Genesis 2:1-3

[0:00] Amen. Today we'll be considering the book of Genesis, chapter 2, verses 1 through 3.! I invite you to turn there in your Bibles.

[0:11] ! Think about rest, giving you, you know, I thought about opening up with a terrible joke about how you could get more time to rest by shaving your head and not having to style your hair, but it just falls flat for me today on a day when we as a congregation, I feel, are mourning for someone else.

[0:51] And so I'm actually, I'm going to just start where we will conclude. There's a church in Philadelphia called 10th Presbyterian. It's a very historic, influential church in the city.

[1:05] And every week, the call to worship, the first thing that is said before anybody preaches a sermon or sings a song or prays a prayer is this call to worship.

[1:17] To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest. To all who mourn and long for comfort. To all who struggle and desire victory.

[1:29] To all who sin and need a Savior. To all who are strangers and want fellowship. To all who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And to whoever will come.

[1:41] This church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, I hope that can be a welcome to you today.

[1:56] And I hope it can be the welcome you can give to others today. And so we come to the end of the first creation account in the Bible.

[2:10] Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3. And we see here. And we see here. Thus the heavens and the earth were filled and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done.

[2:23] And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. That is God's good word.

[2:41] Let's pray. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. We come to you today needing rest.

[2:51] In very different ways for different people. But Lord. Lord. Lord. All of us need rest. Lord. Lord. Some are.

[3:01] Lord. Some of us are physically weary. And some of us are grief stricken.

[3:15] And some of us, Father, don't have a place to call home. Lord. May we rest in you today. I pray that in Jesus name.

[3:26] Amen. I'm normally a pretty stoic person. Most of you who know me know that pretty well.

[3:38] It's really hard to ruffle my feathers or cast me adrift. But I recently lost someone very dear to me. And the news that Mike also has as well is really affecting me more than I expected it to this morning.

[3:52] And so if I pause and collect myself, it's not because I've forgotten about you. But it's because I am remembering something else.

[4:05] So I hope you'll forgive me. But even in the midst of real grief and real troubles, I wonder what it would be like for us if maybe you feel exhausted all the time.

[4:26] And you have the offer that you might not have to. What if you didn't have to feel like things weren't ever going to let up?

[4:39] What if you could rest from trying to impress other people? Do you feel like even when you get a chance to lay down and do nothing and rest, that you still haven't really rested?

[5:00] I recently heard someone say, if I calculated how many hours I've spent trying to get my kids to sleep, I might sink into a deep depression. I think this passage and this sermon, not because my sermon is excellent, but because this word is great, are going to be about real, lasting, true rest for our hearts and our souls.

[5:25] See, on the seventh day, God rested. And as we saw all last week, we paid close attention to just this one thing. And we were made after his image.

[5:36] And so we follow him. So we follow him into his rest. And God cares that we have a comprehensive rest.

[5:49] He cares that we have rest for our bodies, that we have rest for our spirits, and a home, a resting place.

[6:02] And friends, I think all three of those things are so important to our hearts. If we don't have them, we will never be at ease. We will never have peace. And we will never know true joy.

[6:14] So let's settle ourselves to rest for our bodies, rest for our spirits, and a home to rest in today. You might remember, if you were here last week, that we said that we could rest from trying to be God.

[6:34] And I think that's the first thing that troubles us in our lives. First off, that's the reason for the fall. We will see shortly in two weeks.

[6:46] That's the reason the world is broken. It's because we try to be God after our first parents did. And each and every day, I think it's tempting for us to wake up and set our own agenda and tell ourselves, decide for ourselves, this is what matters.

[7:07] This is what matters. Without looking to God. And so that is one of the things that creates some of the really challenging things in our lives.

[7:17] And so last week, we looked into how, you know what, trying to be God is actually quite exhausting because it is never done. It's an unending task. And we see that if we give our lives to God, He acts as God, and life gets a lot simpler, a lot easier.

[7:39] We saw this great and powerful God all last week, and He spoke, and things happened. We considered what it meant to have a truly sovereign God, and how scary a thing that is until we saw how good a God He was.

