only have you changed, not only are you promised that you're a new creation, but you're gonna desire it.
You're going to, you're going to want to live [00:24:00] a life of gratitude. You are going to want to bow your knee to Jesus Christ, because if you don't want those things, you don't have saving faith. You haven't come to faith. You've believed some facts about history. It, the story sounds good to you. It sounds like really good fire insurance, but true saving faith is bowing the knee so the author can continually and safely without contradiction, tie it, obedience, and faith together.
Verse seven, he again fixes a certain day today. Saying through David, after so long a time just has been said before today. If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And again, I'll just remind you of something we talked about last week. That word translated harden is where we get the English word sclerosis.
And everyone knows here that when we get sclerosis in our blood vessels, when we get sclerosis, it is deadly and it needs to be removed. It needs to be cut out or you know, we got ways of expanding it now to make it bigger, but it's [00:25:00] deadly. And he's communicating the same here, same thing here. You've heard the gospel, and every week you hear the gospel again, because the entirety of scripture is the gospel.
Don't harden your hearts. And he's talking to the church. He's talking to people who profess faith in Christ Jesus. He is talking to you and me. Don't harden your hearts. We are prone to fall. We are prone to rely on our own powers. Don't harden your hearts. Verse eight, for if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that.
So again, he, what he's trying to demonstrate is Canaan is not the rest he was talking about. Now, the first generation didn't enter, but the readers could argue. But the second generation went in. But both David and the writer of Hebrews denies that that was the rest. And we have Christians [00:26:00] who believe that it's all about the promised land.
Guys, that promise has been fulfilled during the reign of David. During the reign of Solomon. During the conquest of Joshua, they conquered the entirety of the promised land. In fact, during David and Solomon, they possessed more than the boundaries promised, and the author says, that's not it. That's not what we're looking for, but it's something other worldly.
Now, this is an interesting verse, verse eight, because if you're reading the King James version, it will say for if Jesus had given them rest, and the reason the King James version says that is because Joshua and Jesus in the Greek is the same name. Yeshua. That's Hebrew actually. Yeshua, yes, in the Greek, and you could translate it, Joshua or Jesus.
But I would argue that the context argues for Joshua. Because he's quoting the psalm, he's referring to the wilderness laundering. It was Joshua, and what he's trying to demonstrate is that God's rest is [00:27:00] bigger than the promised land. God's rest is bigger than Canaan. God's rest is, is is present. If you believe, if you believe we enter that rest and yet it's something we're still to strive for, there's still an opportunity.
Listen to the words of Hebrews chapter 11. This I find this fascinating. If you want to turn there, you can. It's just a couple of pages, but in Hebrews chapter 11, that's the Hall of Faith. We're pretty familiar with it. It's the Hall of Faith, and in verses one through 12, and I find this really fascinating, he starts with Abel.
He starts with the story of Abel, and then he moves on to Enoch and then Noah, and then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and finally Sarah. And then he intersperses these words before he gets to other saints. And this is what he says. They all died in faith. Now don't take it too literally. We know from the text that Enoch didn't die.
Enoch was taken to heaven. The author is being general here. Okay? Perfectly acceptable to historians of the day, so there's no [00:28:00] contradiction. But he says they all died in faith without receiving the promises. But having seen them through the eyes of faith and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on earth, it's not about planet earth.
Yes, it factors in. It's not the end goal. It's not the eschatological goal. For those who say such things, make it clear that they're seeking a country of their own. Verse 15, this is in chapter 11. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would've had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country. That is, and this is important, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for his prepared, a city for them. Verse nine. So here's another, therefore, in the Greek, this is a conclusion. Here's the, the conclusion of what's been said. So there remains [00:29:00] a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
That's how the New American translates it. Literally though the word literally means there remains a Sabbath celebration or a Sabbath keeping for the people of God. And the grammar and the context. It is a an ongoing Sabbath celebration. And as I said earlier, and we're gonna come back to this in a minute, we're gonna jump to verse 10 here, but then we're gonna come back.
He uses a completely different word here and I'm just gonna tell you the Greek word 'cause you're gonna recognize it. Saabas. He uses the word Sabbath, but he adds a different ending. In fact, a lot of scholars and commentators think he probably created this word based on some other words, but he probably created this word to make a point.
There is a continuous Sabbath keeping for the people of God. That's his literal words. Look at verse 10. We're gonna come back to this Sabbath idea, but look at verse 10 because verse 10 has been confusing for a lot [00:30:00] of people. For the one who has entered his rest, has himself rested from his works as God did from his.
And here's the confusing thing, and I don't wanna get too bogged down, but again, it matters for understanding this text. Who is the one you see? There's two ways to read this verse. You could read it as the believer has entered his rest. Because remember in verse three, for we who have believed, enter that rest.
So he could be speaking of the believer who has entered his rest. The problem with that interpretation, it's multifold, but the problem is that means the rest is complete. But the rest of the passage seems to talk about striving to enter, striving to remain. Striving to persevere. The other way to take this verse is it's speaking of Jesus, that it's speaking of Jesus rest.
And I wanna give you, I think, four reasons why I believe it's Jesus, why I believe this passage is talking about Jesus. First reason, again, I'm being very general, so if you [00:31:00] have more questions, please come see me. But it seems kinda weird to compare the believers' rest with God's rest. Because you have to ask the question, what are the believers resting from?
And commentators are split. They're resting from sin and toil. Well, you can't really compare that to God's rest or they're resting from good works, but there's two problems with that. You can't really compare that to God's rest. Plus, good works don't end. They don't end this side of heaven. They continue in heaven.
So we never rest from good works. So it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The second reason why I think it's Jesus that they're talking about is because there's a change in pronoun. If you notice, the one singular has entered his rest, but up until now in the context of chapter three and chapter four, every time he refers to a believer it's plural.
He talks about believers in the plural, but now he changes it like he's focusing in on just one person, and I believe he is Jesus. The third reason is we've read throughout the book that Jesus [00:32:00] is at rest. We've read multiple times in this book in, uh, chapter one, verse three. We'll read it again in chapter eight, verse one, chapter 10, verse 12, chapter 12, verse two.
Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the Father, and I've told you before, that's a euphemism for Jesus is at rest. His sacrificial work is done and he's at rest. It's complete and it's perfect. So the text tells us that Jesus is at rest. And then the whole as, as I said, the whole context, this would be my fourth reason.
The whole context speaks of a now and not yet. Yes, we've entered that rest, but not completely. We're to continue to strive. Look at verse 11, therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest. So the author has described us as having entered it, and yet we're to be diligent to enter it. So there's this, this now, and not yet we we're in his rest, but there's something that continues.
But Jesus is at rest. And so what I wanna do now is I want to take a bit of an excursions. It's really not [00:33:00] on your outline, but I wanna take a bit of excursions and I want to talk about the Sabbath because I have argued that the best translation of verse nine is this. So there remains a Sabbath keeping.
For the people of God or another way of saying it. So there remains a Sabbath celebration for the people of God. I said at the beginning of the service that we are called to worship, we're called into the presence of God. And I indicated that he calls us one day in seven, what day should we worship? And that's important.
And if you look back through church history, it's pretty unanimous that it's Sunday. But why did we arrive at Sunday? Well, again, let me work through this and I'm gonna give you four reasons why I believe Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, and we have been called to worship on Sundays, but again, just reminding you, um, this word for rest, it's nine times in 11 verses.
The author has [00:34:00] used this word for rest nine times in 11 verses, actually nine times in 10 verses. And one verse, he changes it to this word that we're looking at a Sabbath keeping. So here are the reasons why I think Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, and it's important. It's important that we as Christians get worship correctly.
