God Rested? Series

Please open your Bibles to the beginning, Genesis 1.

What can we say about God based on Genesis chapter 1??

Could God have created everything in an instant? Absolutely! God could have created everything in an instant because He is a mighty, powerful God! But God created everything in 6 days! God established a work week.

In His Creation, God established order and time for man. Now, let’s read together Genesis Chapter 2 v1-3.........

v1-2a: God completed His work of creating in 6 days.

v2b: God rested from all His work on the 7th day.

v3a: God blessed the 7th day and made it holy!

Why did God bless the 7th day and made it holy???

We read in the last part of v3, God blessed and made holy the 7th day simply because He rested!

Now, did God really needed to rest??? See Isaiah 40:28

God is a mighty, powerful God who never gets tired!

Isn’t it also interesting that in Genesis 2, God established the week then God stopped talking about the week. Did God retire? God worked for 6 days and rested 1 day even though He didn’t need 6 days or a day of rest and God didn’t repeat the week! You see, God was not making a point about days of the week! God was making a point about work and rest. What’s the real point about God resting when He doesn’t need to rest?

God created everything for man and God established work and rest for man.

God did work and rest as a lesson for us!

How many of you know people who are always working and no rest?? We are seeing much of this with young people today! Their rest is Starbucks coffee!

How many of you know people who seem to be just resting all the time and no work??

God wants us to know the importance of work and rest. And of course what God did was godly work and godly rest.

As we will note next week in Genesis 2, God calls man to godly work. Let’s talk about godly rest this morning.

If we use a Bible Concordance and look up the word rest, resting, or rested, the next verse from Genesis 2:3 is Genesis 8:4. Please turn there, page….. Gen. 8:4 reads….

What does this have to do with godly rest?

Absolutely nothing!

I just wanted you know that God loves the number 7 and that Noah’s Ark hit land on the 17th on the 7th month of the Jewish calendar.

But if we keep looking in our Concordance, we will find many important verses about godly rest. Please turn to Exodus 16:23 and 29-30, page………….

God commanded the Hebrews a godly rest day! The word Sabbath is first mentioned in the Bible in Ex.16:23.

God made this new word Sabbath for godly rest day, which stems from the Hebrew word “sabat” for rest.

Sabbath for the Jews is godly rest day on the 7th day of the week which is Saturday. Remember that God established this day of rest after the week of Creation.

How important was a godly rest day for God? Ex. 31:15…...

The Sabbath was so important to God for His Chosen People that anyone who disobeyed was to be put to death!

God spoke about the Sabbath over 70 times in the Old Test.

Do you think the Hebrews always complied with the Sabbath??? Turn briefly to Amos 8:5-6, page…….

The Hebrews of old used the Sabbath for their selfish gains instead of truly resting in God! Like every other commandment of God, people found ways to sin against God including the Sabbath.

Did God give up on the Jews? What did God do???

God gave Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus Christ, fully God, became fully man on earth to save not only the Jews but all people. What did Jesus, the Savior, say about godly rest? Turn with me to Matthew 11:28-12:8, page…..

Did Jesus say the Sabbath day of rest was wrong? Absolutely not! What did Jesus say? Jesus Christ the Savior said He is the Lord of the Sabbath!

Jesus of course died on a cross for man’s sin, including people breaking the godly rest day of Sabbath. What happened with the Sabbath after Jesus’ resurrection?

What did the apostles of Jesus Christ do during the Sabbath day?? We can note in the Book of Acts, the apostles preached the Good News of Jesus Christ on Sabbath days!

Turn to Colossians 2:16-17, page……..

The Sabbath Day of the Old Testament is a shadow.

Look at Hebrews 4:1-11, page………

The Sabbath day for the Jews was a command for godly rest. But since people disobey God, including not taking a godly rest, God gave Jesus Christ, who never sinned, to be the final godly rest, the only everlasting Sabbath!