WWUTT 1962 Fasting, Part 2 (Matthew 6:16-18)

Fasting is fairly common among professing Christians today, but it's usually a fast that people see, or it's marked on a calendar. Jesus said don't fast to receive praise from men, but unto your Father, when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Fasting in the Sermon on the Mount

Thank you, Becky. As we come back to our study in the Sermon on the Mount, we're considering the section on fasting today. This is Matthew 6, verses 16 -18, which I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. Now, whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance, so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Coming back to this Sermon on Fasting, here is Part 2, picking up where we left off yesterday. Jesus gives us clear instructions on how to fast here. Don't do it as something to be seen by other people.

Don't even do it as something that is on a fixed particular day, because then everybody knows that you're fasting on that day. In the Didache, which is one of the oldest extra-biblical documents that we have after these books that we have in the New Testament, it is estimated by some that the Didache was written either in the late 1st century or in the early 2nd century.

There's instructions in the Didache on how you are to fast. And it says there in the Didache, don't fast on Monday or Thursday, because those are the days that the hypocrites fast on. The Didache goes on to say, fast instead on Tuesday and Friday.

Now I know that this was not a divinely inspired work of Scripture, because it's like even the writers of the Didache kind of missed the point. We're going to move you off of Monday and Thursday, we're going to put you on Tuesday and Friday with the fast, well what's going to end up happening there?

Well then the legalistic mandate is going to be Tuesday and Friday instead of Monday and Thursday. So we don't fast as though to be seen by other people. It shouldn't even really be known that you're fasting as you commit yourself unto the Lord.

Now that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with people knowing that you're fasting. Jesus is challenging here that you would do this as a matter of the heart unto God and not unto yourself, not unto other people, that they may give you some kind of a recognition.

The hypocrites look gloomy, they kind of wandered around, they were like, oh, I'm fasting, look at me and how holy and pious I am, because I'm gloomy, I'm sad. Everybody looks at these Pharisees wandering around and like, oh, what a holy and righteous guy that is.

Look at how sad he is. Look at what he deprives himself of, that he may know God better. What a holy guy that must be. You know, the Apostle Paul says to the church in Colossians chapter two, let nobody insist on asceticism.

Asceticism means to punish oneself, self-punishment, as though this punishment would somehow either forgive you or absolve you of sins or this self-punishment might get the attention of God. See, that's what the pagans did.

The pagans would punish themselves, they would brutalize themselves, thinking that this afflicting myself would get the attention of this false God that I worship. Just look at the example of Elijah and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel.

Elijah challenges the priests of Baal, you offer a sacrifice, call upon your God. I'm going to offer a sacrifice and call upon my God and whichever God answers from heaven with fire, he is the true God.

And so the priests of Baal are up first, hundreds of them who offer this sacrifice on this altar and they dance around it calling upon their false God that he may respond from heaven with fire and consume this sacrifice.

When Baal doesn't answer, what does it say they started doing to themselves? They started cutting all over themselves. They were taking like spear lances and swords and they're just cutting themselves and it said they had so brutalized themselves that they were covered from head to toe in their own blood.

This is a pagan practice. My God's not listening to me, so maybe if I just brutalize myself, humble myself in this way, he will see how serious I am and he'll listen to me. But Elijah didn't do any such thing because he already knew God was with him and he prepared his sacrifice and not only so, but doused it with water and built a moat around the altar, filled that with water so that the people would know when the fire comes down from heaven and consumes this, this was not the work of man, it was the work of God.

And Elijah calls upon the one true God and he answers from heaven with fire and the people feared the Lord that day. So as Paul says to the church again in Colossians 2, let nobody insist on asceticism, thinking that you need to punish yourself in order to be seen by God.

What is it that Jesus said previously when he gave us the instruction on how to pray? Do not be like them. Do not be like the pagans, Jesus said, your father knows what you need before you ask. So as even we see fasting being partnered with prayer, God knows what you need.

You don't, you don't fast depriving yourself of certain things and going through pain and anguish thinking that you do that to gain the attention of your father. That's not the reason why you fast. So why do we fast then?

What would be the reason for fasting? So we know what fasting is, it's abstinence from food and drink, but why should we fast? As Jesus says, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face and this, and this instruction to anoint your head, this doesn't mean literally pour oil on your head and that's the proper way to go about fasting because then otherwise people see the oil on your head.

