Hungry For More

INTRODUCTION

Well we are 7 days into our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Has anybody else experienced some hunger pains?! I know I have! There have been really good days and there have been really challenging days. (cold hands!)

Remember our definition of fasting. It’s the voluntary deprivation of something physically important for a spiritual purpose. Other people fast for other reasons but as Christians our reason is spiritual.

Throughout this week the Lord has confirmed to me the value of fasting. He has shown me in specific ways that there’s a relationship between fasting and breakthrough in my life. Long prayed for breakthrough.

I’m trusting God that many more of those are yet to come.

What breakthroughs have you been praying for?

Is there something you have been praying for a long time?

Is there an unbeliever you would like God to awaken to spiritual things?

Is there a broken relationship you would like God to reconcile?

Is there a difficult question you’re struggling to answer?

I believe that God is calling us to rediscover the place of fasting in appropriating his power.

When you’re fasting and you’re experiencing those hunger pains then it’s a tremendous opportunity to humble yourself before God and express an even greater desire for Him!

John Calvin on Fasting

I want to read you a quote from a Christian theologian writing 500 plus years ago around the topic of fasting. The insights he made then are still relevant today.

"Let us say something about fasting, because many, for want of knowing its usefulness, undervalue its necessity, and some reject it as almost superfluous; while, on the other hand where the use of it is not well understood, it easily degenerates into superstition.

In other words, when it comes to fasting Christians are prone to make 1 of two opposite errors.

Some devalue the practice of fasting and treat it as superfluous.

One camp will say “We’ve got the Spirit, we’ve got the Word, we’ve got salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ along - WHO NEEDS TO FAST!?” - They reject it as superfluous.

Others overvalue the practice of fasting and treat it as superstitious.

This camp so obsesses with the power of fasting and the moves of God as a result of fasting and they slip into unhealthy state of superstition. Both ways are wrong.

Here’s what he goes onto say.

Holy and legitimate fasting is directed to three ends; for we practice it either as a restraint on the flesh, to preserve it from licentiousness, or as a preparation for prayers and pious meditations, or as a testimony of our humiliation in the presence of God when we are desirous of confessing our guilt before him.”

I think that’s really helpful. Three holy and legitimate ends for fasting.

restraining sin

sharpening prayer

expressing repentance

An Apologetic for Fasting

Knowing that there may still be some who find themselves on either end of that pendulum I wanted to use this mornings message to look at one of Jesus’ teachings on fasting from Matthew 9.

Last week we looked at Jesus’ description of fasting in the sermon on the mount. This week, however, we’re going to look at Jesus’ response to a group of people who asked him why he and his disciples DIDN’T fast like everybody else in that day and age.

Richard Foster (who wrote a book about fasting) says this may be one of the most important verses about fasting in the entire Bible.

It is certainly one of the most important passages for how followers of Jesus ought to fast if we want it to accomplish it’s God ordained purpose in our lives.

Essentially, what we’re going to see in today’s text is that the earthy ministry of Jesus forever changed the reason we fast and the way we should fast as God’s people.

Jesus’ teaching addresses the misuse of fasting on the one side of the pendulum AND the total rejection of fasting on the other side of the pendulum.

Questioning Jesus

Matthew 9:14–17 (CSB)

14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. 17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

What’s going on in this story? You’ve got three groups of people under consideration.

John’s Disciples

The Pharisees

Jesus’ Disciples

John’s disciples come up to Jesus’ disciples while they are feasting and they ask them “We are fasting… and the Pharisees are fasting. Why are you not fasting?”

The Culture of the Day

Something you should know is that John’s group of disciples and the pharisees couldn’t stand each other. There was no love there. It was almost like a match of who could be more holy and spiritually disciplined between the two of them.

If you were here last week I mentioned how the religious practice of that day was to fast on certain Jewish holidays like the day of atonement. Really religious people, however, would fast weekly. Usually Mondays and Thursdays when people were coming into market.

Fasting was a way for religious people to prove their spiritual bonafides. Jesus had a different metric.

