A. 💥I, like most people, have 3 names. My son Dean has 4 names. His son Mickey has 5 names (Mickey, Dean, Kurt, Harvey Fedena!) and he says his next son will have 6 names! 💥But Billy Sunday counted the names of Jesus in the Bible and He came up with 256 Names! Jesus is obviously so wonderful that He is beyond all that any simple name or combination of names could express.
B. In our text there are 5 Names for Him. ▶Tonight we will only consider one of those names, the first one. ▶It is an all-encompassing, very descriptive name: "Wonderful"! What a name: "Wonderful!" ▶No one else could claim that name. ▶Tonight we will see whether He was true to this name: "Wonderful".
I. HIS BIRTH WAS WONDERFUL!
DEF: Wonderful means something that is transcendently beyond the common or ordinary; something unique and unlike anything else. The parting of the Red Sea was wonderful. When the sun stood still for Joshua that was wonderful. The Grand Canyon is wonderful.
A. Wonderful Because He Had Only One Human Parent. B. Wonderful Because He Was Conceived By The Holy Ghost. C. Wonderful Because His Birth Was Announced By Angels. D. Wonderful Because God Had Clothed Himself With Humanity.
II. HIS CHARACTER WAS WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because He Was Unique Among Humanity (Sinless). B. Wonderful Because He Grew Up Surrounded By Sin Yet Was Sin Apart.
ILLUS: One preacher who visited the holy land was asked what had made the greatest impression upon him. One word was his answer: "Nazareth." He said "The same kind of people live there today as when Jesus grew up there. They are about the worst specimens of humanity I have seen anywhere. Lazy, lustful, ignorant and unspeakably wicked and to think of (Jesus) coming out from such a people is to me a sure proof of His divinity. Had I not been a believer in His (Deity) before going there I should have to believe in it now."
John 1:45-46 45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
III. HIS LIFE WAS WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because of His Unselfishness.
ILLUS: He had the power to turn stones into bread but went 40 days and nights without food. While fleeing for His own life, He stopped to give sight to a man born blind. His first miracle was performed, not before a multitude to spread His own fame, but in a tiny village, to save a peasant's wife from humiliation. B. Wonderful Because of His Usefulness.
NOTE: His miracles were never for show but to be a help and blessing to others.
IV. HIS TEACHING and PREACHING WAS WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because of It's Simplicity and Clarity.
ILLUS: No one had to take a dictionary with him when he went to hear Jesus teach or preach. He always spoke with simple dignity with wonderful word pictures. He wasn't seeking to impress the scribes and Pharisees. He who created language taught and preached with profundity clothed in simplicity.
B. Wonderful Because of It's Originality.
NOTE: We can teach or preach nothing new or original, but never a man taught with stories and parables with such originality as Jesus. Our language and culture is enriched today with His simple stories of the Prodigal Son, the Sower and the Seed, the Rich Man and Lazarus, etc.
C. Wonderful Because of It's Content:
ILLUS: The audacity of Jesus to declare to the Jews that what He taught was greater than what Moses taught! It would be like some man of obscurity to tell us Americans that he was greater than George Washington. Jesus also declared that He was their long-awaited Messiah. Jesus taught that one must receive Him in order to be saved. Jesus taught that without Him no-one could go to heaven.
VI. HIS PROPHECIES WERE WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because Of Their Accuracy.
ILLUS: He prophesied of His death, burial and resurrection and those statements came true to the letter. He even prophesied the manner of His death and that one of His own disciples would betray Him.
VII. HIS DEATH WAS WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because Of It's Timing.
ILLUS: 1️⃣He was crucified on the day of the Passover, thus becoming the Passover Lamb Himself. 2️⃣He was crucified at a time when the most number of Jews would be present to witness His death. 3️⃣They came from all the known world for Passover. 4️⃣Then God shrouded the world in darkness and shook the world with an earthquake to give everyone in Jerusalem that day notice that Jesus had died. 5️⃣The priests in the Temple witnessed the veil being rent from top to bottom. 6️⃣Many people had visits from long dead relatives who came out of the grave that day.
VIII. HIS RESURRECTION WAS WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because Of It's Uniqueness.
ILLUS: Others had been resurrected before, but He alone was resurrected to never die again. 👉After His resurrection He didn't just permanently ascend into heaven and disappear from their midst, but continued an earthly ministry for 40 days
IX. HIS IMPACT UPON HUMANITY IS WONDERFUL!
A. Wonderful Because Of His Seeming Obscurity.
ILLUS: ✨He left no great colleges to propagate His doctrine, but a few simple fishermen. ✨He left no great govt. to administrate in His behalf, but instead founded a simple organization called a church. ✨He never wrote a poem or published a book, but preserved His words in the Bible, which is now the greatest of all books. ✨He engraved nothing upon stone, marble or brass but His doctrines have endured for millennia. When He came Rome ruled the world and her invincible legions were everywhere, but Rome has crumbled and His simple Gospel has lifted nations out of darkness wherever it has been preached.
B. Wonderful Because He Is Still Working!
CONCL: He is a wonderful Savior because He still saves men today who come sincerely seeking eternal life and wonderful because He can save in an instant of time! But He is a most wonderful Savior because He saved me! And can save YOU!