TITLES OF CHRIST
WONDERFUL COUNSELOR
DR. JIM DIXON
ISAIAH 9:6-7
DECEMBER 18, 1988
The American Psychological Association tells us that one out of every ten people in the United States of America suffer from some form of mental illness: 25 million Americans. The APA tells us that one out of every four people in the United States of America experiences some measure of chronic anxiety and has difficulty coping with the stresses of everyday life: 60 million people in America.
The APA tells us that most everyone in this country and around the world has times in their lives when they’re feeling kind of depressed and down. They have problems and they want to talk to someone about it. Now, some people go to psychologists. Some go to psychiatrists. Some go to guidance counselors and paraprofessionals to social workers to members of the clergy. Some people just talk to friends. But you see, everybody needs counseling, and God knows that. That’s one of the reasons that God has sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into this world and has called Him the Wonderful Counselor. Some counselors you see are better than others, but no counselor is like this counselor, full of wonder, the greatest counselor this world could ever know…Jesus Christ.
What does a wonderful counselor do? Seems to me this morning that a wonderful counselor does four things. First of all, a wonderful counselor listens. A wonderful counselor is a person who hears you, listens to you.
A few months ago in the USA Today newspaper, there was an article entitled “Shrinks on Video.” Apparently you can go to video stores and you can find video tapes that enable you to receive some kind of counseling on your own TV set. There was one video mentioned in this article in the USA Today newspaper called “Talk to Me.” It cost $9.95. Apparently, it’s a 30 minute tape. I’ve not seen it, but I understand that there’s a man there and he’s kind of your counselor. He looks real loving on your television set and real compassionate. He begins by saying “How do you feel?” Then you’re supposed to kind of talk to your television set for a while. You see, he looks really sympathetic and empathetic and amazingly interested. Every once in a while he kind of interjects a comment like “go with that” or “would you expand on that?” Then you’re supposed to talk more to your TV set.
Now, I’ve got to say, I find it hard to believe that that many people could find this meaningful. You see, because when people go to counseling, they’re not just looking for an opportunity to talk. They want somebody to listen. They want somebody to really hear them. You see, a television set cannot listen to you and the people you see on your television set, even though they have ears, they’re not there. But the Bible says there is one person who always hears you, one person who always listens to you. He hears your words, and indeed He hears your very thoughts. That person’s name is Jesus Christ, the Wonderful Counselor.
The Bible says “This is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything in His name, He hears us.” The Bible says “wither shall I go from His spirit, wither shall I flee from his presence. If I ascend to the highest heaven, He is there. If I make my bed in the depths of Sheol, even there, He is there. And if I take the wings of the morning and dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, He is with me.” You see, Jesus Christ says to you “Lo, I am with you always.” Now, there’s earthly counselors who can listen to you for a moment in time or a place in space, but He’s the only counselor who listens to you at all times and in all places, the Wonderful Counselor. He listens.
Well, a wonderful counselor not only listens, but a wonderful counselor cares. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was of course the 32nd president of the United States, had a particular responsibility that he held in conjunction with this nation’s highest office. It was related to White House receptions and parties. He was expected to be the host and at those parties he was expected to socialize and expected to be generally winsome. He didn’t much like that. Franklin Roosevelt hated those parties. He didn’t like the small talk. He grew tired of saying the same things, and he grew tired of hearing the same things. It seemed to him that most people didn’t really care anyway.
So one night, Franklin Roosevelt decided to do something a little different at a White House party. He decided that he would go around and shake people’s hands as he always did, and he decided that he would flash a big smile as he always did, but he decided to say something a little different. He decided that when he smiled, he would say “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” You see, that’s a little different. He would go around and greet people and he’d shake their hands and he’d flash them a big smile and say “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” Well, he was amazed to find that a lot of people didn’t seem to hear him at all. They just smiled back and said, what they would always say, something like “How lovely” or “Keep up the good work.” One foreign diplomat was particularly diplomatic. When Franklin shook his hand and smiled and said “I murdered my grandmother this morning,” he didn’t even hesitate. He said “I’m sure that she had it coming to her.”
Well, out of all this, Franklin Roosevelt concluded that most people don’t listen, and those who do listen really don’t care. And of course, that’s true. Most people in this world do not care about you. Some people in this world don’t care about anyone. One such person was named Vladimir Ulyanov. You all know him as Lenin because that was the pen name that he chose for himself. Of course, Lenin was the leader of the Russian Revolution in 1917. He is considered to be the founder of communism in Russia. He could be a cruel man and a very, very cold man. No one knew that better than his wife, whose name was Krupskaya. She tells how on one occasion her mother was staying at their home and her mother became horribly ill. So she stayed by her mother’s bed day and night, but she reached the point where she was so tired, she had to take a nap. So she came to her husband, she came to Lenin. She said “I’m going to take a nap. Please wake me if my mother needs me.” She woke from her nap two hours later and she went to see her mother and found her mother dead. In grief and in rage. She came to her husband, she came to Lenin and she said “I told you to wake me if she needed me.” He didn’t even look up. He just said “She died. She didn’t need you” and he continued on with his work. There was a man who just didn’t care.
