Fasting - To Offer Ourselves to Jesus

Introduction:

I love to eat.

At this stage in my life with two teenagers, one young adult and a full-time job, and in a Master’s program. Frankly, I have very little free time (margin is mostly a pipe dream), but in the little I have, one of my favorite pastimes is eating and snacking.

I like checking out new restaurants - eating unique foods…as long as they’re not too spicy.

So it comes as no surprise that I’m far more comfortable feasting than fasting.

And yet: I am an apprentice of Jesus.

An apprentice of Jesus is one whose entire life is organized around three basic goals:

1. To be with Jesus

2. To become like Jesus, and…

3. To live as he did.

To apprentice under Jesus is to adopt his overall lifestyle – to arrange our life around the practices and way of being that Jesus himself did – in order to open your whole life to God to transform you from the inside out.

And Jesus feasted. It was said of Jesus that “he came eating and drinking.” He left us with bread, wine, and a table to remember him by.

But Jesus also fasted.

He began his ministry with forty days of fasting in the wilderness.

When the devil tempted him to eat, he said,

Matthew 4:4 (NLT)

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,

‘People do not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And all through the gospel accounts of Jesus we read stories of him fasting.

And yet today: most Christians feast, but very few fast.

We conducted a survey of our church last week about fasting. Let me clarify, I ended up creating a small error in the first survey “How often do you fast food?” Many of you wonderfully answered honestly…thinking it was “eating” fast food vs. fasting from food.

Survey results:

Fast Food Survey (Tears):

32% eat fast food monthly

24% eat fast food weekly

Fasting from food survey:

36% never fast food

21% one time a year

27% a few times a year

7% monthly

7% weekly

If fasting is not a part of your discipleship to Jesus, you are not alone.

Fasting has basically disappeared from modern Christian spirituality in the West.

You’re more likely to hear about fasting from a fitness guru, wellness expert, or Muslim than from a Christian.

Not to mention, many Western people have a deeply unhealthy relationship to food and to their own body; just the idea of fasting is a trigger for many of body shame, or ongoing struggles with eating disorders.

Most people don’t want anything to do with fasting.

Some of you this morning may be wondering, why are we talking about fasting in the summer? Don’t we typically fast at the beginning of the year? It is true that our church’s rhythm for fasting is in January, but wanted to bring some important teaching and emphasis to fasting as a spiritual practice outside of January. Could we think of this as a regular practice?

And yet…What if we are missing out on one of the most important of all the practices of Jesus?

Prayer

Scripture text: Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 6 [PAUSE]; let’s read an excerpt from the Sermon on the

Mount, a collection of the most important teachings of Jesus.

In this section Jesus is teaching to the talmid and people wanting to know the ways of the Messiah.

Jesus addresses two very important things prior to fasting.

Prayer

Forgiveness

Matthew 6:16–18 (NLT)

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Notice two things:

Jesus assumes that his disciples will practice fasting. V16: “When you fast,” not “if you fast.”

When you fast, the Father “will reward you.” Meaning, there’s a gift waiting for you on other side of fasting.

Here is the tension: But as I said: most followers of Jesus in the West do not fast. But we used to.

Let me give you a brief history of fasting…History:

Fasting is a part of every major religion in the world – including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and most indigenous spiritual practices.

But the first mention in all of human history of fasting as a spiritual discipline is in the book of Exodus - with Moses’ forty day fast on Mount Sinai, followed by the command for all Israel to fast on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.

There are stories of fasting all through the OT – all the major characters of scripture fasted – Moses, David, Samuel, Esther, the prophets.

By the time of Jesus, it was common practice for the Jewish people to fast twice a week until sundown.

And the early Christians continued this practice.

In The Didache (deed_acae), the first Christian writing we have outside the NT, fasting was commanded on Wednesdays and Fridays and for two full days before baptism.

Almost all the church fathers teach on fasting.

And the first Christians took it seriously.

