“Jesus Is Our Counselor”
Isaiah 8:22-9:7
Sermon Series: “Christmas In A Chaotic World”
Introduction: In his day, the prophet Isaiah spoke of a world that was full of “trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish” (Isaiah 8:22) because of rejecting God and His Word and going their own way. Does that sound familiar in our day? Our world is full of anguish, darkness, and trouble. We see terrorism, persecution, slavery, the sex trade, genocide, wars, threat of nuclear war, economic difficulties, moral breakdown, family breakdown, and a host of other issues. Our personal lives can be full of darkness, anguish, and trouble. We battle with family problems, health problems, financial problems, addiction problems, and a host of other problems.
That is the bad news. However, the good news is that God is with us (Isaiah 8:8, 10) and stepped into the world as Jesus Christ, the God-Man, our Messiah, in order to bring a light into this dark world. Isaiah 9:2 says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” He gives us hope in the midst of a seemingly hopeless world. John MacArthur writes of this, “‘At first’ the days were to be full of gloom, but ‘afterward’ God would transform that gloom into honor. The NT applies this prophecy of Galilee’s honor to the time of Jesus Christ’s First Advent (Matt. 4:12-16). Matthew 4:15, 16 quotes Isaiah 9:1, 2 directly. Ultimately, its fulfillment will come at His Second Advent when the area is freed from the yoke of foreign invaders.” This prophecy is primarily for Israel, but we are also going to look at how it applies to us today. The big idea of this series is that Jesus coming into this chaotic world changes things.
*Main Idea: Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor who gives us the wisdom to navigate this chaotic world.*
Wonderful means miracle, marvelous, or incomprehensible. It denotes something beyond human capacity. Counselor refers to advice or purpose. Scripture makes it clear that the Lord works out all things according to His counsel (or purpose) [Psalm 33:10-11, Proverbs 19:21, Ephesians 1:11] and He has all wisdom and knowledge [Colossians 2:3]. Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor, has a plan He is working out, and He gives us the wisdom to know and follow that plan.
He gives us the wisdom the navigate this chaotic world through:
1. A personal connection with Him (Colossians 2:1-10). We apply this to our lives through receiving Jesus by repentance and faith, walking with Him by faith, listening to Jesus instead of the wisdom of the world, and seeing that we are complete in Him.
2. Meditating on the Word of God instead of listening to ungodly counsel (Psalm 1). We apply this to our lives by reading, thinking on, trusting, and obeying Scripture instead of immersing ourselves in and following the ideas of the world.
3. Listening to the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:1-2, John 14:16-17, 26). Christians are indwelled by the Holy Spirit so we have a built-in divine counselor who is there to comfort and guide us, which is an incredible thought.
4. Listening to wise counsel from others (Proverbs 11:14, 12:15, 13:20, 19:20). We apply this to our lives by being in relationship with wise Christians (John Maxwell refers to this as the “Law of the Inner Circle”) because Jesus speaks to us through other people. Sometimes we need a flesh and blood person to dispense the wisdom of God to us.
