Introduction

There is much meaning and importance attached to a name. A name identifies a person. Associated with a particular name are all sorts of character and personality traits. When we mention someone’s name in conversation we immediately associate not only a face, but also the whole personality of  that person.

In our day parents often give a particular name to a child either because they like the sound of the name, or because a favorite relative had the same name. But in the beginning names were given with certain meanings in mind. Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, we find that God named the first man with a particular meaning in mind. God called the first man, “Adam,” which means, “red earth.” God named the first man, Adam, because he was made from the dust of the earth. Adam likewise named his wife, “Eve,” “…for she is the mother of all living,” Adam said.

We can recall others in the Old Testament whose names bore special meaning. We think of a man named “Jacob,” who was named thus because of his deceptive nature. The name Jacob means “supplanter.” He was later renamed by God, Who called him “Israel,” meaning, “prince with God.”

However, of all the names defined for us in the pages of God’s Word, the name, “Jesus,” holds the most meaning. The angel, Gabriel, told Joseph that the child born to Mary was to be named, Jesus, because “…he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt.1: 21). Joseph and Mary would have immediately known the meaning of that name, because it is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name, “Jehoshua,” which means, “Jehovah saves.”

In the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, Christ is referred to as, “Emmanuel,” which means, “God  with us” (Matt.1: 23). As a matter of fact, in Matthew chapter one alone, we are told of the purpose and personality of Christ, simply by the names attributed to Him. The name, “Jesus,” speaks of His divine purpose, while the name, “Emmanuel,” speaks of His divine personality.

Today’s text gives us a prophetic picture of the character and purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to deal with only one designation given to Christ in this passage—“His name shall be called Wonderful.”

I.Wonderful In His Purity

1. The Purity Of His Conception
1. Jesus Christ Was Not The Product Of Man’s Seed

Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

This verse clearly prophesied that the Christ would be of “her seed,” indicating that He would have no human father. This is significant in the fact that the sin nature is passed to the offspring through the seed of the father. Paul put it this way: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Rom.5: 12).

2.The Conception Of Jesus Was A Divine Act Of The Holy Spirit

Matthew 1:20, “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”

B.The Purity Of His Character

Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

We read in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

The Lord Jesus was not tempted to reveal any hidden imperfections, but to reveal that He was impeccable.

As the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed, an elaborate trestle bridge was built across a large canyon in the West. Wanting to test the bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge, where it stayed an entire day.

One worker asked, “Are you trying to break this bridge?”

“No,” the builder replied, “I’m trying to prove that the bridge won’t break.”

In the same way, the temptations Jesus faced weren’t designed to see if He would sin, but to prove that He couldn’t.

Today In The Word, March 14, 1991.

II.Wonderful In His Power

1. He Has Power Over The Sea

Matthew 8:26b-27, “…Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”

B.He Has Power Over Death And Sickness

Matthew 11:2-5, “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

In spite of all that is known by medical science these days, doctors are still frequently puzzled and stumped by disease. But Jesus is the Great Physician.

A respected doctor, who practiced in the Maritime Provinces during the latter half of the twentieth century, tells of the miraculous healing of one of his female patients, who was dying with what physicians referred to as “open TB.” She had become his patient in 1947, at which time she had dropped from a slight 125 pounds to an emaciated 87 pounds. Her temperature continually hovered between 101 and 103 degrees.

The physician and his colleagues tried every medical technique at their disposal at that point in time to heal this poor woman’s malady. All reasonable alternatives having been exhausted, the doctor reluctantly told the lady that nothing else could be done for her. She asked the doctor at that point, that if she was still alive by Christmas Eve, to let her go home to be with her husband and young child. He agreed only because he thought she could not possibly be alive by that time.

Amazingly, the woman was still alive on Christmas Eve, but just barely. The doctor kept his promise, and sent her home for a brief visit with her family. The patient left the hospital with a big grin spread across her narrow face.

When the lady returned to the hospital she weighed 80 pounds or less. The days that followed offered little hope of any improvement. She grew worse and worse, developing a new complication. She became nauseated, and began to vomit even without food in her stomach. The doctors were stumped. All the symptoms looked like she was pregnant. Though the woman’s doctor felt silly for considering the thought, he ran a pregnancy test on her anyway. To his amazement, it came back positive.

Incredibly, by March of 1948, this patient, considered to be terminal, began to show miraculous improvement. Her temperature dropped and she began to eat again, and even gained weight. Subsequent x-rays showed that not only had the TB cavity stopped growing, but that the diaphragm was pushing up against the diseased portion of her lung in order to make room for the child she bore, which in turn pushed the sides of the TB wound together, causing it to heal. The baby was literally saving her life. By the time the baby was born, the TB cavity was completely closed. Within a few months of the baby’s birth, the woman went home to her family for good. God was able to do with a baby what the doctors could not do with all of their expertise and knowledge.

Dr. James Dobson, Family News From Dr. James Dobson, December 2000.

C.He Has Power Over Sin

Ephesians 1:7, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”

Romans 8:3, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

D.He Has Power Over Satan And His Evil Spirits

Colossians 2:14-15, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly (‘to make a public spectacle of’), triumphing over them in it.”

III.Wonderful In His Priesthood

1. As Our High Priest He Offered The Perfect Sacrifice

Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Folks, we must be careful to never minimize the fact that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, gave Himself for us.

It is said that Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, once had captured a prince and his family. When they came before him, the monarch asked the prisoner, “What will you give me if I release you?”

“The half of my wealth,” was his reply. “And if I release your children?” “Everything I possess.”

“And if I release your wife?” “Your Majesty, I will give myself.”

Cyrus was so moved by his devotion that he freed them all. As they returned home, the prince said to his wife, “Wasn’t Cyrus a handsome man!”

With a look of deep love for her husband, she said to him, “I didn’t notice. I could only keep my eyes on you—the one who was willing to give himself for me.”

(Source Unknown.)

B.As Our High Priest He Intercedes For The Saints

Hebrews 7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

IV.Wonderful In His Preparation

1. He Has Prepared For Us A New Robe

Revelations 7:9, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;”

B.He Has Prepared For Us A New Routine

Note 1 Thessalonians 4:17b, “…so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Revelation 22:5b, “…and they shall reign forever and ever.”

C.He Has Prepared For Us A New Residence

John 14:2-3, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Revelation 21:2, 27, “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

It unlikely that our earthly minds could ever fully conceive of the beauty and splendor that we will one day behold in heaven.

A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; “Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!” Charles L. Allen in Home Fires.

Heaven will truly be a wonderful place, because Jesus has prepared it just for us.

We know very little about heaven, but I once heard a theologian describe it as “an unknown region with a well-known inhabitant,” and there is not a better way to think of it than that.

Richard Baxter expresses the thought in these lines: My knowledge of that life is small,

The eye of faith is dim,

But it’s enough that Christ knows all, And I shall be with him.

To those who have learned to love and trust Jesus, the prospect of meeting him face to face and being with him forever is the hope that keeps us going, no matter what life may throw at us. James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.