Sermon preached by John A. Huffman, Jr.
December 4, 2005
Copyright © 2005, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.
JESUS--THE WONDERFUL COUNSELOR
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
It was a time of national crisis. The people of Judah were ruled by the wicked King Ahaz. Weak in faith, faltering in leadership ability, the corrupt Ahaz was willing to compromise everything he had to survive. His own sons he offered in pagan sacrifice. Fearful of foreign invasion, he involved his nation in entangling alliances. Gathering together the sacred temple treasures, he gave them away in exchange for temporary protection from foreign invasion.
Isaiah, the prophet, observed the darkness that had settled in over the people once blessed by God. Seeing his nation bowed to the breaking point by dread of foreign conquest, he predicted: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness--on them light has shined" (Isaiah 9:2).
We don't know how much he understood of what he wrote. We do know that the Holy Spirit of God came upon Isaiah amidst the impossible situations of his life, causing him to predict, over 700 years in advance, God's deliverance. This is a Messianic prediction.
Again the vision came. Isaiah wrote it down in Isaiah 9:6: "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders. . . ."
A ray of hope broke into the world in an even fuller revelation of the promise given to Eve that someday One would come who would bruise the head of the serpent, Satan. This was another glimpse of the One who would bring deliverance. Even as Abraham rejoiced to see His day and Moses anticipated His coming, the prophets again picked up the ancient Messianic predictions. No, the hope of the world does not rest on a principle. Nor will good laws solve all our problems. Optimists can predict the advance of civilization. Yet, the Scriptures predict that the hope of the world is in a person--God's Messiah. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, descriptive words come, telling of the One who would provide God's deliverance.
That's the Good News of Advent. That's the Christmas story. A Child is born. A Son is given. The heavy weight of all authority rests upon His shoulders. The symbol of divine majesty is embroidered on His royal robe. Isaiah, catching a glimpse, ascribes to Him four lofty titles as he says, " . . . and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
A shaft of light appears throughout the Old and the New Testaments. It's God's everlasting light of redemption. This light has names attached to it--descriptions of the One who would come. In this case, Isaiah declares that the coming One will be proclaimed by those who know Him to be the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
During these four Sundays surrounding Christmas, we are going to take a detailed look at these four descriptions given to Jesus, whom we worship as our Savior and as our Lord.
Have you ever been in need of a counselor? Day in and day out, persons come to those of us on the pastoral staff, seeking counsel. Many of these persons we are able to help. Occasionally, we refer to other counselors who have more specialized gifts, training, and who devote their full time to this practice. One of the most valuable persons in the world is a good counselor. The right therapist can help you plow through a mountain of emotional and personal problems.
The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, refers to Jesus as a "Wonderful Counselor." I commend Him to you. He is always available. His price is right. And He has unlimited resources that He desires to share with you.
Five features commend Him to you as One who is rightly called the "Wonderful Counselor. "
First, this Wonderful Counselor is a specialist in reality testing.
If you are at all like me, you have a tendency of going around in a cloud of fantasy. Sometimes it's an optimistic fantasy. At other times it's pessimistic. We become little Walter Mittys, fondling exaggerated visions of who we are. We imagine ourselves to be much more important than the world will ever see us to be. Do you ever have daydreams of your significance? Perhaps they're not just daydreams. Perhaps there's all the empirical data to convince you that you are a very significant person. You have the trappings of financial, political, social, intellectual, and physical power--in imagined or real ways. Things are going your direction.
On the other hand, we plunge into depressions. We see nothing good at all happening. How many people I've talked to during times of economic recession who have been shattered in their self-confidence. I have talked to a number of people who once had the "Midas touch" and really thought they could do nothing wrong financially who in recent years have discovered that they just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Now, they're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Jesus Christ puts a mirror in front of you. He helps you see yourself as you are. He does some reality testing for you. He keeps you from ever viewing yourself as more than you are. And He refuses to let you view yourself as less than He created you to be.
