The Medicine of a Merry Heart

“The Medicine of a Merry Heart” was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday morning, 10/24/2021.

If you have your Bible, let’s open them please to the book of John. John chapter 2. I had five messages ready for this morning. I felt like four were heavy and one was good for the rain. So, there we go. This is the rain message.

In John 2, this is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The book of John is a wonderful, wonderful gospel. There are four gospels. Matthew makes us look at Jesus as a king. The Book of Mark makes us view Him as a servant. Luke makes us see His manhood. John lets us view Him as God.

And so, there are some insights in the book of John not mentioned in any of the other gospels. It’s called the “eagle gospel.” It flies higher than all the others. So, I hope you’ll notice this little story. It’s His first miracle.

John 2:1 “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee…” When we get our Israel trip going again, that will be one of our stops. We will actually see where the water flowed into this neighborhood, where they got the water in Cana of Galilea. So, it’s a marriage. And it says, “…and the mother of Jesus was there:”

John 2:2 “And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.” Notice just the social life of Jesus. He is hanging around his mom. So that’s a good thing as an adult age 30. He still has a good relationship with His mother. You have to work at that. And so she is invited. She gets, I’m sure, the little announcement in the mail saying you’re cordially invited to the marriage. Where? Cana of Galilea. Please bring gifts. And men are looking for plenty of food. Men don’t go to weddings to see the kiss. They go for the food. If they could, they’d rather just be eating the cake during the ceremony. I’m just telling you. But it says that they were both invited to the marriage. His disciples came also. So, there’s quite a crowd.

John 2:3 “And when they wanted wine…” And we’re not going to get into this. But realize that in the Bible days, they did not have only two things to drink — just water out of the river and alcoholic wine. They did also drink juices. They would’ve drunk apple juice. They would’ve drunk orange juice. They would’ve drunk grape juice. So, they didn’t start giving their two-year-olds alcohol as soon they were off of milk as infants. Alright. That’s a whole different teaching and a whole different concept. But we’re just going to use the word “wine” here just for a second time.

John 2:3b “…They have no wine.” They ran out of wine. Jesus said, (John 2:4) “Jesus saith unto her, Woman…” (It means “dear lady.”) “…what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” He’s referring to the day of His crucifixion when He would share the cup, the Lord’s Supper, with His disciples. His time of suffering. He’s saying that cup is not yet.

Verse five. Notice what the virgin Mary, His mother, said. John 2:5 “His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” You know, that would be a pretty good command for all of us. Whatever He says to you, do it. And that was before the Nike commercials!

John 2:6 “And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.” Or gallons. What these were — they were big water pots made out of stone. And as you came into a feast or into someone’s house, you would wash your hands in that water. They would dip it out to wash their hands, then dip it out and pour it on their feet. So, it was gallons, alright. They were little washing stations, if you will.

And then it says in John 2:7 “Jesus saith unto them…” Notice quickly here. So, they’re out of wine. A Jew did not want to run out of food or beverage at his wedding. How come? Just a little background: it is because that man is trying to prove to the in-laws he’s going to be able to take care of that woman. If he can’t even feed the guests at the ceremony, it doesn’t look good. If they run out of refreshments, they run out of wine, they run out of food, how is he going to take care of our daughter? You see? So, it’s an embarrassing situation. And the guy should have planned better.

But notice, Jesus says in for John 2:7 … Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.” John 2:8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.” The governor of the feast was the guy in charge of the refreshments.

John 2:9 “When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10. And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.”

Isn’t that how God does things? The best is always yet to come. And so, they had a pretty good beverage. But when Jesus got done with it, it was great. It went from mediocre to marvelous. It went from frivolous to fabulous. And we could go on and on. When Jesus shows up, life gets a lot more exciting. And so that’s His first miracle that he does.

Notice in verse 11. It is so powerful. All He did was say fill up these water pots, and as soon as they obeyed, that clear water turned dark purple. And it says the servants knew it. And it says in verse 11 that the disciples believed in him there. So, his disciples that were following Him — some of them were not Christians yet. They hadn’t been saved yet. But when Jesus did that miracle, they said we want Christ as our Savior. You’re the son of God. It helped people get saved.

So, you say, “Well what’s the whole thought of the message here?” We will have prayer, and then I want to speak this morning on this subject “Are We Having Fun Yet?”

For the rest of the message, be sure to watch the video above or visit our church website. You can watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook or Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.