About seven hundred years before Christ, a prophecy concerning Jesus’ birth was recorded in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 7:14

“The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.”

I.

The New Testament opens with the account of Jesus’ birth. In Matthew 1:18 tells us how the virgin birth prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled:

Through the virgin Mary He put on flesh and blood, the human nature, taking the likeness of the flesh (Rom. 8:3), the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7).”

Emmanuel

Matthew 1:21-23 tells us two names Jesus and Emmanuel:

“And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. Now all this has happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel’(which is translated, God with us).”

“Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua (Num. 13:16),

• which means Jehovah the Savior,
• or the salvation of Jehovah.

To save us, God did an amazing thing. The eternal God became an approachable man and lived a perfect, sinless life on earth among fallen humanity.

• As the God-man, He reached mankind with His love, mercy, and kindness.

• He spoke words of righteousness and truth to bring people out of darkness and into light.

• Then in His body of flesh and blood, Jesus suffered death on the cross for our sins.

• He accomplished redemption for us, and in baptism we are clothed with Christ, forgivenour sins and delivered from eternal judgment.  

But that’s not all. When we believe in Him, we receive the life-giving Spirit into us. He comes to live in us and be with us always, as part of His plan to fulfill His eternal purpose.

In Isaiah we come across a passage that says “His name shall be called…” This passage telling us something about his nature and character. This child that will be born, what’s so special about him?

Isaiah 9:6 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.

II.

The first descriptive name we come across is “Wonderful Counselor”.

• Some translations actually separate these first two words so it would be “Wonderful” and then “Counselor”

• I believe they are to be taken together.

• This literally translates, “a wonder of a counselor.” 

A: “Wonderful.”

The Hebrew word pala indicates “a phenomenon lying outside the realm of human explanation; that which is separated from the normal course of events.” The same word is used in

Psalm 139:6

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”

It describes something miraculous!

We often have a low view of the miraculous, and a limited sense of wonder.

• Does our sense of wonder go beyond all human explanation?

• Or have the successes of science and technology robbed us of our ability to worship a God of miracles?

Do we honestly believe that the greatest “miracles” are

• come-from-behind victories by our favorite sports team,

• or the latest in technological wizardry,

• or the wonder drug that calmed our hay fever?

All of those can be explained, but a real wonder is something beyond human explanation.

This not only describes what He does, it describes who He is. He, Himself, is the wonder!

1 Timothy 3:16,

Paul expressed the wonder of the Christ who clothed Himself in human flesh:

What He did for us in His redeeming work is beyond comprehension.

• Disturbs philosophers,

• Delights beggars,

• Comforts the brokenhearted.

B: Counselor

In its historical usage, the word pictured a king giving counsel to his people.

• Micah declared the dilemma of the Jewish captives in Babylon this way, “Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in your midst? Has your counselor perished?” (4:9).

• Long before the Child was born and the Son was given, Isaiah fore- told that God was planning to send a Counselor for the brokenhearted people of the world.

What is the evidence that Jesus Christ is the Wonderful Counselor? We see it fleshed out in a Person. We read of, reflect on, and appeal for help from the One “who became for us wisdom from God” (1 COR. 1:30).

Even as a child of 12, Jesus astounded Jewish rabbis with His wisdom

Luke 2:46-47

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

• Luke recorded that “the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him” (2:40).

• In His public life, people were amazed at His wise counsel.

• “When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were aston- ished and said, ‘Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?’” (MT. 13:54).

• Later, the apostle Paul wrote that in Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (COL. 2:3).

Are we as astonished at the wonder of a counselor as Isaiah was?

Are we captivated by His charm, insight, and practical genius?

Christ is the fulfillment of all that both Old and New Testaments teach,

• His counsel is found wherever we can find the words and provisions of God.

• The Old Testament is His story.

• The New Testament Gospels are the record of His interactions with the people of His day.

• The letters of the rest of the New Testament represent the practical application of His teaching to life.

How then does our Wonderful Counselor guide us?

• Jesus came and imparted the deep things of God,

• He counseled us about what life was all about, love.

• Love for God and love for mankind.

Colossians 2:3

In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Things Like:

• Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as your self.

• God was interested in the heart and not the outward pomp of religious guise.

• Put others ahead of ourselves.

• The Real Cost of sin.

III.

We can rely on Christ’s power

Without trusting His power, evil and hard circumstances rob me of my joy and hope but by relying on the Mighty God I can trust Him for His strength and grace for the most desperate and challenging times of life.

It is very interesting to note that this word is not the word used in the Old Testament to speak about Jehovah God as well as humans like Moses who was said to be a god to Pharaoh.

• The word used here is the word “EL” used only of Jehovah God.

• This one to come will be none other than God himself,

Philippians 2:5-11

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This one to come was God himself living and moving and eating with sinners.

• If we want to know God

• And what God wants form us we need to look no further than Jesus.

• Look at him he is God with us.

That means that God is not some impersonal force he is not distant or uninterested, he is concerned and loving and wanting us to seek him and when we do we find he’s never been far from us.

We read in John 1:1 that the word was God then in verse 14 that the Word became flesh.

CONCLUSION

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.