[7:59] And then something unexpected happens. This absolutely sovereign God rests. It's not something you would expect someone all-powerful to need to do. And the thick and the thin of it is that it isn't something that the Lord needed to do, but that the Lord rejoiced in doing.

[8:17] He wasn't tired. He wasn't exhausted. He didn't faint from His exertions. But it was a rest of peace and of joy and of satisfaction in the good that He had made to include you and me.

[8:33] Not so much me, but you. And what we'll see today is that this rest points somewhere. It's interesting.

[8:44] All the other days, the six days preceding the day of rest, end with there was evening and morning the first day, the second day, the third day. But there is no evening and morning on this day, if you look at the passage.

[9:00] It's as if to say that this day doesn't really end, that the Lord entered into a rest that extends. And one that He invites us into we're going to see today.

[9:16] A rest that doesn't end. What would that be like for us to rest in? And normally when we come to a text of Scripture, we spend almost all of our focus here, a trail on that text of Scripture, delving deeply into it.

[9:34] But there are also very helpful ways to read the Bible a little bit different than that. It's important to read a passage and understand it fully, to read it within its own context.

[9:47] It's very interesting, the things we just mentioned. We wouldn't have had that understanding about the seventh day not ending if we didn't have it in the context of the six prior days. And it's also really important to see how the rest of the Bible uses that passage.

[10:03] And this passage, in particular, the Bible uses over and over and over again. We can't look at all of the passages today. That would be really a big list.

[10:16] But here, we're going to delve into a few of them. The passages that take this and show for us what it means to us. What the Lord calls us into as he calls us to rest.

[10:31] And so, here's kind of how to listen to this sermon, I guess. This passage launches a theme that's weaved throughout the whole Bible.

[10:43] Think of how often the word peace is mentioned, shalom, all throughout, right? The Bible is filled with this theme. This picture of a comprehensive rest for the people of God.

[10:56] And I'm going to try to give us a taste of that today. And so, you're not going to probably be able to keep up. Don't feel like you need to flip through your Bible to every passage that I mentioned.

[11:08] Don't feel like you need to take notes and stress yourself out in the midst of a sermon about rest, right? That would be kind of silly. And so, maybe let this be a sermon of encouragement as we consider all the different facets of the rest that the Lord wants for us.

[11:29] The first place that I will mention is Exodus chapter 20, the Ten Commandments. The fourth of the Ten Commandments picks up and quotes directly this passage.

[11:40] 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.

[12:00] For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the seas, all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

[12:14] We see here a very explicit pattern. The Lord rested, therefore, you will rest. The Lord expects us to follow Him, to follow Him in His goodness, in His holiness, in His love, in His mercy, in His compassion, in His righteousness, and in His joyful rest.

[12:35] We're supposed to follow His lead. And so, we see here that it is a command. It's a command to rest.

[12:47] This is one of the ten commandments. But, so we must follow God, but we also get to follow God. That's what I hope we see here.

[13:00] See, God cares about our every day, and I don't think that that's something that our culture really thinks of when they think of God. He cares about real life, that we would have a regular rhythm of rest.

[13:17] Friends, let's not just pie in the sky spirituality and follow the rules, but it is life as it is meant to be lived.

[13:29] And also, because it is a commandment, that means that resting in regular Sabbath rhythms is obedience. And obedience glorifies God. And so, rest is, interestingly enough, an act of worship.

[13:48] Next week, we're going to talk about how God made us physical creatures. We're going to be in the rest of chapter 2. And so, he truly cares about our physicality.

[14:00] And that's why, in the Ten Commandments, what kind of sets up baseline expectations for Christian living, that, interestingly enough, it's not about, this isn't really necessarily that much about our hearts, but it is about our bodies, because he made us bodies, as well as souls.

[14:23] He truly cares about our physical rest. And next week, we're going to talk even more about that, as we consider what it looks like to be made, in the image of God, yet, to be made from the dust of the ground.

