“Wonderful Counselor”
(First in a series of Four)
Isaiah 9:1-7

Introduction

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the four week worship season where we celebrate the first and second coming of Jesus Christ to planet earth as our hero and giver of eternal life.  Throughout this four week season, we are going to engage in a sermon series based on the four titles given to Christ in Isaiah 9.  

Now Isaiah was a Jewish prophet who lived about 700 years before Christ came to earth.  His prophecies, as recorded in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, are immense in their scope.  He proclaims God’s plans over some 10 different nations in addition to Israel.  His prophecies cover events that occurred in his lifetime as well as events that happen all through the centuries of human history until the second coming of Christ, and even into the eternal kingdom of God.  More than any other prophet, Isaiah gives us very specific prophetic details about the first and second comings of Christ, and much detail about what life will be like in God’s eternal kingdom.  It is because Isaiah speaks so much about Christ and the gospel of the kingdom that he is often called the “evangelical prophet.”

Now here is the context of the Bible passage we are about to read.  The nation of Israel was divided between the 10 northern tribes who were living in rebellion against God, and the tribe of Judah who was living in the area still encompassing Jerusalem.  The people of Judah were quickly heading down the same path of apostasy and rebellion against God that the other Jewish tribes had taken.  So God raised up Isaiah to prophesy to the people of Judah to call them back to repentance, and to warn them of the consequences if they continued in their rebellion.  Tragiaclly, the people did not repent, and were eventually taken into 70 years of captivity in Babylon.

The prophecy we are about to read was Isaiah declaring a prophecy of hope to the Jewish people in captivity.  But Isaiah’s prophesies more than just deliverance from Babylon.  Isaiah foretells of a coming Messiah who would one day deliver them and all people’s of the Earth from captivity forever, and establish an unshakable, eternal, peaceable kingdom.  


Exposition

“His name,” the name of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”  The concept of “name” is the Bible includes a person’s character, deeds, and reputation.  So it is always a powerful and fruitful study to explore the names of God revealed in Scripture.  So we are going to explore these four names of Christ beginning today with Christ as our “Wonderful Counselor.”

So what do you think of when you think of a “counselor?”  Perhaps you think in terms of a professional counselor.  We all need counsel at different times in our life of sorrow or decision.  Bookstores are filled with hundreds of self-help books.  Many people seek counsel from Dr. Phil or even Oprah Winfrey.  Do any of these qualify for being wonderful counselors?  Let’s look at one of the counselors that I use as a role model in my counseling.  (Video clip of Lucy from Peanuts)
Now obviously Lucy is not a wonderful counselor!  But even in the real world, no human counselor, no matter how skilled, can ever claim the adjective “wonderful” as used in our Bible passage.  So what makes Christ our “Wonderful Counselor?  Let’s explore three reasons why only Christ qualifies as the “Wonderful Counselor.”


I.  Christ counsels as the Wisdom of God

Christ is not just a wise counselor.  Christ is the wisdom of God.  Col 2 reveals that in Christ, “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  Now we have a hard time thinking of wisdom and knowledge being a person.  Our Western minds think of knowledge being statements of truth written on a page that we then study and apply.  Yet, the Bible reveals that truth is actually the very person of Jesus Christ.  

This means that to know truth, you must personally know Christ, and that the more you know Christ, the more wisdom and truth you will both understand and live out.  This is hard to grasp, but it is essential that we do if we are to encounter the wisdom of God, the wise counsel of God, that we all desperately need to navigate life successfully.  

What do you do when you need counsel on a matter that has to do with spiritual, relational, or life decision matters?  Who or what do you turn to?  Most mature Christians would probably respond, “Well, I seek God’s wisdom through prayer and the Bible, perhaps a wise friend or counselor type.”  Now, this is the correct answer technically.  But here is what many of us are really looking for.  We pursue these avenues hoping that we will get the knowledge, the advice, that will tell us specifically what to do about our situation in order to guarantee success, or remove the trial or pain.  So then the measure of how good the counsel becomes, did it work?  

Here’s the problem.  When this is how we pursue counsel, we are not really seeking God’s counsel, we are seeking a guaranteed method of personal success that puts us in control not God.
When we walk away from engaging an avenue of counsel, be it prayer, Bible study, conversation feeling like, “Now I am feeling more competent.  Now I got the plan, the method, the formula, which will surely work this time,” then I am suggesting that usually this means that we have not really gotten a hold of God’s counsel on the matter.  Such counsel may include some true Biblical principles, but rarely will such counsel foster the transformation and redemption in a situation that God desires.  

You see, God’s wisdom is not a statement of truth, or a method to follow, but rather the wisdom of God is the very person of Jesus Christ.  Thus, an encounter with God’s counsel will always come in the form of a relational encounter with the person of Christ.  Seeking counsel through prayer, the Word, a trusted person, is only as effectual as these avenues become a bridge to encountering the person of Christ.  You can tell if you have encountered God’s counsel on a matter like this.  Instead of walking away from the counsel feeling more competent in your own ability and in the newly discovered method or plan, you walk away feeling more aware of your absolute inability to follow God’s counsel in your own ability, and therefore more surrendered to the Holy Spirit in this area.  

The fruit of worldly counsel is an increased sense of competence or a decreased amount of personal pain.  The fruit of authentic godly counsel is an increased dependence on the Holy Spirit and others, and personal pain or trial now experienced as an opportunity to know Christ more intimately.

Let me give you two examples.  These are very typical encounters I have in my pastoral counseling ministry.  
A man comes to my office and begins to tell me of his struggle with depression.  He wants to know how to get out of it completely and permanently.  As our conversation goes on, I eventually tell him that it just might be that God is allowing this depression to draw him closer to Christ, and that God’s plan might not be full freedom, but instead that this struggle might just be a  part of the story God is writing with his life.  The man rejects such counsel, leaves with no hope, and continues to look elsewhere for a way to make life work on his terms.

A woman comes to my office and begins to tell me the story of her deeply troubled marriage, and wants me to tell her what she can do to change her husband and save the marriage.  As our conversation goes on, I eventually tell her that she obviously has no power to change her husband, and that all we can do is to see how God can use this horrible situation to draw her closer to Christ and more like Christ, and perhaps, although there are no guarantees, as God changes her, and as we pray fervently for her husband, her marriage may be saved.  But even if it is not, God can eventually turn this mourning into dancing, these ashes into beauty.  The women begins to cry and says, “I don’t know if I can ever reach a place where I can accept that how God uses this trial is more important that God ending this trial, but I am willing to try.  The woman leaves my office still in deep pain, but with a flicker of hope arising in her heart.

But we need more than just God’s wisdom; we need someone who knows exactly what it is like to go through what we are facing.


II.  Christ counsels as one who has experienced our trial  

Heb 4:15-5:1 reveals an amazing truth: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

What do we all want when we pour out our heart to someone?  Most of the time we really don’t want advice, we want an understanding, sympathetic, and empathetic heart.  When we share a deep hurt, we don’t want facts, no matter how true, like “O don’t be sad, all things work together for good you know!’  We don’t want advice, “well if you just go talk to the person I’m sure you can work it out.”  We don’t want someone to minimize our pain, “O don’t be so sad, things could be a lot worse.”  We don’t want comparison, “You think you are sad, I lost two kids.”  No, we want a listening ear and an understanding heart.  We can find great comfort in the presence of someone who just will be with us in time of trial.  

Now often, it is easier for a person has been through a similar trial to extend care and counsel to another going through a similar trial.  So to be a wonderful counselor, we need someone who is able to be fully present with us, to extend to us unconditional love and inexhaustible grace, and to also relate to what we are going through.

Friends, this is exactly why Jesus is the only truly wonderful counselor, as only Christ can extend to us this kind of care.  No one can love you like Jesus loves you.  No one can understand what you are going through like Jesus can understand.  And while often we can find someone who has been through a similar experience as us, Christ has been through every experience we can experience, and Christ did so as a human being.

