Greetings! Have you ever heard the story about the origin of Valentines Day? It is called Valentines Day for a reason. Let me explain. Approximately 250 years after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a priest named Valentine. He lived in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius, who was committed to rebuilding the once-great Roman army. Emperor Claudius believed it was important for men to volunteer for service, rather than be drafted against their will. Given a choice, most young men in the Roman Empire refused to serve. They would rather stay home with their wives and children. Claudius believed that only single men would volunteer for service, so he issued a royal edict that banned all further marriages. He outlawed weddings in the Roman Empire, earning himself the nick-name Claudius the Cruel. Valentine thought this was ridiculous! Priests marry people, so once this law was passed, Valentine secretly performed marriage ceremonies. One night, while marrying a couple, he heard footsteps at his door. The couple escaped, but he was caught. Valentine was thrown into jail and sentenced to death. Many of the young couples he married came to visit him and brought flowers and notes to cheer him up. One day, he received a visit from the daughter of one of the prison guards. Her father allowed her to visit with Valentine and they often would talk for hours. She believed Valentine did the right thing. On the day Valentine died (February 14, 269 A.D.) he left a note thanking her for her friendship. He signed it, Love from your Valentine. This note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentines Day - a day that was set aside in honor of a man who gave his life for God and for love. Just as we remember Valentines Day once a year, God asks us to remember His Sabbath every week. The Sabbath is a wonderful gift that God gave to us in Eden, to benefit humankind, the object of His love. Let me explain about Sabbath. As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we believe that the Bible record of creation is true - that God made the world in six literal days and rested on the seventh-day. Jesus is the Creator. (John 1: 1-2, 14; Col. 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). The Bible goes on to say that on the seventh-day of creation week God rested, not that He was tired, but because He had finished His work at creation. God set apart the seventh-day, the Sabbath, as a special holy day. (Genesis 2: 1-3). The very word Sabbath means rest. According to the Bible, the primary distinction between Sabbath and the other six days of the week is not that it is the exclusive time to worship God, but that the Sabbath is holy time. God reserved the Sabbath as a holy time at creation. He reinterated the sacredness of the seventh-day in the fourth commandment. (Exodus 20:8). The rest of the Old Testament repeatedly calls attention to the holiness of Sabbath. In the New Testament Jesus and the apostles remembered the Sabbath. Luke 4:16 states that Jesus went to Nazareth and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up and read. The gospels demonstrate that Jesus did not anticipate the abrogation or modification of the Sabbath commandment during His ministry or after His resurrection. The saying found in Mathew 24:20, Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath- suggests that He expected His disciples to remember the Sabbath long after his resurrection and ascension. In Mark 2:27; the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, locates the origin of the Sabbath commandment in the creation story. Paul, even after his conversion, practiced going to the synagogue on the Sabbath. (Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4). Christ came to earth to show us Gods love and to save us. On Calvarys cross that Friday afternoon Jesus proclaimed, It is finished! He rested in the tomb over the sacred hours of the Sabbath. The Bible makes it plain that the Sabbath is a memorial of Gods power as Creator - but also of His power as our Re-creator. But above all, the Sabbath is a constant reminder to rest from our works as Jesus did from His. Resting in Christs finished work for us, we are delivered from trying to earn salvation by our own works. How sad that some actually see Sabbath keeping as legalistic - a symbol of salvation by works - when each week the Sabbath points us away from our human works to rest in Gods creative, saving work for us. The Sabbath is a memorial in time, a weekly reminder of the day on which God finished His creation. It declares that we did not just evolve by an incredible series of accidents. No, we are children of an all-powerful, all-loving, and all-caring God. Happy Valentines Day and Happy Sabbath! God Bless You, Pastor Ed
Posted on: Sat, 08 Feb 2014 02:36:34 +0000
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