Now, there’s not many people who are so cold as that. Most people in this world care for some people, and certainly most counselors in this world will try to care for you. I know with all my heart that the counselors we have at this church do care about you. But you see, nobody cares about you as much as Jesus Christ. Nobody cares for you like Jesus. He cares for you so much that He died for you. He says “Cast all of your anxieties upon me for I care.”
Well, a wonderful counselor not only listens, and a wonderful counselor not only cares, but a wonderful counselor guides. A wonderful counselor gives direction, gives advice, gives wisdom. Of course, some people are frustrated because they don’t feel like they’re getting enough advice out of their counselors.
I read this letter that was written to Ann Landers. “Dear Ann Landers: I read your column every day, and I think your advice is very good. That’s why I hate to see you cop out and suggest counseling. I’ve been to many counselors and analysts and psychologists, etc…none of them did me any good. The first few visits, they listen, look at the ceiling a lot, nod their heads and ask you about childhood. The next few visits, they ask what you think should be done. After several visits, they tell you to do what you think is best. This is advice? If I could depend on my own judgment, why would I need them? Finally, I got smart and realized that for $75 an hour, I could have a terrific vacation and it would do me a lot more good. So Ann, in the future, if I need advice, I’ll just write to you. An admirer.”
Well, I think it is true that some counselee are frustrated with their counselors and they’re frustrated because it seems like they receive no direction. Now, of course, counselors and therapists know that some people who come in for counseling do not primarily need direction. Some people really need healing. They need deep healing, and they need continual therapy. Some people need help in determining and learning how to make their own decisions. Some people need non-directive therapy. But having said that, I must also say that some counselors are really afraid to give direction. Some counselors are afraid to give direction, and some counselees are rightly frustrated, frustrated that they’ve gone to so many sessions, and it seems like they receive no advice, no direction, no guidance, no wisdom. You see, that’s why 70 million people have written letters to Ann Landers: 10,000 people every month. They write to her because Ann Landers always gives advice, and she always gives direction. She always gives guidance, and she always gives wisdom. Now, of course, sometimes her direction, sometimes her advice, sometimes her wisdom is flawed. But, you see, there’s one counselor whose advice and whose wisdom and direction is never flawed. It is always perfect. He is the Wonderful Counselor. He is Jesus Christ. And His wisdom is different than the world’s wisdom.
You see in the Bible the Greek word for wisdom is the word “sofia.” Sometimes the word is used to refer to the wisdom of this world. Other times it is used to refer to the wisdom of Christ. But these two wisdoms are very different. You have to decide which counsel you want, which counselor you want. The world’s wisdom tells us that if we want to be great, we need power and influence. But the wisdom of Christ says “He who would be the greatest among you must be the servant of all.” The world’s wisdom says “If you want to be happy, you’ve got to have money, and you’ve got to have possessions. The wisdom of Christ tells us that “the love of money is the root of all evil” and “a man’s life does not consist in the sum of his possessions. Happy is the man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.”
The world’s wisdom tells us to love our friends. The wisdom of Christ tells us to “love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us.” The world’s wisdom tells us to live good and do good and when you die, you’ll go to heaven if there is a heaven. But the wisdom of Christ says you must be born anew. The world’s wisdom says if you’re unmarried, you have an unwanted pregnancy, abort it, and in the future practice safe sex. And if you practice safe sex, you won’t have unwanted pregnancies, and you probably won’t have to worry about AIDS and syphilis and gonorrhea. But the wisdom of Christ says don’t practice sex at all until marriage because, you see, sex is a beautiful gift meant to be opened only within the context of marriage. The highest physical expression of union meant to be joined with the spiritual and emotional union; that is marriage. When we open this gift before marriage or outside of marriage, it is called fornication or adultery. Christ warns us that when we misuse this gift, we taint it and we taint our souls, we taint our bodies, and corporately we taint society itself.
Well you see, if you’re a Christian and you call Jesus Christ your Lord, then you want to live by the wonder of His counsel. You see, everything that we need to know about ethics and morals, all of His advice and direction and guidance and wisdom concerning ethics and morals; He’s already given to us in writing, in this book. All we have to do is read it and obey it, and we have the guidance of the Wonderful Counselor.
Now, of course, there are times in our lives when we confront specific circumstances that the Bible does not deal with. Times in your life and in my life when we need guidance and direction and wisdom concerning a specific situation that the Bible just doesn’t deal with. But you see, even then, Christ, the Wonderful Counselor, is able to direct us. Even then, He is able to give us wisdom.
It was in Easter week of 1971 that I asked Barbara to marry me, and I didn’t have a doubt that I wanted to marry her. Of course, I loved her very much. When Barbara said that she would marry me, that was, you see, the greatest moment in my life. But Barbara wasn’t as confident as I was. So a few days later when I suggested that we go and pick out the ring Barbara said “Let’s wait a little bit.” Then she shared with me that she had a lot of doubts and she wasn’t sure whether she should marry me. Well, that’s a hard situation for her to be in. She needed guidance and she needed advice, and she needed direction. She needed the wisdom of Christ. And where is she going to get that? The Bible doesn’t tell her whether to marry Jim Dixon. I mean, the Bible says that husbands and wives should love each other. So she knew that she needed to love me, but she could perhaps love a number of people.
