Happy Valentines (Every)Day(?)

Text:

CIT

CIS: Jesus is force behind Christian love. Cupid totally misses the mark.

SO: Explain - I want to audience to understand the history of Valentines day and have some takeaways to be reminded of when it occurs.

Intro:

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you realize, “Wow, that doesn’t mean what I thought it did...”

Tell story the embarrassing story of making it rain as youth pastor.

Raise your hand if you are the type that wants to be told when you have that problem happening to you

How many of us celebrated Valentine’s Day?

Trans: Today let’s look at some of the things the Bible is important about Love.

Context:

Who are we celebrating on Valentine’s Day?

This question is actually less clear than you might expect

To get to the answer you have to do some interesting historical research:

One method to start might be to go back to the earliest reference of St. Valentine

You would learn that the name was very popular and that there are many people in Christian History

...There are two noteworthy candidates for the who modern day celebration is for.

Early 4th Century Persecution (Diocletian) destroyed many records of the saints.

Edict of Toleration 311/Milan 313

By the time of Constantine, there are only lists with no histories written at the time of two probable candidates

The situation remained this way for a couple of hundred years

Sixth or Seventh century legends were constructed for the bare lists of names remaining and combined with existing miracle accounts.

The person is definitely real, the legend is doubted by scholars.

St. Valentine (the priest)

Arrested in the reign of Claudius (II? 268-270)

Performed a miracle of restoring sight to a blind to the daughter of noted Roman noble man and the whole houses is converted

The emporor order him executed and was buried outside of the Flamian Gate of Rome

2 St Valentine (Bishop of Terni [270,273?])

Asked by a Roman Scholar to heal his crippled son

Valentine’s dialogues with him on the relationship healing and belief in Christ.

The scholar is skeptical and pleads for him to heal the boy without conversion first.

The bishop heals the boy which causes the entire family, their friends, and other political Romans to convert

Became identified as a patron saint for epilepsy in certain places.

The stories about the the two valentines can be read in a work originally written in Latin The Acts of the Saints.

But The stories are there not yet connected with love. It appears in the late medieval period.

Why do we celebrate St. Valentines day the way we do?

Traditional explanation - Lupercalia (Pagan Holiday) were boy drew woman’s names out of a box, was celebrated around the time of the st. martydom.

Scholarly Interpretation - It was an accident of history, mixing cultural, economic, and church motivations. Originated by an English Poet Named Geoffrey Chaucer late in the 14th Century

So should Christians celebrate Valeninte’s Day?

Yep, It’s named after an ancient Christian how live a notable (though its not exactly clear what he did) life for God.

Yep, it can remind us to remember what the Scriptures actually tell us about Love.

It can be a opprotunity to share the Love of God with other.

Content

Love Gives Your Entire Life (+Roses)

1 John 3:16 “16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

Exp:

God’s love for the world paved the way for sinners to be saved.

We are rapidly approaching Easter, another Christian celebration where we remember God’s sacrifice for us.

We are called to live with same type of love with each other.

App:

Chapel, as gave our roses and chocolates last week, how can we give our lives today?

Love is More than Romance

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 ESV

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Cor 13:13 “13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Exp:

There’s an excersize we have done with this verse in the chapel before. Let’s read the passage again, repeat after me. But where I save love, say your first name.

App:

Which one of those things was the was hard to say?

How can you improve it?

Which one of those was easy?

How can you demonstrate to more individuals?

Love is Good News

John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Exp:

Is it possible to love alone?

It must be shared

App:

So when valentines day comes, and every day after that, we ought to be sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ through our love in action and the proclamation of the Good News to the world around us.

Jesus is the force behind Christian love. Cupid totally misses the mark.