New Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church
“Why Are Birthdays So Important?—What Priceless Gift
Does the Sabbath Express?”
SERIES: Connecting That Matters—Making Adventism Relevant (3)
Introduction
Little kids hate long car rides and I
was no exception. My parents were driving
from Washington, D. C. to San Francisco and
had reached the desert of Arizona. There
seemed to be no end to the road in front and I
was as bored and as restless as any six-year-
old boy could be.
Suddenly, someone mentioned the
day’s date—June 18. I sat bolt upright. “It’s
my birthday” I screamed. “It’s my birthday! I
am seven years old today. Why didn’t
someone wish me happy birthday?”
My parents explained that they had
said nothing because they could not give me a
party and hoped that I would not realize what
day it was. When we arrived in San Francisco
they promised me a party and presents. I
have remembered that non birthday more than
all the other birthdays in my life. Birthdays
are very important to children.
Birthdays tell you that you are special.
Birthdays tell you that you are important.
That is why even as adults we feel
disappointed when someone we love forgets
our birthday. Birthdays remind us of our
uniqueness. Birthdays say “We are glad that
you came into this world, that you are alive,
that we treasure you.” Birthdays are all about
relationships.
Presents are part of birthdays as well.
In fact, for kids presents are usually the most
looked for part of the birthday. Well, God
has also given us a wonderful present that
unlike earthly presents which become old and
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J. David Newman, D.Min.
Senior Pastor
stale never goes away and is present with us
wherever we might be in the world.
World birthday
Do you realize that the world has a
birthday too? God created the earth in six
days and when he finished he celebrated its
birth on the seventh day. God “blessed the
seventh day and made it holy because on it He
rested from all the work of creating that He
had done” (Genesis 2:1-2). God celebrated.
God rejoiced. God delighted in what He had
made. The Sabbath is God’s present to us.
When God enshrined the Sabbath in
the fourth commandment He linked it with
the birthday of the world, "Remember the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days
you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD
your God. On it you shall not do any work,
neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor your
animals, nor the alien within your gates.”
“For in six days the LORD made the
heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).
God wanted us to remember who
created the world, who made us to be in
relationship to Him. Could it be that the
world’s neglect of the Sabbath as a reminder
of who created the earth has contributed to the
agnosticism and atheism that many people
profess?
 Of all the Ten Commandments the
fourth one, the Sabbath commandment, has
generated more discussion, more heat, more
controversy, and more rules than any of the
other command-ments. It was true in the time
of Jesus and it is true in Adventism today. I
was raised with very strict rules of what you
could do and not do on Sabbath. For
example, I could not wash my hair on
Sabbath. When we were first married I
remember telling my wife that she could not
wash her hair on Sabbath. Far from
appreciating my helpful admonition she told
me to mind my own business!!!
Rabbi Sabbath keeping
This controversy over how to keep the
Sabbath is nothing new. The Talmud is a
Jewish commentary on the Mishnah which in
turn codifies all the laws governing how Jews
should live. Since the bible does not tell us
how to keep the Sabbath the rabbis codified in
the Talmud 1,547 rules for keeping the
Sabbath. Here are some examples
1. On the Sabbath you may remove
from the table crumbs less than the size of an
olive and the panicles of beans and lentils,
because they are food for animals.
2. If you get toothache on the Sabbath
you cannot sip vinegar directly, this is healing
which is forbidden on the Sabbath. However
you may dip your bread in the vinegar and
suck on it because this is eating.
3. If a cask of wine breaks on the
Sabbath you cannot absorb the spilt wine in a
sponge in case you might be tempted to wring
it into a vessel which is forbidden.
4. If an animal enters your house and
you sit in the doorway thus preventing the
animal from leaving you are breaking the
Sabbath because you are guarding the animal.
5. You cannot travel more than half a
mile on the Sabbath. If however you were
delayed in getting home and sundown was
approaching you could look for a tree or wall
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in front of you and say “Let my Sabbath base
be at its root” and you could then walk
another half a mile. However you had to say
the right words. If you said “Let my Sabbath
base be under it,” you could not walk the
extra half a mile.
Can you imagine trying to remember
all these details which even varied among the
different schools of the rabbis. Far from
being a rest day it became an exhausting day
as you tried to honor every rule and every
command. It became a day of rules rather
than relationships.
Since the Sabbath is all about
relationships you cannot frame a relationship
with a set of rules. When you make friends
with someone you do not start off by saying
“Here are ten rules we need to agree on before
we can begin our friendship.” Friendships
are based in trust and communication not in
rules.
