The Miracle Of Marriage

“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.”