Take Time For God

Exodus 20:8-11 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This is the Fourth Commandment. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

I’ve always had trouble with the maintenance of my cars. It just bugs me. I’ve got so much on my mind and so much to do. I’m putting two sermons a week together, and I’m busy. It’s hard for me to remember when I’m to change the oil, to rotate the tires. When do I need to service the transmission? Thank God that in today’s cars they have these “idiot lights” on the dashboard. There are blinking red lights, and if you don’t do the maintenance, a hand comes out of the dashboard and hits you over the head with a mallet. The maintenance lights may say, “Check engine,” “Tire pressure low” or “Maintenance required.”

And I like to think of this Fourth Commandment as a “Maintenance required” light, and it’s dangerous and detrimental for us to ignore its warning. Just as if you ignore the warning lights on your dashboard, it’s dangerous to ignore God’s “warning light” of “Maintenance required; stop and rest, stop and worship, stop and take time for God.” So I’ve titled this message, “Take Time for God.” The overarching principle of this message is that God wants you to take time to worship Him and to sit at His feet and rest.

As we come to this Commandment, we come to the conclusion of the Commandments dealing with our relationship to God. The first four Commandments deal with our direct relationship to God. It breaks down like this. The First Commandment, in verse 3, says we are to worship Him only; the Second Commandment, in verse 4, says we are to worship Him correctly; the Third Commandment, in verse 7, says we are to worship Him sincerely; and the Fourth Commandment, in verse 8, says we are to worship Him regularly. It says, “Remember the Sabbath day.”

Now we come to the conclusion of the section on our relationship with God. Next time we will begin the study of our relationships domestically and morally in the home, in the church and in the community.

The Fourth Commandment is the longest text of the Commandments. It is also the most misunderstood and the most controversial of the Commandments. It is a challenge to preach on, because there is so much controversy about the Sabbath day.

Let me give you three, basic categories of thought that people fall into when they talk about the Sabbath day. Number one, some say that Christians are obligated to worship on Saturday and not on Sunday. So we have the Seventh Day Adventists. They have a lot of problems Biblically, and one of them is that Saturday, as the Sabbath, is still mandatory and required for Christians today. We also have the “Seventh Day Baptists.” Some of them go so far as to say that if you worship on Sunday and not Saturday, you’re taking the mark of the beast and you’ll go to hell. We’ve even had them put flyers on our cars in the parking lot saying that “Today’s not the right day to worship.” They make a big deal out of Saturday being the Sabbath day.

The second category of what some say is that Sunday is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Sabbath, and it’s to be observed in the same way. This is what we call “legalism.” These people are Christians, and they worship the Lord, but they say that Sunday is now mandatory, that we have to follow certain rules and they emphasize the idea of cessation of work. So you go home from church, you don’t work in the yard, you don’t mow your lawn, you don’t do any activity, you don’t go to any sporting event and you don’t watch television.

I remember as a young boy growing up that Sunday was the Lord’s day and it was like a Sabbath day. We had to sit home and couldn’t play. My friends were playing in the street and asked me to play football with them, but I couldn’t because it was Sunday. And I particularly remember that I couldn’t go to the theater on Sunday. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go to the theater on Sunday but I could go on Monday. And you’re not supposed to smile, to be happy; you’re not supposed to enjoy Sundays. You’re supposed to just sit there and be miserable. “It’s the Lord’s day!” And these people thought it was like Saturday or the Sabbath day and was required of us as Christians.

The third category of thought—and this is the position I take—is that the Sabbath day has been abolished by the death and Resurrection of Christ, and a new day has replaced it, called “the Lord’s day,” which has its own characteristics.

This is what freaks people out. “You’re telling me that this Fourth Commandment is not mandatory for us today?”

“Yes, that’s true. That’s what I’m saying.” But I’m saying that God has substituted or replaced it with another day, commonly called “the Lord’s day” in the New Testament, which is now the first day of the week or Sunday. I’m going to give you ten reasons from the Bible why we worship on Sunday rather than on Saturday.

