REMEMBERING CREATION & REDEMPTION

Hebrews 3:12-4:16

 

I.  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SABBATH/PASSOVER AND SABBATH/LORD’S SUPPER

 

A. Sabbath and Passover/Exodus were closely connected.

1. The Fourth Commandment links observance of the Sabbath with remembering the exodus from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

2. The weekly Sabbath Day in the Old Testament was not only a remembrance of the Exodus, but also of creation (Exodus 20:8-11). 

3. The weekly Sabbath encompassed the two great events of the Old Testament: CREATION AND REDEMPTION.

 

B. So important was God’s work of creation and redemption that Israel’s entire calendar revolved around them.

1. God’s creation of the world set the agenda for the world’s weekly pattern of work and rest. 

a. Why do we have a seven day week instead of 5 or 10?

b. During the French Revolution in 1793, the French tried a new calendar with weeks made up of 10 days. 

c. When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917 they tried implementing a five-day and then a six-day week.

d. The seven day week is as old as ancient Ur and goes all the way back to creation. 

2. God’s redemption of Israel from Egypt also marked a new calendar (Exodus 12:2).

a. “The beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2)// “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1).

b. The 11th century AD Jewish commentator, Rashi, said the Torah did not need to begin with the account of creation, but could have started with Exodus 12:2.

 

C. Jesus takes the Jewish memorial of the Passover, the defining moment of Jewish history, and centers it upon Himself.

1. Christ’s body and blood brought about our redemption from sin, death and the devil (Romans 6:1-23; 1 Peter 1:18-21; Rev. 1:5,18; 15:2-4; cf. Q.116 and 121 of the L.C.; WC of Faith 21:7). 

2. Like the Passover, Christ’s death and resurrection also commemorates a new creation (Isa.43:16-20; 51:16; 65:17,18; 66:22; Zech.14:8; 2 Cor.5:14,15,17; Eph.1:7,10; Gal.6:15; Eph.4:24; 2 Pet.3:13; Rev.21:1; cf. Q.116 and 121 of the L.C.). 

3. Just as the calendar changed in Exodus 12 with the Passover, so too there has been a change in the calendar with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  Instead of remembering the Sabbath on the 7th Day of the Week, the New Testament church has always remembered it on the 1st Day of the Week (Rev.1:10; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor.16:2).

 

The 19th century church historian Philip Schaff wrote:

“The celebration of the Lord’s Day in memory of the resurrection of Christ dates undoubtedly from the apostolic age.  Nothing short of apostolic precedent can account for the universal religious observance in the churches of the second century. There is no dissenting voice. This custom is confirmed by the testimonies of the earliest post-apostolic writers, as Barnabas, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr.  It is also confirmed by the younger Pliny.  The Didache an early 2nd century manual of church instruction, calls the first day "the Lord’s Day of the Lord."” (Schaff, Vol.II, p.201).  That there was no trace of any controversy in the early church as to the day in which the church was to gather for worship is amazing when we consider all the controversies the church went though concerning the Gentiles, circumcision and eating! 

 

 

 

“There are many people today who think of those who honour Sunday in the old- have a chance to 'have their fling'. Give me the Day of rest, when all that savours fashioned way as killjoys. They feel that during the years of youth they ought to of organised games can be put to one side, and all of life's joys will be greater because of it. To me personally, it is a time of communion and fellowship with God - a time of quiet, in fact, a time of recreation and fellowship with God. I believe that Sunday as we have had it in the past, is one of the greatest helps in a young man's life to keep all that is noblest, truest and best. That is why I say: young person, stand for the Lord's Day, for by losing it you will lose far more than the Day: you will lose the Spirit that it stands for.”
Eric Liddell went on to win an Olympic gold medal in a race he had not specifically trained for, and then became a missionary to China, dying in a concentration camp.

Quoted by Dr. Peter Hammond; http://www.intouchmission.org/reports/main.htm?http://www.intouchmission.org/reports/archives/000167.html

 

II.  “THERE REMAINS A SABBATH REST/KEEPING/REMEMBRANCE FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD” (Hebrews 4:9)

 

A. When we remember the Sabbath day we are looking back to the finished work of Jesus and we are looking forward to entering His rest in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

 

B. The once for all sacrifice of Jesus did away with many things such as the Temple, the Levitical priesthood, and the sacrificial system.  But one thing remains/was left behind for the people of God –a Sabbath rest/keeping/remembrance (Hebrews 4:9; cf. 2 Timothy 4:13; Titus 1:5; Hebrews 4:1,6; 10:26).

