This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, His Name Is Wonderful.
The educated man is ignorant, the strong man is weak, and the wealthy man is poor if he does not understand about Christmas—the true meaning of Christmas. And you will not understand Christmas until you understand who Jesus the Messiah is.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
Jesus was not just another child. He was not just a Galilean peasant, or even a great teacher.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).
This child is the very Son of God. Jesus is God in human flesh.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus is called “the Word.” What is a word? A word is an expression of an invisible thought. A word makes the invisible known to you. Jesus makes the invisible God known to Man.
Everything that Almighty God is, Jesus is. Everything that God the Father has, Jesus has. Everything that God does, Jesus does. Jesus is not part God and part man. He is not all God and no man. He is not all man and no God. Jesus is fully God and fully man—the God-Man.
Jesus did not have His beginning at Bethlehem. There never was a time when Jesus was not, and there never will be. That little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger was the great, eternal, uncreated, self-existing Word made flesh. The little baby in Luke 2 is the mighty God of Genesis 1.
John said:
“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:2-3).
Even the Apostle Paul said he did not understand it:
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16a).
People sneer at the idea of the Virgin Birth. What did the angel say to Mary? “With God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37). If you have trouble believing in the Virgin Birth, your real trouble is with God. If God could make the first man without a father or a mother, do you not think He could bring His Son into this world through the Virgin Birth?
If there were no Virgin Birth, the Word of God would be flawed. If Mary had conceived a child out of wedlock, then she would be an impure woman. If Jesus were not the Son of God, He would have been the son of Adam. “In Adam, all die.” (See 1 Corinthians 15:22.) If there were no Virgin Birth, we would all be going to Hell. Our salvation is inextricably interwoven with the Virgin Birth.
Jesus was born a King.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:7).
People ask, “Have you made Jesus Lord?” Too late for that. God has already declared Him Lord. He is sovereign God, King of kings and Lord of lords. You must have the cradle and the cross and the crown together, or you do not have the true meaning of Christmas.
There is wonder in Jesus’ name. Do you stand in awe of Christ? Or have you become immune to wonder? Do you get excited when you think of Jesus? If not, you have calluses on your soul.
Jesus is wonderful. He is wonderful in His birth, wonderful in His life, wonderful in His teaching, wonderful in His miracles, wonderful in His death, wonderful in His resurrection, and wonderful in His Second Coming.
There is wisdom in Jesus’ name, because His name is Counselor.
Are you going through a problem right now? Maybe you don’t know the way out. You don’t know what to do, and every answer seems wrong. People cannot solve your problems. Go to Jesus.
When you counsel other people, lead them to the One who can solve their problems, the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not want them dependent upon you. You want them to know Jesus, the Counselor. There is wisdom in His name.
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).
What is the world coming to? It is coming to Jesus. It came from Him, it is for Him, it is coming back to Him.
Whom do we worship? Only God. (See Exodus 20:3.) If Jesus is not God, we have no right to worship Jesus.
But over and over in the Bible, Jesus is worshiped. He never refuses worship; this angered the religious leaders because they rightly understood His acceptance of worship as a claim to divinity.
And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).
If Jesus were not God, that would have been the grossest form of idolatry.
But Jesus is God. He is the Eternal Father.
The thing that your heart is yearning for is peace.
Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He said,
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).
If you are a Christian and you do not have peace, it is because you do not understand what you have in the name of Jesus. There is welfare in His name.
The only peace you will ever know comes from Jesus. “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 57:21). This is not talking about happiness, but about the peace that passes understanding.
What a wonderful, wonderful name is JESUS. The name literally means Savior.
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7, 57:21; John 1:1-3, 14:27; 1 Timothy 3:16; Luke 1:37; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 15:22; Exodus 20:3; Matthew 1:21, 2:11
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30-31).
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