[14:43] When Jesus talked about the Sabbath day, and the Sabbath rest, he talked mostly about physical rest. Not in a spiritual sense, but in a physical sense.

[14:56] And he really wants us to rest. And so, friends, I wonder, do you have rhythms of rest in your life? If not, why not?

[15:07] some of us, it's because we have made ourselves busy. Some of us, it's because life has imposed things on us.

[15:18] Some of us, it's because life has given us real, real burdens that are very difficult to lift. And shortly, when we talk about home, I hope to give you hope for rest as well.

[15:32] Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And so, we look, I guess, then to Jesus.

[15:47] In Matthew 11, the words that Matthew already quoted this morning, Jesus said, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[15:58] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle, and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light.

[16:10] I want to focus in there. Matthew 11, verse 29, he says, you will find rest for your souls. Remember, this is a comprehensive rest the Lord wants for us.

[16:27] Not just to lie down and get some sleep in, but also that our souls would be mended and restored. And so, we ask, how does Jesus give us rest for our souls?

[16:42] Well, first, he bought us peace with God, with his blood. Colossians chapter 1 says, in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

[17:03] Friends, every single person is at born with a bent, not to worship God, but to be God. And that means that we have made ourselves as his enemies.

[17:21] And so, Jesus Christ came, God the Son, in our flesh. Paid the penalty for our sin, that sin that works its way out in all sorts of different ways, and made peace between God, the righteous judge, and us tyrannical rebels.

[17:46] And so, there is a soul satisfying peace in the gospel. And secondly, it's not only a resting from, but a resting in Jesus Christ that he brings for our souls.

[18:10] We rest in him. We rest from the need to perform. Remember, he gives us grace more than he asks, demands from us.

[18:22] We rest from our sorrows, and we're going to see even more as we go along, how we rest from sorrow. We rest from uncertainty.

[18:34] Last week, we saw this huge, sovereign, all-powerful God whose word, whose very words write history. He holds our future until we can rest from uncertainty.

[18:52] And so, we rest from, but we also rest in. We rest in his love for us. We rest in his grace towards us.

[19:03] We rest in his promises, promises not only for another life, but for this life. We rest, as we're about to see soon, in his law.

[19:16] That might strike us as odd, but it is so true. Before we get there, we rest in Jesus, in his majesty.

[19:27] when you go on vacation, where do you like to go? Some of you weirdos like to go to someplace busy, and I don't understand that, but if you're like me, you want to go to a mountain cabin, or to a seaside shore.

[19:48] You want to go to the Grand Canyon. You want to see something peaceful and restful, but you also want to see something majestic that you can get lost in, right?

[20:02] If we want beauty, if we want majesty, if we want glory, all those things point to the one who made them.

[20:14] And so we rest in his beauty, in his majesty, in his glory. If a sunset brings you rest, rest in the one who made the sun.

[20:38] We just said that we rest in the law, and that's a very odd thing to say. Psalm 19, verse 7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

[20:53] Now, is that what you think of when you think of God's law? Honestly, it is not my first thought, so you don't have to feel bad if it's not yours as well.

[21:06] Soren Kierkegaard tells a story. The devil snuck into a jewelry store late one night. he didn't steal anything. Instead, he switched all the price tags.

[21:20] And so what had once been very valuable now was cheap. And what was originally worthless, people thought was very pricey. Now, that's a parable for the world we live in.

[21:35] we're going to see next week that Satan tempted our first parents to value something small over something great and take something great and make it very small.

[21:50] That is the essence of much of sin. God's law corrects that. It puts the price tags back in the right spot.

[22:02] We see unrest over small becoming big all the time, don't we? Churches that argue and have contentious church meetings over artwork on the walls or budget allocations.

[22:22] Some of you have confessed to me that you have argued as couples over lampshades, right? Small become big. Where do a toddler's temper tantrums come from?

[22:36] Or an adult's temper tantrums for that matter? Where do they come from? They come from not getting the cookie, right? And so we see that small things become big things in our hearts all the time and it's never good.

