John 6:33
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

John 6:38
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

To confess that Jesus is 'from heaven' can then mean one of 2 things. Either:

1. He existed in heaven prior to his birth in some form other than human.
   This interpretation has no scriptural backing either in the Old Testament, Acts or Epistles.
2. He was using the term in a figurative sense.

In order to understand what Jesus is talking about we need to see these expressions through Jewish eyes.

Jesus was charged with blasphemy for saying 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work' (John 5:17) because he spoke of God as his Father,
surely if his claims to be 'from heaven' had been interpreted to mean that he existed in heaven prior to his life on earth, that would have given his enemies far weightier grounds upon which to accuse him and they would have pounced on this.

The only explanation for their failure to do so must be that his claims were understood by his Jewish audience as an assertion of the origin of his authority- not a prior life in heaven as God the Father or God the Son.

Luke 20:1  
¶And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,
2  And spake unto him, saying,
Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?
3  And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me:
4  The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
5  And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say,
From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
6  But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.
7  And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was.
8 And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

The question raised here regards the origin of Jesus' authority.

Jesus answers by asking them whether the baptism of John was 'from heaven'- exactly the same expression he uses of himself.

The chief priests, scribes and elders, being Jews all know exactly what he was asking:

• He was not asking if John's baptism was performed in heaven prior to taking place on earth.
• He was asking whether the origin of John's authority and commission to baptise had its source from God's throne or mere human impulse.

Here it is! The context of Jesus own understanding of the expression 'from heaven'.

Jesus' use of the words 'from heaven' were understood by his contemporaries to be a claim to heavenly authority:

For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Matthew 7:29).

At most it may also have been a euphemism of his miraculous conception- the overshadowing of Mary by the Power of the Highest.

His parentage was not just 'from men', but on his Father's side 'from heaven'.