When we go to Christ for counsel, we don’t discover a distant God who doesn’t know what it feels like to struggle.  We are celebrating the Advent/Christmas season, Christ coming to earth as an infant.  Christ knows what it is like to be hungry, tired, weak, betrayed, tempted with greed, lust, power, to feel lonely, abandoned, rejected.  On the cross, Christ took onto himself every disease, every injustice, every sin, and every sorrow.  When you go to Christ for counsel He knows exactly what it is like to go through whatever you are going through, and He always responds in unconditional love and inexhaustible grace!

Don’t let your flesh or another or the devil ever tell you that your sin is too horrific or you questions too disrespectful or your sorrow too deep to keep Christ from hearing you.  The Bible verse we read earlier assures everyone us that when we go to Christ we find him on a throne of grace, always ready, willing, and able to extend to us help in our time of need.  When you run to Christ, no matter how embarrassing you sin, scary your questions, or seemingly hopeless your trial, you won’t discover the arms of Christ folded in judgment, you won’t find his hands clenched ready to strike you, you’ll see him with arms wide running to meet and embrace you!

But we need more than just the wisdom of God to give us direction.  We need more that just the compassion of God to give us forgiveness and comfort.  We need the power of God to heal, save, deliver, and transform.  And that’s exactly what we discover when we go to Christ as our counselor.


III.  Christ counsels with miracle-working power

When we use the word “wonderful” we use it rather universally to anything or anyone we think is, well, “wonderful.”  But the Hebrew word in our Bible passage means, “full of wonder.”  And by “wonder,” it is referring to the miraculous.  Throughout the Bible, we read about how God almighty works “wonders.”  In the New Testament, we read accounts of God confirming the truth of the gospel trough “signs and wonders.”  When Christ is called the “Wonderful Counselor,” He is being called the “Miracle-working Counselor!”  

When we go to Christ for counsel in the way I’ve been describing, with all our heart, and seeking an encounter with the person of Christ, not some advice or formula to make life work on our terms, Christ does meet with us and extends to us the power to be healed, saved, delivered and transformed!  It may not look like the kind of healing, delivering, and change that we wanted, but it will be what God knows we need to be vessels of Hs glory and kingdom purposes.

So if Christ is the miracle-working counselor I am describing, why then do we not see much of this power operating in our life?  Two main reasons.

First of all, when we seek the person of Christ we must do so willing to accept His answer!  You see we must always remember this truth.  If God’s plans for us are mostly about giving us the most possible happiness and success right now on planet Earth in this current age, God is doing a miserable job!  But this is not God’s plan.  Life on planet earth right now for God’s people is boot camp, a training ground for our eternal destiny as co-rulers of a new planet earth and a new universe.  

Another reason many don’t experience the miracle-working counsel of Christ, is that many Christians don’t go to Christ as their first and primary source of counsel.  Many say the do, but then what they really turn to is some source of human, worldly wisdom, counsel, and healing.  

Do you need help in your marriage, your parenting, your kid’s lives, your career, your schooling, in your current struggle or sorrow? Then  don’t go first to self-help, human counselors, or even so-called Christian experts.  These may have a place later in the journey.  But if that is all you do, you might as well go to the cartoon character Lucy for counsel!

First, go to Christ with all your heart!  Seek Christ until you encounter Him face to face!  Seek the wonder-working counselor!  Christ is the guiding wisdom of God!  Christ is the comforting, empowering grace of God!  Christ is the saving, healing, and transforming power of God!  

Now we encounter the person and counsel of Christ through many avenues.  In the current age we are living in, we always encounter Christ through the person of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit primarily brings us to Christ through God’s appointed means of grace.  And of all the many means, or channels of grace given to us, prayer, the Word, and the Sacraments are the most powerful!  

So let us now seek Christ, our Wonderful Counselor, through the Sacrament of our Lord’s Table.