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“If you’re able, pleast stand.” Reading Matt. 6:16–18. “Thanks be to God.”
There are always fads connected with eating. Low-fat, low-calorie was common when I was younger. That gave us drinks like Tab, perhaps the worst cola ever inflected on humanity.
Low-carb, Adkins eating was big around Y2K. Meat, vegetables—no sugars, no carbs.
Mediterranean diets. How people eat in the areas around the Mediterranean Sea. At least, the healthy ones living around the Mediterranean Sea.
Paleo Diet: From the Mayo Clinic:
“A paleo diet is an eating plan based on foods humans might have eaten during the Paleolithic Era. The Paleolithic Era dates from around 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. A modern paleo diet includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds. These are foods that in the past people could get by hunting and gathering. It doesn't include foods that became more common when small-scale farming began about 10,000 years ago. These foods include grains, legumes and dairy products.”
A new one is “intermittent fasting.” Everyday you fast for a chunk of the day—eat for 8 hours, don’t eat for 16. A lot of research on it. Seems to help certain chronic illnesses, but they’re not sure. Helps with Blood Pressure. Some have reported it makes things like gallstones worse.
But whatever the truth is about medical fasting, that’s in a completely different category from what we’re talking about today. Today the topic is the spiritual discipline of fasting. Yes, it’s like medical fasting because of the obvious: you’re not eating.
But to say medical fasting is like the spiritual discipline of fasting is like saying that singing the latest Taylor Swift album is like singing in worship with the gathered church on Sunday—because, after all, you are physically singing in both cases.
Here’s a good basic definition of what we’re talking about this morning from Donald Whitney:
Christian fasting is a believer’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.
Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life[1]
It’s the combination of “voluntary abstinence from food” and “spiritual purposes” that makes it Christian fasting.
Our passage this morning is from the Sermon on the Mount that occurs toward the front of the New Testament Gospel of Matthew. Our series in Jesus’ sermon is Living in the Kingdom.
What we see in these verses is that living in the kingdom will include spiritual fasting.
Full disclosure: I don’t fast regularly. I did some years early in my Christian life. I’ve done a couple 3-days fasts (one intending to be a 7-day fast). Every once in a while I’ll fast for a specific prayer need.
I know some of you practice this discipline on a much more regular basis. That’s great!
At the end I’ll talk about an opportunity to join with others in the church for a weekly fast.
If you’re not a Christian, you’ve probably heard about fasting in some way. Likely somewhere “intermittent fasting” has popped up in some feed. This morning we hope to present fasting in a very different light.
The Sermon...
Prayer...
Read Matt. 6:16.
Jesus starts with a negative statement: “When you fast, DO NOT...”
“Do not look gloomy like the hypocrites...” Once again Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount not to be like “hypocrites.” Like the “hypocrites” in Matt. 6:2 who make a big show of giving money. Or the “hypocrites” in Matt. 6:5 who pray in a big and loud way to be heard and seen by others. Don’t be like the “hypocrites.” Don’t be a “pretender” or a “play-actor” (BDAG), someone who isn’t something but acting like they are.
If you’re a pretender and doing things so others will be impressed with you, that’s the only reward you’ll get: “They have received their reward” (Matt 6:18).
You can see such a hypocrite in the Pharisee in Luke 18,
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10–14)
The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable has a heart problem. He thinks his standing before God is because of his moral superiority. He has no idea how far from perfection he is. We can’t tell if he tells other people about his fasting. But we can tell that in his heart he “exalts himself.”
And thus, he “will be humbled.”
That’s a hypocrisy: Being something on the outside that doesn’t match what’s on the inside.
Jesus speaks to another hypocrisy, which is a SHOWY RELIGION. We want other people to see us and hear us and know what we’re doing. We want to have a reputation for being a religious and godly person.
We’re doing what we do for the praises of men. Not for God.
That’s what this section of Matthew 6 is about:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 6:1)
We don’t want a self-righteousness on the inside. And we aren’t to do our acts of righteousness only to be seen by other people.
If that’s us, Jesus says, “You’ve already received your reward.” God will not reward you.
The point here isn’t to go to great lengths to make sure no one ever knows when you’re praying or fasting. The point is not to give or pray or fast purely for the sake of your religious reputation.
John Piper:
Being seen fasting and fasting to be seen are not the same. Being seen fasting is a mere external event. Fasting to be seen by men, as Jesus means it here, is a self-exalting motive of the heart.
John Piper, A Hunger for God[2]
Now, maybe you don’t do things specifically to impress people. But, you’re keenly aware if others are impressed. Or who they are impressed with.
That’s the same sin lurking in our hearts. And Jesus says, “Kill it!”
Read Matt. 6:17–18.
Notice the conjunction at the front there: “But when you fast...” Not, “If you fast.” But, “When you fast...”
Jesus is looking ahead to a future time for his disciples and assuming that they will fast.
When is that time? Jesus answers that question later in Matthew’s gospel.
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matt 9:14–15)
When will the disciples of Jesus fast? When Jesus himself is not with us. He was with them in the Incarnation, so they didn’t fast. One day he’ll return and we’ll be with him always (1 Thess 4:17). There will be no fasting then, only feasting! No fasting in the new heavens and new earth!
But now we’re between the times. Between Christ’s first advent and his second advent. He’s with us, because he’s Immanuel, “God with us” (Matt 1:23). But he’s not with us with the same physical presence as before or later.
So, in this era of longing, we will fast.
This is why John Piper describes fasting as an expression of our longing:
As an act of faith, Christian fasting is an expression of dissatisfied contentment in the all-sufficiency of Christ.
John Piper, A Hunger for God[3]
If English isn’t your first language, it’s possible this sentence is a little complex. But the idea is this, as Christians we live both full and hungry. We are full of what God has given us, but we are hungry for more.
At times we can feel like his fullness is overflowing. But even that will leave us hungry for more of God.
Or in the words of Piper, we are content with “the all-sufficiency of Christ” he’s given us, and yet, we’re “dissatisfied” and want so much more!
“Fasting” expresses that, because it’s a way of seeking more of the Lord.
I said a minute ago that a Christian fast is when you don’t eat for a spiritual purpose.
Interestingly, fasting is not common in the Bible. The only regular fast for the people of God is on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29–31).
But throughout the Bible God’s people fast in special moments of need. These different fasts help us to see the reasons why we might fast. I’ll just give one example in each category, but there are several.
We reason to fast is to express repentance of a particular sin or sins.
Joel 2:12–13 – God is calling out his people to repent. And says to fast:
Fast to Repent
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. (Joel 2:12–13)
We fast to pray for a particular need.
Ezra 8:22–23 – Ezra about to lead a group across a huge span of the Middle East, from Mesopotamia to Jerusalem, hundreds of miles. Prays for protection:
Fast for a Prayer Need
For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. (Ezra 8:22–23)
We fast to express grief over a loss.
2 Samuel 1:12 – when David and his mean hear that Saul and Jonathan were killed by the Philistines:
Fast to Express Grief
And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. (2 Sam 1:12)
We fast as an act of worship.
Luke 2:36–37:
Fast as Worship
And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. (Luke 2:36–37)
We fast to discern God’s will.
Fast to Discern God’s Will
Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. 27 And the people of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. (Judg 20:26–27)
Interestingly, fasting never seems to be connected to self-denial and self-control. In the Bible, it’s always connected to the pursuit of God or the pursuit of something for the sake of God.
But it doesn’t seem wrong also to place it in the category of spiritual growth. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Donald Whitney, John Piper, and many others see fasting as helpful here.[4] Like other spiritual disciplines, it’s something we can do to help us seek after God and put sin to death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship about the Sermon on the Mount. Reflecting on Jesus’ words on fasting, he writes,
Fast for Spiritual Growth
Jesus takes it for granted that his disciples will observe the pious custom of fasting. Strict exercise of self-control is an essential feature of the Christian’s life. Such customs have only one purpose—to make the disciples more ready and cheerful to accomplish those things which God would have done. Fasting helps to discipline the self-indulgent and slothful will which is so reluctant to serve the Lord....When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship[5]
When we fast for these spiritual purposes, a common way to approach it is to see your hunger pains as like a “notification” on your phone. A reminder that, “Oh, yeah. I’m fasting. I need to pray.”
Your hunger pain comes, so you lift up a prayer. Or recite a verse you memorized and wanted to focus on.
This keeps your fast from being a purely physical thing.
It’s common to take the time you spent eating a meal and use that time instead to read your Bible and pray.
Read Matt. 6:17–18.
Jesus in Matthew 6 has already talked about our giving and our prayer life. And now fasting. In all three cases he told us to do the same thing. Don’t do it to impress others. Do it to please your heavenly Father, “who sees in secret.”
That’s why Jesus says to take basic care of yourself. “Anoint your head and wash your face,” what you would do normally. That’s what he means.
The goal here is NOT to make absolutely sure no one knows about your fasting, as if you have to be deceptive. Jesus just means, don’t make the GOAL of your fasting to impress people.
You do want your fasting to be “seen”! But only by “your Father who sees in secret.”
Donald Whitney says that it’s possible when we fast that we have a “mild case of fasting-phobia.”[6] To help with “fasting-phobia,” see Jesus’ promise here at the end of Matt. 6:18: “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
With giving and prayer, Jesus also said, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:4, 6). Now a third time he reminds us that it’s true. That kind of literal repetition tells us God wants us to hear this: The Father will reward you!
The reward is not forgiveness of sins or salvation. We don’t give or pray or fast to be saved. We know that, because Jesus says to fast to be seen by “your Father.” He’s already your Father! You don’t fast so that he becomes your heavenly Father.
For forgiveness of sins and to receive his offer of salvation, we turn away from our sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. We make him the Lord of our lives. We trust in him as our one and only Savior. When we believe in him, God becomes our heavenly Father.
In Jesus’ teaching, God has already become your Father and is no longer just your Judge. You have peace with him. He has accepted you. Whether your earthly father ever accepted you, God has accepted you in Christ.
But just like sometimes we do things to please our earthly fathers, even though we know they love us, so with God. We do things to please him, even though we know he loves us and has accepted us.
And when we do this, there’s even a “reward.” Sometimes the “reward” will be an answer to the prayer we lifted up during our fast. Sometimes it’s growing closer to our God. Sometimes it’s greater spiritual power or growth. We don’t know what God will do.
The British preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones says we don’t want to turn God’s promise of a blessing here into what he calls “the ‘penny in the slot’ view of it. You put your penny in the slot, then you pull out the drawer, and there you have your result”—machines like this were used for supplying gas in homes, chocolates, train tickets, stamps and envelopes at the post office (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 316).
His point was that we don’t want to see the Father’s blessing in such a mechanical or contractual way. His blessings are often “indirect” and not so “direct” (MLJ, 317).
Lloyd-Jones says we want to forget ourselves and think of the Father:
Forget your face, forget yourself, forget other people altogether. It is this interest in the opinions of other people that is so wrong. Don’t worry about the impression you are making; just forget yourself and give yourself entirely to God. Be concerned only about God and about pleasing Him. Be concerned only about His honour and His glory....The reward of such a man is safe and certain and assured, and it is mighty....The one thing that matters is that we be right with God and concerned about pleasing Him. If we are concerned about that, we may leave the rest to Him. He may withhold the reward for years: it does not matter. We shall receive it. His promises never fail.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount[7]
We don’t want to fast to impress people. We fast for a spiritual purpose. We fast to please the Father, who promises to reward us.
What should we do in response to Jesus’ words?
Consider doing a fast.
To provide an opportunity for you, for the next three Thursdays, we’re going to do a group fast at Cornerstone.
Be careful if you’re young, have blood sugar issues, or are pregnant or nursing. Most people make black coffee or tea allowable when they fast. It’s good to keep drinking.
Please don’t feel pressure. But if you’d like to join us, please do! I’m saying “us” in faith!
There are other ways to fast.
Ultimately, we fast for the same reason we pray and seek the Lord. We want more of him. He’s the great prize. He’s our greatest treasure.
We want to become more like him.
We don’t want the things of this world to blind us and distract us. We want to be his fully. We want to experience him more fully, more abundantly.
We want revival in our hearts! And in our community and our nation!
May God take away anything that keeps us from him.
Amen.
Let’s pray. (Closing song, “Jesus is Better”)
[1] Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (NavPress, 2014), 192.
[2] John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997), 74.
[3] John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997), 44.
[4] See Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, and Piper’s A Hunger for God. Piper’s book is entirely about fasting. The other two speak each have a chapter on fasting.
[5] Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1939 orig.; NY: Collier, 1963), 187, 189.
[6] Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, 217.
[7] MLJ, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Eerdmans, 1976), 320.
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