The Lord’s Day and the New Covenant

Yesterday in the evening service we finished out creation week, focusing on the seventh day and its eschatological implications and promise for the world to come. The writer to the Hebrews has much to say on the subject and he elaborates on it in chapters 3 and 4 of his epistle. The highlight comes in chapter 4 and verse 9:

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,

The writer to the Hebrews draws this conclusion from comparing two passages—Genesis 2:1-3, Psalm 95:7-11–and reflecting on the typology involved in God’s redeeming his people out of Egypt and bringing them into the Promised Land. The Promised Land is a type of the world to come, our future in Christ. The law, represented by Moses, cannot get us there. The failure, though, is not in Moses. The failure is in the people who, according to the writer to the Hebrews, fail to enter in because of unbelief. Later it is Joshua (Yeshua, Jesus) who takes them across Jordan and into the Promised Land. David, in Psalm 95 declares that there yet remains a rest for the people of God and warns the people of his day not to fail to enter that rest because of unbelief.

”Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

The writer to the Hebrews ties this into day 7 of creation by declaring…

for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.—Hebrews 4:10.

Under the Old Covenant that seventh day of rest, that Sabbath, was a blessing from God which served to remind them that a glorious future yet awaited God’s people, that despite Adam’s failure God would still somehow bring them into eschatological joy, that mankind’s final destiny would yet be fully realized among God’s people.

That’s as far as we got on Sunday evening and you can listen to the sermon here:

The Seventh Day

This coming Sunday evening we will take a brief sabbatical (see what I did there?) from our exposition of Genesis and look at the doctrine of the Sabbath more fully, especially looking to see how it has evolved in the New Covenant. Yes, the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Jesus, but what does that mean, practically, for us who live in the era of the already and the not yet? Where does the idea of a Christian sabbath come from and why do we believe it has changed from Saturday to Sunday? Even more practically, how are we to view Sundays now? I hope you will plan to come out for that.

Meanwhile, expect a new podcast to become available soon, in which Dan and I will tackle some of your questions about dispensationalism. We plan to record the first of those this evening. Be blessed.