Code Word: Fasting
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
This week marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is meant to be a time of repentance. It is meant to be intentional - intentional about our relationship with God and intentional about growing in our love for others. We know that relationships are built by spending time with each other. Boy, we get busy don’t we.
Unfortunately, in our Christian life we do not always feel the same way about our relationship with Christ. For this to grow in our spiritual lives and in our relationships, we must spend intentional time with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How can this be done?
a. Through prayer (conversation with God).
b. The study of His word.
c. Connection with His creation, both in nature and through human interactions (fellowship/hanging out). This element of connecting with God is a critical part of our passage today in Matthew 4.
Fasting is denying yourself (self-denial) of normal necessities in order to intentionally draw closer to God. Bringing attachments and cravings to the surface opens a place for prayer. The physical awareness of emptiness is a great reminder to turn to Jesus who alone can satisfy.
Jesus’ private fasting was preparing Him for public ministry.
Jesus’ private fasting was preparing Him for public ministry.
This passage comes after we read of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus in Matthew 3. John baptizes Jesus, and in 3:16-17, we see the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Jesus. Then a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
That is what leads into Matthew 4. God has sent his Son into the world to be 100% God and 100% human and gives Jesus the highest compliment: “In my son (Jesus) I am well pleased,” for the whole world to hear. Then the third part of the trinity—the Holy Spirit—leads him into the desert to be tested and prepared (Matthew 4:1), to intentionally spend time with the Father to prepare himself for what was to come in his ministry: temptation, betrayal, miracles, belief, scorn, beatings, death and resurrection.
Matthew frames Jesus’ baptism and Jesus’ fasting in the desert in the same style, with one difference that we will highlight in the second part of this message. But first, the Spirit of God is active in Jesus’ life.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.
The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts I. His Private Invitation (4:1–11)
We are apt to think that the Lord always leads in the green pastures and beside the still waters (Psa. 23:2). But sometimes the Holy Spirit brings the consecrated, obedient child of God through dark tunnels, over rugged mountains, through roaring storms, over raging seas, through deep waters, over thin ice, through thick forests, over desert plains.
There are those that scoff at the idea of a personal devil. The Biblical truth that Satan is real and that he is hard at work in the world seems to be made clear with each passing day.
After these 40 days and 40 nights of fasting in the wilderness, verse 2:
After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry.
“he [Jesus] was hungry.” No way! Who wouldn’t be physically hungry after 40 days of not eating?
Great leaders pay a great price.
I would also imagine that Jesus is tired, as he has not eaten, and sleeping in the desert is not the most restful. Hungry and sleep-deprived, the devil comes to tempt Jesus (v. 3). How often when we are at our weakest does temptation come in our own lives?
Satan tempts Jesus by offering common human temptations.
Satan tempts Jesus by offering common human temptations.
One commentator says that Matthew’s language suggests that Satan approached Jesus like a participant in hand-to-hand combat. Satan’s strategy is to destroy Jesus in disobedience.
Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
One of Satan’s methods is to inject doubt into our lives.
Compare Satan’s doubtful approach in 4:3 (If you are…) with God’s approach to Jesus at His baptism -
“This is my beloved son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.”
Some who have fasted for long periods have said that there comes a point where their physical hunger is no longer sensed. But we know that Jesus is in fact hungry, and Satan’s first temptation or button to push to trigger Jesus’ disobedience is to focus on his hunger - turn the stones into bread.
Satan’s claim - either you aren’t the Son of God and you can’t turn the stones to bread OR you are Son of God and you should use your power to serve yourself - it’s foolish for you to go hungry.
There’s no indication of time passing between Satan’s temptation and Jesus’ response - but we know His response starts with a proclamation - It is written. The three temptations are met with the same response. In Greek, the phrase is in the perfect tense, which means it’s a continued state as a result completed action. The full literal meaning is: “It has been written, and still stands written.” This response underscores the fact that God’s Word is unchangeable. So, while Satan tries to cast doubt that leads to disobedience, Jesus sets an example for us for what it means to live by the Word of God and to allow it govern our every act. He was ruled, not by His material desires but by the will of His Father. Does our fasting lead us to the same place?
Satan fails at round one of hand-to-hand combat, so on to round 2 - safety and protection. He takes Jesus to the Holy City, Jerusalem. Jerusalem was thought by many to be the place on earth that was nearest to God. He tries to be ultra pious and he attempts to quote Scripture. But first, he tells Jesus to throw Himself off the pinnacle.