He tells you that you are created by Him as someone special. Remember seeing Mr. Rogers on television? Fred Rogers was a remarkable person. Perhaps your children or grandchildren played his record in which he describes how "special" every little person is. He had a beautiful way of quietly, positively affirming every little child as created with a uniqueness all of their own. I admired his ability to get across the realistic message in which each young person was encouraged to not think more highly of themselves than they should but at the same time to not put themselves down. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister. His was a biblical message derived from his observation of how Jesus Christ always treated persons, no matter what their position in life happened to be.
Jesus deals with you and me in a way that respects God's creation. God knew what He was doing when He created this whole universe. How significant is this statement in Genesis 1:27: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Moses goes on to record, "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). You are special.
Jesus also confronts you with those negativistic traits that you know reside within you. He minces no words. He does not demythologize the concept of sin, referring to it as some strange, social disease inflicted upon you by society. Instead, He alerts you to your rebellion, your failure to live up to His ideal plan for your life. He points out your responsibility. He helps you and me see how easy it is to con ourselves into living at an animalistic level and labeling it human.
I am amazed at the entertainment now being brought into our home on cable TV. Occasionally there is a good movie. But I must admit how amazed I am to discover how much violence, blasphemy, nakedness, heterosexual and homosexual adultery and fornication are piped right into the living room. And every news report includes horrendous stories of killing and terrorism of other kinds in the Middle East and other places in the world.
Jesus does a masterful piece of work in reality testing. He helps you and me look within ourselves and see the inhumanity, the animalistic level at which we so often live. And He reminds you and me of that tremendous potential God has given us if we'll only take advantage of that gift. He bluntly tells us how stupid are many of our actions and attitudes. He urges us to live above our own individualistic selfishness to see that we live in community. He emphasizes the fact that He places the solitary in families. He has given us the Church, a therapeutic community in which we can be ourselves in relationship to others who are themselves and encourage each other to a life that swims against the cesspool stream of so much of contemporary existence.
Second, this Wonderful Counselor named Jesus is empathetic.
The dictionary defines empathy as, "the capacity for participation in another's feelings or ideas." This is how Jesus functions.
He has been where you are. That's the miracle of the Incarnation. The Bible teaches in Hebrews 4:14-16:
Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This means that Jesus Christ has crawled under your skin. He identifies with you. He knows your hunger. He knows your thirst. He knows your physical weakness. He knows your aspirations. He has been tempted just as you have been tempted. Could He have sinned? Yes, He could have sinned, or He would not have been truly tempted. What credit is there to Him to have claimed to have been tempted if He could not have sinned? What kind of identification would that be? Or why even make the claim? Never forget that this Jesus was wholly man as well as being wholly God. He emptied himself and took human form so as to identify with you where you are. He had His economic limitations. He didn't even own a pillow, much less a bed. So you've been betrayed by a friend--Jesus had Judas.
Do you feel this empathy? To put it in the old expression, "He's walked a mile in your moccasins." That's why He understands. He knows your loneliness. He feels your alienation, and He knows how misunderstood you are at times. He feels your anguish when you work so hard to communicate and then end up getting nailed or nailing yourself to a cross.
Third, this Wonderful Counselor provides you a great catharsis.
He's a good listener. Do you want to be emotionally healthy? If so, it's important that you articulate to someone else some things about your life that you would probably just as soon keep secret. I know you have those dark areas you keep covered. I know because I have them too. You have that unresolved anger. You have that guilt for something you did perhaps a long time ago, and you can't get that burden off your back. You need to talk to someone about it. There are those sins that need to be confessed. Jesus is willing to listen.
A major part of counseling is creative listening. It's important that you express your deepest feelings. Carl Rogers, a Chicago psychologist, has been a major proponent of the "non-directive" method of counseling. He encouraged his clients to express themselves. He did his best to simply be an enabler of their conversation. Seldom did he inject his own personal opinion or experience. If speech came slow, he would restate what he had just heard, priming the pump for more conversation. He urged therapists to develop listening skills. He encouraged counselors to provide an environment in which the counselee could basically work out his own problem as he ventilated, bringing up into the open his deepest concerns.
