WONDERFUL COUNSELOR
His Name Shall Be Called • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Sermon Text: Isaiah 9:6-7
Reflection Text:
INTRODUCTION TO ADVENT:
INTRODUCTION TO ADVENT:
For many of us, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”.
IT’S VERY NEAT & TIDY FOR US. CERTAIN CHRISTMAS PHRASES:“FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS GIVEN…”“IMMANUEL”“WONDERFUL COUNSELOR…”We lump all these together into the Christmas narrative in our minds. We think of it a bit like a short play…
it was said that he would come,
a star,
a stable,
the savior,
some shepherds,
some wisemen,
lots of singing.
Christmas!
It’s like the Christian or the Ebony section at Hallmark, it’s a couple of cards with some beautiful words and pictures.
But the Christmas story - or better the incarnation of Jesus Christ - the promise of the ultimate Rescuer for all of mankind was a long time coming from earthly standards - perfectly timed from above.
‘Tis the Season - but I want to challenge you.
WATCH OUT FOR all the traps that this modern world will try to pass off as okay for Christians.
WATCH OUT FOR this consumer-driven, addict-enabling, that will suck you into a version of Christmas that has uses Jesus as a means to a self-obsessed end.
(INSTEAD) The challenge for us is to DIVE DEEPER into some of the RICH traditions of the church like Advent.
For my single adults: add some people into your rhythms that will push you creatively to HAVE A Christ-centered, gospel-revealing season this year
Families…Couples…let’s look for ways to slow down and focus on Jesus…and share those great ideas with your church family!
A NOTE ABOUT ADVENT
A NOTE ABOUT ADVENT
Advent is focused on the promise, the arrival, and the soon return of Jesus Christ.
It is historically broken down like this:
1st Sunday: HOPE
2nd Sunday: PEACE
3rd Sunday: JOY
4th Sunday: LOVE
Christmas Eve/Day: CHRIST
There are typically candles lit for each Sunday in protestant, orthodox, and catholic churches.
We’ll acknowledge that theme each week…BUT, we will devote our time with one of the most profound passages related to the scope of Jesus’s life and role and identity…written 700 years before He came to this earth into the womb of a virgin.
For what its worth, Isaiah’s name actually means: Yahweh is Salvation.
The importance of Isaiah’s prophecies during the Christmas season cannot be overstated.
One writer reminds us that Isaiah’s passage, when listened to accurately, and in the right context, helps us to understand just how bright the Christmas light is when contrasted against the gritty, political and social realities of the prophet’s day.
Things were not good.
INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH’S FAMOUS PASSAGE:
INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH’S FAMOUS PASSAGE:
In Chapter 8, Isaiah begins to warn the people of the coming Assyrian invasion.
He calls the people to fear the LORD. He calls them to repent - they are NOT walking in His ways.
Look at the last couple of verses of Chapter 8 with me quickly:
21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
The first part of Chapter 8 will point you in the direction of LIFE
a life in God’s strong grip
a life listening to God’s Word
a life apart from the crowd
a life of holy fear, guided by God’s laws
a life of true rest and security (even in the midst of great turmoil)
a life of faith in the LORD!
Q: WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO HAVE THAT LIFE?
Moses put two ways to live before the people of God as they were about to enter the promised land…
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
In the New Testament, Jesus points to the most fulfilling life possible - a life on His terms:
10 …I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are two ways to live…
One way leads to life - the life you were made for…to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
One way may seem right to you - but it will end in destruction.
Why would anyone want to choose a life separated from God?
Jesus actually gives us great insight into this dilemma we find here in Isaiah 8 & 9.
He says in John 3…
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Isaiah is addressing a people who loved darkness better than light!
This is a distressed people.
A hungry people.
Who get so hungry, so enraged - that they begin to sepak against the LORD. And “turn their faces upward” to curse God.