The Jewish historian Josephus
The Gospel of Matthew, Volumes 1 & 2 Commentary
Josephus said the valley was so deep and the temple so tall that you could not see the bottom of the valley from the roof of the portico
Satan tried to deceive Jesus into thinking He could do as He pleased and still trust God to take care of Him.
The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts I. His Private Invitation (4:1–11)
To have presumed on divine protection when He was guided by human self-interest would have been to tempt His Father. Jesus refused to do it.
Fasting can provide us with a real picture of where our real fortress lies.
Let me ask you this - who is your real fortress of protection?
Finally, Satan tempts Jesus with power.
Whether Satan took Jesus to an actual mountain or not upon which to view the kingdoms of the earth, doesn’t matter. Some Biblical scholars and commentators have suggested that this passage refers to Satan offering Jesus political power but that is not what Jesus wanted. He wanted to rule over the hearts of people and that is why Jesus responded the way He does. That His Kingdom is spiritual and “not of this world” according to John 18:36 seems to suggest this point.
To have worshiped Satan would have been to destroy the true kingdom of God.
There is no area of our lives, visible or invisible, where Jesus’ power should be kept hidden. Jesus
Fasting activates an appreciation for God as provider.
Fasting activates an appreciation for God as provider.
Then the Devil left Him, and immediately angels came and began to serve Him.
The Gospel of Matthew, Volumes 1 & 2 (Technical Details)
When Jesus was tested, he showed himself always willing to accept the command of the Lord.
The one who tested him was Satan, the prosecuting attorney in the counsel of God.
The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts I. His Private Invitation (4:1–11)
The temptation of Jesus was no play-acting on the stage. Some have put the whole emphasis on His deity until the temptation has become unreal—just something displayed for effect. But that attitude actually denies the historicity of the Gospels.
For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.
The author of Hebrews underscores the reality of Jesus’ temptation. His fasting, his hunger, his temptations, were as real as ours. The author of Hebrews could not honestly say that He was tempted in every way as we are if the text of Matthew 4 was something akin to play-acting.
Because Jesus knew the Father (his words) and Spirit (whose power he lived in and through), he was able to fight the battle against sin.
What do we learn and see from Jesus’ fasting and temptation?
There is no magic in fasting.
First, there is no magic in fasting. Giving up food won’t instantly make you more godly. Fasting allows you to give yourself to other spiritual disciplines that will bear a harvest of good fruit in your life.
2. Second, you don’t fast in order to gain God’s favor, but to help bring your life into even greater surrender to him and a greater appreciation of his favor. Fasting is spiritual warfare. It is one way that God has provided for you to fight for your own heart.
a. Give yourself to prayer. One of the primary purposes of fasting is to be able to give yourself more fully to prayer. Praying and fasting are combined throughout the Bible.
Be alert to your condition. We are open to attack all the time, but especially when we are weak and weary.
b. Don’t make a show of it. Fast in private. Don’t announce it. Don’t broadcast it after. Pride in fasting robs fasting of its spiritual benefit. Seek God; don’t seek the approval of others for seeking God in this way.
c. Bathe yourself in God’s word. Fasting can give you time to meditate on God’s word. In our busy lives, most of us spend very little time in actual scriptural meditation. Biblical meditation is not like Eastern meditation. In Eastern meditation you empty your mind. In Christian meditation you fill your mind with God’s word, chewing it over and over again until you are digesting spiritual morsels you have never digested before.
d. Be quiet before the Lord. Since fasting is about ceasing participation in a particular thing, your fast shouldn’t be filled with other activity. Fasting is a time to wait on the Lord. And as you wait, remember that for the Christian, waiting is not about what you get at the end of the wait, but more importantly about what you become as you wait.
f. Confess what has been revealed. As you seek God in prayer, as you meditate on his word, and as you are quiet before him, the Lord will reveal your heart. Fasting is a way to fight the spiritual blindness that affects us all. So be ready to confess new areas of sin, weakness, and failure that God has revealed as you have fasted.
g. Make new commitments. If confession is turning from the old way, then commitment is turning your heart and life to God’s new and better way. At the end of your fast, think about where God is calling you to new commitments of faith and discipleship where you live and work every day.
h. Be thankful. Thank God for how fasting is an indication of his welcoming, patient, perseverant love, continually drawing you into even closer, more heart-satisfying communion with him.
Is your crucible of fasting forging something new? Or, is it really just another way to do something you’ve already been doing?