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:
FLIP CHART – Show John Stott’s outline of the main divisions of SOM. In 6:1-18 Jesus sets for “The Piety of the Christian Believer.” He focuses on three “Spiritual Disciplines.” The first is Almsgiving, the second is Prayer and the third is Fasting. When dealing with the “Spiritual Discipline” of Prayer he introduces the “Model Prayer.” Now we look at the third “Spiritual Discipline” of Fasting.
INTRODUCTION
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)
“Most Christians lay stress on daily prayer and sacrificial giving, but few lay stress on fasting.” (John Stott)
“Fasting is mentioned some thirty times in the New Testament, almost always favorably. It is possible that fasting was even overemphasized in some parts of the early church. At least four times a reference to fasting seems to have been inserted into the original text where it is not found in the earliest and best manuscripts (Matt. 17:21; Mark 9:29); Acts 10:30; I Cor. 7.5). The other favorable accounts, however, both in the gospels and in the epistles, show that proper fasting is a legitimate form of spiritual devotion.” (MacArthur, 401).
We are going to deal with fasting “topically,” that is see what the Bible says about fasting. Then, during our next gathering we will talk about the nature of fasting and explained in our text.
******* Set up new groups, five at each table? Count out 1-5 and then have the class go to their new tables.
TABLE ACTIVITY / QUESTION: What do we know about Biblical fasting? At your table make a list of all the Biblical truths you can gather about fasting. (5 minutes)
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Fasting is a Support to Prayer
2. Fasting Emphasizes Sorrow for Our Sin
3. Fasting to Avert the Wrath of God
4. Fasting for God’s Blessing on an Important Undertaking
5. Fasting for Guidance
It is interesting that, in our text, Jesus does not deal with the purpose for fasting, that is, he does not answer the question: Why should we fast? We need to study the text of the whole Bible to discover the purpose of fasting.
QUESTION: Based on our recent table discussions and/or your own thoughts, why should we fast?
WHY FAST?
I. TO SUPPORT OUR PRAYER LIFE
The Bible is clear that you can pray without fasting but you cannot fast without praying.
READING: Table # 1 = Neh. 1:4; Table # 2 = Daniel 9:3; Table # 3 = Luke 2:37; Table # 4 = Acts 13:3; Table # 5 = Acts 14:23
“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” (Neh. 1:4)
“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” (Daniel 9:3)
“She [Anna] never left the temple but worshiped night and days, fasting and praying” (Luke 2:37)
“So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:3).
“Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” (Acts 14:23)
QUESTION: Why is fasting often connected with prayer? What impact might fasting have upon prayer?
Fasting is an aid to prayer … non-preparation of and or partaking of meals leaves us freer to spend time in prayer. Does fasting enable us to concentrate better? To focus? Does fasting communicate to God the seriousness of our petition, the sincerity of our heart?
“[Fasting] is a strong statement to God about the seriousness of our concern and the depth of our desire for the Lord. ‘It is the physical exclamation point,’ writes John Piper. ‘This much, O God, I long for you and for the manifestation of your glory in the world!’” (Bill Haley, Falls Church, VA).
II. FASTING EMPHASIZES REPENTANCE/SORROW FOR SIN
QUESTION: Why might fasting emphasize my sorrow for sin?
Fasting is a sign of sorrow: Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:14-15)
From these two verses it seems like fasting and mourning go together.
Dr. James Boice claimed that the Hebrew word for fasting suggests the repentant humbling of the soul to God. Fasting always was connected with mourning for sin and repentance of it.
The only time fasting is commanded in the Bible is when God commanded the Jewish nation to fast during the “Day of Atonement.”
READING: Table # 1 = Leviticus 16:29-34; Table # 2 = Leviticus 23:26-32; Table # 3 = Numbers 29:7.
QUESTION: What was the reason for the Day of Atonement?
“… to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.” (Lev. 16:30)
QUESTION: What word/words indicate that the people were to fast during the Day of Atonement? (Deny yourself / himself)
“For the Jew, in the time of Jesus, there was only one compulsory fast, the fast on the Day of Atonement. On that day from morning to evening, all men had “to afflict themselves” (Lev. 16:31). The Jewish scribal law lays it down: “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)
Paul, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, was blind for three days and did not eat or drink anything.
(Acts 9:9).
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 102:4, “My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.”
“Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles” (Ezra 10:6).
