December 30, 2024 / Enter His Rest

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Our Sabbath isn’t Saturday or Sunday – or any other day. Our Sabbath is Jesus Christ. Our Sabbath isn’t a day – it’s a Person! My day of rest isn’t Saturday. My day of rest isn’t Sunday. Christ is my rest. I rest in Christ. Therefore, I rest on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday…you get the point.

The sabbath idea is introduced for the first time in Genesis 2:2 – “BY THE SEVENTH DAY GOD COMPLETED HIS WORK WHICH HE HAD DONE, AND HE RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORK WHICH HE HAD DONE.”

God rested on the 7th day not because He was exhausted, but because He was finished. God had completed His work. The first time the sabbath idea is seen in Scripture it has to do with the finished work of God.

Even as the work of creation was completed by the 7th day, the work of redemption (Jesus suffering the penalty for our sin) was completed on the cross. In John 19:30, right before He died, Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” It’s complete! After Jesus died, He was buried, and then He rose on the third day according to the Scripture. He ascended into heaven to the throne of God and there He sits and there He reigns. He doesn’t have to visit the earth every time there’s a new generation and die for their sins. He paid the price for sin once for all on the cross. “It is finished.” Even as God rested on the 7th day from the work of creation because the work was completed, so Christ has entered the same rest of completion now that redemption has been accomplished.

And here’s the Good News – you and I are invited into Christ’s completed work of salvation and when we do this, our souls are at rest. Jesus never once directed us to somehow earn salvation, to by some means impress God with how worthy we are. He invites us into His rest!

FOR THE ONE WHO HAS ENTERED HIS REST HAS HIMSELF ALSO RESTED FROM HIS WORKS, AS GOD DID FROM HIS. HEBREWS 4:9-10

I do not enter His rest, His completed work of salvation, only on Saturday or Sunday. When I believe in Jesus, I enter His rest. Jesus Christ is my Sabbath. I am resting in Him. The debates about whether Saturday is the Sabbath day or whether Sunday is the Christian Sabbath because this is the day Jesus rose from the dead are interesting debates, but I think totally miss the point of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ is my Sabbath because He suffered the stroke of the wrath of God that was due me. My chastisement fell upon Him. He took my place, suffered my punishment, and the wrath of God cut Him down instead of me. “It is finished.” There’s nothing I can add to it. I rest in Christ – not the rest of exhaustion, but the rest of completion. I rest from my works for I have entered His rest! Christ is my Sabbath. Therefore, everyday is a day of resting in Christ.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim