More Than Can Be Told
Download MP3Good morning. It's still morning. Right? Yeah. We got a little bit we got a little bit of morning left here.
Jeffrey Heine:It's good to see you all. If you've been following along with our Advent devotional sound and season, then then you know that our theme this year has been looking at Old Testament promises of God and the New Testament fulfillment of those promises. We've looked at the promise of the Messiah, the promise of the blessing through Jacob, the promise of Immanuel. Today's promise and fulfillment passages are from Psalm 40 and Hebrews chapter 10. Now, it posted at 5 AM this morning, and I would imagine maybe a couple of you have listened.
Jeffrey Heine:It's okay if you have, it's okay if you haven't. I'm not going to repeat any of those things here for you. But since we are taking this break from the gospel of Mark, and that study that we've had going for some time now, I got to choose my passage for today, an Advent passage. And so I chose to go with Psalm 40 and Hebrews chapter 10. One thing that I've enjoyed over these last 5 or 6 years now of creating the Sound and Season podcast for Advent and for Lent, is that, you know, I get to read and research and and develop these different reflections.
Jeffrey Heine:And one problem that comes up though is that I always end up with more content, more reflections, more stories than I get to share in the 5 to 7 minutes that we try to keep sound and season at. And so, kind of an extension of of the passages today, that we're gonna look at together. And so it's printed in your worship guide, Psalm 40 and Hebrews chapter 10, verses 5 through 10. I'm gonna begin our time together by reading a few verses from Psalm 40, and then verse 5 from Hebrews chapter 10. Let's turn our attention to God's word and let us listen carefully.
Jeffrey Heine:From Psalm 40, You have multiplied, oh, Lord, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. And from Hebrews chapter 10, verse 5.
Jeffrey Heine:Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Oh, Lord. Your goodness and your mercy are greater than we know. In your goodness and mercy will you meet with us today by Your Holy Spirit and lead us, Lord, to Your truth, to Yourself that we might have life with You, Father, Son, and Spirit, forever. So would You speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It was Christmas 18/65. The manager of a Scottish insurance company, William Chatterton Dix, was bedridden with a serious debilitating disease. William's father was a physician, and he had given William the middle name Chatterton, after the tragic English poet Thomas Chatterton.
Jeffrey Heine:William was only 29 years old when he became gravely ill, and his prolonged sickness, is said to have brought about a severe depression. But during his bedridden months, William began to read the scriptures over and over. And though limited in his physical strength, William began to write. In particular, he began to write poetry. One of the poems that William wrote during this difficult season of his life was entitled The Manger Throne.
Jeffrey Heine:There's a good chance that you've heard it before, even sung it, because you'd be more likely to know it under a different title. It it's widely known today as The Christmas Carol, What Child is This? That's because William's poem was eventually set to music, and the traditional English tune Greensleeves was used. And in the nearly 160 years since the poem was written, it's come to be a beloved Christmas carol. I don't know about you, but the song always catches me a little bit off guard.
Jeffrey Heine:There's an uneasiness to the carol. It's different from most traditional Christmas songs. I read one early critic call it a haunting carol. Maybe it's because it begins with a minor chord. Maybe it's how the rhythm is slow like a dirge.
Jeffrey Heine:But I think it feels different, because rather than a bold declaration like, Joy to the world, the Lord has come, or Hark, the herald angels sing. This song begins with a question. And this question, I believe, is at the very heart of Advent. What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping? In other words, who is this child?
Jeffrey Heine:There are lots of questions that we can ask during the time of Advent, this time of preparation for Christmas, questions about the true meaning of the season, questions about the science and theology behind the virgin birth. But I think that this poem, written by a man worn down by disease and depression, captures for us the most central question of Advent. Who is this child? It's the question of King Herod. It's the question of the shepherds watching their flocks by night.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's a question for each of us. Who do you believe this child is? A teacher come to declare for us a a way of goodness, a model to demonstrate for us right living, a martyr whose life would be taken away at the hands of wicked oppressors. Who is this child? Well, thankfully, William not only offers us questions in his poem, he also offers an answer, declaring in the first chorus, this, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Jeffrey Heine:Haste, haste to bring him praise, the babe, the son of Mary. He says, this child is the Christ, the Messiah. It's God incarnate. This baby is God in the flesh. The answer that we have here, that we know who it is.
Jeffrey Heine:Who is this child? He is Christ the king. And if that's the most important question of Advent, then we have our answer quickly. But what about the question of why? Under the question of who is this child is the question why.
Jeffrey Heine:If this child, resting and asleep in Mary's lap, is Christ the King? If it is God in the flesh, why? Why is God here? Why is God asleep in a new mother's lap? Why is God crying in her arms?