 

C. The word rest (katapausis) occurs 8x in Hebrews 3-4 (Hebrews 3:11,18; 4:1,3 [2x],5,10,11). 

 

D. Hebrews 4:9 uses a different word which is often but regretably translated "rest" (sabbatismós)

 

1. The noun sabbatismós isn’t found anywhere else in the entire Bible. 

 

2. The verbal form of sabbatismós is found in the Greek Old Testament (cf. Ex.16:30; Lev.23:32; 26:34-35; 2 Chron.36:21) and refers to Sabbath keeping.

 

3. The writer to the Hebrews is saying that there is a Sabbath keeping for the New Covenant people of God. 

 

4. The Christian Sabbath is not identical to the Old Covenant Jewish Sabbath (e.g. we remember the Sabbath on the 1st and not the 7th day of the week).  It is likely that the writer to the Hebrews chooses the unique word sabbatismós to emphasize this difference.

 

E. Christian remembrance of the Sabbath is to help us focus our entire lives around Jesus. 

 

“Most certainly true that saying is which I have somewhere met with: that the stream of all religion runs either deep or shallow, according as the banks of the sabbath are kept up or neglected” (Matthew Henry, Complete Works, Vol.I, p.134).

 

 

QUESTIONS FOR SABBATH DISCUSSION & MEDITATION

 

Pray that God would enable you and give you the desire to take a biblical truth from today’s sermon and order your life around it.

 

What can you do to remember the Sabbath day more faithfully?

 

What are some of the connections between the Sabbath day in the Old Testament and the Passover/Exodus?

 

What two major biblical themes did the weekly Sabbath remember?

 

Is the Christian remembrance of the Sabbath identical with that of the Jews?  Why or why not?  What are the similarities and differences?

 

Why do we celebrate the Sabbath day on the 1st day of the week and not the 7th? 

 

 

 

EXTRA NOTES:

 

 

 

“But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that of which the apostle speaks, `There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism,' that is, the observance of the Sabbath by the people of God? Leaving the Jewish observances of the Sabbath, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath day all worldly labours ought to be abstained from. If, therefore, you cease from all secular works, and execute nothing worldly, but give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction, thinking of celestial things, solicitous for the future, placing the Judgment to come before your eyes, not looking to things present and visible, but to those which are future and invisible, this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath” (Origen [ca. 185-ca.254], Homilies in Numbers 23, Patrologica Graeca 12, 749-750; quoted in Beckwith & Stott, The is the Day pp.70-71).

 

“There is another thing which confirms it, that the fourth command teaches God's resting from the new creation, as well as from the old: which is that the Scriptures expressly speak of the one, as parallel with the other, i. e. Christ’s resting from the work of redemption, is expressly spoken of as being parallel with God’s resting from the work of creation. Heb. iv. 10. "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his."
     Now, Christ rested from his works when he rose from the dead, on the first day of the week. When he rose from the dead, then he finished his work of redemption; his humiliation was then at an end; he then rested, and was refreshed.— When it is said, "There remaineth a rest to the people of God;" in the original, it is, a sabbatism, or the keeping of a sabbath: and this reason is given for it, "For he that entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his."—These three things at least we are taught by these words:

(1.) To look upon Christ’s rest from his work of redemption, as parallel with God’s rest from the work of creation; for they are expressly compared together, as parallel one with the other.

(2.) They are spoken of as parallel, particularly in this respect, viz. The relation which they both have to the keeping of a sabbath among God’s people, or with respect to the influence which these two rests have, as to sabbatizing in the church of God: for it is expressly with respect to this that they are compared together. Here is an evident reference to God’s blessing and hallowing the day of his rest from the creation to be a sabbath, and appointing a sabbath of rest in imitation of him. For the apostle is speaking of this, ver. 4. "For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." Thus far is evident; whatever the apostle has respect to by this keeping of a sabbath by the people of God, whether it be a weekly sabbatizing on earth, or a sabbatizing in heaven.

(3.) It is evident in these words, that the preference is given to the latter rest, viz. The rest of our Saviour from his works, with respect to the influence it should have, or relation it bears, to the sabbatizing of the people of God, now under the gospel, evidently implied in the expression, "There remaineth therefore a sabbatism to the people of God. For he that entered into his rest," &c. For, in this expression, There remaineth, it is intimated that the old sabbatism appointed in remembrance of God’s rest from the work of creation, doth not remain, but ceases; and that this new rest, in commemoration of Christ’s resting from his works, remains in the room of it.”

(Jonathan Edwards, The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath)

 

 

 

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