If God instructs us on how to worship and we mess it up, that's blasphemous. You see, that was the problem with the people in Hebrews. They were thinking about going back to the temple. They were thinking about going back to the animal sacrificial system. But we need to understand, and I've mentioned this after Jesus rose from the dead.
Around 30 ad from 30 ad to 70 ad 40 years. Every single temple sacrifice after that was an idol, adulterous, blasphemous sacrifice by people who did not accept their Messiah. So to worship on the wrong day, to worship improperly is important. Four reasons why I believe Sunday is the Christian [00:35:00] Sabbath.
Number one, the creation account. Number one, the creation account. And there are three things under number one, first. The Sabbath is a creation ordinance. You see at Creation, God gave us three ordinances that were tied to creation. He commanded us to have dominion, labor, and dominion. We were to work and to have dominion.
We were to get married and have children. That was the second creation ordinance, and the third creation ordinance is Sabbath. We were to keep the Sabbath he set aside the seventh day, he sanctified it, he made it holy, and thus we were to keep the Sabbath. It is a creation ordinance. Now, I would love to talk more about this.
I wrote a master's thesis on creation ordinances, and the one thing you need to remember about creation ordinances, and then if you have more questions ask, is they are both moral commands and they also are definitional of our nature. You see, it is our nature to want to work. Even if you are injured, if you [00:36:00] don't, if you're not struggling with the desire to work something's wrong.
Because God has programmed into us a desire to work. And yes, being single, the Bible refers to it as a gift, but the default position is to get married and have children. So if you're married and you don't want to have children, take a second look. Why? Why would I not want to have children? It's been programmed into me, and we've also been programmed to worship.
And God says, we're to do it in a formal way, one in seven. Second thing I've already brought up, but I'll refer to it the first day, and this is important when we get to the change of day, but the first day of Adam and Eve's life would've been a Sabbath. In other words, Adam and Eve prior to the fall would've Sabbath on day one of their week.
Important to keep in mind. Thirdly, there is evidence before cyan that the people. Recognized the Sabbath that the people worship and rested on the seventh day. Okay? We know for a fact in Exodus [00:37:00] 16 that the people honored the Sabbath 'cause it is spelled out for us. That was before Sinai and the people honored the Sabbath.
They understood, knew about the Sabbath before the giving of the 10 Commandments. But here's something that's fascinating and again, if you have questions, see me later, but there's a lot of evidence that Noah. Honored the Sabbath. In fact, when you read the account of Noah and when it quit raining and when the ark came to rest on Mount Arat and he opened the doors and he lets out the crow and the crow comes back, how many days did he wait?
Seven. And he let out a dove. How many days did he wait? Seven more. And he lets out another dove. And I think there's one more cycle of that. And you can do the calculation. And I did this in my thesis, he was doing it on the Sabbath day. Yeah. And what does the Sabbath point to, if we read the 10 Commandments and understand it, new creation, what was the whole point of the flood and Moses landing and setting up new creation?
And it started on the Sabbath day. So the [00:38:00] first reason is the creation account. There's something significant and important about the Sabbath. Secondly, eight day events in the Old Testament, eight day events and eighth day Sabbath. You see? Circumcision, I'll, I'll just go through the list. Circumcision was to be performed on the eighth day, and we've looked at circumcision because we've compared circumcision to baptism.
Circumcision was a picture of redemption. It was a picture of the cutting away and death of sin and resurrection to new life. It was a picture of redemption. Circumcision was to be done on the eighth day. It Temple cleansing in Ezekiel chapter 43, and a lot of people read the temple account in Ezekiel, chapter forties and 43, as this is supposed to be some new millennial temple.
Well, regardless of how you understand it, the, the, the opening of the temple, the celebration, the cleansing of the temple, took place on day eight, and you can read it in Ezekiel 43, 27. But what I find most fascinating about [00:39:00] eighth Day Sabbath is the Feast of Boos. You can read about the Feast of Boos in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29, and here's what's fascinating about this feast.