We’ve already seen Jesus rebuke the Pharisees and religious leaders for their approach to fasting. But now John’s disciples are coming up to Jesus and essentially asking “are you suggesting you’re not EVER going to fast? Is that even appropriate?”

The Unorthodox Approach of Jesus

John’s disciples couldn’t understand why Jesus and his disciples weren’t embracing the traditional approach to spirituality (at least as it was culturally inherited from years prior.) But this wasn’t the only area where Jesus was a little “out of the box.”

Jesus was “unorthodox” in more ways than one. He (and his disciples) rejected the culturally defined religiosity of his day.

If you read only a few verses up you’ll see Jesus partying with sinners and even calling Matthew the tax collector to be part of his movement. He would say things like, “I didn’t come for the healthy, I came for the sick… I’m not here for the righteous, but sinners!” (Mat 9:12-13)

Because of that, Jesus had a sordid reputation. He hands out with THOSE people. They say he’s a man of God but why doesn’t he DO the things men of God traditionally do in our culture?

Jesus was even accused of being a glutton and a drunkard because of his love for sinners. The whole sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 did the same thing. Jesus was upsetting the apple cart of what made a gody person godly.

So John’s disciples are essentially asking Jesus “what’s up with that!?”

A Time For Everything

In response, Jesus offers a word picture or metaphor.

Some of it might be lost on us because we’re not practicing Jews stepped in Old Testament literature. So I’m going to try and bring out what that original audience would’ve heard.

The metaphor Jesus uses is that of guests at a wedding feast.

The question Jesus raises is “Do the wedding guests fast when the groom is with them?” The implied obvious answer is NO. Nobody really wants to fast when there’s a feast to be enjoyed.

Jesus’ response shows us two things. One thing about fasting and one thing about his understanding of his ministry.

Fasting For Contrition

On one hand, Jesus’ response gives us some insight on WHY people practiced fasting in his day and age. Whether it was John the Baptist or the religious establishment (Pharisees). The purpose of fasting was to express contrition.

Contrition is a fancy word that just means you’re expressing sorrow and regret for the sin in your life. It’s another word for repentance. Fasting was their way of showing a broken-heartedness over the sin in their life and a desperation for God’s deliverance.

It’s almost as if fasting was a way of proving yourself worthy of God’s blessing. Making yourself holy enough and sorry enough and repentant enough that God might respond to your prayers. Fasting wasn’t just demonstrating dependance on God and desire for communion with God. It had become a means of self-justification and earning grace.

Jesus as the Bridegroom

The second thing Jesus’ response shows us is his understanding of his ministry on the earth. Remember, Jesus knew he had a special relationship with the Father and he knew he was the promised Messiah of the OT.

His use of the metaphor of a wedding feast illustrates that self-understanding and would’ve been scandalous to the original hearers.

In the OT God often refers to himself as the “husband of Israel.” (Isa 62:4; Jer 2:2; 3:20; Eze 16:8; Hos 2:19) So when Jesus refers to himself as “the bridegroom” he’s making a thinly veiled reference to himself as that husband (a claim to divinity!)

In order words, Jesus is saying “I’m not just the Messiah sent by God to deliver you. I myself am one with the God who made the promise in the first place. I AM the Bridegroom.”

Why Fast When Your Feasting?

So if you put these two things together, Jesus response is even more scandalous than it seems on the surface.

He’s essentially saying, “The reason my disciples aren’t fasting (showing contrition to earn God’s grace) is because they are IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD at this feast. Ergo, there’s no need to fast.”

It’s a fascinating response! He’s saying, fasting is for times of yearning and aching and longing for God. But the bridegroom of Israel is here! After a thousand years of dreaming and longing and hoping and waiting, he is here!

The fact that Jesus' disciples didn’t like everybody else was a witness to the presence of God in their midst.

Then They Will Fast

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He says, “the days are coming when the Bridegroom will be taken away and then my disciples will fast.” (Matt 9:15b)

That last sentence is the key sentence of our our message today and the main point of this passage. “Then they will fast...” What does that mean? When is he referring to?

When Jesus talks about his “being taken away” some say it’s a reference to his ascension. That’s certainly possible. But given his two analogies that follow I think his reference to the groom being “taken away” is a reference to his death on the cross, resurrection from the grave and ascension to heaven.

He has “been taken away” to be with the Father in heaven and there’s coming a day when “he will return.” The time between those two events is the time Jesus’ identifies as “the time to fast.”

In other words, the time to fast for disciples of Jesus is NOW.

An Expression of Longing

We know this intuitively. There’s a yearning in every human heart to be with God in heaven.

Even Paul said, “to depart and be with Christ is FAR BETTER.” That’s the longing within every human heart.

What’s the appropriate way to demonstrate that longing and desire? How do we communicate a homesickness for God and Christ’s Kingdom?

How can say to Jesus “I desire greater intimacy, greater communion, a stronger awareness of your presence? Fasting! That’s why we fast.

New Wine Needs New Wineskins

After Jesus just makes that statement about fasting he then breaks into another metaphor - this time surrounding wine and wineskins.

It’s a popular verse. You’ve probably heard people make allusions to Jesus’ statement about putting new wine into old wineskins.

Matthew 9:16–17 (CSB)

16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. 17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

So Jesus offers up to metaphors here with the same basic point.

The first is about an unshrunk piece of cloth used to patch a tear.

What’s the point? If you have cloth that hasn’t been shrunk and you use it to patch up your jeans - what happens? The unshrunk part will shrink upon washing and drying/heating and it’ll pull on that previous tear and overall make the whole thing worse.

It will ruin BOTH the unshrunk cloth and the damaged garment with the tear.

The second illustration is about new wine in old wine skins.

Back in the day they’d use dried out animal skins to transport and store things like wine. Like most alcohols, when you store wine it goes through a fermentation process. During that fermentation the molecules expand and gases form and it’s a slow process that creates sustained pressure on the skins being used.

If you took some old brittle wineskins that had already been stretched out and used it to hold “new wine” that was about to ferment, expand and apply pressure - what’s going to happen? It’s going to tear the wineskin and spill out all over the floor!

It will ruin BOTH the new wine and the old wineskins!

Jesus is saying the same thing applies when it comes to the new reality I’m ushering in with my Kingdom. Jesus is saying “the new reality I’m ushering in with my Kingdom will not FIT the old traditions you’ve extrapolated from the Old Covenant.”

Jesus Changes Everything

Unfortunately, people MISQUOTE this verse about new wine and old wineskins ALL THE TIME.

I’ve heard several of my young pastor friends relate to their “new approach to worship” with the “old wineskins of traditional music” and Jesus is saying we need to toss out the one for the other. In other words, “new wine = novel changes to the way of doing church. old wineskins = tradition and the old way of doing things...”)

I don’t know about that. Is that REALLY what Jesus is talking about here, though? I don’t think so. (we must be careful of using the Bible to justify things it doesn’t address!)

Jesus IS, however, talking about change. He’s talking about the change that is associated with his coming in to the world. Jesus changes everything and if you’re not a vessel prepared for that kind of change be ready for a level of disruption in your life.

If you have new wine and you put it into wineskins that are used to OLD wine - what’s going to happen? That new wine is going to expand and release and absolutely tear up the vessel that received it. Because it wasn’t ready.

New Covenant = New Fasting!

When Jesus came into the world he inaugurated something new! A new Kingdom, new values, and a new way of experiencing the presence of God. EVERYTHING IS NEW!

Jesus changes everything. That includes our reason for and approach to fasting!

Jesus is saying that the old way of fasting won’t fit with the new wine of His Kingdom.

So we have two primary truths FROM Jesus ABOUT fasting in this text.

First, NOW is the time for followers of Jesus to fast.

Secondly, the earthly ministry of Jesus transforms the way we should think about fasting.

In other words, fasting is something Jesus wants his disciples to do. Now is the time to fast. But we can’t fast like they used to. We can’t fast the way they did under the Old Covenant.

So what we need to answer is what’s new about this new fasting?

