Automatically Generated Transcript

Let's change the powerful name to Isaiah in chapter 9 verse 6. And we want to talk about the name of Jesus this morning. As a matter of fact, if you read through the scriptures, you'll find there's quite a number of names that are given to Jesus. Some of them are titles. Some of them are descriptors of the role that he's in and also of his personhood. Sometimes the name is used to bring out the character of a person. And so in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, we have a mention of some of the names of Jesus. In fact, some of them once counted that there's probably about 200 different names of Jesus, things that he's referred to and given a sort of name or descriptor. And here we have in this passage in the book of Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, which is coming soon, about the names of Jesus. And so... Now, in Isaiah in chapter 9 and verse 6, one of those names that's listed is the name Wonderful. And rather than going through all of the list of names that he's called, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, the different ones that are in the passage, I wanted to pick on the name Wonderful. Because I think we all know that Jesus is a wonderful person, but we do not really understand what's behind that name Wonderful. And that's my purpose this morning. See if you can catch it along the way. We're going to do it by referring to a few different scriptures where a name is given to somebody who probably is, if not the Christ after his incarnation, perhaps the pre-incarnate Christ. And that pre-incarnate Christ sometimes was referred to as an appearance of God, a theophany. A theophany. And if you're certain it was actually the second person of the Trinity, then you call it a Christophany. See if you can remember that, two possibilities of theophany and Christophany. And if it is a Christophany, then it's actually the Christ before he's taken on humanity. Because one of the things about Jesus, excuse me, is that he is both man and God. And his coming to be with us, in humanity, taking on humanity, was for the purpose of his being with us. And so one of those names is Emmanuel. And Emmanuel is God with us. And so the names that are given to Jesus are to describe something about him that we can learn. And I'm particularly wanting us to learn about the fact that he's given of the name Wonderful. I think we'll need to look up our textbooks, our Bibles in the pews, if we want to look at it. So try Isaiah 9 and verse 6 if you can reach one of those Bible pews. Now if we've gotten you out of practice at turning the pages and you're coming through the Old Testament and you get to Jeremiah, you've gone too far. So Isaiah is one of the major prophets. And it's a big book, so there's many chapters, but just chapter 9 and verse 6. And there we are. For unto us a child is born, and to us a son is given. And the mention of child underlines that he is a human being. He's come into existence on earth as a child. But when it says to us a son is given, then it's talking there about the fact that he is the son of God. But he's also a son in the sense that his birth as a human being was, God the Father having a son as a human. And so that word son has got a double meaning. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. He's going to be a leader. He's going to be a decider. He's going to be a king. And his name shall be called. Now this version has got them in pairs. It doesn't have to be pairs, but they've got wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And the word wonderful is the word that we're concentrating on. How is Jesus at his birth and in his life and in his person? How is he wonderful? That's the question we're raising this Christmas morning. And so from there, we're going to go elsewhere in the scriptures and we're going to look into the Old Testament to one of these appearances, a theophany, in fact a Christophany, I believe, although that's harder to prove. But please go now to the spot where we have Judges chapter 3, 13 verses 2, 3 and 6. Judges chapter 13 verses 2, 3 and 6. And it's going to be a bit of a reading through just to get the storyline. But this is about the birth of Samson. You heard about the bloke who pushed down the whole temple or the whole building, the assembly hall that Philistines were in. He killed the lot. And he's often known because of his career with Delilah. But Samson is a person who actually did succeed by killing off all those Philistines of delivering Israel. And one of the things that the people in the Old Testament who are understood as judges is that they were military leaders who brought victory to Israel. And Samson was quite successful in the end, even in his death. But this is about his birth. And the personage of interest to us is the messenger who brings to the parents of Samson to be. Brings to him, brings to them that he's, you know, what he's going to be. There was a certain man of Zorah, the tribe of Danites. Dan was forefather, Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And often in the scriptures you find that there's a story of God reaching down to people who've got a drastic problem who've got a heartache. And this is another one of those stories. Hannah was another young woman who had no children and prayed to God. She ended up being the mother of Samuel. Here is this woman who's got the problem and she's barren. Verse 3. The angel of the Lord. Notice how it capitalises the word Lord. There's