[22:53] Where do outbursts of anger come from? Often the logic is this. You have stood in the way of the thing that I decided I need. need.

[23:08] And I need you to not merge in front of me in my lane of traffic, right? I need you to respect my schedule. I need you to affirm me and you're not doing it.

[23:23] And because you've stood in the way of that, I'm going to let you know. Right? small has become big. In two weeks when we look at the Genesis 3, we're going to see the fall where we ruined the world that God made good.

[23:42] And it stems from making ourselves big. The passage reads, when you eat the fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

[23:54] Knowing good and evil, small becomes big in our eyes. our first parents and we ourselves thought that we could make ourselves not just something big but something ultimate, right?

[24:09] God. You will be like God. You can be ultimate. Whenever we do that, whenever we say that, whenever we think that, there will not be rest because we are not God and the universe will remind us.

[24:25] that's where angry outbursts and unrest in our relationships come from.

[24:36] That's where acting out sexually and unrest in our marriages comes from. That's where jealousy and unrest in our own hearts comes from.

[24:50] And so many of our anxieties and our conflicts and much of our unrest comes from that swap making big things small and little things big in our hearts.

[25:04] And so the law of God corrects that. It takes the price tags and the jewelry and puts them back in the right spot. It makes God big.

[25:18] It aligns us with his priorities. It makes the things that we freak out about small again. It gives us rest.

[25:33] So the next time you read the Bible and you come to a command the question we should be asking is not what's the bare minimum so that I'm in obedience and no the question instead is how does God intend this for my good?

[25:55] How does the sin it confronts enslave me without me even knowing? How does it bring me freedom? Because friends the law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul.

[26:10] and so in the in this rest that God wants for us we see physical rest we see rest for our spirits and we're going to see a home in the closing chapters of the Bible some of my very favorite we see many of the great themes of scripture drawing not to a close but to a crescendo so that the eternal life we share with God will be even better than the hope that's offered now.

[26:50] In Revelation chapter 21 we read in John's vision he is seeing the last state the heavenly city where God's dwelling place will be with man and this is what he sees then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice coming from this throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his God himself will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away friends this is why the looses do not lose all hope today it's because we have that home in first

[28:17] Thessalonians Paul writes to grieving Christians he says we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep and that is his way of saying those who have died but have not died we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope!

[28:43] for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep even in the midst of heavy grief there is a gift of rest because we know that not all hope is lost but we have release from hopelessness friends that is big that is really big and picking up on that ultimate last rest the book of Hebrews says this there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his

[29:43] I was talking with someone this week who even in his mid thirties didn't know who he was he was born in Korea he is a Canadian citizen and his patterns of speech and most of his world view is American and so the Koreans he knew didn't really accept him because he didn't speak or think like they do and he really has nothing in common with Canadians except just citizenship so they're polite to him I guess but he didn't have anything in common with them and most Americans assume he's Korean and treat him like a workaholic and someone good at math and he's not good at math he's a man without a home and so he he feels like he doesn't have a people a place to belong he's without a heritage!

[30:49] where is he going to find rest? Where will he do that? Where do people who don't belong find rest? if you don't have an anchor point a center of gravity some place for your spirit to call home it's hard to find a place to rest both physically is there a location for you to rest and spiritually is there a place for your heart to call home remember we just looked at Revelation chapter 21 hold the dwelling place of God is with men he will dwell with them they will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away there will be a day friends when everyone who trusts in the name of the!

