Fasting 1 - To Offer Ourselves to Jesus
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Intro - Going to be studying the practice of fasting over the next 4 weeks
Ready for parenting?
As we study all these practices that we’ve gone over, we must remember that the main goal that we’re trying to accomplish is that we would dwell with God. And we take our instruction from Jesus because He is our greatest example of that call and all of His actions were to make that goal a reality.
In the life of Jesus we see that He indulged in both “feasting” and “fasting”.
In the life of Jesus we see that He indulged in both “feasting” and “fasting”.
Jesus often feasted at tables with people from various walks of life. His practice of communion is sometimes call “The Lords Table”. And at the end of all things all those in God’s family with gather around a table and feast. And everybody said. Amen
However, Jesus also fasted. He started out His ministry, famously, with a very long fast in the wilderness. And while on the that fast, to the adversary He said,
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Jesus truly believed in the principles of fasting. And the question this morning is do we?
Most Christians are very comfortable with the idea of feasting. Not so much with fasting.
You’re more likely to here about fasting from a health guru or a muslim than you are a Christian. So if you are not a natural at fasting or just naive to it. Take heart. You’re not alone. The practice of fasting has all but disappeared from our time.
Most people in our society in fact, have an unhealthy relationship with food. Overeating, waste, unhealthy, disorders, and so on.
But If we are to be followers of Jesus and His way, we must love the things He loved and walk in the ways He walked. We can’t neglect something that was so valuable to Jesus.
Turn in your Bibles
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. 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.
Two observations
“When you fast.” Jesus assumes that His disciples are going to be fasting regularly.
God promises to “reward” those who fast with proper motives.
So then, why do Christians neglect this practice that was so important to Jesus? Christians didn’t always.
History of Fasting
History of Fasting
Almost all ancient religions practice fasting, but the first mention of fasting is in Exodus, when Moses went up Mt. Sinai
28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Then the Israelites were told to fast for the Day of Atonement.
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord.
Nearly all major Biblical Characters fasted- Moses, David, Samuel, Esther, the Prophets.
In Jesus’ time it was common for Jewish people to fast on Sat. and Sun., sun up to sun down.
Early Christians took it very seriously. They continued the 2x a week practice and had to make regulations to not do it too much! People were fasting too much!
When it began to decline John Wesley complained that many christians don’t fast twice a month much less twice a week!
Many Christians around the world today still fast but it seems in the west that we’ve neglected one of the most important practices of Jesus.
“Fasting gives birth to prophets, she strengthens the powerful; fasting makes law givers wise. She is a safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the brave, and a discipline for champions. Fasting repels temptations, anoints for godliness. She is a companion for sobriety, the crafter of a sound mind. In wars she fights bravely, in peace she teaches tranquility.”
- St. Basil the Great
Fasting is an essential practice for the historical Church.
The Basics
The Basics
1. Fasting is not eating food.
2. Fasts can vary in length.
3. You can fast when every you feel led.
Rhythm - Set times that you fast regularly
Response - In times of need or breakthrough
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
4. We fast in community and alone.
Many fast were called for entire nations or the church.
5. We fast to primarily offer our bodies to Jesus.
The early church change the two primary days of fasting to Wednesday (His betrayal) and Friday (His death)
They were intentionally using there bodies to connect themselves to what Jesus experienced and went through for their salvation.
They did it primarily and regularly to connect their whole selves to Jesus.
“Fasting is whole body hunger for God.”
-John Piper
Fasting is “Body talk”
-Scot McKnight
Fasting is our way of communicating to God with our whole selves that we hunger to know and need God more.
Fasting is in fact a great way to awaken a hunger for the Lord or drive out an apathy that you may be experiencing.
“Fasting is a practice to offer our whole life to God.”
-John Mark Comer
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Body = Whole person
The modern church has lost this truth and instead focused on loving God primarily with our emotions or mind.
“You don’t have a body. You are a body.”
-John Mark Comer
Our mood without coffee or sleep or food
Incarnation and Resurrection and Ascension
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
So therefore if we seek to dwell with God like we are created to do then we must manage the temple well.
Fasting helps get our bodies down to the cellular level in tune with Gods ways. So that when faced with adversity or temptations, Jesus’ teaching come as naturally to us as breathing.
We do all of this “in view of Gods mercy”
We do this in response of God has done, not in order to get God to do something.
Not to get, but to give.