It was a seventh day feast. It started on the Sabbath, and at the end of this seven day feast, Moses tacked on an eighth day Sabbath. Okay, that's fascinating enough, but gets better. During the Feast of Booth, for the first seven days, they sacrificed 70 bulls. And the purpose and the meaning of sacrificing the 70 Bulls was, it was for the 70 Gentile nations that we read about in Genesis chapter 11.
In other words, the Feast of Booth was picturing bringing the Gentiles into the people of Israel. It was picturing the fact that Jesus was gonna die for the whole world, for Jew and Gentile, and these 70 Gentile nations would be brought in. And what [00:40:00] takes place as soon as the nations come in. A Sabbath, a new beginning, a new creation.
And so the Feast of Booze ended with an eighth day Sabbath. See, the Sabbath is the seventh day. Why? Because the people in the Old Testament looked ahead to Christ. But it's the first day in the New Testament because we look back to Christ. And Christ has restored it because at Creation it was the first day, and because of the fall it went.
To a day of expectation. So that's the second reason. Third reason, it's in the 10 Commandments. Kids, this is on your outline and I've skipped a whole lot kids, and I'm sorry about that. But let me just ask you kids, and you're allowed to answer out loud kids. What is the fourth commandment? You can say it.
Remember? Remember the Sabbath. Okay. Fourth commandment is remember the Sabbath Exodus Chapter 20 verse beginning in verse eight. Remember the Sabbath day to [00:41:00] keep it holy. We're to treat the Sabbath differently. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord Your God, in that day you don't work, but you worship.
So we have the fourth commandment, and here's what I find fascinating is a lot of, and we're gonna get into this in just a minute, but a lot of people, most Christians believe in nine of the 10. And the reason they believe in nine of the 10 is they will argue that one through eight and number 10 has been repeated in the New Testament, but nine hasn't I submit to you.
Nine is repeated in Hebrews chapter four verse nine. That's where nine is repeated. However, they don't need to be repeated. This is really important and if you don't get anything else out of this sermon, you want to get this. I cannot stress how important this is. How do we connect the Old Testament to the new?
You see there's two ways that [00:42:00] Christians typically do this. The commands in the Old Testament, do they still apply? Are we still supposed to take ' them serious or do we not? How do we connect Old Testament to, to New Testament and Christians differ and this, believe it or not, this explains so many theological differences.
This one little thing, and here's how we do it. Either we take a continuity view or a discontinuity view, and I've talked about this I think in Bible study, but either we view it continuously or discontinuously. Here's what I mean. If you take a discontinuous view, and that I dare say is the reigning view in the church today, most Christians view it discontinuous.
And what that view says is if the Old Testament says something. It no longer applies unless it's repeated. Okay. That's the discontinuous view. No matter what the Old Testament says. Yes, there's stories, yes, we can learn from 'em, but any commandments or laws or instructions. They stop with [00:43:00] Jesus unless the New Testament repeats 'em.
So that's one view. The second view is the continuity view. It happens to be the view that I hold happens to be the view that the reformed churches hold. And what that view says is everything that the New Testament says continues unless the New Testament says Stop doing it. Everything the New Testament says continues unless the.
Everything the Old Testament says, continues unless the New Testament says Stop. Give you an example. Circumcision. Okay? The the Old Testament said, we're to circumcise our sons on the eighth A. The New Testament says, we're not to circumcise anymore. But here's the fascinating thing. Here's the other side to that coin.
The Old Testament says, we're to apply the sign of the covenant to our children. Nowhere does that stop in the New Testament. Nowhere does the New Testament say, stop applying the sign to your children. The sign changes. It's no longer circumcision, it's baptism. And that's why reformed churches historically in this church, baptizes babies, [00:44:00] not because they're saved, not even because we're guaranteed of their salvation, but because they're covenant children.