So then they know you're fasting. Jesus instruction is instead to wash your face so that nobody would know that you're fasting. Well, the anointing of the head was symbolic of being consecrated. It was being set apart, being holy.

So for Jesus to say, anoint your head, it's not literally anoint your head, but set yourself apart. Don't act like the world. Don't do this to please men. Do this unto your father before God that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who sees in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Five Reasons Why We May Fast

Let's consider some reasons why we might fast. And we're going to look at some various occasions in the word of God where fasting is, uh, is shown to us in the narrative, not in a commandment or in a law, but we see a people of God fasting and seeking his will.

Here are five reasons why we may fast. Number one, to worship God and God is the number one reason why we might commit ourselves to a fast. It is to worship God. In Luke chapter two, verse 37, we read about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer in the temple.

That's the way it's described. She's worshiping with fasting and prayer in the temple. In the book of Exodus, Moses is up on the holy mountain with God receiving the law. How long did Moses fast when he was there with God?

40 days and 40 nights. Moses fasted that his greatest desire, his deepest yearning, his for most need would be God. I need God more than I even need food for my body. John Piper wrote a book entitled a hunger for God.

It's about fasting. If you're going to write a book about fasting, that's a great title for it. A hunger for God. He said the following, what we hunger for most we worship. So fasting might be a discipline that we may worship God, hungering and thirsting for him more so than we would hunger and thirst even for those things that we need in order to sustain our own bodies.

What did Jesus say about righteousness in the Beatitudes? Blessed are they who what hunger and thirst for righteousness. And as we'll go on here in Matthew chapter six, we'll get to verse 33 where Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Seek first even before food and clothing, because those are the two things that Jesus talks about. Your father knows you need them. He will give them to you. Seek first God's kingdom, his righteousness, and the things you need will be added to you.

May our deepest hunger, our most burning desire be for God, even before food and drink. That's an incredible thing to think about, especially with how privileged we are with how much food we have in the United States of America.

I had read just recently that there's something like 3 ,500 calories per person in America per meal, or no, that wouldn't be per meal. That would be too much. It's per person per day. That's what it is.

So what's our calorie diet supposed to be like, 2 ,200 calories per day, 2 ,000 calories per day? So 3 ,500 calories per person in the United States is prepared at any given time. That's a lot of food.

Any one of us could just fill ourselves up with all kinds of food. We have food available to us. We have the supermarket in the United States of America. We've got Whataburger and Chick-fil-A. Amen, I heard, yes.

I was going to get an amen out of anything in that sermon, there it was. So we are so privileged in the United States to be able to go and get good food. I've heard stories from a number of different groups of people in like primitive parts of the world, and like a missionary will go there and evangelize that people, and then every once in a while, one of those persons from that primitive tribe is privileged to kind of leave that and go to where the missionary came from.

They get to go visit the missionary in their home country, which is usually like the United States or Europe or somewhere. First time they've ever seen civilization of this kind, and they talk about, wow, it's amazing.

You can go just grab whatever you want at these big, cold, well-lit, colorful supermarkets, and then all you got to do is you hand this lady this piece of plastic, and she swipes it in this machine, and you get all that food for free.

Those are the accounts I've heard a few times regarding some of these persons who are not as privileged to see a supermarket in everyday life. We have such privilege here, and yet we would deprive ourselves of that privilege that we may discipline ourselves and desire God above any and all things.

That's one reason why we may fast. A second reason why we may fast. Now of all the other four reasons that I'm going to give you for fasting, all of it falls under worship. Worship applies to all of these, but there may be some other occasions for fasting.

Number two, a second reason to fast would be to seek God's will. Turn with me over to Acts, where in Matthew, go to Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Let's look together at Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three, beginning in verse one.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong. Acts 13. I apologize. Not Acts 13. I can't even read my own writing. Acts 13, beginning in verse one.

I just wanted to hear that sound again, the sound of pages in the Bible turning. Acts 13, verse one. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menean, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

And 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. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

They were fasting and praying to seek God's will. We see this in the Old Testament as well, like in Esther chapter four, where Mordecai tells Esther of Haman's evil plan to wipe out the Jews. And after convincing her that she needs to be the one to go in front of Xerxes and plead for the lives of her people, she says to Mordecai, go and tell the people to fast for me.

I'm going to fast. My maidens are going to fast with me. And they did this, the people along with Esther, that they may seek the will of God in the midst of this troubling situation. So a first reason why we may fast would be to worship God.

