Eight months after he had watched the twin towers of the World Trade Center come crashing down, Arizona Cardinals, safety Pat Tillman was staring at an offer of 3.5 million dollars to continue to play for the Arizona Cardinals. But he could not sign the contract because his heart compelled him to enlist in a far greater mission—protecting the country he loved. On May 31, Pat Tillman enlisted in the US Army and became an Army Ranger. On his second tour in Afghanistan, he paid the ultimate price for his country.
I believe there is something of Pat Tillman’s heart in every man. Sometimes it’s buried so far down we don’t realize it is there. But part of every man wants to devote himself to a great mission, a mission that is worthy of his full allegiance—a mission that really matters. After all, boys don’t dream of sitting safely at a computer desk, bringing home a paycheck, and becoming a nice guy. Their dreams and the stories they love are about defeating the evil villain to save the world against impossible odds, winning the hand of the beautiful princess in the process and riding in the lead chariot of the victory parade. Boys dream of greatness, which can only come by accomplishing a great mission. So, what is the mission of a Christ-following man? I would argue that our mission has three distinct parts. 1) We are called TO CHRIST—to enjoy a love relationship with him. 2) We are called TO BE LIKE CHRIST to cultivated Christ-like heart attitudes. 3) We are called to EXERCISE DOMINION FOR CHRIST—implementing his agenda in every sphere of human life.
For the next four weeks, our focus is on the first and most foundational part of our mission—deepening our love relationship with Christ. We will do this by zooming the camera in on four titles of Jesus given in the Isaiah 9 prophecy of the coming Messiah Jesus—Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. What do these titles tell us about Jesus and what difference these descriptions of our Commander in Chief make in our everyday lives?
Everyone knows that the mission of the church is to make disciples. So before digging in to why it matters that Jesus is called WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, I want to show how the word disciple points to the three-part calling mentioned above. The early Christians had a much clearer idea of what a disciple was than we do today. Bands of disciples with their masters were quite common in Jesus’ day. They understood three callings of discipleship:
- Everyone knew that a disciple had the deepest kind of possible personal friendship with his master because they did life together. The language that we use for this part of discipleship is that we are called TO Christ (to enjoy a love relationship with Him.)
- Everyone also knew that a disciple (the Greek word is MATHETES) was a FOLLOWER of a master. The disciple patterned his whole life on the teaching and example of his master. The disciple’s greatest goal was to be like his master. We say, we are called TO BE LIKE CHRIST (to Christ-like character).
- The early church understood WHY Jesus’ great commission to make disciples of the nations in Matthew 28:19-20 was preceded by verse 18, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples….” Jesus was not referring, in Matt 28, to his eternal, sovereign authority as God the Son, which he ALWAYS had. Rather Jesus was speaking as the Second Adam. He was talking about his defeat of Satan, sin, and death, the tyrants who had usurped the rule of Adam’s kingdom enslaving mankind. The early church understood the gospel, not as the good news of personal private salvation but as the good news that the second Adam has come to overthrow Satan, sin, and death, fix everything that has been broken by sin, and establish the rule of his kingdom of righteousness over planet earth. They understood that to be Christ’s disciple was to enlist in his cause—the spread of his kingdom of righteousness over every square inch of the planet. Therefore, this podcast defines the third part of our mission this way. We are called TO EXERCISE DOMINION FOR CHRIST (to implement Christ’s agenda in your role as husband, father, employee/employer, neighbor, church member, steward of resources, ambassador of the kingdom—every sphere of life). Exercising dominion for Christ recaptures our creation calling to shape culture and to guide our children to do so, which is why we just completed an 8-week series, “Protecting Our Children from Enticing but False Worldviews.”
Today we return to the core of our mission, Called TO CHRIST to enjoy a love relationship with Him. Our goal is to understand our Commander in Chief better so that we can love Him more. Isaiah 9:6 says, 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. Before digging into what it means that our CO is the Wonderful Counselor, let’s remind ourselves why our mission always begins with our love relationship with Christ. Six reasons come to mind:
WHY OUR LOVE RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST IS OUR MISSION FOUNDATION
1. Because both God the Father in Deuteronomy 6 and Jesus in John 14 say, “If you love me keep my commandments.” The greatest commandment is, You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30).
2. Because in helping the Corinthians defeat lust, Paul explained that we were made for God and God is the answer to our deepest longings (1 Cor 6:13).
3. Life is designed for us to first set our hearts upon delighting in God. The very first two commandments teach us that we are to set our hearts on no other God, allowing not other God to steal first place in our hearts.
4. Because in God’s design, he wants us to renew our hearts—filling them with joy, delighting in Him. Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again, I say rejoice (Phil 4:4).
5. Because LIFE is the result of knowing God. Jesus prayed to the Father, And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life doesn’t wait till we die. It begins now and continues into eternity and describes not just the duration of life but quality of life (Jn 17:3).
6. Because the power to accomplish the other two parts of our mission—becoming like Jesus in our inner heart attitudes and accomplishing Christ’s agenda in each part of my life is dependent upon the strength of my relationship with Christ the Vine. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (John 15:) So let’s get to better know Jesus the Messiah as God reveals him to us in Isaiah 9.
Why It Matters that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor
A. At every point his treatment of us is based upon divine wisdom: Of course, the whole point to the mystery that God is using Isaiah to reveal is the incarnation. The deliverer will be a human. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder. But his four titles underscore the ultimate deity of this child deliverer, as well. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. But what distinctive characteristic of Jesus does WONDERFUL COUNSELOR point to? The Hebrew for wonderful counselor is literally “wonder of a counselor.” In chapters 1-8 of Isaiah, the folly of human wisdom is derided. In contrast the coming messiah would give wondrous counsel, unequaled, and unfailing in its wisdom. This Messiah’s wisdom is further described two chapters later: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord (11:1-2).