They would rather resort to witchcraft, sorcery, and trying to speak with the dead (v19) so they could “see” something powerful; than to put their trust in the all-powerful God of the Bible.
Putting all your trust in God, when everything keeps going south, is the kind of faith that lasts!
“Faith that fizzles before the finish was flawed from the first!” -Adrian Rogers
Notice the scene is set…
DARKNESS IS EVERYWHERE!
THICK DARKNESS!
The people are spiraling from Distress…hunger…rage…darkness…gloom…anguish…thick darkness.
So look at chapter 9 for a few minutes this afternoon so we can sink our teach into this first INCREDIBLE NAME given to our Lord in this text.
1. GOD’S LIGHT IS GREATER
1. GOD’S LIGHT IS GREATER
…THAN THE DARKEST DARKNESS
Isaiah 9:2-6
v1 - they’re in darkeness, but Isaiah points them to a LATTER TIME where God’s glory will be seen beyond their known nations.
THIS WAS PARTIALLY FULFILLED WHEN JESUS CAME
THIS WAS PARTIALLY FULFILLED WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME AT PENTECOST
THIS IS STILL BEING PARTIALLY FULFILLED TODAY AS WE PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL TO THE NATIONS
THIS WILL BE PERFECTLY FULFILLED WHEN CHRIST RULES AND REIGNS AGAIN HERE ON THIS EARTH…
v2 - dark & light contrasted again
people in darkness
great light shines on them
v3 - multiplication, joy, harvest
v4 - God will break the weapons of those who threaten / punish His people
v5 - the things that are consuming their lives right now will one day be consumed by GOD - the total victor of DEATH & DARKNESS
Then, as God speaks through the prophet Isaiah - the one whose name means something to his hearers: Yahweh is Salvation - Isaiah rolls back the curtain to show how this SALVATION will be revealed to the world
2. GOD’S SON IS GREATER
2. GOD’S SON IS GREATER
…THAN ANY OTHER GIFT
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
WHAT IS THE PLAN THAT GOD REVEALS TO HIS SUFFERING PEOPLE (suffering, by the way because of their own sinful, selfish desires…you can’t run around naked in a blizzard and then curse the demon of sickness that comes nigh your dwelling). WHAT WILL GOD DO?
A CHILD WILL BE BORN (to / through Israel)
Greater than any other life in the womb - truly God & truly man
not a full-grown KING appearing from nowhere.
this is NOT like Aladdin’s fairy tale
where the Genie makes him Prince Ali Ababwa and he strolls into town with his great caravan ready to take his prize
No, a child is born. Isaiah is stating this FUTURE thing with great certainty.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
A SON IS GIVEN
Greater than any other Son given - the only begotten of the Father.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
This is NOT about Hezekiah as some Jewish scholars have contended…only a couple points apply to him - not conceived by the Spirit in a virgin.
4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know!
AND HE SHALL REIGN
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
AND HE SHALL BE CALLED…WONDERFUL COUNSELOR
3. GOD’S COUNSEL IS GREATER
3. GOD’S COUNSEL IS GREATER
…than ALL OF HUMANITY’S BEST EFFORTS (EVEN MAN’S GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS)
GOD’S LIGHT IS GREATER THAN ANY DARKNESS THIS WORLD CAN CONJUR UP.
GOD’s GIFT OF SALVATION THROUGH HIS SON - THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GREATER THAN ANY OTHER THING man reaches for to save.
GOD’S COUNSEL AS WONDERFUL COUNSELOR IS GREATER THAN ANY EARTHLY KINGDOM’S GOVERNMENT OR LEAD.
REMEMBER, THESE ARE NAMES GIVEN TO OUR LORD - not just attributes:
He is more than “A” counselor who is wonderful!
This carries MORE weight than just, God is a wonderful counselor.
ONE OF THE NAMES WE CAN CALL HIM IS “WONDERFUL COUNSELOR”.