Sabbath around the world
In English the seventh day of the week
is called Saturday. But it is significant that in
more than 108 languages of the world the
name of the seventh day of the week is simply
‘sabbath.’ In Russian it is called Subbota. In
French it is called Sabbat. In Spanish it is
called Sabado. In Italian it is called Sabbato.
In Arabic it is called Assabt. In Hindustani it
is called Shamba. It is interesting to note the
silent witness to the validity of the seventh
day being the Sabbath just by virtue of the
name by which it is called in a particular
language.
Our spiritual birthday
However, there is an even more
important birthday than your own birthday.
Your new birth in Jesus is the most important
birthday you can celebrate. The Bible tells us
that anyone who wants to be in heaven has to
be born again “Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the
truth, no one can see the kingdom of God
unless he is born again’" (John 3:3).
We were actually born again 2,000
years ago when Jesus died on the cross. Jesus
says that the new birth became possible
because he would give his life for us, “Just as
Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the
Son of Man must be lifted up. . . . For God
so loved the world He gave His only Son that
whosoever believes on him will not perish but
have everlasting life” (John 3:14, 16).
Jesus is the Creator (John 1:1-30). He
created the world and us. Jesus was present
in the beginning with His Father creating the
wonderful creatures and things of this planet.
But sin spoiled this paradise. Sin stole this
world away from God. Unless something
drastic happened people would have no hope.
So God instituted the plan of salvation
through which He redeems this fallen world,
recreates His creatures, and makes it possible
to live forever as God originally intended
(Revelation 13:8).
When we accept Jesus as our Savior
and Lord, when we are born again, we receive
a second birthday—the Sabbath. Let me
explain
Jesus rested over the Sabbath
Jesus was condemned to die on a
Friday, on the sixth day of the week. On that
day as He hung outstretched on the cross,
giving His life that we might live, He cried
out “It is finished!” (John 19:30) and He died.
The great plan of redemption was completed.
It was not by accident that He died on
a Friday, that He completed His great work of
restoration on the sixth day of the week, for
He had also completed His great work of
creation on the sixth day of the week.
On the sixth day Adam slept while
God took a rib and fashioned a bride, Eve, for
him. On the sixth day the Second Adam
entered the sleep of death and had His side
pierced between His ribs that He might
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receive a bride, the church.
Adam and Eve began their lives at the
end of the creation week, on the sixth day, so
their first full day alive was the Sabbath.
They rested before they worked. Jesus ended
his life at the end of the week. Then he
“rested” over the Sabbath after he had
“worked” to save us. Before we can work any
good deeds we must first rest in the salvation
of Jesus. We rest before we work!
Sabbath a memorial of grace
The Sabbath is a personal reminder
that we are saved by the work of Jesus and not
by our own works. As we give up the work of
the week and rest on the Sabbath we are
reminded that we are to give up any thought
of working our way to heaven. Each Sabbath
reminds us of the finished work of Jesus. Our
human nature naturally inclines us to doing
something. We are suspicious of gifts, of
something free.
To impress on us that salvation is free,
that we can add nothing to it, God gave us the
Sabbath to be a powerful symbol of our
freedom in Christ. It is a mighty object lesson
that reminds us continually that our works
have nothing to do with why God takes us to
heaven. As we rest from our regular work we
rest in the finished work of Jesus.
The Sabbath becomes our birthday,
our spiritual birthday, fifty-two times a year,
that reminds us of our heritage in Jesus. Just
as we receive gifts on our physical birthday so
we are reminded every seven days of the fact
that we have received the greatest gift ever,
the gift of eternal life. This is why it is so
important to refrain from our normal work on
the Sabbath. When we do our regular work
we destroy the wonderful symbolism that God
has given. We cloud the relationship between
faith and works. And we do not have the
time to enjoy the Sabbath, to enjoy the Lord
of the Sabbath.
Celebrating the Sabbath
So how do you celebrate a birthday?
You have a party. You come home early from
work. You stop doing the regular house
work. In fact you have cleaned the house and
got everything ready for the people who will
come and celebrate the birthday with you.
Donna Schaper, a United Church of Christ
minister, in her book Sabbath Keeping says
“the third [fourth] commandment, that we
remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, is
as much an invitation to joy as it is a law
about living. It is an invitation to a party,
not to a hanging. Sabbath keeping is not one
more thing to add to our already long lists.
Sabbath keeping is lightness, not heaviness.”1
Imagine for a moment that you have
invited a crowd of friends over to celebrate
your birthday. This is a time for fellowship,
for building relationships. But the house is a
mess, the dishes are unwashed, the bathrooms
dirty.
