Jesus highlighted the importance of the Sabbath even in His death. He died on Friday, the “Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin” (Luke 23:54). At that moment He declared, “It is finished,” that is, His work of coming to this world and dying as substitute for the human race was complete (John 19:30; 4:34; 5:30). The great work of redemption had been accomplished. Then as if to celebrate His finished mission, Jesus rested in the tomb over the Sabbath. Just as Christ completed His work of creation on the sixth day and then rested on the seventh day, so through dying on the cross He completed His redemptive work on the sixth day, and then rested on the seventh.

On Sunday morning Jesus came out from the tomb, a victorious Saviour (Luke 24:1-7). He had already asked His disciples to maintain the Sabbath encounter with Him after His resurrection. Speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place nearly forty years after His death, He charged them:

“Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.”
—Matthew 24:20.

Our Saviour wanted His disciples and their converts to continue the practices He had taught them. He wanted them to experience both salvation-rest and Sabbath-rest. They did not disappoint Him. The disciples continued to observe the Sabbath after Christ’s death (see Luke 23:54-56; Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2; 18:1-4).

The beloved apostle John kept up his weekly link with Christ on the Sabbath day. In his later years he wrote, “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit” (Revelation 1:10). According to Jesus, “the Lord’s Day” is the Sabbath, “for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8).

On the Sabbath we celebrate the Lord’s two greatest accomplishments on our behalf: creating us and saving us. This Sabbath experience will continue in the new earth:

“‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the LORD, . . . ‘from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the LORD.”
— Isaiah 66:22, 23.

God originally established the Sabbath as a memorial of creation, so it’s fitting that His last-day message should include a call back to worshiping our Creator through obeying His commandments (Revelation 14:7, 12). This message from the last book in the Bible includes observing the Sabbath commandment as a memorial to the Creator.