[31:51] will have an peace it will be real it will be a physical place it will be a place of true and endless peace and so we can follow our spiritual forefather Abraham who though he was a wanderer all his life rested in this promise for he was looking forward Hebrews 11 says he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God and he knew that what he had been promised in this world was a promise of something even greater but what about when the Calvary isn't coming what happens when the problem in your life that's causing you unrest is chronic not acute long term not short term what if you're like that man

[32:54] I met and he might forever be without a people who call him their own what if you're a single parent and every day is going to be a struggle for physical and for mental rest what if you're enduring hidden abuse time slows down for you and there is no end in sight what if you have a long term illness that is going to sap your strength your energy and your will until the day you take your last breath what if enduring financial troubles won't allow you to take a day off if you don't think you're going to get rest in this life is that offer of hope someday down the line is that enough is it can it be enough for you and

[34:01] I want to answer it yes and all right yes Paul in Romans chapter 8 says I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us friends the saints rest is that good the apostles and the prophets when they got glimpses of heaven they got glimpses of eternal rest with the Lord they didn't have words for it only fumbling to communicate it to us it will be that good and hope for the future isn't the only help you get from the Lord remember we said there remains a

[35:05] Sabbath rest for the people of God not the individuals of God there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God sometimes we go through this life thinking me me me individual individual individual part of that is we're Americans part of that is we're fallen and from the beginning we are thinking about ourselves but the church is a family friends and so the Sabbath rest not only comes for or to the people of God but it is also among and through and even from the people of God listen to how Paul puts it in 2nd Corinthians when we came into Macedonia our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn fighting without and fear within that is a picture of comprehensive unrest right but

[36:16] God who comforts the downcast comforted us how by the coming of Titus and so God gives us rest in other people he brings rest to us from them through them and so friends lean on your brothers and sisters in Christ be open to be looking for ways to bless people especially the people of God so that you might be God's blessing to them last year in Ephesians chapter 2 Jordan preached a sermon about the church as a body he said something that has stuck with me to this day he said if you want to see God at work throw yourself into the church because that's where he's that's where he's at work now you might be wary that it costs too much to offer rest to other people you know

[37:31] I might have to open my life or my home to someone and it might cost a lot but you might be surprised how little you need to give someone to give them rest the other day my three year old was babbling and babbling and babbling because she's three and my wife was like will you please stop talking so I can think and surprisingly she stopped talking and so my wife needing to think turned to me and started talking verbal processor but all I had to do was just really be there as a standing board right just that gave her rest from confusion and weariness sometimes there are people who are hurting!

[38:18] and have big needs friends and we are going to have to invest and sacrifice to help them rest but sometimes it's really small it's the really small things that make a huge difference in people's lives and so if you find that blessing someone else is killing you then that's your turn to reach out right reach out to your community group friends if you aren't in a community group please go grab one of the sheets in the back get involved in one if you haven't been making it to your community group friends there's rest there go go I beg of you for your own sake for your good talk to some of the deacons here at Shoreline deacon simply means servant the deacons who are here can you raise your hands these are the people that our congregation has set aside to facilitate our service as a body let them help you bring this whole family of faith to bear on brokenness and on unrest if you are aware of it same too to the elders elders you that's in the back

[39:39] Jordan's right here I'm here we are servants as well talk to us friends Jesus has won a rest for our souls and we have peace with God there is a great hope for the future there is joyful physical rest for our bodies and he has not left us without help and a home a home in this world and so friends this small passage three verses the beginning of chapter two of Genesis launch us into a comprehensive rest for our bodies for our spirits and gives us a resting place and so I will close simply again with the call to worship that

[40:39] I have been tremendously blessed by that we read at the beginning to all who are spiritually weary and seek rest to all who mourn and long for comfort to all who struggle and desire victory to all who sin and need a savior to all who are strangers and want fellowship to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness and to whoever will come this church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ friends let's be at rest let's pray oh Lord we are all weary in one way or another we are all seeking rest in one way or another we all mourn in one way or another long for comfort in one way or another

[41:50] Lord help us to seek rest for our weariness not in lesser things not in harmful things but Lord help us to find rest for our weariness in you in your promises among your people and Lord as we ask you for those who mourn to heal our hearts Lord that we would find comfort not in not in things that provide no comfort Lord not in a bottle not in distraction not in places that have no real comfort but Lord that we would come to you Lord that we would each day abandon and forsake the sins that we use to drive ourselves apart from you to rest on

[42:50] Christ and his finished work Lord may we find our comfort and our rest in you pray that in the matchless name of Christ our King Amen