JOHN 6--UNION WITH CHRIST
In Acts 9.27 Barnabas brings Saul to the apostles, to show them Saul has been converted.  In Acts 13.2 the Holy Spirit calls Barnabas and Saul for the work of the ministry, with the laying on of hands.  In Acts 15.2 Paul and Barnabas go together to the apostles at Jerusalem to settle a dispute.  Paul and Barnabas were brothers in the Lord, ministry partners, fellow travelers and yet they divided.  Because Mark deserted Paul in Pamphylia, Paul does not want Mark with him.  Barnabas is willing to forgive Mark, Paul is not.  So these two brothers in the Lord, these two spiritual warriors  Paul and Barnabas split apart in Acts 15.39.

  This is a tragedy, but one that will be redeemed by the Lord.  After Barnabas and Mark go to Cyprus, Mark comes to Paul when he is imprisoned in Rome.  Paul says Mark was even an encouragement to him, Colossians 4.10. 11.

  If there is one passage in the NT which God may have meant to unite all Christians--Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal-- it undoubtedly is the Lord's Supper.  And yet, the church is tragically divided.  Possibly we could look at John 6 in a way to unite Christians, as Paul and Mark were united in Rome.

  When Jesus speaks of His body and blood, even disciples who looked Jesus in the eye, who heard His voice, even then and there they leave Him.  His words in John 6.48-65 are like looking directly at the sun--we cannot do without the sun but to stare at it will make us blind.  Maybe we can walk in the light of these words and yet see what we have not seen.

  Jesus will begin this entire passage in John 6.39 by saying, that of all that He has given Me, I lost nothing... and HE will end this passage by saying in John 6.65, no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.  In between, in John 6.46 Jesus says, Not that any man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.  Jesus is referring to Himself, saying only in Him can anyone see the Father.  He will say the same thing to Philip in John 14.8.  What all of this means is that between 6.39 and 6.65 Jesus will show us how we come to the Father who is in heaven.

  The Father has chosen, Christ will redeem, and the Father will bring us home.

  I have said in a previous post that the Bible has 4 viewpoints--God speaking to God, God speaking to men and women, men and women speaking to God and men and women speaking to each other.  We are used to Jesus speaking to His disciples as He is God.  We are used to the disciples speaking to each other.  But in the NT we have a few rare glimpses of God speaking to men and women from His own point of view.  This is one of those moments.

  When Paul addresses his letters to those in certain cities, he calls them saints.  He does so because they have been redeemed and sanctified by the blood of Christ.  When the Father 'sees' them, He sees them as saints.  When Paul writes to the saints at Ephesus, he says, But God, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up with Him and  seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2.4.  How can we be seated in the heavenly places and yet be here on earth?  From God's point of view we are with Him and in Him in heaven.  This is because God is not in time; He sees our future as our spiritual state, not as something which has not yet happened.

  Now let's go back to John 6.  When we partake of the bread and wine of communion, from God's point of view it is His Son's flesh and blood taken into us.  So when the Father sees us, He does not see our flesh, He sees His Son's perfect resurrected flesh.  When we take the wine, the Father does not see our corrupted blood, He sees His Son's perfect blood poured out for us, in us.  We are received into the Father's presence because of His Son's presence in us.

  Here on earth, that bread and wine do not become Christ's earthly flesh and blood, they are seen as His flesh and blood by the Father through God the Spirit in heaven.  So, from the Father's point of view Jesus can say, I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh, John 6.51.  What Jesus has done is come down from heaven (I am the living bread that came down from heaven); He met us here (If any one eat of this bread); and then He takes us to heaven (he shall live forever).

  When we die and are resurrected to heaven, standing before God, He does not see our sinful flesh, He sees His Son's flesh which we took into ourselves in the form of communion bread.  When we stand before God, He does not see our corrupt blood, He sees His Son's blood which we took in the form of communion wine.  This is what is meant in Eph. 1.7 when Paul says, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.

  Through us, in us God sees Christ who fills all in all.

  So Jesus says this with a nearly blinding sheen when He says, He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in Him.  The heavenly life of the Father, which was given to the Son, is not given to us, as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who east Me, he shall also live because of Me, John 6.57.

  This is how all Christians can be one, as Jesus and the Father are one, John 17.11.