"THE 'IN-CHRISTED' ONES"

MAY 30, 1999 am
MF Blume

John 6:53-58 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
Matt 26:26-28 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed [it], and brake [it], and gave [it] to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave [it] to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The last supper before Jesus was crucified involved bread and wine.

Jesus told them the bread represents His flesh and body that would be broken for them, and the wine represents His blood.

Paul later taught the churches that we partake of one bread and one body.

1Cor 10:16-17 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we [being] many are one bread, [and] one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

It does not matter what colour you are, or what status of society that your family achieved in this world.

When you are born again, you are "in-christed" (put into Christ) and your old status is simply not part of you anymore.

2Cor 5:16-17 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more. Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We are removed from the old creation by the death of Jesus.

In other words, as much as a person leaves all that is involved in this life and this world when they die and are buried in a grave, true Christians have died with Jesus Christ.
They became Christians by believing that Jesus died in the place of all of us, because we all had to die.
We had to die because of sinning.
So He paid the price that we deserved.
Therefore, we can say that we died.
We paid the price.... "in Christ."
We were "in-Christed"

The flesh that was part of the old creation may be black, white, red or yellow.

We may have been rich, poor or middle-classed in this world.
Your father may have been a millionaire and CEO of a large corporation.
But we are not supposed to look at each other after the flesh any more.
We left that status when we were put in Christ - "in-Christed."
After Paul said we do not look at each other after the flesh any more, he said that we are new creatures.

Eating the Last Supper bread and drinking the Last Supper blood is supposed to mean that we are "in-christed."

We are one Body with Jesus.
We are included in Him now.

Eating and drinking our Communion Supper reminds us of that fact.

Jesus said, "This is my body which is broken for you."
In other words, He said, "You were doomed to die, therefore I died as you. I died because you had to die. Therefore, if you unite with me, you died."

We may be of many colours, many pedigrees and status positions, but we all ate of one bread when we were saved.

Many people who partake of one bread, are therefore that one bread.
Jesus is the vine and we are the many branches.
The class distinctions of the world are no longer applicable to us.
We are no longer of this world.
This world was where our parents brought about our births.
But we have been born of the Spirit of God.
Colour means nothing any more.
We are all "in-christed" beings.

Colour of skin came from the tower of Babel when God separated people under different languages.

Our bodies are the only part of us that have not yet been affected by the cross of Jesus.
The Bible teaches that the redemption of our bodies was already paid for by the blood of Jesus, but will not be fulfilled until Gabriel sounds the trumpet.
At that moment we will be changed in a moment.
Since we are all one Body and all partook of the same bread and wine, the same flesh and blood of Jesus, we died with Him.
We are said to have died with Christ.

Roma 6:3-5 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [his] resurrection:

If each of us died when He died, then we all died together at the same moment.

And that is the reason that the following will occur.

1Cor 15:51-52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

We shall all be changed in a moment.

Why?
We are one body.
We are all "in-christed."

His death became our deaths.

We died with Him.

His Burial became our burial.

We were buried with Him.

His resurrection became our resurrection.

We were raised with Him.

The first time we read of bread and wine being given is way back in Genesis.

Gene 14:14-20 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained [servants], born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued [them] unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which [is] on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that [were] with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which [is] the king's dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he [was] the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed [be] Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Melchisedek.

He brought bread and wine.
And then in the midst of many things said about Him, we later read:

Hebr 7:1-2 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

King of righteousness.
King of peace.

Now we read earlier in the bible:

Roma 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

The Kingdom of God, means there is a KING.

This Kingdom is righteousness.
Melchisedek is KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
This Kingdom is peace.
Melchisedek is KING OF PEACE.
Who does the Bible say is KING in this Kingdom Of God?

1Tim 6:14-15 That thou keep [this] commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, [who is] the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

Jesus is the King of Kings.

Melchisedek is a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus, as much as the burning bush and the hand writing on Belshazzar's wall.

Now, notice this about Jesus.

1Cor 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

Jesus is made righteousness for our sakes.