But Paul the Apostle said, “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” So he clearly told the Romans that it’s a matter of liberty.

And I believe that every day is the Lord’s day. We should worship God every day. God doesn’t esteem one day above another, but the church traditionally, since the time of Christ, has been worshipping on Sunday as the day of Resurrection hope.

There are four main points I want to make about the Sabbath day. Number one, is the explanation of the Sabbath. What was this Sabbath day that God gave to the nation of Israel? The Sabbath was a uniquely Jewish institution established with Israel as a sign of His covenant with them. It is uniquely a covenant between God and Israel, and it has nothing to do with the New Testament church today. We have the old dispensation of Law, and now we are under grace and not bound by this Commandment. And I will give you other reasons why.

In Exodus 31:12-18, God reiterated through Moses that this is a sign of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel.  “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak also to the children of Israel, saying:  “Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you…”—God is speaking to Israel—“…throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.  You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you,’” referring to Israel. “Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death.”

If you want to say we’re still under the Sabbath law, then you would have to follow up saying that if you violate the Sabbath, you have to be put to death. “…for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.  Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.  Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath…”—notice that—“…to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.” We have in the New Testament, the new covenant, so the old has passed away.

“It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”

Throughout these verses is the repeated phrase “is a sign” of the covenant that God had made with the house of Israel. And this Commandment is unique in all the Decalogue. It is the only one that is not repeated in the New Testament. All the other Commandments have a counterpart in the New Testament. This one does not. That’s because this Commandment is uniquely for Israel.

Back in Exodus 20:8, looking at this Fourth Commandment, some say, “Well, what about Genesis 2:2-3?” It says, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work with He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God has created and made.”

These verses are quoted in Exodus 20:11, which says, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it,” or “sanctified it” or “set it apart.” So some people say, “See, there! Even before the Ten Commandments were given, God sanctified the seventh day, hallowed it, rested on it and set it apart.”

I want you to notice a couple of things. This is a creation ordinance, and there is no command that we have to worship or stop working. There is no mention of any humanity; only a reference to God. There is no mention of any commands to the Israelites or the Gentiles. The Commandment to observe the Sabbath day is made in Exodus 20. It is mentioned prior to that as a Sabbath day, but it is commanded as a covenant between Israel and God in Exodus 20 in the Decalogue. Prior to that—even when you go back to the Patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—there is no reference in Genesis to them keeping a Sabbath day, even after the Genesis 2 account.

So how are we to view God resting on the seventh day? Let me tell you how we are not to view it. We are not to view it as though God was tired and worn out, like Pastor Miller. “I just have to go home and take a nap. I have to rest because I’m tired.” No. God is never weary. God never gets tired. God never takes a nap. “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.” The Bible says that God is “omnipotent,” which means He is all powerful.

Then why does God “rest”? The word “Sabbath” literally means “rest.” It doesn’t mean Saturday. It doesn’t mean seven. It means “rest” or “the cessation of work.” So all God was doing was setting a pattern and a principle for us to follow. Six days we labor and then we rest. So it’s a pattern of six and rest. We need to take one day a week to rest.

Another interesting thought is that the concept of the seven-day week comes from Genesis. We know a day is the hours when we see the sun and the moon. We see the astrological influence there. We know that the months are the lunar months. We have the years by the seasons passing. But when it comes to a seven-day week, how did we ever come up with it?

I understand that in some of the communist countries, like Russia, they tried to institute a 10-day week. I’m convinced they’re trying to eliminate any connection to the Bible, to God, to Judaism or to Christianity, so they tried to make a 10-day week, but everyone got burned out. We in America want to have a four-day week.