actually two words that are strung together to make this angel of the Lord. The word angel is the word Lord. The word angel is the word Lord. The word angel is the word Lord. The word angel is the word Lord. Angelos really means messenger. And messenger of the Lord is messenger in the sense that it's a personage who brings the Lord to be present. So it's the idea of this angel of the Lord. And then it says appeared. So it's an appearance of God himself appearing in a way that human beings could see him. Now our eternal God is invisible. He doesn't have a body. But he can appear. And turn up. And that's what you call a theophany. Or in this case I believe it's a Christophany. An angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have not born children. You are to conceive and to bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor to come to his head for the child shall be a Nazarite. Now this is a special vow taken whereby they're going to be born. They don't cut their hair. It's not because short hair was wanted back then but just because it's a part of the Nazarite vow. He'll be a Nazarite to God from the womb. And he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Well women told the husband, A man of God came to me and his appearance is like the appearance of the angel of God. Very awesome. I didn't ask him where he was from and he didn't tell me what his name was. But he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean for the child shall be and he goes on to say that being a Nazarite. Now what happens, we'll continue down, is that Manoah prayed to the Lord and he says, O Lord, please let that man of God whom you sent to come come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who is to be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the fields. But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told the husband, Behold, the man who came to me turn to the next slide. The man that came to me the other day has appeared to me. And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am. And you know that's a bit of a signal. I am is the name of God. He said, I am. And Manoah said, Now when your words come true what is it to be the child's manner of life? How do you want us to raise him in other words? And what is his mission? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful to do. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine; this is a part of the vow that she was to take or any strong drink or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her, let her observe. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you. Let's be put on a spread. And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, If you detain me, I will not eat your food but if you prepare a burnt offering then offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not eat; he did not know that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord he's a bit cheeky, don't you think? The angel said to the angel Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name? So that when your words come true we may honour you. And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. Now if you've got a pew bottle there down on the bottom it's got a little note and the note is that wonderful means it gives the idea that it's impossible to know. It's not knowable because it's beyond understanding. That's what actually the word wonderful means. It means something beyond the scope of normal human possibility. It's something that's beyond the reach of humanity as we know it. Wonderful means something that you wonder at because you just can never come to grips with it. That's the meaning. That's the meaning of the word. And in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 the name of the baby to be born includes wonderful. That he's something far beyond our ever being able to estimate and grasp. If you wanted to find some Australian slang you'd say his name is over the top. It doesn't really do the full job. But there's something beyond our capacity to compute and to do the full job. And to do the full job. And to do the full job. And to do the full job. And to do the full job. And to do the full job. And to do the full job. And to digest and to take on board his name is wonderful. And as it talked about his name being so the way that their culture was it wasn't just talking about the very name being something you can't pronounce. It's not like a name of another language and you never get it right. But when it says wonderful it means that you can't get to the bottom of what it means. Because of who he is he's beyond estimation. He's beyond us ever catching up with the full total. Of who he is. That's what the name wonderful is. And not only do we find in the scriptures that this word wonderful is used of our Lord but it's also used of the things that he does. I've got another passage to turn you to and you won't even notice the time going by if I don't remind you. But let's turn now and look and see how Moses and his sister use this word. And so we better go to Exodus in chapter 15. Verse 11. Exodus chapter 15. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness? That's about the admiration you can give to his glory and his holiness. Awesome in glorious deeds. Awesome. Wow, that's an Australian word we use. Awesome. Awesome in glorious deeds. Then doing wonders. It's the same word. But here it's not so much to describe the personage of the Lord as the acts that he does. And one of the things about what God does when he steps into a scene is that he can achieve something that leaves us gasping at the wonder of what he's done. Now that happened all through as we've been talking in recent months about the old covenant and the new covenant. The old covenant was one where God acted with mighty power. Where God did things to release them out of Egypt and the bondage to the Egyptians there and then to keep them released when the Egyptians came chasing. God did things that caused Moses and caused his sister to develop a song. And it's been very good for us to have different people involved in the music and some of them go to the trouble of getting new songs and we're enjoying some of those now. And those songs are produced by there being some awe come to the hearts of people to try and put into words. And one of the features about music and songs is that the words don't ever really get all the way. And that was the case with the description of God's actions when he stepped in to save Israel when they were being chased down by the Egyptians and the chariots and the horses and the soldiers with swords and spears were coming after them hoping to catch them and the Israelite people got to the edge of the Red Sea. There was nowhere to go and the galloping hordes coming behind them were getting closer. And Moses was told to go and put that rod of his in the water and the sea parted. Now so glorious was the victory that happened against those who sought to get them that if we look at the rest of the verses I don't know how many ones you got there. You're doing a good job. I don't always make it easy, I know. But in Exodus 15 I think it's Exodus 15 or do we need to go to Psalms? I think we'll go to Psalms chapter 88. Psalms in chapter 88. I think it is there. Well this is another verse that's still relevant. Do you work wonders for the dead? This is God speaking about wonders. The answer is no, you don't. Do the departed rise up and praise you? The dead ones, do they come and praise you for your wonderful things? No, they stay dead. Is your stead love, steadfast love declared in the grave? Is there anything about a funeral that's wonderful? Not with a person staying dead. We all face what is the grave. It's appointed unto a human being once to die and after that the judgement. There's nothing wonderful about that. Are your wonders known in darkness? No. Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Well anyway, our friends Moses and Aaron and I think I meant to write down the Psalm that they did this in. They had a beautiful expression and it'll take me a while to find it. I won't, but I'll tell you what it says. They sing about the wonderful works that God has done and they make a bit of a chorus out of it about the horse and the horse and rider thrown into the sea. You know how the chorus you sing it over and over a few extra times along with the verses. They had some verses but they had this the horse and rider thrown into the sea and what they were singing about was what happened when Moses put his big rod into the water the way the waters passed became big banks of a wave that's not breaking. On either side were these big banks of water. How? God did it? We don't know. It's a wonder not describable. There's all sorts of silly people who try and explain the miracles of the Bible by saying oh there was an earthquake upstream and it caused all the soil to come down and stop the waters. You don't have to help God with these wonders in your explanation because that's what a wonder is, it's something you can't explain. That's what the word means. Beyond explanation and Moses and Aaron sang a song about how the waters just heaped up and the Israelites went across and they went across on relatively dry land it wouldn't have been too dry and then along come the Egyptians and they ride into the same track but God lets the waves come down onto the Egyptians and they get drowned and their chariots get stuck and the horse and the rider if you imagine the chariot the blokes are going as fast as they can those Egyptians and suddenly those wheels get down a little extra and they suddenly grip. Where do you think the horse and rider go? The horse and rider thrown into the sea. And Moses and his sister make a chorus the horse and rider thrown into the sea and it goes through quite a lot of the Psalms just there and it's because they're moved to sing about something beyond human explanation. Do you know the history of the western world is configured by people trying to explain the gospel set in the virgin birth. You don't have a gospel if you take out the virgin birth. The virgin birth is how the eternal son took on humanity by the way permanently. He didn't intend to leave it behind and when Jesus ascended it was the man Christ Jesus the eternal son of God Christ Jesus who got lifted up and back to heaven and has been instituted as king of kings and lord of lords and what the whole of the angelic hosts must have gasped when God the father let the name that had all power the name that is which all things have to bow the name Jesus a human name now we think of that as a very rare name because not many people call those little boy Jesus these days but in those days it was a common name it actually was the Greek form of as I said the other day of the Hebrew Moses not Moses Joshua and Joshua's name had been tailored to mean a little twist in it to mean that Jehovah can save and the name in Greek is Jesus and the name and it was a common name amongst Jewish people before Jesus