Jeffrey Heine:Why is God nursing at her breast, Needy, helpless, vulnerable, killable. Couldn't God send a surrogate? He's done that before. Perhaps he could send an angel like Gabriel, who could represent humankind and suffer in our place. Or maybe another hero of the faith, an Abraham type, a Moses, an Esther.
Jeffrey Heine:Or why not a ruler, a king like David or Solomon? Why God himself? Why does it have to be God in the manger? Have you ever wondered about this? Are these questions that you are asking yourself this Advent season, or does it feel like you don't have time for that?
Jeffrey Heine:Too many other pressing issues, concerns, honestly, just too busy to ask, to wonder, to wait. But that's the purpose of keeping Advent. It forces us to slow down and to wonder. So in an effort to accept this invitation of Advent together, I I wanna hold this question before you. Why does it have to be God in the manger?
Jeffrey Heine:Psalm 40 will help us as we seek to answer this question today. In this Psalm, we hear words of praise and appeal. The the psalmist approaches God with both worshipful adoration and a plea for God's presence and His power. We're gonna focus on that first part, a portion that's on praise in the Psalm. The writer is understood to be King David.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says to God in prayer, verse 5. Let's look together. You have multiplied, oh lord, my god. Your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us, none can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
Jeffrey Heine:David mentions God's deeds and his thoughts. The phrase wondrous deeds typically refers to the great and mighty acts of God in deliverance and rescue of his people, His acts of salvation. David is saying here that you have multiplied your mighty acts and your thoughts toward your people. And we know that God's thoughts are not like our thoughts. We learn in Isaiah 58 when the Lord says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.
Jeffrey Heine:As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. God doesn't think like us. He doesn't daydream of what could be or what ifs. God's thoughts are the precursors to His certain and divine action. So when David says that you have multiplied your thoughts toward us, it means that God has plans and actions that are for the good of his people.
Jeffrey Heine:Then David says that he will proclaim these things, the mighty deeds and the thoughts of God, even though there are more deeds and more thoughts than anyone could tell, more than can be told. That's how I feel every Advent season. All the set pieces, though, are still the same year after year. The tree, the lights, the passages, the nativity scene, the movies, the music. And I can wonder, have we exhausted all of this Christmas material?
Jeffrey Heine:Has the Advent well run dry? What new can be said? What more can there be? Well, if we're paying attention, if we are beholding the wild story of God in the flesh, then there is still plenty. Plenty to marvel at, plenty to praise, plenty to declare.
Jeffrey Heine:In fact, there's more than can be told. And that's the great surprise of Advent. Every year, we're invited to behold and to encounter more than we ever realized was there, more than we can comprehend, more that can be told. Because the great story of the Son of God coming and living and being with the creation He created is far grander, more wondrous than we ever dared to imagine. It's all too wonderful for us, even though we often forget it.
Jeffrey Heine:And there's usually a time right around now, early in December, where I start to wonder if this season will be as good as the past, or at least the past that maybe I imagine and remember. I wonder if it's gonna be as meaningful or as sweet. David continues his psalm. Let's look at verse 6. In sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.
Jeffrey Heine:Burnt offering and sin offering, you have not required. Scribes and scholars have long wondered how to deal with verse 6. Specifically the line in our English bibles translated as, you have given me an open ear. The evidence of this struggle is seen in the variations found in manuscripts and translations over 1000 of years. The Hebrew that's used in this poem reads literally, ears you have dug for me.
Jeffrey Heine:Now this could mean that you've given me ears to hear you. And that certainly might be the first meaning of this Hebrew idiom, this Hebrew saying. We just don't see it in other places, and so it's hard to know for sure. But another understanding can simply be, you've given me ears. In other words, you've given me a body.
Jeffrey Heine:And I think that's what is also meant here by the phrase, ears you have dug for me. Because the language here, this Hebrew, does what all good poetry is supposed to do. It gives us a picture, a picture of a creator fashioning his creation, using his hands to dig our ears like a potter working clay, making a body. And that's how the author of the letter to the Hebrews presents this Psalm when he takes these words of David and puts them in the mouth of Jesus. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 5.
Jeffrey Heine:Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. The writer to the Hebrews sees these words in Psalm 40, these words of David as the very words of Jesus. And through these words of David, Jesus is explaining that the sacrifices of grain and birds and beast, they are not what the righteous God desires. Yes. He commanded them, but it's not what he desires.
Jeffrey Heine:They're not sufficient to address our sin ultimately. And set in contrast with these undesired sacrifices is the provision of the creator. A body have you prepared for me. A body prepared. In the context of what David is just talking about, sacrifices, this connection here we see is that these undesired animal sacrifices are met with a provision of a body.