Fasting was so widespread, they had to regulate it! No fasting on Saturdays or Sundays.

The only day for exception to fasting on the Sabbath was: Holy Saturday. On the Sabbath between Good Friday and Easter, the entire church would fast for the forty hours between Jesus’ death and resurrection, to get in touch with Christ himself.

And Lent, the six weeks prior to Easter, was originally a fast, where followers of Jesus would not eat until sundown each day. Later, Ramadan was based on the Christian practice of Lent.

Most church traditions today have changed Lent to the practice of abstinence, where you give up something for Lent – TV or social media or wine. But originally, it was a fast from food.• My point is: early on in the history of the church, there were both regular one day fasts – every Wednesday and Friday – and periodic longer fasts – like Lent.

This lasted for well over a Millenia and a half before it started to die out.

In the 18th century, John Wesley lamented:

“I fear there are now thousands of Methodists, so called, both in England and Ireland,

who, following the same bad example, have entirely left off fasting; who are so far

from fasting twice a week… that they do not fast twice in the month!”

John Wesley

Wesley fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays like the early Christians, and refused to ordain any pastor to the ministry who did not do the same.

That is intense!

Now, I’m not saying I agree; I’m saying, followers of Jesus used to fast, a lot. It was considered just as central to the Way of Jesus as reading your Bible or going to church.

And it still is outside the West!

Other examples of fasting:

Fasting is vigorously practiced by the Eastern streams of the church, such as the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic Christians in Egypt, and especially in Africa, where entire churches often fast to begin the new year - a practice you actually continue to see in many African American churches and immigrant communities here in the US, one of the few examples of fasting in the West.

My point is: Sticky line: Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus, and, arguably, the single most neglected in the modern, Western church.

So many of the saints testify to the power of fasting.

The life of Jesus, the writings of Scripture, the voice of the global church and the teachings of the saints down through church history all say in chorus: fasting is essential and powerful.

So, let’s cover the basics of fasting.

The Basics:

1. First off, what is fasting, exactly?

Well, let’s start with what it’s not.

It’s not abstinence.

I have often preached that fasting is other things - like fasting: social media, shopping, alcohol, streaming, sports, etc. My intentions about teaching this kind of fasting was good hearted but not theologically grounded. The truth is that’s not fasting; that’s abstinence, which has a long and rich history in the church.

It’s also not a restricted diet. We regularly hear things like the “Daniel fast,” where you eat a vegan diet, but in the Daniel story, the word “fast” is never used. That’s not a fast, it’s a restricted diet, which also has a long and rich history in the church.

Fasting is – at its most basic – not eating food.

In a normal fast you continue to drink water, but there are a few examples in Scripture of a fast from both food and water.

2. How long is a fast?

There’s no set time.

The most common fast is from waking until sundown, but there are examples in

Scripture of two day fasts, three day, seven day, twenty one day, and forty day fasts.

3. When do you fast?

Again, because fasting is not a command, that’s up to you.

In both Scripture and in church history, we do see two different types of fasting: fasting as rhythm and as response.

Rhythm: this would be fasting twice a week for most of church history, Fasting on Fri- days in the Catholic tradition today; the only example in Scripture is in the OT, where Israel is commanded to fast on Yom Kippur.

But then response: most of the examples of fasting in Scripture are in response to a national crisis, like an invasion, or sin, or to grief and loss.

In 1 Samuel 31:11-13

1 Samuel 31:11–13 (NLT)

But when the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their mighty warriors traveled through the night to Beth-shan and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall. They brought them to Jabesh, where they burned the bodies. Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.

In…

Jonah 3:4–5 (NLT)

On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

Jonah 3:10 (NLT)

When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

And then in Esther 4, when the Hebrew people are threatened with genocide, Queen Esther calls for three day fast, and they are saved.

My point is, fasting is both a rhythm and a response.

4. Do we fast in community or alone?

Both.