came because it was something to be aspired at if you had a son as I mentioned sometimes the fathers of a newborn boy would go out in the street and call Judah Judah if they're of the right lineage because they're saying this could be the Messiah because the Messiah they didn't understand they did understand that the Messiah would be someone coming of that lineage and he would be anointed of the Spirit and he would be the Christ what they didn't grasp that he would be the eternal God there's nothing less in Jesus of God than of the Father being God or the Spirit being God we have God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and this God the Son he didn't have a body before the incarnation he was eternal with the Father and he was as it was were just Spirit but now when he took on humanity he had humanity and it's full humanity though the verse sometimes the Bible uses words like in the form of God it doesn't mean that he just looked like God he actually took on being in God in human form that's what it's trying to say Jesus came and he is eternal God he's as much God as is the Father and he represents the Father when you see him you see God as in John's Gospel as Jesus argues with the Father with the Pharisees about who he is and he talks about the fact that they were all claiming Abraham as their ancestor you don't need any Christ to come along and Jesus says before Abraham was I am and that I am articulated is saying God like in the Garden of Gethsemane when they came to arrest him and Judas and the others were there Judas had led them and as they come to arrest him and they Jesus says who are you looking for and they say Jesus of Nazareth and he says I am they all fall back to the ground he has to let the poor things get up so they can arrest him Peter tries to step in and Jesus stops that when he cut off the fellow's ear I am before Abraham was said Jesus I am that's the name of God and it's wonderful wonderful because you can't explain it and if you were to be a person who's trying to explain it who's trying to argue with Christianity and you say to me I can't get that Trinity things I say join the club none of us can explain it because it's too wonderful that's what this passage means his name shall be wonderful and not only is it his name that is wonderful but the things that he does I I knew I had a sermon I could take all year long on one sermon on this I just want to tell you take a few moments to show you something that he did not only is his person beyond explanation over the top completely beyond our ability to rationalize but so were the things that he did Matthew 27 verses 45 to 54 Matthew 27 verses 45 to 54 we're going to look here and see something that happens when Jesus came for the pinnacle when he came for the grand finale or the almost grand finale of his mission I think the grand finale is his resurrection and ascension but on the cross he came to the very point of why he was here and Jesus came and in this spot which is Matthew 27 45 to 54 you'll find it talking about some things that happened when Jesus Christ went to die on the cross and some of those things are just absolutely beyond explanation first of all there was in the temple this is normal I've got it now we'll read it from verse 45 for now the sixth hour six hours we'll put it at midday I guess there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour to 3pm in the afternoon and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice Eli Eli labba sabachthani that is my God my God why or how hast you have you forsaken me how was it that the eternal trinity had at that moment that the Father forsook the Son can you explain it was happening in darkness and some people try to compute and say maybe there was an eclipse but it's the wrong moment in history and time of day no there was some spiritual darkness that blacked out everything and nothing could be seen some of the bystanders hearing what was being said by Jesus my God my God how you have forsaken me they said this man's calling for Elijah because Eli is how he said my God and one of them at once ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink earlier they'd offered him something to take the pain away and he refused it but now he drinks it let's read it let us wait and see whether Elijah will come to save him and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up the spirit and behold here's the point the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split and the tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who'd been fallen asleep they'd died earlier were raised and coming out of their tombs after them after his resurrection notice coming out of their tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many nobody could explain these saints from the Old Testament it must have been a shock when they came and knocked on your door and said I used to live here or whatever they'd happened I don't know when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake that had taken place they were filled with awe Jesus' death and the death of Jesus was so awesome that even the people who put him there were filled with awe and the leader of the group said truly this was the Son of God Jesus in his death was wonderful in how he died how he took our sins all that happened I've gone all day about what happened as Jesus was on the cross and the more I talk of Jesus the more you'd say to me yes he's wonderful how he dealt with Mary his mother how he spoke to the thief on the