Wonderful, Mighty, Everlasting Prince

,

Back in bible times, the nation of Israel was really going through a rough time.

They were conquered - and had a history of it happening to them to boot

Their rights as a nation were replaced by someone else

But they were holding out hope for this promise they had received from God. Someone called the ‘Messiah’.

Isaiah 9:6 NIV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

We believe that in Jesus we saw the fulfilment of this word. And there’s something big we need to remember:

Jesus is absolutely everything we need

Jesus was the fulfiment of this promise. And this promise is more than just words - it means something to us every day.

There’s 4 big titles that Jesus fulfills in this scripture. And we all need to realize - this same Jesus is with us every single day.

Wonderful Counselor

John 14:26–27 NIV

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

When we’re in the name of Jesus, when we’re walking with Him - we have the Holy Spirit.

This word here, ‘advocate’. It can also mean assistant, or counselor, or aide.

It has a legal sense - a person arguing on your behalf before a judge.

But there’s lots of senses to this word, and they all boil down to this one core idea:

The Holy Spirit is with us to help us with everything

When Jesus talks about the counselor, the holy spirit, coming, he talks about peace.

But remember, this is a legal term. He’s talking about, when you’re at trial, i’ll send you the best advocate there is.

And we need to all understand - we’re guilty. We’re broken, and we don’t always do the right thing. And the Bible teaches, that even the smallest amount of evil in our nature is absolutely corrupting.

But Jesus says - with the Holy Spirit in your life, with Him in your life - we can look forward to peace.

STORY - Car Accident, waiting on if it was going to have any lasting health or legal impact on my life.

But

Jesus as our wonderful counselor means we can expect peace

When we believe in Jesus, when we walk with Him, we can look at whatever may be coming our way and say, ‘God is my wonderful counselor - I will make it through’.

The second title Jesus has is

Mighty God

It’s great for Jesus to pat us on the back and tell us about peace. It’s a great mantra. But words are only words until they’re actually backed up.

One of the titles that Jesus has is ‘Mighty God’. And that’s loaded on it’s own - after all, we’re saying that Jesus, this man who walked around 2,000 years ago, was God in the flesh, and that’s a big ENOUGH deal!

But the point here is the word ‘MIGHTY’.

Psalm 95:3–7 NIV

For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,

God created everything with his mighty power. From the tallest mountain to the deepest ocean. The furthest star and the smallest molecule.

In Romans 8, paul talks about suffering. He says that creation is broken, waiting to be renewed. That WE are broken, but the spirit helps us even in our weakness. And that God works in every situation to move the people who love him towards good.

Then paul says,

Romans 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

The most powerful being in the universe is on our side

It’s one thing to say the Jesus is always with us. But we don’t have half the idea of how much that really means for us. Jesus is MIGHTY God.

The deepest hole humanity has ever dug is this thing called the Kola Superdeep Borehole. It’s 40,230 feet - or 12 1/4 km deep. But to get to the core, it’s over 6,000 kilometers. In all of our ingenuity, we’ve dug 2 hundredths of a percent towards the depths of the earth - and the bible says, God is holding these depths in his hands. Mount everest is the highest mountain on earth, 8.8 km high, it takes incredible amounts of training, equipment, and time to be able get to the peak, and only a few do it. And God straight up made it himself

We forget just how unfathomable God’s might is. He made the earth, everything on it, and the entire universe around it.

There is nothing you can’t face that God can’t beat

This is why following Jesus is so amazing.

John 16:33 NIV

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Another title that Jesus has for himself is

Everlasting Father

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

When people think about God, they often think about this far off old man, standing with his gavel waiting to pounce whenever we do the slightest thing wrong.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Psalm 103:13 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;”

STORY - youth parent, couldn’t understand the idea of God’s love. As a parent, you’ve got a good idea already.

And maybe your experience with your dad was positive. Maybe it wasn’t. But whatever it was -

Jesus loves us more than anyone else ever possibly could

And he loves us forever. This title, Everlasting Father, it doesn’t just mean ‘he’s a good dad’, it means ‘he’s our father forever’. No matter what WE do, no matter what happens around us - God is the most loving father any of us will ever experience, and He’ll always be right there with us.

I’ve heard it said, and i love the phrase, that being a Christian is a relationship, not a religion. And the difference is, a religion is when we mess up and we say ‘Oh man I hope my dad doesn’t find out’, and relationship is when we mess up and say ‘Oh man I needto talk to my dad’.

The last title Jesus has in this section is

Prince of Peace

Philippians 4:4–7 NIV

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We think about this idea of peace as a quiet moment in the storm. It’s when the outside calms down enough. And peace can be a fragile thing - it’s easily broken.

But in the bible,

God’s peace is powerful armor

It’s not an easily broken thing.

And it’s not going to make sense. That’s what our verse means when it says, ‘the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts’.

But this verse, there’s a process. We take whatever is worrying us. We turn to our father - and we pray. We talk to Him about it.

And God’s peace will guard our hearts and our minds. It will protect us.

But there’s a missing step - the answer. It doesn’t say, if you’re struggling financially, God will make it rain a million dollars and you’ll finally feel better. It doesn’t say, if you’re worried about having the best looking stuff, God will answer and give you everything all bright shiny new and then you’ll feel better.

It says - when we are in need, we turn to our father. And just by being with our father, just by spending that time with Him - we get everything we need. Yes, God will answer prayer, yes he’ll take care of us. But the point is - we can be good even before we see that, because we’re with God.

This is freely available to all of us

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

There isn’t an entrance requirement, there isn’t a place where God goes ‘ya, this is here for anybody, but you can’t have it because of these reasons.’

Likewise, there isn’t a time where we can try and approach God and he’ll go ‘wait, it’s you? No thanks,hard pass.’

And God isn’t just offering us help, and power, and compassion, and peace. He’s offering us eternity. That by following Him - we can have eternal life with Him in heaven. That death won’t be the end - it’ll be the beginning.

And it’s freely open to any of us who just want to believe in Him.