The words in the original language here point to:
The word translated “wonderful” refers to the ability to work supernatural signs (Exod 3:20);
the word counselor points to the giving of wise advice,
as advisors to the king would do (2 Sam 16:23).
Well, doesn’t that point us directly to Jesus?
He came to do signs and wonders and to give true and perfect wisdom by his teachings.
In John 3, Nicodemus would say
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Mark would record in his earliest pages,
22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
Wonderful Counselor. Say His name, “Wonderful Counselor”
Maybe you’re like me.
When you hear WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, you think of a counselor or a therapist that you might go visit.
Someone we can talk to when we’re troubled, or confused, or struggling, or realizing that life has come at us very fast!
THE LORD IS CERTAINLY ALL THAT.
He is a burden-bearer, a heavy-load-carrier, a way-maker, a load-lifter - and my heart says YES to all that.
SCRIPTURE AFFIRMS THAT!
We can cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us.
1 Peter 5:7 “7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
Hebrews 7:25 “…since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
Hallelujah! What a God! What a Savior!
But there is more to this name WONDERFUL COUNSELOR than just the best therapist you could ever hope for.
GOD’S LIGHT is greater than darkness.
GOD’S GIFT is greater than our humanity
and GOD’S COUNSEL AS RULER IS GREATER THAN THE GREATEST OF MEN!
The picture that Isaiah is painting to a people trapped in darkness…headed for more darkness…is that THIS CHILD THAT WILL BE BORN WILL BE A KING WHOSE COUNSEL WILL BE SUPERNATURAL!
THIS King is the only KING who knows how to perfectly care for those he will govern.
They have never experienced this before.
They clamored for Saul, but he was not the King they need.
David was their greatest king and yet he was significantly flawed.
Other kings and leaders had some strengths, but innumerable weaknesses.
Isaiah is encouraging this defeated people about a King - a perfect king -
the most effective in planning,
the most effective in formulating every plan for action.
A great work is to be done by him, even the greatest ever attempted.
This King, our glorious King…will have the ear of all who will listen - because He is the authoritative one.
UNDERSTAND:
HE NOT ONLY KNOWS THE PLAN!
HE DEVISED THE PLAN IN ETERNITY PAST!
HE HAS ALL THE ANSWERS BECAUSE ALL THE PROMISES WILL FIND THEIR YES AND AMEN IN JESUS CHRIST - THE KING OF GLORY.
OUR GOD IS PERFECT IN ALL HIS WAYS.
HE IS OUR WONDERFUL COUNSELOR!
His name shall be called “WONDERFUL COUNSELOR”
Because of just how loaded this term is - connected to the fact that HE IS THE PERFECT KING!
HE KNOWS YOU…AND HE KNOWS WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU!
And because HIS LIGHT IS GREATER THAN ANY DARKNESS THAT YOU WILL EVER FACE
you can call out His name!
And because the WONDERFUL GIFT OF HIS SON is greater than words can express
born to die for the sins of the whole world
so that we who should have been cut off from God have been brought near to Him because of the blood of the cross
YOU CAN CALL OUT HIS NAME!
And because HIS COUNSEL IS GREATER THAN ALL OTHERS COMBINED…
When I can’t find my way…
when I don’t understand…
when I need a friend…
when I’ve believed the lie that I am alone…
when I have lost the JOY of my salvation…
I CAN CALL OUT HIS NAME: WONDERFUL COUNSELOR!
WHAT A GOD!
WHAT A SAVIOR!
RESPONSE
RESPONSE
Where have you been tempted to listen to a lesser counselor?
If you’re not living in God’s Word, there is a good chance that your worldview is being shaped by culture (even with “Christian” sounding elements to it)
GET IN THE WORD!
If you’re not living on your knees, there is a good chance you are listening to YOURSELF more than you are God
Stop listening to Yourself so much - preach to yourself instead
TRADE YOUR LESSER COUNSELORS FOR THE ONLY ONE WHO IS WORTHY TO BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR
