Untitled Sermon

Fasting

The New King James Version Chapter 9

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

Through fasting we embrace voluntary weakness and voluntary restraint as exemplified in the Sermon on the Mount.

Fasting does not earn us anything from God but rather positions us to encounter His power and affections toward us. “Fasting doesn’t change God, it changes us.”

Though this is true, there yet remains experiences in God and personal and corporate breakthroughs reserved for the place of Fasting.

Fasting is a statement that the pleasures of loving God are superior to even the the legitimate pleasures of this world.

The Psalm and the Song of Solomon is replete with this kind of language.

The New King James Version מ‍ Mem

How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:103

The New King James Version Psalm 19

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned,

And in keeping them there is great reward.

The New King James Version Chapter 1

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—

For your love is better than wine.

The Bridal Paradigm of the Kingdom

Matt 22

Although there are biblical paradigms of the Kingdom of God, the ones that are prioritized are the relational paradigms.

It is from this lens that Jesus sets forth the highest motive for fasting.

The Bridegroom Fast

The New King James Version Chapter 9

15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Fasting and mourning are used here interchangeably as it is also connected in the OT. In the OT the idea is knit to mourning over the national sins that hinder the full experience of God’s presence in the midst of the people (Joel 2). Here the idea is mourning everything that is not right because the Bridegroom is not here bodily.

That we would mourn over all the things that are not right until He comes.

The new wineskin here is the introduction of a higher motive for fasting.