And we've been commanded in Genesis 17 to apply the sign of the covenant to our children. That has never gone away. So the continuity view. Sees the fact that we still need to apply the sign to our children, but it's not circumcision anymore. You see, if you hold to the continuity view, the 10 Commandments don't need to be repeated.
But the fascinating thing is, even if you hold to the discontinuity view, the fourth commandment is repeated in Hebrews chapter four verse nine. Fourth reason why I believe Sunday. Is the Sabbath day, and I'm gonna ask you to think about this because this one actually blew me away when I started thinking about it.
Think about the gospel accounts in the gospel account, the word Sabbath, along with an explanation and instructions. This is what you do, this is what you don't do. I mean, [00:45:00] there's a variety of this, but the word Sabbath and instructions about the Sabbath are used in 45 verses 50 times. Now, I want you to think about this for just a minute.
Why would the gospel writers use so much space on the Sabbath? And again, it wasn't just reflecting on history, but it was an explanation of what do you do on the Sabbath? What about the laws that the Pharisees brought in? Ignore those things. That's not what the Sabbath is about. What do you do? Well, you enjoy it.
The Sabbath was made for man, man, not for the Sabbath. 50 times in the gospel. Now, some of you may be thinking, well, yeah, but there's repetition. So Matthew repeats a lot of what Luke says, and Luke, well, that actually strengthens it. Why would the different gospel writers write the same thing if it wasn't to reinforce what was being said?
Now, here's my question. If the gospels were written to new Covenant believers, why spend so much time on a topic that didn't apply anymore? Oh, [00:46:00] it makes no sense to spend that much time on the Sabbath. What it means, what we're to do on it if it doesn't apply to new covenant believers. Not only that, but we have Jesus saying this.
The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. Now recently, I, I, I bought, I can translate Greek into Hebrew, but recently I bought some, uh, Hebrew translations of the New Testament 'cause I wanted to see how things might be said. And it's interesting here because in the Hebrew translation, and this is the way I would've done it, so I was pleased when I saw this, it would've said something along the lines of The son of man is over the Sabbath.
He is Lord master ruler. But the tense. Is continuous. Jesus doesn't stop being Lord of the Sabbath. He is still Lord of the Sabbath today. Why so much space if it doesn't apply? And last but not least, Hebrews chapter four, verse nine. [00:47:00] There remains present, tense, ongoing. There remains a Sabbath celebration, present tense, ongoing.
For the people of God. Why? Because verse 10, for the one who has entered his rest, has himself also rested from his work as God did from his. Jesus has entered his rest. Jesus has taken the Sabbath. It's no longer a seventh day celebration, but just like the types and shadows in the Old Testament pointed forward, it is now a first day creation or a first day institution.
And because we seek to enter Jesus rest. Yes, we're in it by faith, but we're seeking to enter that consummate rest of Jesus Christ, that greater wet rest, the consummate new heavens and new earth. We continue to celebrate that which points to it. We continue to celebrate it in expectation. One last thing and then I'm gonna conclude.
What's the problem? Why do most Christians have a problem with Sabbath keeping? And I want to offer two reasons. And I want to be careful here 'cause I'm not accusing you of this, [00:48:00] but I'm also not holding back, so if it hurts, that's okay. Alright. Here's the first reason. Sabbath regulations, and I'm going to be honest with you.
We continue to put manmade rules on the Sabbath, and I gotta be honest with you, when you study some books on the Sabbath and what you're supposed to do, it looks like a boring day. I mean, if I was a kid. I would not look forward to the Sabbath. It's not supposed to be boring. It should be the funnest day of the week.
It should be a day of celebration. It's the time we have as a special meal. It's the time when we have good Christian friends over. It's the time when we do something fun, because it's fun because we're celebrating because Jesus has given us rest and we've entered into that rest and we have more to expect.
