“The Miracle of Marriage”
John 2:1-11
John 2:1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
The last two weeks I have preached on the home and focused on the men of our church, (A Man of the Master) and the women, (Hope for Your House). This morning I want to put the two thoughts together and say a few words on what I’m going to refer to as “The Miracle of Marriage” Is marriage a miracle? If you look at the statistics then you would have to say that it is. In the last few months I’ve had several opportunities to tell folks that Sis. Judy and I dated for 2 years in high school and have been married now for 42 more. You should see the looks and hear the language as people respond to this statement. You can tell that they admire us for the length of time we have been together, and at the same time they are amazed that we have stayed together this long, in part because what was common place two generations ago is very rare these days. Twenty years ago when you read a newspaper there were many 50th wedding anniversary announcements but today it is a rarity. My mother and father-in-law have been married 63 years and I can assure you that today this is almost unheard of. When you couple that with what is going on culturally with marriage, like the gay marriage issue and co-habitation then you can begin to appreciate the difficulty that folks have today getting married and staying married for a lifetime! In our lesson today we have the first recorded miracle that Jesus performed and interestingly enough it was at a wedding! What can we learn from this scripture?
First: We see the right way to start a marriage.
I. The Foundation of Your Marriage – “…Jesus was called…”
A. Invite Him into your marriage
There is only one foundation for your life and for your marriage.
Luke 6:48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
How about the wedding itself? I am constantly amazed at how weddings are conducted these days, even by those who profess to be Christians! Paul states in Ephesians that marriage is a metaphor for Christ and the church.
B. Invoke His blessings on your marriage
Someone has said that the couple that prays together stays together! Listen to this comment from MarriageMoment.org:
“You have probably heard the old adage, "couples who pray together stay together." You may be pleased to discover that this expression is more than just popular wisdom. Research studies have verified what Bible believing, God fearing people have understood for ages. Married couples who pray, study scripture, attend church, and otherwise jointly participate in spiritual activities really do enjoy significantly higher levels of marital happiness and satisfaction.
One such study, conducted by the University of Virginia National Marriage Project, also found that couples who think about, talk about, and practice their religious beliefs at home enjoy an even stronger positive effects in their relationships compared to those couples who only attend church together regularly. Belonging to a church assembly and participating consistently produces many benefits in a marriage that are often greatly underestimated. Churches typically provide couples with marital and family support (formally or informally) model successful unions, define ethical behavior for relationships, encourage partners to fulfill marital and familial roles and responsibilities, promote constructive conflict resolution, and so forth.
However, as the study revealed, couples who bring home these reflections on marriage and live their faith together through shared prayer, study, and devotion achieve the greatest success in their relationships. Their religious belief system provides them with a sense of purpose and meaning about life in general, and their relationship, in particular. But experiencing their faith through involvement in spiritual activities in the home has been found to be the key influence with respect to marital success and home life happiness.
These shared spiritual activities were even found to offset negative factors that typically threaten the success of marriage. For example, lower levels of income and education are generally correlated with lower relationship quality among married couples. But, shared involvement in prayer, scriptural study, church attendance, and so forth virtually erase the negative effects of the above factors in terms of relationship success.”
C. Involve Him in your marriage
Involve Jesus in your marriage and then when trouble comes, and it will, then you can turn to Him for help. Mary turned to the Lord because he was at the wedding. Without Him there would have been no miracle. With Him anything is possible! What are you going to do when trouble comes to your marriage? Howard McGlamery wrote that:
Some Grumble – Some Gripe – Some Groan – Some Grieve – Some Growl - and SOME GROW. Trouble will never leave a person the same. It will either leave you “bitter” or “better”.
A poet wrote:
“Christ is no security against storms,
But He is perfect security in the storm.
He does not promise an easy passage,
But he does guarantee a safe landing.”
ILL – Have you heard the story of "Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, Not Good, Very Bad Day"? Alexander was a boy about 7 or 8 years old, and he had one of those days when everything went wrong, disasters one right after another. Nothing went right. "It was a Horrible, Terrible, Not Good, Very Bad Day."
For instance, when Alexander woke up in the morning, he discovered that he had gone to bed with gum in his mouth, and when he woke up it was in his hair. When
he got out of bed he tripped over his skateboard, and then he dropped his sweater into the sink where the water was running. He said, "I just knew it was going to be a Horrible, Terrible, Not Good, Very Bad Day!"