Jeffrey Heine:The writer to the Hebrews is taking these words of David. He's hearing them out of the mouth of Jesus. The former sacrifices were never going to address sin. They were not enough. They were a covering, but they could not take them away.
Jeffrey Heine:And rather than leaving us with our brokenness, our sin, and these cycles of sacrifices, Jesus now says to the Father, you have prepared for me a body, a body fashioned, created, prepared by the Father. He's dug ears out for Him, a body for Jesus, his son, a body that can do what those former sacrifices could never do. So we're getting closer to answering this question this morning, but let's not lose the thread. We started with what child is this? He said, this is Christ, the King.
Jeffrey Heine:The follow-up question is why. Why is God in the manger? Why is He in the flesh? Why is the all powerful, almighty God resting in the arms of Mary? Because a body was prepared for him.
Jeffrey Heine:And why was a body prepared for him? Because the bodies of the bulls and the bodies of the goats were never going to address our sin, but the body of God will. The author of Hebrews is filling in the blanks of what's happening in Psalm 40 was ultimately pointing us to in Christ. The son required flesh and blood, so His flesh could be pierced and the blood could be bled. The son required a body, so His body could be given for you, and His blood could be poured out for you.
Jeffrey Heine:In the Old Testament, we read the prophet Jeremiah speaking the words of the Lord in chapter 31 saying, behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And then in the New Testament, we read Jesus saying to His disciples in the upper room the night that He was betrayed, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Also, the in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah declares in chapter 53, He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds, we are healed.
Jeffrey Heine:So then in the New Testament, the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter writes, Jesus bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds, you have been healed. Jesus required a body, because only in a body could His blood establish the new covenant, and only in a body could His wounds bring our healing. We find even more clarity as to why a body and what follows in the letter to the Hebrews chapter 10 in verses 6 and 7. Let's look together.
Jeffrey Heine:In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. And then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Jesus is saying, I I came to do the will of the Father. Jesus says in John chapter 6, For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And then we see in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10, And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Jeffrey Heine:For Jesus to accomplish this will of the Father, to fulfill all these Old Testament promises of God, a body was required. And because a body was required, a body was prepared. Burnt offerings and sin offerings were not enough, and they were never going to be enough. Just like your good behavior, your righteous living was never going to be enough. Nothing that we offer God will be enough to make things right.
Jeffrey Heine:So notice this juxtaposition. Notice how these things are side by side like a scale. The sacrifice of animals, obeying the law, good behavior, your straight a's, your successful career, your wealth, take whatever good you have, and whatever good you've accomplished, whatever you're tempted to make your worth, and your value, and your identity out of. Take every success that you would want written in your obituary, and take every kind word that you would want said about you at your funeral. Take all the good you have, and on the other side, it still demands a body.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus says, A body, father, you have prepared for me. That is your hope, not just on Sundays or at Advent or at Christmas, but forever. William Chatterton Dix poses his question, what child is this? And in the chorus, he reminds us why this baby is here. He writes in the 2nd chorus, Nails, spear shall pierce him through.
Jeffrey Heine:The cross be born for me, for you. Hail, hail, the word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary. Who is this child? This is Christ the king. But why?
Jeffrey Heine:Why is God in the flesh? Because according to the definite plan of God, by preparing a body for Jesus, nails, spear shall pierce him through. The cross be born for me and for you. The baby sleeping in Mary's lap was born to die, born that He might bear the cross for me and for you. And not only that He might die, but that he would rise and raise us with him.
Jeffrey Heine:This is not a mere teacher or a model or a martyr. This is Christ the King, whom god the father dug ears for and fashioned him a body so your atonement could be possible, and not only possible, but accomplished. So that when Jesus cries out, it is finished, and His body breathes His last breath, He means it. It is accomplished. And when that same body, 3 days lifeless in the tomb, breathes again, that breath proves that he is the resurrection and the life, more than can be told.
Jeffrey Heine:I think one of the reasons that we can feel like we've exhausted the Christmas story as though it's a movie that we watch year after year, and we know all the lines by heart, it's because we like to keep the story of Christmas contained. Contained like those green and red Rubbermaid storage bins that we lug out of the basement or the attic every December, or October if you're one of those people. We keep the story simple and sweet and domesticated. We come back to it year after year, somehow being lulled into thinking that it's tame. It's like those stories about people making pets out of bears and tigers.
Jeffrey Heine:People taking these beasts and thinking that they can become house pets. And then things inevitably go awry. Now, sure, they were able to teach the tiger to roll over, and the bear could stand up on its back legs and spin around like a ballerina, but they were never tame. They were always wild. And no matter how many decorations we put up, how many songs we sing or Hallmark movies are made, the reality of Christmas will never be tamed.