A lot of people misread Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6 about fasting; he’s not saying that fasting in community is wrong, but making fasting about you, “look at me” is wrong.

Let’s take a look again at Matthew 6:16–18 (NLT)

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Scripture is full of examples of the people of God fasting together.

Finally, we come to the most important question of all:

5. Why do we fast?

To offer ourselves to Jesus:

There are all sorts of reasons we fast, but to group them into four basic categories, we fast:

1. To offer ourselves to Jesus

2. To grow in holiness

3. To amplify our prayers

4. To stand with the poor

We have a handout that we would like to give you today that helps you explore all four categories of fasting. I ask that you take one home or go to our Practicing the Way resources located online.

As I said, the early Christians continued the Jewish practice of fasting twice a week until sundown, but what I did not say was, they changed the days, from Monday and Thursday, to Wednesday and Friday.

Why? Because Wednesday was the day Jesus was betrayed and Friday was the day he was crucified.

This, this is the ultimate reason for fasting: hunger for Jesus, and for his transformation.

Some of my most significant spiritual times of transformation were surrounded by prayer and fasting. I remember a few years ago that I reached a very difficult place in my life and felt that I needed to fast in response to grief. Jesus showed up in a way in life that I heard his voice with clarity and without distraction.

The Baptist preacher John Piper calls fasting

“whole body hungering for God.”

John Piper

Now, we may not feel hungry for God. If we’re honest, we may feel apathetic about God. All the more reason to fast, as fasting has the potential to awaken the dormant hunger within all souls for God.

Fasting is a practice to offer our whole life to God.

Theology of the body:

I think of Paul’s line in Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1 (NLT)

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Note Paul’s word choice: give (offer) your bodies, not just your heart.

The word in Greek is soma, where we get the word somatic. It means, your whole person, including your body.

Giving your heart to Jesus is a wonderful thing and it’s beautiful, but he doesn’t just call for our heart, but for all that we are.

Part of the reason we emphasized the “heart” over the whole person in the church was because, in the Western church. Anglo-American Puritans and evangelicals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries used the phrase “received Christ in your heart.” (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/ask-jesus-into-your-heart-a-history-of-the-sinners prayer/#:~:text=So%20where%20did%20this%20prayer,like%20it%2C%20with%20some%20regularity)

The “theology of the body,” which, put simply, is the truth all through Scripture that you don’t have a body, you are a body. Or to be more precise, your body is a part of who you are.

Jesus came in a body — a doctrine we call the incarnation — to save all of our body — a doctrine we call the resurrection!

One day in the future, at Jesus’ return, what happened to Jesus’ body will happen to the bodies of all his followers - we will be raised from death to life.

In the meantime: our discipleship to Jesus must take seriously the body.

The Apostle Paul famously said to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NLT)

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Your body is a temple, a dwelling place for God. Therefore what we do with the body matters.

The body is the sphere where our discipleship to Jesus becomes real. Where it’s not just an idea or even a feeling, but a practice. Or what Jesus called a Way of life.

And fasting is one of the best possible ways to get the teachings of Jesus into your body and the way you live your life!

And – back to Romans 12 –I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Meaning, we do this for him, because of all he’s done for us.

We give up food, because he gave up everything; we offer our body in devotion because he already gave his for our salvation.

We fast for all sorts of reasons. But this is the primary reason we fast, not to get something from Jesus, but to give something to Jesus – what Paul calls “worship” This is truly the way to worship him – our love, affection, and devotion.

Conclusion:

To end, Jesus assumed his disciples would fast.

But he never commanded fasting. Neither did the Apostles in the NT. They all fasted, but they never laid down a regimen to follow.

You don’t have to fast. It is not required.

But Jesus fasted. And then said, “Come, and follow me.”

Practices, like fasting, and prayer and sabbath and more, are how we follow Jesus – how we open our whole person to his grace to be transformed.

So. If you want to offer your body and all that you are to Jesus in love…

Practice fasting.