Think Fast

Matthew - Masterclass • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago

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Jesus teaches us to fast as a personal and private spiritual discipline instead of an outward act of spiritual greatness. Fasting is the voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity. Fasting is the hunger of a homesickness for God. Let’s discipline ourselves in this Lent season. Hungry for Him.

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Camp Fast

Camp is coming up quick, here. Junior Camp in June, Senior Camp in July. God has blessed us so that we are able to offer a week of camp for just over $200. That’s incredible.

That’s like what it takes to feed the kids!

I was looking at the camp finances, that’s actually less than it costs to feed the kids.

So, cost saving opportunity. This year, our camp theme can be “fasting...” and we just don’t feed the children! Solved.

Not eating on purpose!

Maybe if I make that joke often enough, it will actually happen.

Apparently, we have some sort of government agency that wants to see us feeding the children. Every day. Crazy!

But we can pitch it as “we just aren’t feeding them breakfast.” That sounds good.

Most important meal of the day. Because if you don’t eat it… you die!

For reals.

Breakfast comes from “break fast.” As in, you aren’t eating at night, you’re sleeping. That’s a fast, if a pretty short one. You break that fast in the morning… or whenever you first eat for the day. And if you never do… well you’ll have breakfast in heaven.

Yet another way to be a hypocrite

We just finished up our mini-series on the Lord’s Prayer, which is wrapped in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, which is wrapped in a series through Matthew.

We could add one more layer here in chapter 6 called “How to be a hypocrite!”

Don’t worry, you haven’t missed out.

You can be a hypocrite by sounding trumpets in the street when you give.

You can be a hypocrite by praying loudly and with many words on the street corners.

And… you can be a hypocrite by DISFIGURING YOUR FACE!

Matthew 6:16 ESV

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Disfigure?

Does that conjure up different images to anyone else?

This can mean to “ruin” or “completely destroy.” But the practice was more on the “rub some dirt on it” side of things as opposed to lifelong mutilation. In particular, rubbing ash on their face.

The phrase “sackcloth and ashes” comes from this sort of practice.

Daniel did this, the Jews in Esther did this, The Ninevites did this. King David did this. Isaiah and Jeremiah. This is a classic, a famous cultural sign of humility, a sign of mourning…

Unless of course it isn’t.

Because this became a famous sign of humility by such esteemed holy figures, it then takes on a noble character. They are like David and Jeremiah and Daniel. Wow… how holy and humble they are!

Twisted!

And because that symbol is so twisted into a source of pride, of hypocrisy, of public display for public renown… Jesus counsels going the opposite direction.

Instead:

Matthew 6:17–18 ESV

17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

No magic to “anointing your head.” This is just to say “look good.”

Put some mousse in there. Some hair gel. Curl your hair. Get dressed up, look alive and ready for the day.

Not a new law for “fasting.” A principle… this isn’t for anyone else. This is something between you and God.

Like your secret giving.

Like your secret praying.

And, echoing for the third time, your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Reward me with what? More about that next week.

Jesus focuses in on practical tips to keep your fasting secret.

So… what is fasting?

We all have a definition in our head, perhaps. Here’s one from “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster:

Fasting is the voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity.

Richard J. Foster

It’s primary meaning is simply going without food. We have examples of partial fasts, like Daniel abstaining from certain foods. We have examples of miraculous total fasts, going without food and water. We have next door neighbors, like the Nazarite vow, fasting over very long periods of certain foods and haircuts (see Sampson).

But almost every reference to fasting in Scripture refers to going without food for a day or days.

And it has a huge tradition through all Biblical history.

Fasting in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, kings and prophets would declare a time to seek the Lord, either for counsel or favor or, most often, in repentance.

Special times of prayer and fasting, in preparation for war, in mourning for a death, seeking a particular answer to prayer.

The very first law of God was a restriction, a limitation in the “free” diet of humanity. … and thus the very first sin was a violation of this “fast”.

There is a Jewish tradition, captured in a intertestamental book “The Life of Adam and Eve” that Adam and Even had a 40 day fast of repentance after being kicked out of the Garden. Cool echo with the 40 days fasts of Moses on Mount Sinai, Elijah on the way to Mount Horeb (possibly the same mountain), Jesus in the wilderness.

There is a fast as part of the Day of Atonement. Not in the actual command in Scripture, but by strong tradition and practice.

Folks like Daniel practiced particular dietary fasts during the exile. Zechariah, the prophet, speaks of the people fasting during certain months of the year in anticipation of the coming Messiah.

And Jesus is pointing to a common experience that everyone of his listeners would clearly have known about. The “hypocrites” in the street, Pharisees and other religious leaders like actors in the streets, making a BIG production over their fasting.

This practice of fasting comes from a rich and long Jewish tradition.

