Prayer at beginning looking up … Father you pour yourself into us through Your Son.  Let the grace of your Son Jesus be multiplied in us; in our bodies; in our souls; in our minds.  Let the infirmities that so easily beset our mortal bodies be far removed from us.  Let your love perfect our hearts from the fear that’s in the world.  Thank you for sharing yourself with us.  Thank you for giving us your divine nature through you Son.  Thank you for saving us from the corruption that’s in the world. 

Last week we talked about being raised by God.  We were born in the world.  The world has its idea of what it is to be human and what humans need to prosper in the world.  The world taught us what it is to be human.  Now we are being raised by God, and since it’s God who made humans.  He knows what it is to be truly human.  He knows what we need to prosper in our humanity.  The Word, that is the eternal Son, who was always with the Father, sharing in the same divine nature with the Father, was manifest in the flesh to teach us what it is to be truly human and what it is that can truly cause our humanity to prosper.  We can call upon the name of the Lord and be sealed with the Holy Spirit, but how does our faith inform our daily lives.  

God is love.  Love is Agape in the Greek.  It’s the self giving; self sacrificial; shared life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  … Father, Son, and Spirit have an everlasting communion with one another … they share together in the same glory; they share together in the same divine nature.  Our humanity was made to partake of their communion.  Our humanity was made to partake of their divine nature.  The divine nature is meant to be our daily bread.  There’s grace upon grace for us in the divine nature.  The strength we need.  The nutrients our humanity needs to be healthy and whole and complete is found in the uncreated grace that emanates from their divine nature.  

The Father prepared a body for Christ, so they can share their divine nature with us through his flesh.  The glory the Father shared with the Son before the world was manifested in the body of Christ so his flesh can be our daily bread.  

Jesus says to the disciples in John 4:32 he has meat they know not of.  They were all hungry and Jesus says he has food they know not of.  Jesus wasn’t living by bread alone.  He wasnt only living by the bread the world gives.  Jesus was nourished by the true bread from heaven.  His humanity was fed with the grace that emanates from the divine nature he shared with the Father from before the world was.  Jesus came into the earth to do the Fathers will.  He came into the earth so we wouldn’t have to live by bread alone.  He came into the earth from above to give us the true bread from heaven.  

Jesus says in John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.  Jesus goes on to say unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you.  He says his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed.  He says those who eat my flesh and drink my blood dwell in me, and I in them.  He says as the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats my flesh, even he shall live by me.

Jesus is telling us the nutrients our humanity needs to prosper is in him.  Theres real nourishment in the flesh of Jesus; there’s real strength for us in his flesh.  The nourishment our humanity needs is in him; it’s in his body; in his flesh and in his blood; it’s in his humanity.  If we don’t believe on him; if we aren’t remembering his body and his blood as we walk in this world, we can end up parched and malnourished.   

Paul says in Col 2 we are complete in Christ.  What type of a being/creature are you?  You’re a human.  You’re flesh and blood, with a soul and a spirit.  So it’s your humanity that finds its completion; wholeness; ability to function properly in Christ.  We find the strength our bodies need every day in Christ.  We find the power of a sound mind in Christ.  We find our hearts perfected from fear in Christ.  Why?  Where does the completion come from?  Where is the completion found?  What serves us with the nourishment our humanity needs in this world?  It’s the body of Christ.  It’s the flesh of the Lord Jesus that serves us with the grace we need.  

What is it in the body of Christ that sustains our humanity as we walk in this world?  Paul says it’s the fulness of deity that dwells in him bodily.  The Father and the Son serve us with the divine nature they shared before the world was through the flesh of the eternal Son.  Jesus says abide in me and I in you and that’s how you can bear much fruit.  The fulness of deity dwells in the flesh of Jesus, as we abide in his flesh, his divine nature continuously nourishes our humanity, and that’s what makes us fruitful.  

You might say what about the Holy Spirit.  How does the Holy Spirit fit into all of this?  The Holy Spirit is what causes us to abide in the flesh of Jesus.  Paul says in 1st Cor 12:13 that its by one Spirit we are baptized into one body.  The Holy Spirit immerses us in the flesh of Jesus so we can partake of the divine nature thats been loosed in his body.  The power for humanity to have communion with the divine nature the Son eternally shares with the Father is through his flesh.  

In 1st Corinthians 11 Paul tells the Corinthians that their gatherings are meant to be about communion with one another, and communion with the divine nature through the Lord’s body.  We come together in remembrance of the Lord’s body for communion with the divine nature.  

Paul says many of the Corinthians are weak and sickly and many sleep because they’re not discerning the Lord’s body.  They might be coming to the gatherings.  They might be eating the most food and drinking the most wine, but they aren’t remembering the Lord’s body as they break bread and take the cup.  They aren’t discerning Agape.  They arent discerning the Father continuously pouring himself into them; sharing Himself with them; giving them His divine nature, through the flesh of the Son.  Paul says many are weak and sickly and fallen asleep because they aren’t remembering they’ve been baptized into the Lord’s death.  They aren’t remembering that they died unto sin through the body of Christ, never to be able to be overcome by sin again.  

Paul says when we gather in remembrance of the Lord’s body we’re celebrating and proclaiming the Lords death til he comes.  Its like coming to the mercy seat; what do you see at the mercy seat … you see God manifest in the flesh .. you see the body of Christ; the flesh of Jesus; and what do you discern there?  You discern that sin and death have been condemned in his flesh.  You see the fulness of deity loosed in the flesh of Christ.  You see your humanity in continuous fellowship with the divine nature through the flesh of the Son.  You see the Father giving Himself to you through the flesh of the eternal Son; you see the tribulation in the world and the corruption in the world, that stands opposed to you, overcome in the flesh of Jesus.  You behold yourself in him; that you are a member of his body.  Of his flesh and of his bone.  That communicates something to you.  It tells you that your humanity has overcome the corruption and tribulation in the world.  It tells you that the death and tribulation in the world have no hold on you.  

Remembering the Lord’s body and blood is like being hooked up to an IV.  It’s like being hooked up to vitamin C IV.  It’s like being hooked up to a vitamin B drip.  Except its an IV of divinity.  The body of Christ contains eternity.  The flesh of Christ is eternal so the nutrients it feeds us with is the divine nature.  The body of Christ feeds us with the grace that heals our diseases.  

This is what the Christian life is all about.  It’s about beholding God manifest in the flesh.  Beholding the God-man serving you with His divine nature through his flesh.  This is the fear and trembling that came upon Paul on the road to Damascus.  This is how your salvation from the corruption and the sin and death in the earth is worked out in your humanity.  This works our salvation out in our humanity daily.  It keeps us from temptation.  It becomes unto us our nourishment; our strength.  It’s our endurance in the midst of a perverse generation.  It casts down the shame the world brings to us through the weakness and infirmities of these mortal bodies.  It keeps our hearts and our minds looking to Christ Jesus, and the glory we see in his flesh.  It stirs us up by reminding us of Gods mercy towards our humanity.  It tames the power of lust in our members.  Our bellies and our appetites are no longer our god.  Our God is the Lord Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh to nourish our humanity with the grace that emanates from His divine nature.  

Prayer