Ambassadors of God’s Sabbath-Kingdom

“God rests, not because he is exhausted, but as a sign that there is nothing more to provide . . . The King’s rest on the Sabbath day of creation declares the good news that under his sovereign reign everything in the realm is as it should be.” – Scott Hafemann

Many of us sense that Western Christianity has become fractured and disoriented. Our churches are shaped more by cultural and market forces than by Scripture, and are easily ensnared in the power struggles of the nation-state. It’s as if we have wandered away from the kingdom and built a pseudo-Christianity in our own image.

What was God’s original design? Can we find our way back to the gospel? And how do we fulfill our calling to “proclaim the good news of the kingdom”?

The first two chapters in Genesis paint a beautiful picture of God’s design for human flourishing. The world was created to be a “Sabbath” world—a world in which all things are free of striving, where people live in harmony with God and with one another.

However, humanity has rebelled against God’s Sabbath rule of rest and has chosen a life of striving. Like Cain, we are now “restless wanderers on the earth,” compelled to seek a home that is ever beyond our human reach.

This rebellion against the Sabbath is still the pattern of our age. The modern world is marked by striving, competition, and anxiety. Even in societies of relative prosperity and fairness, the effects of the Fall remain.

We remain restless wanderers, apart from Christ.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17

Jesus’ ministry is inaugurated with a bold declaration that the kingdom is near. God’s kingdom is no longer a distant dream. It is at hand. It is near to us already. Jesus has come to deliver us from our own rebellion, and restore all things under God’s Sabbath rule.

This is the good news of the gospel. It is more than just a ticket into the afterlife; it is the coming of God’s kingdom, the restoration of the world as God first intended it. Even as we wait for Christ’s second coming, we are able to enter into his Sabbath rest.

What does this mean for the Church? Freed from striving, we are now called to be ambassadors of God’s rest. Though we still live under earthly rulers and nations, our true identity is found in our citizenship in God’s kingdom. We ought then to pattern our churches after God’s kingdom, rather than conform to the surrounding culture—or else we will lose sight of the gospel and our true king.

As the world around us descends restlessly into chaos and anxiety, let us walk as ambassadors of that rest, sharing the gospel of our Lord’s Sabbath-kingdom.

This article is a summary of content from our summer series, Waiting for New Wineskins, with Dr. Joel Lawrence and Rev. Michele Arndt. To learn more about Sabbath theology and how it should shape our walk as Christians in America, visit Joel’s Substack: Sabbath Church

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