I encourage you to open up with Jesus. Stretch yourself out on the Therapist's couch. Imagine Him in the room with you. Talk to Him. Tell Him what worries you. Tell Him what excites you. Express to Him those positive and negative feelings that you live with and you wouldn't dare share with another person. Express to Him those feelings that you know would scare your husband or wife. Talk to Him about the memories of your childhood. Share with Him your fears. Express to Him your hurts. Even feel free to let Him know wherein you are angry with Him. And talk to Him about others and their needs.
My wife, Anne, studied at Fuller Theological Seminary. The area in which she did her work is called "Spiritual Formation." One of the areas in which she experimented was that of keeping a diary--a spiritual journal. I would observe her across the living room each morning during this time. She read her Bible, she exposed herself to other devotional materials, and then she spent quite a bit of time writing. I decided perhaps I could benefit from doing the same thing. So I started keeping a spiritual journal.
You know, this was a revolutionizing experience for me. I must admit that over the years I had become somewhat sloppy in my prayer habits. I could spend a lot of time saying very little. My mind would wander. There was less and less precision to my expression. Now, as I occasionally journal, I do some of my praying on paper. I am much more in touch with my deep, inner feelings. I've discovered that I have mood swings. One day I may be feeling pretty good about life in the ministry; the next day there may be great discouragement. By writing in the presence of Jesus Christ, I experience a catharsis, a cleansing, a freeing experience. I hope you don't get a hold of my journal. I don't want anyone else to read it. You'd be confused. Yet Jesus isn't. That's the exciting fact. He's not at all puzzled by what He reads because He knows me better than anyone else knows me. He takes a joy in my opening up myself to Him. He wants me to express myself. He's willing to read my journal and accept the integrity of my expressions even if He really wants to move me beyond my doubts, my worry, my fear, my resentment, my bitterness.
Fourth, this Wonderful Counselor offers you forgiveness.
His grace is sufficient for your every need. He's in the business of healing persons. He accepts you with your neuroses and psychoses, tenderly willing to stand by you no matter how complicated your life may be.
Jesus can offer you something that no therapist can offer. He can offer you the forgiveness for sin.
This got Him into a lot of trouble when He was here on earth. The scribes and the Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy when He would declare the forgiveness of someone's sin. They said that only God could forgive sins. Jesus, in a very gentle but firm way, said, "That's right. Only God can forgive sins." And He continued to declare the forgiveness of sins to all who repented. That's why they nailed Him to the cross. They could handle a prophet, but they couldn't handle the One who claimed to be God.
No human being can forgive sin except the One perfect human who was also the Holy God. Nothing you've ever done is unforgivable. He came offering salvation. He urges you to confess your sins. He will forgive you your sins, and He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
He's gone so far as to declare that if you open yourself to Him and confess your sins, He will remove them as far as the East is from the West. He, himself, actually bore your sins in His body on the cross, enabling you to die to sin and live to righteousness. What fantastic Good News!
A good counselor will probe at your areas of guilt. A good counselor knows how life can be distorted by one's sins of the past and present. My friend, this Wonderful Counselor not only probes at guilt, He forgives your sins.
Fifth, this Wonderful Counselor offers you continuing day-in and day-out guidance.
Jesus is an Author. He has written a Book. It's compiled by persons of His choosing. You know it. It's the Bible. It's filled with down-to-earth, common sense, practical wisdom as to how you can live your life most creatively. You can have His direction. You can have His understanding.
This Book, the Bible, is a text book on how to live life creatively. It's really the "Owner's Manual." Much to my own disgust and pain, I find out that some of the breakdowns I experience come from my failure to follow the instructions. Life goes much more smoothly when you know what you are doing. You save yourself a lot of trouble don't you? But we enjoy living flying by the seat of our pants.
Why don't you try an experiment for one month starting today? Read one chapter out of the Book of Proverbs everyday. That book is loaded with wisdom. It is a book of counsel. It tells you how to live with yourself, with your family, with your neighbors, with God. Try it out. Move on to other parts of the Bible. Read one of the Gospels. Read some of Paul's letters to the young churches. In fact, read just about any part of the Bible, and you'll have guidance of an objective, specific nature that will help you live creatively. The Lord is willing to show you the way.