So when Jesus said that the bread we must eat of is His body and the drink we must drink of is His blood...
...and if He is made righteousness for our sakes
...then to eat the bread and drink the wine represents taking His righteousness into our lives.
He is our righteousness.
Jesus told us to...

Matt 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

If we are to seek God's righteousness, then that means we can receive and obtain God's righteousness.

Not our own righteousness.
Our righteousness is so useless that we are urged to forget about seeking our own righteousness, but rather seek the righteousness of God.
God's righteousness can be given to us.
If you have His righteousness, what greater righteousness can you have?

So Jesus is our righteousness.

And when we eat His flesh and drink His blood, that is simply trying to tell us that we receive His righteousness into ourselves.
And that is the reason we read:

Matt 5:6 Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

You are to hunger and thirst after righteousness because Jesus is our righteousness.

And since we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood, we hunger and thirst.
You hunger for bread.
You thirst for drink.
His flesh is bread and His blood is drink.

There was bread and drink in the Garden.

There was the fruit of life and the river of life there.
In Revelation 22, there is the river of life and the tree of life again.
All of these things are actually illustrations of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.
We become one with Him.
one body with Him.
One blood with him.

ONE BODY:

Roma 12:5 So we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

ONE BLOOD:

Acts 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

We each ate of one bread and drank of the same blood of Jesus.

Jesus said we would have eternal life if we eat his flesh and drink his blood.
That does not speak about cannibalism.
It is a spiritual way of saying we UNITE TO HIM.
WE JOIN TO HIM.
That is the reason the church is called the BODY OF CHRIST.

Colo 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence.

Melchisedek came to Abraham to give him bread and wine.

Jesus came to give us bread and wine.
Jesus came so that we would unite with Him and become bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.
As God made Eve from Adam's body, God made the church from the body of Christ.

Jesus body was crucified and His blood was shed so that we could be created.

Just as much as Adam fell into a deep sleep so God could make Eve from His rib, Jesus was crucified and shed His blood so that we could be made from His flesh and blood.

Ephe 5:30-32 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Now, in closing, notice this about what is said about Melchisedek.

Keep in mind that when we unite to Jesus, it is spiritually drinking his blood and eating his flesh.
This is a spiritual way of saying we become joined to Him.
That is why he said we have eternal life if we do these things.
Melchisedek was the first one to bring bread and wine to a person.

Hebr 7:2-3 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Melchisedek was king of righteousness

We read that Jesus is made righteousness for us.
So in taking the bread and wine, His flesh and blood, it is a picture of receiving His righteousness.
We partake of His characteristics when we unite to Him.
He gives us His righteousness by causing us to unite to Him.
And then we read that Melchisedek is without mother or father.
He is without descent or pedigree.
Without a line of ancestors.
He has no beginning of days and no ending of life.
(THAT IS WHAT ETERNAL MEANS).

If we partake of His characteristics when we become one with Him, then we are reading here that suddenly we are without mother or father.

This means that our PASTS ARE ERASED.
We have no lineage of ancestors.
We are born again.
We are created into new creatures.
Paul said we are new creatures in Christ.
IN-CHRISTED people are new creatures.

We died with Him.

Our pasts are gone as far as God is concerned.
And we need to start thinking of ourselves as Paul did.
We no longer look at each other after the flesh.
We have partaken of His nature.

2Pet 1:4 ...ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Your earthly mother and father did not parent this new birth.

As far as God sees you, you are without mother or father.
Did Adam have an earthly mother of father?
Adam was the beginning of human creation.
And Jesus is the firstborn from the dead.
We are in Him.
Your past is gone and you are cleansed from sin and ready for glory when you are IN-CHRISTED.
Priests after the order of Melchisedek also bring bread and wine to you today.
Every born again believer is made a king and priest, just as Meclhisedek was King and Priest (Rev. 1:6).
And we bring the bread and wine -- the good news that you can partake of Christ's flesh and blood and see your past removed from you.
You can die with Christ.
You can unite to Him.
Believe He died as you.
Be baptized in His name and thereby enter into His death.
Be buried with Him.
We become without any pasts because we are now part of a new creation.
Our pasts were part of the OLD CREATION, and we are removed from that and now in the NEW CREATION.