Fasting - 1

Sermon on the Mount-44

Matthew 6:16–18 (NIV84)

16“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Fast = νηστεύω nēsteuō = to go without food for a set time as a religious duty.

Fasting is the laying aside of food for a period of time when the believer is seeking to know God in a deeper experience.

It is to be done as an act before God in the privacy of one’s own pursuit of God.

Do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.

These hypocrites wanted to elevate their religious status in the eyes of the people and their peers by broadcasting their religious accomplishments.

Disfigure = ἀφανίζω aphanizō = to mar or spoil the appearance of (as by uncleanliness or unkemptness); or perhaps to cover or hide (as if mourning).

Making one’s face unrecognizable from a normal perspective, with the intent to publicize the physical hardships endured while fasting.

The hypocrites did not want to be completely unrecognizable, which would defeat the purpose of trying to gain attention for their pious deed.

During the fasting period they might disfigure their face by remaining ungroomed or perhaps by sprinkling ashes on their head and face as a sign of contrition. This was a deceptive way of letting others know of their extensive efforts to increase their personal piety.

When the hypocrites got people to notice that they were fasting, they received their reward in full.

They lost the meaning and purpose of fasting.

Why were they fasting?

What were the reasons that people fasted in Scripture?

What is the purpose of fasting?

Leviticus 23:26–32 (NIV84)

26The Lord said to Moses,

27“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves (fast, eat nothing), and present an offering made to the Lord by fire.

28Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.

29Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people.

30I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day.

31You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

32It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”

Mosaic law only mandated one fast: the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26–32).

After the fall of Judah in 586 B.C. to the Chaldeans, the Hebrew people observed four additional fasts during their captivity, mourning the events that led to their downfall as a nation.

In addition to this day, during the exile the Jewish people instituted four more feasts to remember key dates in the tragic defeat of their nation. Here are the additional feasts:

4/17, Mourning the capture of Jerusalem

5/09, Burning of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple

7/03, Assassination of Gedaliah and the massacre of 80 men

10/10, Beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege against Jerusalem.

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their hypocritical fasting, but He never required any fasts.

Four typical reasons for fasting are suggested in the Old Testament.

Fasts were undertaken to express the depths of a person’s grief or mourning (1 Sam. 31:13).

Fasts were undertaken as part of the nation’s or an individual’s most urgent prayers to the Lord (2 Chron. 20:1–29; 2 Sam. 12:16–22).

Fasts were undertaken to show the sincerity of a person’s repentance (1 Kings 21:27).

The only fast commanded in Scripture was for the Day of Atonement, and it was intended to underline the solemnity of the day (Lev. 16:29, 31).

A person who undertook a fast set aside the time to focus entirely on the Lord. While no command to fast appears in the epistles, fasts are mentioned as adjuncts (add-ons) to prayer or worship. (To focus on the Lord.)

Joel 2:12–17 (NIV84)

12“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

14Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

15Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.

16Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

17Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Rend = קָרַע qāraʿ = rip or cut or tear to pieces; tear away.

Heart = לֵבָב lēbāb = the locus of a person’s thoughts (mind), volition, emotions, and knowledge of right from wrong (conscience) understood as the heart.

Rend your heart and not your garments.

Tearing one’s clothes was a sign of grief.

The Lord wants us to have a broken heart over sin that displays a true inward repentance and not merely an outward, external, superficial sign of grief.

We are not only to grieve over the ungodly acts that we commit externally, but we are also to grieve over the internal lusts and desires from which those external acts spring from.

Fast = צוֹם ṣôm = abstaining from food for a certain time period for religious reasons.

Jewish fasts were kept with great strictness, and generally from evening to evening—that is, twenty-four hours—and included not only an abstinence from food but from all other sensual indulgences. The body was clothed in sackcloth, no shoes were worn, ashes were sprinkled upon the head, the hands were unwashed, the head was unanointed, and the synagogues were filled with the voice of supplication and the sobs of grief and penitence.

Hebrews 12:1 (NIV84)

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

That hinders = ὄγκος onkos = that which hinders one from doing something; weight, burden, impediment.

Everything that hinders can include those things that are not sin. This verse says, “let us throw of everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

This refers to things that may be legitimate and innocent in and of themselves, but they hinder the Christian runner. They hamper and slow him down instead of helping him run faster.

Anything that does not build us up and make us stronger is excess weight that slows us down.

The Christian runner must do exactly what the Olympic runner does: strain to remove all excess weight.

Do nothing—absolutely nothing—that hinders or hampers him from running at full speed. He must strip off all unnecessary weight.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV84)

12“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything.