However, that's not all there is to His guidance. Not only does He show you the way; He is willing to walk with you in it. Not only is He willing to help you discover for yourself an ultimate value system; He is willing to walk through every minute of every day with you. He's a Friend who cares for you. He's interested in every detail of your life.
I discovered that Jesus doesn't always give me the guidance I want at the time I want it.
For example, 26 years ago, we were planning to move our church over to the 14-acre Castaways Point. The Irvine Company had agreed to sell us the land at a very reasonable price. Then, at the last moment, they withdrew the offer. We took that as the Lord's will and sang the "Doxology" and moved on to redevelop our present site in the form you now see it. Even that went through two totally different architectural plans until the city council insisted on the modifications we have now in our present plant.
For the past 11 years, we have been working to add a youth/family center. At first, we tried to purchase land across the street from the Masonic Lodge. We discovered that was not feasible and moved ahead with the plan that has consumed us throughout the last five years of adding a 36,000 square foot youth/family center plus additional meeting rooms, landscaping and parking for an additional 150 cars. We should have been in the new facility a couple of years ago, but the controversy in the neighborhood was such that the Newport Beach City Council cut us back to 15,000 square feet, a reduction of 60 percent. When coupled with the time delay, the increase in cost is actually 30 percent more.
Your Session, last Tuesday, prayerfully seeking guidance from the Lord, looked at four options: (l) the 60 percent less for 30 percent more in cost; (2) a refurbishment of our present site without the addition of a youth center/gym; (3) doing nothing now during the rest of my time as pastor; or (4) moving ahead in a reconfiguration of our present square footage, adding a youth/family center with a gym where Dierenfield Hall now stands and reconfiguring the rest of the property, adjusting to that priority. It is this fourth option that we have chosen, believing God has led us to take seriously the concerns raised by our neighbors and the many conditions that would have been imposed on us should we expand by as much as one square foot and also the exorbitant, additional cost of underground parking, which would be $9-10 million for an additional 150 spaces. It has taken a long time to know the will of God, but He now has given us His guidance through the external circumstances. And we have now sung the "Doxology" once again as we did 25 years ago, anticipating that a future generation will look back on this decision as the right decision as we move forward, confidant that we now have the mind of the Lord.
Warren Wiersbe, in his study of Christ as seen in Isaiah, in his book titled His Name Is Wonderful, writes:
God does not give his counsel to the curious or the careless; he reveals his will to the concerned and the consecrated. Some believers take the attitude, "I'll ask God what he wants me to do, and if I like it, I'll do it." The result is predictable: God does not speak to them. Unless we have a serious desire to know and to do the counsel of God, he will not reveal his will to us.
Wiersbe goes on to write:
Sad to say, many times people have come to me for spiritual counsel without a desire to seek the mind and will of God. They were impatient; they wanted me to hand them a pre-packaged plan. They were unwilling to discipline themselves in Bible study and prayer to diligently seek the wisdom God had for them. They expected to find nuggets of truth lying on the surface of life, and were unwilling to dig for the hidden treasure.
Yes, we have a God whose name is Jesus the Christ who is the Wonderful Counselor. He wants to give us His guidance in His time and in His way.
Fortunately, God is not way off there somewhere. He's right with you. His name is Jesus Christ. He is a Wonderful Counselor. There may be occasions on which you'll need to pay $100 to $250 for a "50-minute hour" to receive counsel from a talented human being. Thank God for persons competent to counsel. Yet these persons have their limitations. They can't go home with you. They can't sit up at night with you. The Lord will. He'll accept you right where you are at this moment even if you can't fully believe Him.
So you say, "This all sounds good but too good to be true." Well, it is awfully good. But it's not too good to be true. It is true. Isaiah had a glimpse of the One who was and continues to be the Wonderful Counselor--Jesus the Christ. If there is one contribution I'm privileged to make to you in my years as your pastor, it would be this: I would like to give you the gift of the awareness of the fact that Jesus Christ is your Wonderful Counselor who provides reality testing, empathy, catharsis, forgiveness and guidance. My prayer is that you will trust Him, follow Him, letting Him walk with you as you are willing to walk with Him every single day of your life.