Then he went to school, and he had a horrible day there, too. After school he had a terrible experience at the Dentist’s office. Then came supper, and he said, "We had cauliflower for supper, and I hate cauliflower! And on TV all I saw was huggin’ and kissin, and I hate huggin’ and kissin’!" "Then my bath water was too hot, and I got soap in my eyes, and I lost my marble down the drain. When I went to bed, Nick took back the pillow that he said I could have. And my Mickey Mouse night light burned out, and I bit my tongue, and the
cat decided to sleep with Nick and not with me. “All in all," he said, "it was a Horrible, Terrible, Not Good, Very Bad Day" When Alexander finally came to the end of that day, he heaved a sigh and cried, "I think I’ll run away to Australia." (by Melvin Newland) You’ve felt like that sometimes, haven’t you? I don’t know if I would choose Australia, but there are many days I wish I could run away to Colorado, or at the very least, just pull the covers back over my head. But there is an alternative, and the Scripture tells us what it is.
Psalms 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
The Hebrew word "trouble" that is used means "pressed in, confined in a tight space." Do you remember the old saying, "between a rock and a hard place?" That is the kind of pressure the psalmist is talking about. When life presses in upon us, when trouble comes, then we can know that we have a place to run to. It is not Australia. It is not Colorado. It is not even your own backyard. It is at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is still in the busy of working miracles. Do you need one today?
Second: For your marriage to be successful it must function properly.
II. The Function of Your Marriage – “…Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it…”
To have a successful marriage and a love that will last a lifetime then your marriage needs to function properly and the only way for that to happen is for you to obey the Word of God! You see, God has a plan for marriage and it is found in His Word. Everything in the universe is governed by laws, principles and precepts whether it is the law of gravity or anything else.
2 Samuel 22:29 For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.
Proverbs 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
A. His law is the blueprint for marriage
Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
ILL - A great concern of any city in the ancient Middle East was that they would be besieged by an invading army. So there were three things that were absolutely necessary: an abundance of food, an adequate source of clear water, and a fortified wall around the city. Many of the ancient cities had walls to protect them, and they were constantly storing up food against the day when they might be attacked. But what to do about the water supply? 2 Chronicles 32:30 tells us that among many other things that King Hezekiah did to strengthen the city of Jerusalem, he masterminded a brilliant project which would provide an endless supply of water to the city even during siege. There is a small spring called Gihon, which came to the surface just outside Jerusalem. Hezekiah had that spring stopped up, then he built a tunnel through 1,749 feet of solid rock, through which the waters of the Spring of Gihon could flow. It is called Hezekiah’s Tunnel, and is still in use to this day.
B. His love is the bond for marriage
Not just any kind of love, for there are many. There is romantic love, friendship love, and sexual attraction but God has given us a love that is better than all these others types of love. In Ephesians 5 Paul speaks of a love that transcends everything else.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
If your marriage is functioning properly then husbands and wives will love each other with the same sacrificial love that Christ had for us when He died on the Cross! You show me a marriage where one or the other partner is always taking, taking, taking and I’ll show you a marriage that will eventually wind up in divorce court!
ILL - A couple had been married for 35 years. The wife gave her husband a grapefruit for breakfast every day of their married life. One day, she ran out of grapefruit and apologized passionately to her husband. The husband replied, "That’s okay dear. I never liked grapefruit anyway."
Finally: What does the future hold?
III. The Future of Your Marriage - …but thou hast kept the good wine until now…”
A. The quality of your life together
When I first got married, and this is the experience of many couples, I thought that it couldn’t get any better. But I was in for a surprise. Not only can it get much better but that’s the way God intended for it to be. For my wife and I this year has been the best year so far and if we keep good accounts with the Lord and each other it will get better as the years go by.
B. The quantity of your life together
We need long marriages to flourish again. Our children and grandchildren need it. After the church, the home is the most important institution on earth. We need marriages to flourish again. Our culture needs it, our churches need it and our children need it.
C. The question for your life together
The real issue before you this morning is are you willing to lay the right foundation for your marriage, commit to obeying the Word of God so it will function properly so as to insure that the future will be all that God intends for it to be for marriage?
Conclusion:
On July 29, 1981, one of the most highly publicized and glamorous weddings in history took place.
• Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana
• An estimated audience of 750 million people worldwide.
• 4500 pots of fresh flowers lined the route to St. Paul’s cathedral.
• 2500 people crowded that grand church where more than 75 technicians with 21 cameras worked to enable the world to watch this wedding.
• For many people, this was a modern fairy tale. A royal prince weds a lovely lady in a grand cathedral surrounded by adoring subjects.
• They were the envy of millions. They were rich, young, handsome. It was a "marriage made in heaven."
• Sadly, we know that the fairy tale became a nightmare. The couple grew more and more distant.
• Affairs ensued. The storybook marriage made in heaven eventually collapsed into adultery and divorce.
It takes more than a prince, a princess, and a palace to make a happy marriage.
• As someone said, "marriages may be made in heaven but the maintenance must be done on earth."
• For marriages to survive, they require regular maintenance. They require effort.