True to this prophecy, it is almost humorous to watch the wisdom of Jesus confound the Scribes and Pharisees in the NT who try to trap him. For example, they knew he was widely beloved for his compassion and mercy towards the outcasts and despised “sinners.” But they also knew that as a true rabbinic teacher from God, he had to uphold the Torah. So, in John 8 the scribes and Pharisees implement their plan to trap Jesus. First, they set up a woman to commit adultery in a situation where they could catch her in the act. That this was a setup is suggested by the fact that brought they only the woman to Jesus and not the man. Then, they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say?” What an ingenious trap! If Jesus says, “Stone her,” he loses his following with the people. If he says, “Don’t stone her” he shows that he is false prophet undermining the Torah. But Jesus blows their trap out of the water by saying “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” At another point they tried to trap Jesus by asking whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? If Jesus answered, “Yes” he would lose favor with the heavily tax-burdened people. But if he answered, “No,” the scribes and Pharisees would charge him with insurrection to the Roman government. But their trap is no match for Jesus, the Wisdom of God, incarnate. He just said, “Show me the coin for the tax…” And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's (Matt 22:17-21).
The Hebrew words used for Wonderful Counselor tell us that Jesus knows exactly how life works. He knows how the human heart is shaped, what is required to satisfy its yearnings. He knows which choices lead to success and which foolish ones undermine prosperity. He knows how relationships work, and the exact way that humans mess them up. Since the fall of mankind, we are bent to run our finger against the grain of the universe covering our lives with splinters. Paul tells us in Colossians 2 that all things were created by and through Christ and John tells us that he was the divine WORD or LOGOS. Our messiah’s role as Wonderful Counselor might be in view in Proverbs 8 when God’s wisdom is personified:
“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped I was brought forth….when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. (Prov 8:22-31).
Jesus’ office as Wonderful Counselor seems intended to assure us that our Commander in Chief knows what he is doing. He designed life. He knows what will lead to our fulfillment in this life and eternal joy in the life to come. The word, “oops” is never heard from our CO’s lips. HE is in charge of making sure that all things work together for our good. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. But all of that led to him becoming the number two ruler in all of Egypt only beneath Pharoah himself and be in a position to help his family and survive a famine. Because Jesus is THE WONDERFUL COUNSELOR it is a no brainer to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not to our own understanding—in all our ways to acknowledge him trusting him to make our paths straight (Prove 3:5-6).
B. He redeems our thought process from folly. Emphasizing that our messiah is the Wonderful Counselor may be a wake-up call to the truth that sin has darkened our minds far more than we realize. One of the major themes of the book of Isaiah was the way that Israel’s earthly wisdom often gained from Egypt led them astray.
- Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight (5:21).
- You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray (47:10).
Proverbs 14: 12 is very clear. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. In case we missed it, Proverbs 16:25 repeats 14:12 word for word. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Notice how clear Paul is about the way sin has corrupted our thought process:
You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart (Eph 4:17-18). Christians need to have our minds renewed, set free. We need to realize that we default to folly more often than we realize. Jesus is the WISDOM of GOD—the Wonderful Counselor whose goal for us is to seek the wisdom of his Word. The very book of Proverbs is introduced with these words:
To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; FOOLS DESPISE WISDOM AND INSTRUCTION (1:2-8).
Humans need a savior who will first and foremost set them free from their natural folly. The Messiah is the Wonderful Counselor who restores us life viewed from God’s perspective, to empower us to shape our lives by God’s wisdom.
C. The Messiah brings the New Covenant and pours out the Holy Spirit to write God’s word on our hearts. The Jeremiah 31 prophecy is cited by Hebrews as now fulfilled in Christ. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Heb 8:10). At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was more fully poured out as the one who dwells in us, whose job as the PARACLETE is to apply the Word of God to our hearts. This is an extremely beneficial aspect of the New Covenant. The Wonderful Counselor—whose wisdom shows us how to live, and whose ascension to the Father means that the Holy Spirit now indwells Christ followers TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO EVERYDAY LIFE is a central tenet of the Christian faith.
But there is a caveat. There is a specific tool that is required for the Holy Spirit to do his work of transforming our minds. It is the Sword of the Spirit, THE WORD of GOD. Jesus’ Messianic title Wonderful Counselor reminds us that at the core of Christ’s redemptive work in our lives is the renewing of our minds. In Paul’s great theological treatise on God’s grace, explained in the first elven chapters of Romans, he challenges Christians in response to such grace by offering themselves, including their very bodies, to God as a living sacrifice. Then, the very first specific instruction he gives is this: Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (12:2). The Wonderful Counselor, our Messiah, wants our minds transformed by Word of God. From the day Adam and Eve fell and our sinful mind became clouded, we have needed the wisdom of the Wonderful Counselor. Now we have the Holy Spirit to help us—but WE MUST STILL BE THE ONES TO SEEK IT. And if we will—the promises of blessing are all still there:
Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed (Prov 3:13-18).
Does not wisdom call?...”Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion…I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and noble, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries…And now, O sons, listen to me blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the lord, BUT HE WHO FAILS TO FIND ME INJURES HIMSELF; All who hate me love death (Prov 8).
How many ways does God have to say it. There is NO investment in life that pays greater dividends than time spent in God’s Word gaining God’s wisdom! If our thought process were not broken, we would not need a Messiah who is the Wonderful Counselor.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- Do you agree or disagree that every man has a little of Pat Tillman in him—a capacity to be inspired by a great mission.
- How would you argue that the most foundational part of our mission as Christ-followers to deepen our love relationship with Jesus?
- What stood out to you as take aways from the truth revealed to us by God the Jesus the Messiah would be the Wonderful Counselor?