So you shoo everyone into the family
room while you clean up the house. Two
hours later just as everyone is getting ready to
go home you emerge and say, “Now let’s get
together and party.”
I see you smiling. You get my point.
The reason we prepare for the Sabbath is so
that we can have time to fellowship with God,
family, and friends. It is a time to celebrate
the goodness of God.
The Jews lost the true meaning of the
Sabbath. They filled it with hundreds of
rules. Many well meaning Christians have
done the same today. Jesus came, not only to
redeem us, but to live among us the true
meaning of the Sabbath. That is why He said
"The Sabbath was made for humankind, and
not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of
Man is lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-
1 but God lets us decide how we make it
Donna Schaper, Sabbath Keeping (Boston:
Cowley Publications, 1999), p. 7.
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28, NRSV). God did not give the Sabbath
only to the Jews. It was given to the human
race. It was given for our enjoyment, our
blessing. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath because
He is our Redeemer, sharing the Sabbath with
us.
The Sabbath reminds us of our
origin—creation by the Creator God. The
Sabbath reminds us of deliverance from
evil—that God is stronger than any nation.
The Sabbath reminds us of deliverance from
spiritual bondage—Christ’s death on the
cross.
Your physical birthday will always be
special but your spiritual birthday reminder is
even more special. It tells you that you are so
important, so valued, so loved, that the
Creator, the God of the Universe, gave His
life for you. You are special. You are loved.
You are valuable.
As God rested in His finished work of
creation on the Sabbath so the Christian rests
in God’s finished work of recreation in him or
her. Just as we had no part in the original
creation so we have no part in God’s
recreation. We accept the glorious gift of
salvation that God gives in Jesus
Sabbath celebrates our specialness
Every Sabbath we are reminded how
special we are. How important we are. How
important this world is to God. He made it
and He died for it. This gives the Christian a
tremendous self assurance, a tremendous
amount of joy. The Sabbath far from being
negative is the most positive event in the
week. God leaves it up to each family to
decide how to keep the Sabbath WHOLLY.
This will vary from family to family. We do
know that it is a day to celebrate God’s
making and remaking of us. It is a day that is
to be different from the other days of the week
different, just as long as we do.
 Jesus could have risen on Saturday pumping the bellows.
morning. But He honored the day that He had The maestro is not stupid. He sees
set aside from the beginning. Then He rose in how he has cluttered himself with his own
majestic triumph on the first day of the week. triumphs. He has no room for others, let
Christ gave us the Lord’s supper and alone for God. Promptly he stands up and
baptism to remind us of His death and thanks the boy for his labor and his
resurrection. But the third great symbol of faithfulness over the years. He returns to the
salvation, the Sabbath, depends on no bench. He places his hands on the keys and
material objects to remind us of salvation. his feet on the pedals and magnificent music
The Sabbath is a gift in time. We can emerges once again.2
celebrate it anywhere. It cannot be stretched, Like the maestro we need to remember
compressed, remade, or abolished. where our air comes from, where our life
When God makes a place holy you comes from. We get so carried away with
must travel to that place to experience its earning a living, working, that we forget that
holiness but when God makes time holy it this life is only temporary, that something
travels with you. It is always there for you, greater is to come. We forget who is the
anywhere. source of our life, of our salvation. The
Sabbath reminds us every seven days, in case
Conclusion we might forget, that God is the one pumping
An old story tells us about a great the bellows and that without Him we are
organist playing a wonderful concert. At the nothing.
end of the first part he finds that not only is he I missed that birthday in the Arizona
pleased with his performance but the audience desert. I do not want to miss the birthday
has risen to its feet in loud applause. celebration that God throws for me every
The maestro stands to acknowledge week. Come and celebrate with me today as
the cheers and says a few words. “Yes,” he we rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
says, “that was my best performance so far.”
As he speaks the boy he has hired to pump the
bellows to blow the air into the pipes (this
was before electricity) comes out from behind
the organ and stands on the stage with the
maestro.
“Yes,” he adds, “this is OUR most
magnificent performance ever.” The maestro
is aghast. “What do you mean we? Did you
attend music school? Did you practice every
day? Did you reach deep into your soul to
evoke that music? The boy silently slinks off
stage.
But when the maestro returns to play
the second part of the concert, he places his
hands on the keys and his feet on the pedals
and nothing happens. No music comes out.
He tries again and still nothing happens.
Everyone in the audience realizes what has
happened at the same moment: the boy is not
2
Adapted from Sabbath Keeping, pp. 34-35.

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