Old Covenant = Fast For Consecration

In some ways, it’s a hard question to answer because most of the discussion around fasting in the Old Testament in couched in narratives. There’s no didactic teaching that lays out a proper Old Covenant theology of fasting.

That said, from what we CAN see in the Old Testament it looks like one of the primary purposes of fasting was consecration. Putting yourself in a position to hear from God, be blessed by God and experience communion with God.

There were other reasons as well but consecration was the major umbrella.

Fasting was also used to express grief or sorrow.

You would also have fasts to sharpen prayer so that God would intervene.

Finally you have fasting to express repentance or seek forgiveness.

If I had to sum it up in one word: fasting in the Old Covenant was about making yourself more holy.

New Covenant = Jesus Is Our Holiness

Jesus is saying, “Because I have come we don’t have to fast that way anymore. New wine needs new wineskins.”

So what’s new as it relates to consecration? What did Jesus change when it comes to us making ourselves more holy? Setting ourselves apart so we’re more pleasing to the Lord?

Jesus changed EVERYTHING about that process. We don’t have to make ourselves holy anymore.

Under the New Covenant, Jesus does that FOR us. Jesus IS our holiness. He is our consecration.

He lived the sinless perfect life of love and obedience before the Father because he knew we COULDN’T. Even if we have 1,000,000,000 “second chances” we’d still never be holy enough.

And so Jesus became our righteousness. He becomes our justification and sanctification and consecration in every way. He has delivered us from sin.

New Fasting = Getting More of Jesus

So we don’t fast to get God to love us or forgive us. You are deeply loved and completely forgiven by your heavenly Father because of what Jesus has done on the cross.

The old way looked at fasting as a way to become more holy. We look a holiness through a completely different lens. We are holy because JESUS makes us holy.

So we don’t fast for holiness. We fast to get more of Jesus. We fast for more of his presence. We fast for more of his POWER.

We fast because we’ve already tasted and seen how good and beautiful and satisfying the presence of Jesus is and we want more and more of his presence.

So our fasting comes from a place of having already feasted on the salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why We Can Fast In This Way

Why are we able to fast in this way? Because of what Jesus accomplished through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Because of the Gospel!

The earthly ministry of Jesus forever changed the game in so many ways.

He lived the life we couldn’t life. A life of perfect consecration.

He died the death we should’ve died. The death of a criminal, sinner, rejecter of God.

He did this even though we was the very opposite of those things. Even those WE were the criminals, rejectors of God and he was the opposite. He died in our place for our sins!

He paid the penalty for our sins and received God’s wrath into his own body so we don’t have to experience the wrath of God eternally in a place called hell.

Then on the third day He rose from the dead once for all. The price has been paid. It is FINISHED. The wrath of God has been satisfied and Jesus has been vindicated!

Then Jesus ascended to take his rightful place as Lord of all the earth. He is seated at the right hand of God ruling and reigning until he comes again to culminate his kingdom.

Between those times, the Spirit has been sent into the world - once for all. The role of the Spirit is to empower our witness and convict the world of sin and open all of our eyes to the glory and majesty of this amazing savior.

Fasting For More of Jesus

So why do we fast? We fast to see an increase and intensificaiton of those things that were inaugurated through the earthly ministry of Jesus and will be fully realized when he comes again.

I can’t say it much better than this quote from John Piper (two quotes from two Calvinists! Watch out now)

We have tasted the powers of the age to come, and our new fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not tasted, but because the new wine of Christ’s presence is so real and so satisfying.

The newness of our fasting is... not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ’s presence, but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives. We must have all he promised. And as much now as possible.

In other words, once you’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good you’ll always be hungry for MORE. More of his presence. More of his kingdom. More in our church, more in our culture, more in your life, more everywhere.

Conclusion

Jesus does not want to have a relationship with you just the way a king relates to his subjects or a shepherd relates to his sheep. He wants to have a relationship with you so permanent and so intimate it is analogous to the relationship of a husband to his wife.

That’s why he says, “Look, if you know you have a relationship with the Lord of the universe that permanent and that intimate, there’s going to be joy.