cross Jesus is wonderful and any person who comes to the place of knowing Jesus of letting him be Jesus to them understands that something beyond description has happened to them I do believe listen to me I do believe that there's a sense in which every person becoming a Christian if they could review the moment if they could bring back the information if they could dwell on what the scriptures say happens at those moments they would say that something beyond description something over the top something and if they're part of their coming to Christ included to catch sight of the one who's coming sometimes people are more aware of Jesus and his arrival in their lives and others but if they could they would talk about it the rest of their lives because both he and what he does when he comes when he comes to you is wonderful it is beyond explanation it is over the top it is glorious it is filled with the power of God do you know I believe that all of us in some sense have had a touch of the wonderful one if you're a real Christian and sometimes it helps us do things that we couldn't have ever imagined we could sometimes it helps us fulfil roles that the rest of our Christian friends didn't think we were capable of either many a story there is of someone to whom Jesus comes maybe at their conversion or maybe later they get a call and one person I've just got for an illustration I'm going to pick many but one thing is a little lady who was only five feet now someone five feet that's probably an English person although they have some tall people as well yes she was an English person and she was born early in the 19th century and in church one day she felt that God called her to be a missionary to China she told everybody that that she was going to be a missionary but she wasn't very educated she wasn't very capable she didn't look the type who could do much at all in the public eye she was only five foot tall she didn't look very strong Gladys Aylward was her name she applied to mission committees to let her go as a missionary and they all turned her down she didn't look the part but thankfully such was the impression on her that God was bringing a call to her and when it's Christ who gives you the call I want to tell you that it's wonderful there's something about the call of Jesus that enables even the man who's got a withered hand Jesus in the synagogue said stretch it out and the man he couldn't stretch it out but when it's Jesus who calls because of his wonderfulness the man was able to and the arm was healed the hand was healed Jesus is the person who raised Lazarus from the dead can you think of anything more ridiculous anything more inappropriate and it's likely not to work is to go to the tomb and start calling someone's name if you don't believe me go to Tuong there's a nice cemetery there you can walk amongst the tombs go along read the name and say come on Herbert up you get see how many people you have come but when it's Jesus who does the call and he says Lazarus the dead man comes to life again the Bible tells us that there will come a moment when Jesus returns to this world and he is going to come in the heavens and he's going to call the dead to rise and when Jesus says arise there's going to be people springing out of tombs all over this planet it's called the rapture and it's in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and it's really in the Bible and the word that's used to the people being caught up is the word snatched snatched up it's a sudden action of Jesus and the power of his call because his call is wonderful and when he comes at the end of the age all the world is going to see him I think he'll do a tour around the globe and his people are going to see him and be in awe at him because you can't see Jesus coming to be judge of the world and not quake and not cheer or not have some response depending on what he is to you and on this Christmas morning we're coming to you we're confronted with him coming into the world and the Christmas story is wonderful wonderful his name Jesus has become wonderful let him be wonderful to you this Christmas let us pray oh Lord I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't think I could come out with a shout that would be sufficient to underline the beauty of who Jesus is the wonder of what he does the amazing thing of how what he does in our lives now is a fruit of what he did in his life then and we read the gospel story of how he died on the cross from the cross for our sins and how he rose again I didn't get to talk about the resurrection save that for another day but when he rose it was in such a manner the whole Roman army couldn't stop it with their putting locks on the stone or whatever they did and their seals to stop people getting in and the big stone rolled down and an angel came and rolled it away it was wonderful the resurrection of Jesus just like his ascension into heaven and the name that now has been made his name the name or given to his name Jesus the name that carries the authority of all of heaven and at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess one day that Jesus is Lord oh Father if there's someone who's not yet surrendered to the one the wonderful one might they today on this day find their place of quiet prayer and say the name Jesus please be my Lord and Saviour please come into my life by your Holy Spirit and live in me may that happen to someone today because it's been for them a wonderful Christmas we ask it in Jesus' name Amen.