The Bible tells us that we shouldn’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, so she knew that she was to marry a Christian, but there’s a lot of Christians. The Bible doesn’t say marry Jim. The Bible doesn’t say if we’re supposed to marry somebody who is handsome or intelligent or athletic or charming. If the Bible said that, then Barb would’ve known to marry me.
But you see, some circumstances the Bible doesn’t speak directly to, and yet she needed the wisdom of Christ. So she went and she talked to her mom and dad, and she talked to Christian friends. She prayed a lot. Ultimately she heard the voice of Jesus Christ deep within her spirit. Don’t ever think that Christ can’t speak to you deep within your spirit by His Spirit. Oh, it’s true that sometimes our feelings get in the way, and sometimes Satan gets his oars in there. That’s why we need to test that inner voice of Christ. We need to test it with the Scripture, and we need to test it in prayer and we need to test it in conversation with other Christians. But, you see, if we’re reading the Word daily, and if we’re praying daily, and if we’re in the midst of Christian fellowship and we’re walking with Christ, we have every reason to trust His voice in our spirit. He speaks to us. He guides us. He tips the scales of our minds and hearts in the direction we’re meant to go. The Wonderful Counselor; He listens, He cares, and He guides.
In conclusion, briefly, I want to say there’s one more thing that our Wonderful Counselor does, and that is He comforts. He listens and He cares, and He guides and He comforts.
Booker T Washington, in his autobiography Up From Slavery tells how he was a slave in a 19th century slave plantation in the south. He explained how all the slaves on that plantation would periodically be given new shirts. But these shirts were very coarse and they were very rough and the material was very abrasive, cheap, inexpensive, flax material. When the slaves would put on those new shirts, for the first two weeks they were so abrasive that they would literally rub their flesh raw. Well, Booker Washington explains how he had a brother who was just a little bit older than him, and when the new shirts were given out, this brother loved him so much that he would take Booker’s new shirt and wear it for the first couple of weeks to kind of smooth it out and get rid of the abrasiveness until it became comfortable to wear. Then he would give it to Booker.
Booker said he always thought of his brother in that way. Whenever he thought of his older brother, he thought of someone who loved him so much that he wanted to comfort him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It occurred to me that that’s exactly what counselors tried to do. They try to comfort people physically, emotionally, and spiritually, because some people come to a counselor and their emotions are rubbed raw. They need someone to wear their shirt for a while. That’s what counselors seek to do. But you see, there is no counselor who is able to comfort you like Jesus can.
Sometimes He comforts us through His Word. As we’re reading the Bible, He comes alongside of us, and He comforts us. He ministers to us. Sometimes as we pray, He comes alongside and He comforts us and He ministers to us. Sometimes through a Christian friend, a brother or sister in Christ, sometimes through them, Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor comforts us. But most of all, He comforts us by His Holy Spirit. You see, when you became a Christian, when you invited Christ to be your Lord, in that moment, Jesus put His Holy Spirit within you. The Holy Spirit came to live within your spirit.
Jesus Christ, the Wonderful Counselor is the giver of the Holy Spirit. He gave the Holy Spirit to you in that moment when you first believed. Now in the Bible, the Holy Spirit is given a title, and that title is “paraclete,” and that’s a Greek word meaning comforter. You see, Jesus Christ gives the comforter, and Jesus Christ actually has the power to unleash the comforting ministry of the Holy Spirit deep within you as a Christian. No earthly counselor could ever do that for you. No earthly counselor can release the comforting ministry of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. Christ offers a comfort that isn’t based on circumstances. Sometimes it’s given despite circumstances, and it’s a comfort that only He can bring. He listens. He cares. He guides, and He comforts. He is the Wonderful Counselor.
You know, this last Tuesday night, I left the church and I drove home. I’d been at the church here at the Christmas play, the children’s Christmas play that the Christian School here put on. When I got home, I turned on the television set and the Denver Nuggets were routing Houston. So I started flipping the channels and I came to Channel 9 and “Moonlighting” was on and with Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis. They play the part of David and Maddie. As I came to that program, it was in the midst of the program they were sitting in an elevator and the elevator was stopped and they were obviously bored. And they’d been in there for a while, and they had kind of a love-hate relationship anyway, and they were in real bad moods and they were quiet. Suddenly, David began to sing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and then Maddie, as though she was remembering an old song that she had once sung in childhood, began to sing with him. They sang “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to Him in prayer.”
Well, when David and Maddie came out of the elevator, they just…their countenance and their faces, they looked new. They had a whole new lease on life and smiles on their faces. I don’t know why the producers and the directors and the writers of “Moonlighting” included that little episode, why they included that song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” And I don’t know whether Cybill Shepherd or Bruce Willis have any knowledge of Jesus Christ at all. But this I know, you’ll never have a friend like Jesus, and I hope with all my heart that you’ve discovered what a friend He is. You see, he is the Wonderful Counselor. He always hears you. He always cares. He’s willing to guide you, and He’s able to comfort you. Let’s close with a word of prayer.