Matthew 6:16-18
Jesus
said: “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. But
when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
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.”
We
are embarking on a subject that brings all sorts of terrors to the
preacher. If you are anything like me then you have rarely heard a
sermon on fasting. There seems to be two schools of thought in the
modern church concerning fasting. The one school tends to give the
impression that fasting is not really relevant and so they largely
ignore the subject hoping that it might disappear. The other school
believes that fasting ought to be a regular part of the church
diet??? and that we ought to be fasting as often as possible. This
school usually has the powerful preacher who with great passion
leaves the average Christian squirming in his seat because we could
never match up to his wonderful example.
If
you want to know which school I belong to then I confess to being in
the first one, but is that where I should remain? That has been the
challenge to me and hopefully by the end of our time together we
might find ourselves thinking biblically about the point of fasting.
The
three points of our passage are:
Jesus'
expectation:
Jesus
at the beginning of His ministry in this passage which we call the
sermon on the mount approaches the subject of fasting. The first
thing that we notice is that Jesus was not in the school that I
belong to because He began by assuming that His followers did fast.
He said “when you fast!” Surely that means that Jesus expected
His followers to fast.
Jesus'
rules:
Jesus not only expected His followers to fast, He gave rules as to
how they should fast. He continued in the sermon to say that they
should not fast in order to draw attention to themselves and to gain
spiritual “Brownie points” for their piety!
God's
blessing:
Jesus also taught that there is a blessing from God the Father for
those who truly fast.
Background:
These are the three points that I find in the passage set before me
and I suppose that in this there is little more to add to them. In
saying that there is something that is missing from our understanding
of what is going on here. We have a problem in that we are not first
century followers of Jesus as were His hearers on that day. That is
stating the obvious really but it is nonetheless vitally important in
order that we begin to understand what Jesus is really teaching. To
most people in Britain outside of religious circles fasting is
something that we do before we go for hospital tests, operations or
for detoxing our abused bodies, but to the Jew of Jesus' day fasting
was a concept that they were well acquainted with.
Fasting is spoken of many times in the Old Testament. In fact it was
expected of the people of God for the celebration of the Day of
Atonement . The purpose of which was that God would see their earnest
desire that He make His presence once again in the temple of
Jerusalem for the year to come. Of course Jesus fulfils the Day of
Atonement which was why the Angel called Him Immanuel when he
announced His coming birth to Joseph. Jesus is God with His people
ALWAYS and He dwells permanently in the church. We do not need to
fast in order to bring His presence amongst us, He has guaranteed His
permanent presence by His Spirit. We cannot therefore use the Day of
Atonement as our guidance for fasting. Fasting is not a way of
guaranteeing God's presence to be with us.
Nevertheless the Old Testament does speak much about fasting but for
various reasons. We do not have time to go through them all but I
would urge you to pick up a concordance and check them out, it really
is a fascinating topic to study and as we shall see it is worthwhile
for our understanding.
In typical preaching mode I have chosen three examples for our
consideration.
David
fasted in desperate days:
I suppose that the most famous passage concerning fasting is found in
2 Samuel 12:15-17. It concerns King David after his wife Bathsheba
had given birth to the son conceived through their adulterous affair.
“And the Lord
afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became
sick.
David
therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and
went in and lay all night on the ground.
And
the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the
ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.”
Firstly we notice that fasting for David was much more
than abstaining from food, he put everything aside at this time of
fasting even his royal duties!
It is clear from the passage that David was distraught
at seeing the child so unwell and dying and so all of the time that
the child suffered then David pleaded with God that somehow God's
judgement upon David might be averted from the child. David was
inconsolable, nobody could help him. Food was the last thing on his
mind. In reality it was David being completely reliant upon God. This
was the most natural thing for a father to do. This is what happened
next:
On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were
afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold,
while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen
to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do
himself some harm.” But
when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David
understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants,
“Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”
Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed
himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the
Lord and worshipped. He then went to his own house. And when he
asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing
that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was
alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”
He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted
and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious
to me, that the child may live?’ But
now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I
shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Do you see what was happening, David fasted and wept for
the child in the hope that God would allow the child to live but that
did not happen. Incidentally we may find this a difficult concept in
2016 but look at David's faith in this. He believed that to die was
to be in God's presence. He recognised that once the child had died
then that was final here on earth and that even the king could do
nothing about it. David believed that the child would not return to
him but he had every confidence that one day he would go to be with
the child. Do you have that kind of faith? David had a belief in God
that assured him that the child would go to heaven and that is far
better than life on earth.
Fasting on this occasion was the most natural thing for
a believing father to do. David was desperate and so weeping and
fasting before God in the hope that God might just bring about a
different outcome was exactly what was needed. David's dilemma came
due to his sin and so we can be assured that the weeping was remorse
and repentance. This was not a show of piety or even of self pity as
we often see at times of great sadness, it was David doing the most
natural thing in difficult days.
Fasting
comes natural at the point of need!
There will be times in our lives and also in the life of
the church when we will need to come before the Lord in tears of
repentance pleading with Him to remove the consequences of our guilt
and to bless us. It is interesting that David and Bathsheba were
eventually blessed with the birth of another son Solomon who went on
to be the successor to David's throne even though he was not next in
line. Jesus many years later said that when we fast rightly then our
Father who sees that done in secret will reward us. That was clearly
the experience of David.