Should be a fun day, not a boring day. Second reason people don't honor the Sabbath is they don't take the second half of the fourth commandment [00:49:00] serious. Do you remember the second half of the fourth commandment work? Six days. Now, that doesn't mean you have to go to work. Six days work might be parenting work, might be work around the house.
Work might be, I'm working on my marriage, but whatever work is, if you are not tired by the seventh day, you ain't working. And if we paid attention to the second half of the Sabbath, we would be looking forward to the seventh day because I get to worship with the best of friends Christians, and I get to rest and just enjoy what God has brought about.
So verse 11, and we're not going to, I'm just going to read verse 11, then we're going to bring this to a conclusion. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest. We've entered it. But there's still more entering to do. Let us be diligent. So let me summarize with a story. Let me Summarize with a story back during the COVID COVID debacle.[00:50:00]
You may remember this, you may not. And yes, I'm going to mention names and yes, that's biblical, but back during the COVID debacle, Andy Stanley. Andy Stanley is a pastor of a mega church, and I'm not downplaying megachurches, maybe they have a place. He's the son of Charles Stanley. But Andy Stanley publicly declared basically that the Bible and he was referencing the New Testament.
The Bible nowhere commands Christians to meet on Sunday. And so that was his excuse for not having people gather. As you remember, some churches shut down, some churches continued to gather on a Sunday, but Andy Stanley publicly said The Bible doesn't command it, so we ain't doing it. Guess what? He was right.
Kind of. You see, now I have your attention. You see, if you look at scripture the way Andy Stanley does. If you look at scripture the way many Christians do today, and I'm just going to be blunt, if you're on the wrong side of the continuity, discontinuity, divide, [00:51:00] an argument can be made. But see, if you see the Bible, and I don't know how you can avoid the fact that God's word would be continuous, that only God is the one who can change it.
If we view all the New Testament in a continuous manner, then we do have a command to worship on Sunday because the day has been changed.
You see, when I first heard Andy Stanley say that, the first thing that came to my mind was Hebrews 10 25. Do you remember that verse? You'll know it. Do not forsake the assembling together, as is the habit of some. The other thing I thought of was all the examples in the book of Acts, all the examples in the, and epistles of the, the early church gathering on the first day and having communion.
But then it hit me. If you understand the Bible, the way many Christians do today, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25 doesn't give any specifics. It doesn't tell you how often to gather. Most of what you find in the Book of Acts and in the Pauling [00:52:00] epistles are descriptive, not prescriptive. They're describing what the church said.
They're not necessarily imperative. They're not necessarily commands. But you see, we do have a command. To meet one in seven, and we do see in scripture that the seventh day has been converted to the first day, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, and we had signs and symbols and shadows and pointers.
In the Old Testament, we have a command to meet on the first day of the week, and that command can be traced all the way back to creation. Because of the fall, it was changed because of the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. It has been put back into its place the first day of the week, Sunday, the Lord's day.
And so we come to church on Sundays because we have been commanded to, because God desires our presence. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you. Thank you that we don't have to try to figure this out. You have figured out worship for [00:53:00] us. You have instructed us on how we are to worship. Why we are to worship, when we are to worship.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you That. You call us into your presence. Thank you that you demand that of us, but you also, Lord, you, you want that you desire fellowship with us. Father, I pray that we would desire it as much as you do. I pray that we would desire getting together with you and fellow believers as much as you want us.
Father, help us think these things through. These things are so important. The proper day of worship, the proper way of worship. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you. That we can be confident that we are in your rest. We are resting in Christ, but there's more to come and that's fascinating and that's awesome.
And Father, I pray that none of us can wait, that it would remove the fear of death, that we would long for glory and we would long for an earthly consummation as well. For we ask all these [00:54:00] things in the name of Christ Jesus. And all of God's people said. Amen. Amen. So let's stand one more time in saying hymn number 1 96.
Hymn number 1 96.