Yet it doesn’t do any good, even if you have Saturday and Sunday off, if you’re so busy that you’re worn out when you go back to work on Monday. It’s funny that we go, go, go on the weekend. But God’s trying to get us in a rhythm here: rest, rest on the Sabbath. Take time for your body, for your mind and for your soul to be renewed.

I heard of some African natives, who were hired to journey through the jungle on an expedition carrying burdens, and after six days of travel, they would sit and rest. They were told, “Hey, we gotta get going!”

The natives said, “No, no. We need time for our souls to catch up with our bodies.” I like that concept. That’s what we need to do on Sunday: we need to take time for our souls—our emotions, our spirit—to catch up with our bodies; to sit, to worship the Lord and to rest.

Now notice in verse 11 of our text, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” There is no way to get around it: these six days are referring to six, 24-hour days.

Why do I emphasize that? Because when you go back to Genesis where it is first recorded, in chapter 2, verses 2-3, there are some people who promote the “day-age theory.” Their theory is that the Lord made the heavens and the earth in the first day He created. Then He created in the next days. They say that the “day” there is not a 24-hour day. But the Bible actually says, “The evening and the morning were the first day.” They claim the “day” was a geological era or epoch; it was millions or billions of years.

So what they are trying to do—and this is always dangerous—is accommodate the evolutionary theory or hypothesis—which I don’t think is a very good one—into the Scriptures. That way you can be a “Christian evolutionist.” I don’t think that’s consistent.

God makes it clear in our passage there were “six days” and then He rested on the “seventh day.” The word “day,” whether in our passage or in Genesis, can only in the Hebrew infer a 24-hour day. So you don’t have to try to put geological epochs in the days or extend the days to billions of years in order to fit evolution in there.

There is another theory, called the “gap theory,” that is shot down by verse 11, taken from Genesis 2. Notice that in six days God “made…all that is in them.” The theory is that between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 there is a gap of billions of years. Because “God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void.” They believe something happened between those two verses.

No; that’s not what it’s teaching. Even the Scofield Bible, leans toward the “gap theory,” in Genesis 1:1-2. But this indicates everything that was created was created in six days, and then God was “finished…and He rested.” This is the rest from creation.

Why did God rest? Not because He was tired. But because He wanted to celebrate creation. This is a creation celebration, and God stopped. So the word “Sabbath” simply means “rest” or “the cessation of labor or work.”

The universal principle we take from this as believers is that there is more to life than labor. The implication is that we labor, verse 9, for six days. It doesn’t say you can goof off for six days or sleep for six days. But you work for six days and then get one day off. It implies labor, but it also implies that life is more than just labor.

Beware of being a workaholic. Some people just work, work, work, work. It shows a lack of faith in God. “I gotta work to make ends meet! I gotta pay the bills! I gotta pay the mortgage! I gotta take care of all this family stuff.” How about trusting God? How about putting God first, and on the first day of the week worshipping Him? Pausing to worship and trusting God to provide and take care of all your needs?

Allen Redpath said, “Beware of the barrenness of a busy life, which majors in work and minors in worship.” I like that.

Ask yourself these questions: “Am I all about work? Am I all about making money? Am I all about more things?” Or does God have priority in your life? I’ve actually met people who say, “I can’t afford to take Sunday off and go to church. I need to make more money.” That’s sad.

It’s interesting that when the children of Israel were given manna, the bread from heaven, God told them they had six days to gather enough for each day, but the seventh day He would provide. During the six days, if you tried to gather more than needed for that day, it would get moldy and would stink. It was like leaving food too long in your refrigerator.

One time in my bachelor days, I lived on a chocolate cake for a week and a half. It sat on my counter, and by the end of that week and a half, it was growing green fur all over it.

“Oh no; we can’t work on the Sabbath. We’d better get more manna. We’d better hoard our stuff, because we won’t make it through to the next day.” But God said, “No, no. I’ll provide. I’ll take care of you.”

