He Will Be Called Wonderful Series

HE WILL BE CALLED...WONDERFUL

Isaiah 9:6

What’s in a name? Our names mean a great deal to us.

Most of us strongly identify who we are with what we are called. Names make a difference to people. Some people go to court to change their names. Parents agonize over choosing names for their children. And they even have books to help them with that. I suppose most of us have at one point in our lives complained about our names. I know I have. I even thought I could change my name when I got married.

I thought to myself how nice it would be to have a more ordinary name, you know, like "Bill"

Names make a difference.

This is especially so with names of people mentioned in the Old Testament. Adam=earth. Abram>Abraham=father of many nations. Isaac=laughter. Simon>Peter=a rock.

But the most important names are those associated with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 1:21 "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."

We already know this, but "Jesus" is the Greek form of what Hebrew name? Yes, "Joshua"

And both names mean "the Lord is salvation."

There are hundreds of names and titles of Jesus Christ in the Bible. In the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois the names and titles of Jesus are flashed up on the ceiling. It is quite a sight!

The names for Jesus reveal who He is and what He wants to do for us.

700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah saw Him coming. Let’s look closely at some of the names given to the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Please turn to Isaiah 9:6

Notice that this was a unique child. He was "born" and He was "given." This child was both God and man!

As man, He was born and had a sinless human nature.

As God, He was given. He was God the Father’s perfect gift of love. He was His gift to a sinful world.

This child was God in human flesh! The Perfect God-Man!

This child, whose birthday we will be celebrating this time of year, grew up to do what? (see middle of verse 6 and verse 7)

This child would grow up and one day would take the government of mankind upon His shoulder and bring order and peace to a world filled with confusion and war. This will ultimately be at His 2nd coming, when He comes again.

But before taking the government upon His shoulder, He would first take a cross upon His shoulder, and then die upon that cross, bearing in His body the sins of the world. The One who deserves to wear the crown of glory as King of Kings, one day wore the shameful crown of thorns and gave His life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The kingly Lion of the tribe of Judah first had to come as the lowly Lamb of God. Why? Because He is a holy God. Because our sin had to be paid for. For until sin had been paid for, God’s righteous government could not be established.

And God’s righteous government will be established at His 2nd coming. But, you know what, we don’t have to wait until then before we can enjoy His reign! We can turn our lives over to Him today! And when we do that, we can experience all that is expressed in His names as recorded in Isaiah 9:6.

We will be looking at His names these next 5 Sundays together. This morning, let’s look at this first name:

"And He will be called...WONDERFUL..."

It seems that there is little wonder in the lives of people today. With all that life has to offer, most people are just plain bored with life. It is odd, isn’t it? It’s odd that in a world filled with all sorts of electronic gadgets, you would think that life would be exciting. But for many people, life is just plain dull.

Could it be that because of all the electronic gadgets we have at our disposal that life becomes boring and dull? People are getting harder and harder to please. The one thing I think most parents hate to hear from their children, "I’m bored!"

Something is wrong!

I got this email from a friend recently:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment,

more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.