Jeffrey Heine:It's too wild, too unimaginable. It's more than can be told. In his book, Whistling in the Dark, the late author Frederick Beakner wrote this, quote, The Word become flesh, ultimate mystery with a skull that you could crush 1 handed, Incarnation. It is not tame. It is not touching.
Jeffrey Heine:It is not beautiful. It is uninhabitable terror. It's unthinkable darkness, riven with unbearable light. Agonized laboring led to it. Uphoevals of intergalactic space time split apart, wrenching and tearing at the very sinews of reality itself.
Jeffrey Heine:You can only cover your eyes and shutter before it, before this God of God, light of light, very God of very God, who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven. Came down. Only then do we dare uncover our eyes and see what we can see. It is the resurrection and the life that Mary holds in her arms. It is the bitterness of death that He takes at her breast, end quote.
Jeffrey Heine:A body prepared for him, ears dug out by the hands of the father. Not for sentimentality, not for a mere heartwarming story, he came into our unthinkable darkness to bring his unbearable light, to rend the heavens and come down for us. But that rescue was not through mere modeling of righteousness. It wasn't being a martyr. It wasn't just being a prophet.
Jeffrey Heine:The rescue comes only through a body prepared for sacrifice, flesh to be pierced, blood to be bled. That's the only thing that can rescue us, and it's exactly what God has done. So who is this child in Mary's lap? This is Christ the King. Why?
Jeffrey Heine:Because Jesus had to have a body. Why? So he could die. Why? To die the death we all deserve and to secure for us perfect and final atonement.
Jeffrey Heine:Why? Because God set His love on you. Before you ever heard the name of Jesus, before creation was even created, before you started kicking in your mother's womb, before you breathed your first breath, God set His love on you. But why? I have no idea, but He's told us that He loves us.
Jeffrey Heine:But how do we know for sure? Great question. 1st John chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Jeffrey Heine:We know that God loves us because He sent His Son, because He prepared for Him a body. And that might be the only sign you can see, that God loves you. And perhaps this Advent and this Christmas, it seems particularly dark. But we do not look around at the circumstances of our life to determine if God loves us or not. We look to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:He is the eternal sign that we have. The Father sent the Son. He prepared for Him a body, a body with flesh to be pierced for our transgressions, and a body with blood to establish a new covenant in His grace, a body that lived and moved and breathed, that died and rose again. Because through this body, God has done more than can be told. And now we turn our attention to this table of grace, the table that was given to us that we might return over and over to the provision and the sufficiency of that body and that blood of Jesus, sufficient to atone for our sin, sufficient to secure for us righteousness, and sufficient to manifest for us to see the unfathomable love of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's also at this table where we hear the words, the body of Christ given for you and His blood poured out for you. Because on the night that Jesus was betrayed, when He was with His disciples, He took the bread and He broke it. And he said, This is my body, which is given for you. Likewise, after blessing the cup, he said, this is the cup of the new covenant, which is established in my blood. The apostle Paul later tells us that as often as we eat of this bread and we drink of this cup, we proclaim Christ's death until He comes again, that second advent that we are longing for.
Jeffrey Heine:I wanna caution, just like the Christmas story, the table can become quite familiar. There can be a danger in that. In that familiarity, we can forget the wildness of God meeting us in this place to take bread. Not to shock you, it came from Publix. It spread in this alcohol free wine.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you've got questions about that, so do I. But somehow, God takes these simple things and meets us. He meets us in this common bread and this common wine, and He feeds us and nourishes our very souls, that which we are most hungering for, God Himself. He meets us, and He nourishes our souls. And what I would ask is is as we generally have, like, some time of quiet before we come forward, and the way that we'll take it is down these center aisles and break off a piece of the bread.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's when you'll hear, as you dip it into the cup, this is the body of Christ given for you and his blood poured out for you. That you would take and then return along these outer aisles. But before you come forward, I just ask this. Rather than trying to work your way up to some thinking, some idea of how great and wild this table is. Take a moment and just ask that the Lord would help you to believe that you don't have to go up because He came down to our common places.
Jeffrey Heine:Nothing should be familiar or common anymore. Once he set foot on the earth he created. And so we come into the mystery of this meal to tear this bread, to dip it into the cup, and to feast on Christ himself. And so let me pray for us in this time, and then our servers will come forward. O God, would you take these common things, bread and wine, and make them for us more than we can imagine, that they would be for us a nourishment to our souls, to strengthen us and our faith, our trust that You are who You say You are and that every promise will be fulfilled.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, Spirit, would You meet with us in this time and do what You do so beautifully, direct our attention and our affections to Jesus alone? Would You bless this time for the good of Your children and the glory of Your name? Amen.
