Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-03-07
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON FOR MARCH 4
SECURED ExOLUsIvELl ~ rHs
BANNER FOR fTs NAM
READERS
ACCORDING TO THE
INTERNATIONAL SERIES
Text of the Lesson, John vi, 22-40.
Memory Verses, 80, 33-Golden
Text John vi, 35-Commentary
Prepared by Rev. ID. M. Stearns.

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Anything that will give man liv-
Ing, provide that which he needs to
supply his physical necessities, seems
to most people to be the all important
thing. Here Is O man who abundantly
fed more than 5000 people and by His
helpers waited on them all and served
them. They must not lose sight OF
Him, for with Him they never need be
hungry. So they follow Him across
the sea and find Him. He knew what
was In them. He read their hearts
and told them why they sought Him
verse 26). Then He told them Of some
thing more important than life for the
body-eyerlasting life and bread from
heaven and resurrection body which
would never die. In other discourses
He told them, or, rather, his own dis
ciples, that If they made the coming
OF His kingdom their first concern their
Heavenly Father would see that they
never should lack food or raiment
(Matt. vi, 31-33; Luke xii, 29-3D. But
DtlOlc any OnC tdu AhdhO lhC WILLIE
OF His kingdom their first business
they must obtain eternal life as the
gift Of God, and this is more important
than keeping the body alive, a thing
that only God Himself can do, for He
giveth life and breath and all things.
and no one can keep alive his own soul
ACTS xvii, %, 2S; Ps. xxi, 29). To the
man who thought he had plenty to
keep his body and soul together for a
long time God said: This night thy
soul shall be required of thee. Then
whose shall those things be?'
The great thing is to be rich toward
God by receiving Himself as our life
and then ever be found laying up treas
ure In heaven by whole hearted mis-
sionary life Of winning others to Him
and thus helping to hasten the coming
Of His kingdom luke xii, 1920. To
the question Of these people, What
shall We do that we might work the
works Of God? His answer was that
the one thing needful, the one essen
tial thing, was to Believe on Him
whom God had sent-that is, receive
Him (verses %, %; 1, ~. Then they
ask for a sign, some work of His,
that they might believe on Him, and
this after they had just seen Him feed
thousands of people with a few loaves
and fishes. What more did they want?
What more could they ask? Then they
seem to make light of His recent feed
ing Of the multitude by quoting Moses
as feeding Israel In the wilderness.
This led TO His further discourse on eat
ing Himself as the real mama, the true
bread from heaven. Mark His wonder
full words. my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven, for the bread
of God is He which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world"
~ am the living bread which came down
from heaven; If any man eat OF this
bread he shall live forever, and the
bread that / will give is my flesh,
which / will give for the life of the
world" Except We eat the flesh Of
the Son OF Man and drink His blood
We have no life in you" verses 80, 33,
3S, AZ, 81, 53).
No mere man could say such things
and be truthful or in His right mind,
but He was the Goldman, God mani
fest In the flesh, and He was The
Truth. Compare verses AZ 81 and
note that He says to eat His flesh and
drink His blood is the same as believ-
ing in Him. for the result OF each is
eternal life and there are not two
ways OF obtaining eternal life. Com
pare verse SO and l John iii, "a, and
note that eating His flesh and drinking
His blood bring the same result as
keeping His commandments. So the
one great thing Is Just believing Him,
receiving Him, appropriating Him, as
we do food for our bodies. AS He
lived by the Father who sent Him, we
are to eat Him and live by Him (verse
90. This is no new figure, for the
prophets understood II, one saying,
Thy words were found, and did eat
them, and thy word was unto me the
Joy and rejoicing Of my heart" an
other being admonished in these
words: Eat that thou findest; eat this
roll, and go speak unto the house Of
Israel; fill they bowels with
this roll that give thee and
speak with my words unto them" Ger.
XIV, 10; Eek. III, Id.
! Because of these sayings the Jews
murmured at Him, as did also many Of
His disciples, yet He went on to speak
OF ascending up where He was before
oversees Al, 81, 60. Many Of His dis
ciples even went back and walked no
more with Him, but II they had been
true disciples they would have con-
tinued with Him. As It is written,
"They went out from US, but they were
not OF u.s. (verse GO and John II. 19).
Simon Peters answer when He asked.
"will We also go away" Is very nota-
BILE: lord. to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words OF eternal life,
and we believe and are sure that thou
art that Christ, the Son Of the Living