REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
(16) When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (17) But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, (18) so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Mt. 6:16-18).
REVIEW:
John Stott said that we evangelicals live as if this portion of Scripture, Matthew 6:16-18, were torn out of the Bible (and did not exist.)
“For evangelicals, this whole question of fasting has almost disappeared from our lives and even out of the field of our consideration.” (MLJ, 34)
Why Fast? The Bible seems to indicate at least five reasons why a Christian should fast: (1) Fasting is a support to prayer. Prayer and fasting often go together in the Bible; (2) Fasting emphasizes our sorrow for sin. Fasting is often tied to brokenness, repentance, humbling of one self before God; (3) Fasting is a means to avert the wrath of God. In dire situations, God moved and held back His wrath when people fasted; (4) Fasting for God’s blessing on an important undertaking. Fasting was an exclamation point on the prayers when asking for God’s blessing; (5) Fasting for guidance. When we are not sure about what direction to take, we can add fasting to our prayers for guidance.
INTRODUCTION
There is an admonition in “The Rule of St. Benedict” that exhorts the monk “to love fasting.” (Willard, 199).
QUESTION: Why don’t more Christians fast? What don’t we fast more?
Evangelicals often say that fasting is an OT practice commanded for the Day of Atonement. That is was abrogated by Christ. That it is a Roman Catholic practice. That it is tied to an elaborate calendar of ‘feast days’ and ‘fast days.’
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Fasting – Commanded or Encouraged?
2. The Nature of Fasting
3. Fasting with Repentance and Brokenness
4. Fasting for an Audience of One
5. Fasting’s Reward
6. Guidelines for Fasting
HOW TO FAST
I. FASTING – COMMANDED OR ENCOURAGED?
29 “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or an alien living among you- 30 because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. 31 It is a Sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. (Lev. 16:29-30)
Jewish scribal law: “On the Day of Atonement it is forbidden to eat, or to drink, or to bathe, or to anoint oneself, or to wear sandals, or to indulge in conjugal intercourse.” (Barclay, 233)
Praying and giving are commanded again and again in the Bible, but not fasting.
Jesus never commanded us to fast. The Roman Catholic Church did command fasting with miscellaneous fast days throughout the year. The Reformers steered away from fasting since it was not commanded by Jesus.
So Protestants overall have allowed the primitive spiritual discipline of fasting to sink into general disuse.
Yet, it is obvious that Jesus regarded fasting as good and right for Christian people.
John Wesley felt that this passage (Mt. 6:16-18) when Jesus places how to fast in parallel with instructions on how to give and how to pray, as as good as a command to fast.
It is important to note that the verse doesn’t say “If you fast …” It says “When you fast …”
Other strong support for fasting is that the leadership in Antioch fasted before they selected and sent Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-3) and Paul and Barnabas fasted when they appointed elders (Acts 14:23)
II. THE NATURE OF FASTING
We refer to the main idea in fasting every morning when we use the word “breakfast” which simply means breaking the fast of a night without food and thus eating.
A simple definition of fasting is abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.
All the inspired writers of the OT and NT take the word ‘to fast’ in the single sense of abstaining from food.
Biblical fasting no way means a hunger strike for political purposes. The focus is always on spiritual purposes.
Mere non-partaking of food is no more fasting than the moving of the lips means that you are praying.
If our fasting is not marked by a heartfelt sense of sin and a seeking of God that is sincere, then the fasting is mere superstition.
Fasting is almost a synonym for humbling ourselves before God. Dallas Willard writes, “Fasting confirms our utter dependence on God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food.”
III. FASTING WITH REPENTANCE AND BROKENNESS
QUESTION: What could be some wrong motives for fasting?
It is possible to fast with “fasting unto God.”
Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? (Zech. 7:5)
God has much more invested in our relationship with Him than we do and the purpose of fasting is to enhance that relationship.
The most extensive discussion of fasting in the OT is found in Isa. 58:1-7.
TABLE DISCUSSION QUESTION: Read carefully 58:1-12 and answer the following two questions: (1) Why doesn’t God notice my fast? (2) What was missing from the fast referred to in this text?
They were correctly practicing a religious observance removed from a moral change in their lives. “… you do as you please” (vs 4). There was no true concern in their hearts for righteousness. They continued to exploit workers, quarrel, get into fights, point the finger with malicious talk etc. They were not proactive in working for justice, meeting the needs of the hungry, the destitute, the oppressed.
The Jewish people erred on the side of religious activity with no true brokenness of the heart, no true humbling. It was mostly doing fasting the right way.
We err on the side of service, doing things for others without a brokenness of heart, no lifestyle change. Often we serve in order to feel good, perform a religious obligation.
True fasting involves a true humbling of ourselves in repentance with the outcome that we live godly lives in our relationships and show true care for others.
Fasting, like Bible reading and prayer, is meaningless if it does not move us into a closer relationship with our Father, a relationship which will generate in us a godly lifestyle that will include care for our neighbor.
The purpose of all of the “Spiritual Disciplines” is not to perform a “Spiritual Discipline.” The purpose is to develop a more intimate relationship with our Father which in the end will always produce moral change in our lives.