Second reason, to seek God's will. A third reason, to express sorrow or grief. I won't tell you to turn anywhere in your Bible, but just to give you an example of this in 1 Samuel chapter 31 and in 2 Samuel chapter one, we read about the death of Saul, King Saul, not Saul of Tarsus, but the first king of Israel.

He and his son, Jonathan, both killed by the Philistines. And when his own men found him dead, they buried him and they fasted for seven days. When word came back to David that Saul and his son, Jonathan, were dead, David fasted and the men who are with him as well.

And this was a fast, an expression of sorrow and grief, depriving oneself of food and drink, almost to force a person into a mode of grieving. Not that they would feast themselves and so celebrate something, but deprive oneself of food so that they might mourn and grief the pain that was in their hearts.

They would feel it even in their own bodies. We might fast to express sorrow or grief. What's a fourth reason why we may fast? Number four, to call upon God in repentance. Now turn with me over to Jonah.

It's a small book in the Old Testament. You might blow right past it, but let me read for you here what we have in Jonah three, starting in verse one. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise and go to Nineveh.

That great city, call out against it. The message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breadth.

Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey and he called out yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a what a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them in repentance.

It was, it was even the king himself and it was even animals. You go on into verse six, the word reached the king of Nineveh of Nineveh. He arose from his throne. He removed his robe. He covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he issued a proclamation and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles.

Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish fasting for repentance. You know, for, for Nineveh to repent, it would be the equivalent of a city one and a half times larger than Tyler, the entire city repenting.

Can you imagine that? And everybody in that city fasting and praying, covering themselves with sackcloth and ashes that the judgment of God would not come down upon them. Another reason why we might see a person fast.

Number five is to consider others needs ahead of our, ahead of their own. Now, this isn't really something that we consider a whole lot being associated with fasting, but let me read to you what the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 58, beginning in verse three.

Why have we fasted and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily.

Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Fasting to consider the needs of others. That's what Daniel did when he fasted in Daniel chapter nine. He fasted and prayed that God would show mercy to his people.

And perhaps we may fast for the same reason. To consider the needs of someone else. So summarizing this quickly, five reasons why we may fast. Number one, to worship God. Number two, to seek God's will.

Number three, to express sorrow or grief. Number four, to call upon God in repentance. Number five, to consider others' needs ahead of your own. Now when you look at these five reasons to fast and you look at the Apostle Paul's fasting before he was appointed an apostle to the nations, there in Acts chapter nine, all five of those things would apply to the Apostle Paul.

He fasted to worship God. He sought God's will. He expressed sorrow and grief. He called upon God in repentance. And this man considered the needs of others even ahead of his own. And so perhaps as we've considered this today, as we've looked at fasting in the scriptures, that you might think about this spiritual discipline for yourself.

But do it not as something to be honored by men, but doing it to worship God. Let me finish with these words in Matthew chapter nine. In verse 14, the disciples of John came to Jesus saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

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. This passage, Jesus' answer here, taught me more about fasting than I think any other passage in scripture.

Look at those five reasons why we may fast, and all five of those things would be something that would even be somewhat sorrowful to a certain degree. Even worshiping God, because you're thinking about, I mean, you're afflicting yourself with hunger pains, and worshiping God in the midst of that pain, that your greatest desire would be God, and not even the things of your own body.

While we are here on this earth, we struggle. We may even mourn and grieve. We know pain, and we know hardship. Why? Because we're not yet in the presence of God, in His glory, and in His perfection forevermore.

A day will come when we will be with God in glory. There will not be any need for fasting. You know how Jesus describes that day? A day of feasting. We have that even in the Old Testament. In Zechariah chapter 7, God says, now is a time of fasting.

In Zechariah chapter 8, He says, but a day is coming when your fasting will be turned into feasting. And even when we fast now, we anticipate and long for that day when we will be with God forever in glory at the wedding feast of the Lamb, rescued from the trials of this world, even the judgment of God that is coming against this world.

We will be with our Lord forever in glory. Heavenly Father, teach us not to be hypocritical in our actions, but genuine, practicing righteousness from the heart, a righteousness that is not by our own merit, but is Christ's righteousness that has been imputed to us, so that we may be servants of our living God, that we may be children of our Father who is in heaven.

And that which we do not to be noticed by others, but unto our Father. You see what we do even in secret. And our Father who sees what is done in secret will reward. It is in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word, when we understand the text.