I believe that if this principle is put into practice, we would have renewed physical strength, have renewed mental and emotional stability and spiritual vitality. It takes putting God first, taking time to worship God. As some say, it’s taking time to be holy and worship Him.

To keep from burning out physically, emotionally and spiritually, God gave us an intermission. It’s called “the Sabbath day.”

If the Sabbath day is Saturday, more power to you. If it’s Sunday, great. If it’s Monday, fine. Whatever. Take one day a week to worship God and rest and recharge your spiritual, emotional and physical batteries. It’s important.

The Sabbath was meant to be a blessing, but then it became a burden. Here’s my second point. It’s the degeneration of the Sabbath day. There was a degeneration of the purpose of the Sabbath day. During the time of Christ in the New Testament, it became a burden, not a blessing. Legalistic Pharisees and the rabbis of the Jewish people added to the Sabbath their man-made laws, rules and traditions.

They said you couldn’t work. What is work? Bearing a burden. What is a burden? They had all these written laws on what a burden was. They actually concluded that your false teeth were a burden. So they had to just gum their food on the Sabbath day. If you had a wooden leg, you had to take it off. You had to hobble on the Sabbath day. You couldn’t carry your baby except for a certain distance. If your baby reaches out and picks up something, it was a burden, so you had to put the baby down. So all these minute rules and regulations they added to the Sabbath day.

And this is what happened during the time of Christ: it brought them into conflict with the Lord. Jesus said, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” They accused Jesus of violating Sabbath law, in Mark 2:23-28. “Now it happened that He went through the grain fields…”—this is a reference to wheat fields—“…on the Sabbath…”—that’s the problem—“…and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.”

It was legal to do that. You could go into your neighbor’s field and at its corners, you could eat the fruit, but you couldn’t put it in a basket and carry it home. That was a pretty good deal. So the disciples grabbed heads of grain as they went through the wheat field. They rubbed the grains between their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff, blew the chaff away and ate the grains. The only problem was that the Pharisees were hiding in the wheat fields. They were the “sin sniffers” and “flesh finders.”

Verse 24, “And the Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’” It was lawful but it was against their man-made rules concerning the Sabbath day, which had degenerated into something that God never intended it to be.

Verse 25, “But He said to them, ‘Have you never read…”  I always chuckle when I read that statement. Jesus takes them back to the Bible. That’s where we need to go. They were the religious leaders of the day, but He was saying, “I guess you haven’t read your Bible, son.”

Jesus said, “‘Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?’ And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.’” That’s so important.

This is the New Testament understanding of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made to bless man. Man was not made to keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath was to be a blessing and not a burden. And Jesus Christ is the “Lord of the Sabbath.” So watch out for the legalists.

I heard the story of a preacher back east where it gets very cold in the winter when it snows. One Sunday morning he woke up, and all the roads were iced. He didn’t know how he was going to get to church to preach. As it turned out, he was an avid ice skater, so he put his skates on and skated down the highway to church so he could preach. But when he arrived, his Sabbatarian congregation was upset with him. “You skated on the Sabbath!” Wow! That’s a bad thing.

So they brought him into the back room and said to him, “We’re concerned about this. You broke the Sabbath; you skated. ‘Thou shall not have fun on the Sabbath day.’” Then after much debate, the congregation decided they would just ask him one question: “Did you enjoy your skating?”

The pastor said, “No, no; I was miserable the whole time.”

They said, “Okay, that’s fine. As long as you didn’t enjoy it, it’s okay.” Like God’s some cosmic “killjoy” who wants us to be bummed out! All we can do is sit there, wipe the smile off our faces and be miserable because it’s Sunday. That’s not the case. So watch out for those who are legalistic.

My third main point about the Sabbath day is the transformation of the Sabbath day. We should ask ourselves, “Why is it that the church gathers on Sunday, the first day of the week, to celebrate and worship?” I’m going to limit my reasons to nine why the Sabbath of the old covenant has now changed to a new day, which we call “the Lord’s day” for the church.

