Why We Don't Observe Sabbath - Or Do We? - Genesis 2:1-3 Series

If you’d open your Bibles with me to Genesis 2 today. We’re in Genesis 2. I entitled this series of messages that we’re working on “Understanding Your Roots.” It's this whole study in the book of Genesis. The reason I call it “Understanding Your Roots” is because if you understand the book of Genesis, the rest of the Bible makes more sense. Furthermore, if you start asking questions about your life and you start asking questions about who you are, where you came from, all of those things lead us back to the book of Genesis and there’s some great answers for those questions there that we need. We looked at creation and we looked at the fact that God in creation says “worship me.” So we’re drawn to worship Him. We looked at being created in the image of God. Very important concept that we looked at last week.

On the seventh day God rested. So today we’re going to ask the question, what do we do with the Sabbath day? I would think that if you’ve been around the Bible a little bit you’ve seen and heard and read about the Sabbath day. What do we do with that? Do we celebrate the Sabbath? Why don’t we observe the Sabbath day here at Calvary Chapel Living Hope? You’re going to find out the answer to that question today as I take you through the scriptures and understand it. But also you’re going to get a greater appreciation for Jesus Christ who fulfills the Sabbath in the rest that we experience with Him. That’s where we’re going today.

But let’s start by looking at our passage today and what God has to say in Genesis 2:1-3. It says – Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. So God created the heaven and the earth and they are completely done now. 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.

So God created the heavens and the earth in these sixth days and then He rested. Not because He was tired, but because He was done. He finished creation work. So God’s done with that part of creation. In fact we don’t have Him creating the world again. What we have though are His creative acts are demonstrated to us in a number of different ways ongoing. Every miracle that He does is a resurrection or is a creation of some kind. Whether it’s the ten plagues that He did in the Exodus or if it’s the turning of water into wine. There’s this miracle that takes place, which is creation. And then of course when anybody accepts Jesus Christ into their life they begin to change. There is this old things passed away, there is a new creation has come. So God is a creative being. I mean that’s part of who He is. He creates. And He wants to do that creative work in you and me.

On that seventh day, God stopped and just rested. There’s a celebration of all the work that He had finished. It is done. I would just suggest a good application for us is to pause every once in a while, maybe every Saturday, maybe once a week, but to pause and to say, “Wow. God has made a beautiful world. Wow. I am grateful for all He has made. Today is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” That’s kind of the statement you could make on this creation celebration day, the Sabbath day.

Now what do we do with that, though? What do we do with the fact that He says that He sanctified and He made it holy. He rested on this day. It was set apart, this day that He made just as a celebration. Of course we read all this stuff that we have later back into what He’s saying here. But on that day He just celebrated the fact that it was done. And we can do that same thing.

Now as we’re going to understand the Sabbath, we must go next to the Ten Commandments. Because that’s what’s going to be strikingly clear in the Ten Commandments what God has to say about this day. So let’s look at Exodus 20:8-11. He says to the people of Israel – “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”