IV. FASTING FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE
(16) When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (17) But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, (18) so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Mt. 6:16-18).
Living with the realization that God sees all would be revolutionary to us and certainly motivate us to holy living.
ILL: Mr. Maxwell (1895-1984), the founder of Prairie Bible Institute, said that he only remembers learning one Bible verse from his mother, “Thou God seest me.” He grew up in Kansas on a farm and was in Europe during the first world war. He said that this one verse kept him from living a life of debauchery.
Dallas Willard says that we live in a “God bathed” world.
“Am I only a God nearby, and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I can not see him?” (Jer. 23:23-24)
A key verse for the Sermon on the Mount: …unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:20).
When we first started studying the Sermon on the Mount I felt that it was impossible to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. I now believe that Jesus expects us to surpass their righteousness by focusing on heart righteousness.
In our text we surpass their righteousness in fasting by focusing only on fasting for an audience of one, our Father. When our fasting is for Him and Him alone, then we surpass the righteous of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were not fasting for the “Applause of Heaven” and thus heaven did not applaud.
This being said remember that “being seen fasting” is much different from “fasting to be seen.”
V. FASTING AND ITS REWARD
(16) When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (17) But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, (18) so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Mt. 6:16-18).
The Pharisees, with their fasting, played the role of an actor. They disfigured their faces and bore a somber look. They played a role or a part as in a theater production.
READING: “Those wanting to call attention to their fasting would put on a gloomy face, and neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. They would wear old clothes, sometimes purposely torn and soiled, dishevel their hair, cover themselves with dirt and ashes, and even use makeup in order to look pale and sickly. … the word “hypocrites” comes from the Greek word for the mask used by actors to portray a certain character or mood. In regard to fasting, some Jewish hypocrites literally resorted to theatrics” (MacArthur, 401)
Barclay claims that Jewish fasting days were Monday and Thursday which were also market days. In Pamekasan, the market day was Sunday and on those days all of the villagers would come into town. It was always a very crowded day. In fact it was always easy to spot a market day in Java or Madura for on that day the streets would be crowded with hundreds and thousands of people making their way to the village or city where the market was being held. So a market day was a good day to fast because more people would see you.
The question for the Pharisees is, “When do you want ‘payday’ to happen?” Jesus said that they received the attention of men, were honored by men and thus “… they received their reward in full.”
The idea here is that they put on their performance, the full act, in fasting. The crowd was there, saw their performance and applauded. They received their pay, their full reward, which was the applause of they crowd. They were paid in full.
They cancelled out a future “well done” for present ‘fading flattery.”
QUESTION: But, what is the REWARD that Jesus refers to? The verse says that “…your Father …. will reward you.”
It is the deep happiness and joy of experiencing the divine embrace.
If we are Christian hedonists, then the reward is the extreme joy and happiness we have of an ever deepening and intimate relationship with our dear heavenly Father, of fellowship with Him.
VI. GUIDELINES FOR FASTING
A sermon I read from the web (I am not clear on its source) suggested the following:
1. Fast unto the Lord with our eye fixed solely on Him.
2. Beware of thinking that we merit anything from the Lord because we are fasting.
3. Do not imagine that performing the mere outward act of fasting is pleasing to the Lord.
4. Don’t fast in such a way that you impair your health. Remember that you body is a “temple” for the Holy Spirit.
5. See to it that you are afflicting your soul and not just your body. This means that your fasting is accompanied with a broken and contrite heart, sorrow for sin.
6. Fasting should always be accompanied with fervent prayer.
7. It is good to add works of mercy to our fast.
READING: Dr. Lundquist from Bethel Seminary in Minnesota witnessed the fasting of Korean pastors during a visit to Korea. He wrote: As I went back to the hotel I reflected that I had never fasted like that. Perhaps I had never desired a work of God with the same intensity . . . His body is marked by many 40 day fasts during his long spiritual leadership of God’s work in Asia. Also, however, I haven’t seen the miracles Dr. Kim has.
Dr. Lundquist went on to tell of one of the “Burning Heart” retreats that he was leading when he saw a seminary senior not eating. He asked him if he was all right and learned that the student was near the end of a 21 day total fast as part of seeking God’s leading for the next chapter of his life.
Dr. Lundquist said that in the later years of his ministry he found a modified fast once a week very helpful in his life and work. He wrote in his letter, that instead of taking an hour for lunch I use the time to go to a prayer room, usually the Flame Room in nearby Bethel Theological Seminary. There I spend my lunch break in fellowship with God and in prayer. And I have learned a very personal dimension to what Jesus declared, “I have had meat to eat ye know not of.”
SO WHAT???
1. Fasting is a spiritual discipline fully supported by the OT and NT and Jesus assumes that we will practice this spiritual discipline.
2. Fasting that is not accompanied by humbling, brokenness and repentance is no more than an empty religious exercise.
3. The focus of our fasting must be on developing an intimate relationship with the Lord, for His guidance, His blessing on endeavors, as an exclamation point on our prayers.
4. The great reward for now is the joy of fellowship with our Father, of experiencing His voice of approval, His delight in our passion for Him and Him alone.