Number one, in the New Testament, there is no command to keep the Sabbath day. There is no command, no injunction, no imperative, and it’s not even taught that we have to keep the Sabbath day.

Number two, Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, the Resurrection day. Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20 all show that “on the first day of the week, very early in the morning,” as it began to dawn, Christ rose victoriously from the dead. So this is Resurrection day. Sunday is Resurrection day.

Actually every day is Resurrection day for Christians. We live in the power of the Resurrection. That is why it is not to be observed like an Old Testament Sabbath. It’s to be celebratory. We’re to be celebrating joyfully the Resurrection and worshipping.

Number three, most of Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances occurred on a Sunday. In Luke 24, Jesus met with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. The Scripture says, in verses 1 and 13, it was “on the first day of the week,” and “Two of them were traveling that same day.” It was a week after the Resurrection on a Sunday. Jesus appeared to them and manifested Himself to them in the breaking of bread. Then He vanished out of their sight.

In John 20:26-28, it was also on the first day of the week, on Resurrection Sunday, when His disciples were gathered together, and Jesus appeared to them and told Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Then Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”

Number four, the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church when the Holy Spirit came, was most likely a Sunday. Some differ. But I think good scholarship has concluded that Pentecost happened on a Sunday.

Number five, the early church met on the first day of the week. A reference is Acts 20:7. “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” There are multiple times it says they met and gathered on the first day of the week.

I picked this verse because it was when they were in Troas, Paul was going to travel back to Jerusalem, so they met that Sunday, and Paul taught the Scriptures until dawn, verse 11. Eutychus, probably a slave, had worked hard all day long, went to the evening meeting and Paul was getting long in his message.

You sometimes think I go long! You ain’t seen nothin; Paul went all night! Eutychus sat in the window, probably trying to get some fresh air, and fell asleep. He fell out the third-story window to the ground below and died. So be careful and don’t fall asleep in church!

I’ve actually had people say, “Pastor Miller, I like your preaching, but I use it when I have insomnia to put me to sleep. When I can’t sleep, I just put on a John Miller sermon, and I’m out like a light.” Praise the Lord! At least it has some use.

But it is rather weird when I’m preaching on Sunday, and I see people sleeping in the middle of my sermon. I’m so tempted to say to the person sitting next to the sleeper, “Can you wake that guy up next to you?”

So Eutychus fell out of the window, Paul went down to Eutychus and the Bible kind of humorously says that Paul “fell on him…”—If he wasn’t dead then, he is now—“…embracing him.” Paul prayed for him. I believe God raised him from the dead. It was really cool. How’s that for a church service?!

Then Paul went back up to where he was preaching and started up where he left off. Paul keep on preaching until the sun came up. That’s what I call a Bible study! And this all happened on that first day of the week as they would gather to worship the Lord.

Number six, on the first day of the week, they were to gather together their tithes and offerings to the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul said, “One the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper.”

Number seven, the Jerusalem council did not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile believers, Acts 15. That’s a powerful testimony. They didn’t impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile believers.

Number eight, Paul warned the Gentiles about many sins in his epistles but never about breaking the Sabbath. In all of his letters, where Paul says to beware of covetousness, to beware of adultery, beware of lying, stealing and other things, he never said to beware of failing to keep the Sabbath day. So in his list of sins rebuked in his epistles, he never once mentions Sabbath keeping.

In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul said, “Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths.” So they weren’t to be judge by what they eat, drank or on what day they worshipped. He mentions the monthly calendar, the yearly calendar, holidays and the Sabbath.” So all these things are “a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” Jesus is the fulfillment or substance; the Sabbath is the shadow. The shadow is past when the substance arrives.

Number nine, John the Apostle said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,” Revelation 1:10. John was on the isle of Patmos when he received the revelation. John, on this deserted, rocky island, had church on Sunday! Just him and God. He was in the spirit worshipping the Lord.