And it didn’t stop there.

Fasting in the Early Church

The Apostolic Fathers Chapter 8

1 But do not let your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on Monday and Thursday; but you shall fast on Wednesday and Friday

Didache (writing from the early 2nd or late 1st century).

Not Scripture, but a very interesting look at how the church was practicing and acting in the 1st century.

Likely picking up Jesus’ word “hypocrites” to refer to the Pharisees here. Some have said Mondays and Thursdays were synagogue days.

The point is NOT that there is a rule for fasting now on Wednesday and Friday or any other such thing.

Acts 13:1–3 ESV

1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While 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.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

They weren’t fasting in preparation for ministry. They were already worshiping and fasting… and the Holy Spirit moved in the middle of it, in the midst of it.

And that launched Barnabas and Paul into ministry. Best mission trip ever.

There is a rich tradition of fasting through the Old and New Testament.

and what does Jesus say?

When You Fast...

It isn’t a new law. He doesn’t say how often… but there is the absolute assumption of a regular practice. When you give… when you pray… when you fast… All of these are consistent practices. In the regular rhythm of life.

If Jesus assumes you are practicing a spiritual discipline on the regular… and you aren’t practicing that spiritual discipline on the regular… what should you do?

Start.

In Jesus’ name… Amen.

This isn’t complicated.

And yet, this is rarely practiced in the evangelical church.

(Either that, or y’all are SO GOOD at practicing this in secret that I don’t know about it and you are absolutely CRUSHING Jesus’ advice.)

So, I do know that many of you practice seasons of fasting or regular rhythms of fasting.

But to many, this is new. Or feels too “old fashioned.” Or, too “Catholic” or “Buddhist” even?

Hunger and Thirst

What happens when you fast? Not a trick question. You get hungry.

Principal: When the Creator uses one of the ways you are Created as a metaphor, that may be the whole reason you were created that way.

Did God have other option for chemically fueling us? Sure! Internal nuclear power. Solar power. He’s got options. He made up this whole food, digestive thing. It’s objectively kind of weird, but his ways are not my ways! That’s how he made us.

Why do we feel hunger on the daily? Or hourly? Perhaps to physically reflect our need for God and relationship with him.

What did Jesus say in response to the devil’s temptation in his own fast?

He quoted from Deut 8:3

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV

3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

And Jesus calls himself the bread of life.

Sometimes when his disciples brought him food, he said crazy things like:

John 4:32 ESV

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

John 4:34 ESV

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

He is fasting… and feasting on the presence of God, sustained by the will of His Father.

We hunger for the with-God life, for God himself made known to us, available to us, the source of all life.

Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God.

John Piper

I love that so much. The “hunger of a homesickness for God.

It is a gift of God and has been practiced by God in one form or another since Creation.

Fasting teaches us dependence on God and focuses us in prayer.

Jesus assumes that this will be a regular part of your spiritual practice.

This is what fasting is.

Every time my stomach rumbles, “Lord, I need you.” “God, be with me.”

If I’m praying in repentance, if I’m praying for something in particular, it sends me into prayer again.

As hungry as I am, how much more do I need you, oh Lord.

40 Days of Lent

This year, we missed it by a week and change, it started Wednesday, February 14th.

In many tradition, on “Ash Wednesday” the priest or pastor will make a cross on your forehead in the shape of a cross. “From dust you came, to dust you will return.”

40 day fast, not including Sundays.

As we approach Easter, we are in the season of Lent.

Lent begins… because Easter is coming.

So, I invite you to fast.

This isn’t that complicated:

It works like this. Don’t eat. On Wednesdays, for example. I don’t know your schedule, pick a day that works and give it a shot.

Or, you may have dietary restrictions or health concerns that make primary fasting a challenge. You have options.

Giving up TV. Video games. Something that is an everyday part of your life, something that you regularly crave as part of your daily rhythm.

Turning that hunger towards God.

Don’t make a big deal. Maybe don’t tell anyone you don’t need to tell. If your Mom is packing your lunch, tell her. Maybe you let your family know why you aren’t eating dinner that day and not to make a big deal.

Ironically, you can make a “big show” of keeping it secret for the same reason the Pharisees made a big show of sackcloth and ashes. That isn’t what this is about.

Leading up to Easter… and here’s the key.

Every time you feel the hunger, let it drive you to prayer.

Let it drive you to the altar.

Come to the Altar

Because where does fasting lead us? To the altar. To the throne. To the cross.

Where does hunger and thirst drive us? To the altar. To the throne. To the cross. To Jesus. The Living Water.

This is what it’s all about. And everything Jesus is teaching us, in giving, in prayer, in fasting, in treasures in heaven...

It all leads to Him.

Let’s worship Him, the Bread of Life, the Living Water.

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