Paul is speaking about the liberties that we have in Christ. This is what we call the adiáphora, the matters that are nonessential (as pertaining to one’s salvation).

These are discussed in this epistle and elsewhere as being food, drink, holy days, circumcision, and so on. Such matters can confuse the Christian.

There are things for which we do not have specific rules or regulations in Scripture.

It is up to the conscience of the Christian to judge.

Such choices do not involve our eternal salvation, but our eternal reward.

They are choices between that which is good and that which is excellent, and each has its reward.

Genesis 13:1–13 (NIV84)

1So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.

2Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.

3From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier

4and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.

5Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

6But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.

7And quarreling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.

8So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.

9Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”

10Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

11So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:

12Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

13Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

Lot made his choice. It was a selfish choice that did not deprive him of God’s righteousness within him, but it was not the best choice he could have made.

When given the choice as to which land he would take, Lot chose the land that looked the best for him.

It was permitted that Lot could possess that land, but it turned out to not be beneficial for him.

Lot did not know what his decision would turn into.

We are so limited by looking at things as they are at the time and not at what they might develop to be. We can see the apparent, but not the potential.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NIV84)

12“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything.

Just because something is not sinful, it doesn’t mean that it is beneficial.

But I will not be mastered by anything.

Has something mastered you? Throw it off!

The Christian should always be able to submit to the Lord’s control and not be controlled by some habit. We should give the Lord, not anyone or anything else, primary control of our bodies.

“It is a bad thing to create habits that are not easily broken …”307

The Bible is far more than a definitive list of “sins.” When we approach it as such, we are missing the point. God does not want us to check off a list and consider everything else acceptable.

The Pharisees did that, and Jesus was not pleased with them (Luke 11:42; Matthew 23:23).

God desires obedience that arises from a loving heart that wants to be like Him (1 Peter 1:15).

There are a great many things about which there is no direct instruction in the Word of God, and because of this some think of them as things indifferent. But the question is, “What effect would it have on other people if I as a Christian were to indulge in them?”

1 Thessalonians 4:1–2 (NIV84); 3-4 (ESV)

1Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.

2For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

4that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

The overall theme of 1 Thessalonians is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The stress on holiness and sanctification is vital, because Christians are to be a bride prepared for Christ.

Fasting is an essential means of sanctifying yourself, pulling yourself away from the world, and getting closer to God. Fasting allows you to filter your life and to set yourself apart to seek the Lord.

Sanctification and fasting share a similarity in that both are a setting apart for God and to God.

In sanctification, we set ourselves apart for God to honor him with our thoughts, words, and actions.

In fasting, we set food and desires apart from us so that we can hear from God and to honor him with our thoughts, words, and desires.

Fasting will help you identify areas of even hidden sin and things that are displeasing to God in your life.

Fasting helps you discern between serving the flesh and serving the spirit.

Fasting will not bring us instant sanctification, but it will provide the Holy Spirit with further opportunities to make us more like Jesus.

William Thrasher: ‘The abstinence is not to be an end in itself but rather for the purpose of being separated to the Lord and to concentrate on godliness. This kind of fasting reduces the influence of our self-will and invites the Holy Spirit to do a more intense work within us.’

This is the will of God, your sanctification.

Justification is instantaneous; sanctification is a long growth. A sanctified life is seen in steady growth. It is not a flash in the pan experience. It is not an “up and down life.”

This is called Progressive Sanctification.

This is present, personal and practical.

This is day by day living a godly life.

We are to make progress in holy living.

The motive behind this progressive growth is the power and the influence of the Word of God.

What enables and propels our growth in holiness is the active power and authoritative influence of Scripture.

Philippians 1:3–6 (NIV84)

3I thank my God every time I remember you.

4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy

5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you (justification) will carry it on to completion (sanctification) until the day of Christ Jesus.

The life-long process of sanctification involves the separation of ourselves and the things we passionately desire from ourselves so that we can be set apart (be made holy) for the Lord.

It would do no good to separate ourselves for God, while holding on to the things that hinder our walk with Him.

Titus 2:11–14 (NIV84)

11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

12It teaches us to say “No” to (renounce, esv) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Renounce (deny) = ἀρνέομαι arneomai = to refuse to pay any attention to, disregard, renounce.

to refuse someone (something); restrain, especially from indulging in some pleasure.

Joel 1:13–14 (NIV84)

13Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

14Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord.

Fasting is one of the hardest things that a person can do.

What does fasting accomplish? Why fast?

What are some of the misconceptions about fasting?

Next Week!!! (The Lord willing)