My fourth point I want to make about the Sabbath is the application of the Lord’s day. What is the application? How should we observe the Lord’s day?

Number one, we should follow God’s pattern. If God worked six days and then rested, sanctified and made the seventh day holy, I should have the same pattern. It should be six days of work and at least one day set aside to remember God, to rest my body, to renew my soul, to focus on God’s blessings and to trust Him. There is a cycle to life here. We have this weekly pattern given to us by God Himself so that we are renewed.

Number two, we should fellowship with God’s people. We should be renewed physically by resting, and we should be renewed spiritually by worshipping together. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of corporate worship with God’s people.

Someone said, “You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” I agree. But you have to go to church to be a good Christian, a strong Christian, a healthy Christian, a mature Christian. There are a lot of “one anothers” in the Bible. How do you do “one another” if there are no “one anothers” in your life? So it’s not only coming to church; it’s engaged in church. It’s being a part of church—praying for one another, bearing one another’s burden, washing one another’s feet, forgiving one another. All the “one anothers” can only be applied in corporate fellowship.

Hebrews 10:25 says, “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another.”

I like Psalm 122:1. In it David said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’” How many times have you been bummed when they said, “Let’s go to church”? Do you come to church with a glad heart? Or do you say, “Oh, no. Heeere we go; sittin’ in the pew listenin’ to the preacher. God have mercy on my soul!”

Sometimes when I’m preaching I can tell by people’s faces that they’re thinking, Set the captives free! Wrap it up preacher boy! Land the airplane, will ya?

David said, “I was glad when they said…‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’” And I love Sundays. But they’re not a day of rest for me. They get harder the older I get. But I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else: with God’s people, in God’s house, studying together God’s Word.

Are you glad when you go to “the house of the Lord”? It should be a celebration, it should be joyful, it should be consistent every Sunday. Make it a priority; plan for it during the week. Don’t let other things get in the way: we go off on our boat or to our cabin or to baseball or a weekend away. Those things are fine, but the danger is that we gradually begin to slip away from the commitment to be in God’s house on Sunday worshipping Him. You need to make it a priority and prepare for it.

I believe we should get to bed early on Saturday night. Everyone wants to stay up late on Saturday. No wonder you’re falling asleep during the sermon. Go to bed! Don’t stay up partying all night on Saturday. Get a good night’s sleep. Sometimes it’s hard to get the kids dressed and get everything ready, so lay the clothes out the night before. Prepare the breakfast. “We’re going to go to church tomorrow. That’s what we do as a family. We’re going to ‘the house of the Lord.’” Make it a priority. It’s a day to rest and a day to worship. Then serve on Sundays when you gather.

And then recreate with the family on Sundays. I like to think of “recreate” as “re-create” or “revive” the body, the soul and your spirit.

Number three, we should put our faith in God when it comes to the Sabbath. When Jesus died on the Cross, He cried, “It is finished!” and He bowed His head, dismissed His spirit and He rested. And after six days of creating, God said, “It is finished” and He rested. There is the rest of creation and the rest of redemption.

How do we celebrate the Lord’s day? By trusting Jesus Christ as our rest. I like that Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

You can go to a drug store and buy sleep, but you can’t buy rest for your soul. Only Jesus Christ can give rest for the weary soul. In Hebrews 4:3, it says, “We who have believed do enter that rest.”

So our Sabbath, our Shabbat, is resting on the finished work of Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for us. And then one day, we will enter into our eternal rest. Revelation 14:13 says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.’”

I don’t know why, but the last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about heaven. I’ve been thinking about when I get to heaven, it’ll be a time of rest from my labor.

Are you weary? Are you heavy laden? Are you burdened? Jesus Christ is your Sabbath. By His finished work on the Cross—He died for you—you enter into it by faith. And when you do that, one day you’ll have eternal rest, and you’ll cease from your labors.