Nehemiah
fasted in repentance on behalf of Israel:
Now
it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was
in Susa the capital, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with
certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who
escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And
they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had
survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of
Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
As
soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days,
and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I
said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps
covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his
commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear
the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night
for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the
people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my
father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you
and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that
you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you
commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I
will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep
my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the
uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring
them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’
They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by
your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be
attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your
servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your
servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Now
I was cupbearer to the king.
Nehemiah even though
a Jewish captive in Persia was the official cupbearer of King
Artaxerxes. He heard the news that his people back in Jerusalem were
in great trouble. They were shamed because the city was in ruins and
the walls were broken down. He knew that this was due to their former
sin. They had not kept God's commandments and in accordance with the
law given to Israel through Moses the nation had been overpowered and
taken into captivity by foreign forces. Nehemiah knew that he had to
repent on their behalf and ask God's forgiveness and also His
enabling in order that he might approach his boss the king. He wanted
leave of absence to organise the repairs that Jerusalem needed. How
on earth can a mere foreign cupbearer gain favour from the most
powerful man on the earth? He needed to be released to build a city
up in foreign territory. Nehemiah knew enough about the character of
God to realise that God's anger and wrath are turned by true
repentance and so he sat down before God. He wept, he mourned, he
fasted and he prayed. As he prayed Nehemiah reminded God of His
character. Nehemiah had confessed his own and also the sins of his
people and he subsequently appealed to God for mercy in accordance
with His character and in accordance with His word as recorded by
Moses.
Often when we hear
of Nehemiah we are usually reminded of what the preacher loves to
call his “arrow prayer” recorded in chapter 2 verse 4. When he
king had asked Nehemiah what his request was he quickly prayed to God
for success but the real work had gone before. He had spent many
hours in anguish before God. He had wept and mourned over the
difficulties of his people, he had fasted and prayed and now was the
time when all of that came into focus.
There are times when
like Nehemiah we need to be serious before the Lord on behalf of
God's sinful people. Just consider the church today. Look at how it
is, the foundations have crumbled, it is a mess. We seem to be
grubbing around with little blessing when in reality we are the jewel
in the crown of our Saviour, we will one day be presented to God as
the bride of Christ but yet we seem to be in rags.
When is the church
going to sit before God and weep over our sinfulness? When are we
going to mourn over our dead state? When are we going to put aside
the luxuries of life for a season whilst we come humbly before God in
true repentance? When do we in prayer speak honestly about our
sinfulness and appeal to God in heaven to restore the honour of His
name through us His church?
It seems to me from
Nehemiah's example that fasting is much more than simply deciding
that we will go without our lunch. True fasting is putting aside
everything as we sit before God pleading with Him for forgiveness and
a restoration of blessing. Our social media and varying
entertainments are put aside as an act of fasting. When somebody is
truly grieving food, entertainment and the superficial things of life
are no longer important. That is how it should be with us if we are
to fast.
The words of Psalm
42 come to mind:
As
a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
Do
we really desire God like this?
Do
we really want Him to restore the honour of His name?
If
we do then we need to fast and pray for forgiveness for His people
for what we have done in His name.
The
Jews fasted in the face of persecution:
In the time of Ester, bad man
Haman was plotting to exterminate the Jewish nation but Mordecai
discovered his plans. King Ahasuerus was being manoeuvred into wiping
out the nation and something needed to be done. Ester the wife of the
king was a Jewess and Mordecai who was her uncle needed to be
persuaded to help her people. In Ester chapter 4:1-3 we find:
When
Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes
and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the
city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry.
He went up to the
entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the
king's gate clothed in sackcloth.
And in every
province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there
was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and
lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Ester had been persuaded to help
and so eventually through hers and Mordecai's efforts God saved the
nation. Notice it was when the nation mourned, prayed and fasted that
God blessed them.
When God's people are under
attack they need to take Him seriously and to be serious as we
approach Him to intercede on behalf of those being persecuted. It was
whilst the church in the UK was praying for our persecuted brothers
and sisters in Eastern Europe that the Berlin wall came down.
Radstock Ministries had called Christians to pray all night for their
suffering brethren and it was during that time of depriving ourselves
of sleep and food in order to plead for His intervention that He
acted!
There are so many such examples
throughout scripture and history that we might think that the lesson
is obvious.
Why
then are we so reticent to fast in the modern church?
Do
we really take our faith seriously?
Fasting has nothing to do with
self glorification as it did with the Pharisees of Jesus' day, they
received the accolade that they desired as they presented themselves
emaciated on street corners! Jesus said that we are not to be like
that! When we fast we are to look perfectly normal, it is a secret
between us and the Lord or between the church and the Lord if it is a
corporate effort. If we tell it abroad then we are not really fasting
but are in reality feasting on the accolade afforded to us!
When asked if we fast our
standard answer should be “what has that got to do with you?”
Fasting is private, it is serious and it is between us and God alone.
We are doing serious business with Him
There will be times when we need
to fast and to pray but as we have seen from these three examples god
will only bless us in accordance with His word the bible. There is no
point in us fasting in order to twist God's hand into giving us
something that is contrary to God's revealed will and so like David,
Nehemiah and Mordecai we need to be scholars of the scriptures in
order for us to be serious with God for the things that He is
serious about.
It was whilst the church in
Antioch were praying and fasting that God by His Spirit instructed
them to set apart Saul and Barnabas for ministry. The church needs to
pray and fast as we make serious decisions for our future, we need to
be just as serious for our past sins in order that we have a heart
for the lost which will then cause us to fast and pray that God might
revive our sad nation.