READING: How strongly is this expressed by our Church [Anglican Church] in the first part of the Homily on Fasting! — “When men feel in themselves the heavy burden of sin, see damnation to be the reward of it, and behold, with the eye of their mind, the horror of hell, they tremble, they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, and cannot but accuse themselves, and open their grief unto Almighty God, and call unto him for mercy. This being done seriously, their mind is so occupied, [taken up,] partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all desire of meat and drink is laid apart, and loathsomeness [or loathing] of all worldly things and pleasure cometh in place. So that nothing then liketh them more than to weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words and behavior of body to show themselves weary of life.” (Web Notes, page 19)
To fast and to humble oneself before God are equivalent terms.
Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting (Psalms35:13).
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ (Isa. 58:3).
Fasting and repentance which includes sorrow for sin are associated in the Word.
[They were being attacked by the Philistines, put away their Baals and Astoreths and returned to the Lord] “When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. o\On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” (I Samuel 7:6)
“…the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads … They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers….” (Neh. 9:12)
III. FASTING TO AVERT THE WRATH OF GOD
Background for the text: Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard. Naboth did not want to sell it. Ahab was sullen and depressed. Jezebel suggested they arrest Naboth, frame him and have two scoundrels says that he had cursed God. They did this and then the citizens took him outside the city and had him stoned to death.
READING: I Kings 21:20-29 – 20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!” “I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 21 ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. 22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.’ 23 “And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’ 24 “Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.” 25 (There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. 26 He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.) 27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. 28 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29 “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”
Note especially: Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he humbled himself, I will not bring disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.” (I Kings 21:28-29)
READING: Jonah 3:5-10: The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
READING: Joel 2:1-2, 11-13 – 1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand- 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. 11 The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? 12 “Even now,” declares the LORD,“return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”13 Rend your heart and not your garments.Return to the LORD your God,for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
IV. FASTING FOR GOD’S BLESSING ON AN IMPORTANT UNDERTAKING
READING: Judges 20:24-26 – 24 Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. 25 This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords. 26 Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD.
READING: Nehemiah 1:1-4, 11 – 1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” 4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. . . . 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”
READING: Ezra 8:21-23 – 21 There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
ILL: (1) Moses fasted on Mt. Sinai immediately after the covenant was renewed by which God had taken Israel to be His people; (2) Queen Esther fasted and asked Mordecai and the Jews to fast before she approached the King to ask aid in saving the Jewish people; (3) Jehoshaphat fasted seeing the armies of Moab and Ammon advancing on him; (4) Jesus fasted immediately before His public ministry began.
ILL: Congressional Fast Day Proclamation – Congress proclaimed days of fasting and of thanksgiving annually throughout the Revolutionary War. This proclamation by Congress set May 17, 1776, as a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” throughout the colonies. Congress urges its fellow citizens to “confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his [God’s] righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness.” Massachusetts ordered a “suitable Number” of these proclamations be printed so “that each of the religious Assemblies in this Colony, may be furnished with a Copy of the same” and added the motto “God Save This People” as a substitute for “God Save the King.”
ILL: Carl Lundquist was the president of Bethel College and Seminary for almost 30 years. He died about four years ago from skin cancer. In the last decade of his life he devoted a lot of energy to studying and promoting personal spiritual devotion and the disciplines of the Christian life. He even established what he called the “Evangelical Order of the Burning Heart” and began to send out a letter of inspiration and encouragement. In the September 1989 letter he told the story of how he first began to take fasting seriously. My own serious consideration of fasting as a spiritual discipline began as a result of visiting Dr. Joon Gon Kim in Seoul, Korea. “Is it true,” I asked him, “that you spent 40 days in fasting prior to the evangelism crusade in 1980?” “Yes, ” he responded, “it is true.” Dr. Kim was chairman of the crusade expected to bring a million people to Yoido Plaza. But six months before the meeting the police informed him they were revoking their permission for the crusade. Korea at that time was in political turmoil and Seoul was under martial law. The officers decided they could not take the risk of having so many people together in one place. So Dr. Kim and some associates went to a prayer mountain and there spent 40 days before God in prayer and fasting for the crusade. Then they returned and made their way to the police station. “Oh,” said the officer when he saw Dr. Kim, “we have changed our mind and you can have your meeting!”
V. FASTING WHEN SEEKING GUIDANCE
James Boice, the former pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia said that fasting was never for sorrow because of sin in the NT but always for guidance.
READING: Acts 13:1-3 – 1In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
READING: Acts 14:23 – Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
SO WHAT???
1. Do we practice the spiritual discipline of fasting as we do giving, praying, bible reading, fellowship?
2. Fasting can add an “exclamation point” to our prayer requests.
3. Fasting can show our seriousness in repentance, our true sorrow for sin.
4. It is a good practice to fast and pray before starting an important undertaking and/or asking God for guidance.