Matthew 6:16-18

We have been going through the sermon on the mount here at Main Street for the past couple of months and we have been bouncing around a little bit, the last two weeks Ryan talked about lust and divorce, thank goodness I didn’t have to do that. Seriously though if you haven’t listened to those I strongly recommend going back and doing so, Ryan does a great job breaking down how scripture views those two topics and explaining Main Street’s elders position and how they would council members of our body on those topics.

Review:

3 weeks ago, Demer preached on loving in secret, giving to the needy. Then Ryan preached a few weeks before that on prayer and we are concluding with the third part in this little three part section in Matthew 6 with something that we really don’t need to spend that much time on anyways because we are all SO good at it…

fasting.

I am not going to ask for a show of hands or anything but I have a feeling that most of us in this room when we hear this sermon is on fasting or come to this section in the Bible, we get a little uncomfortable because we either have never fasted, only fasted a couple of times or maybe have done it for the wrong reasons or done it poorly in the past.

And the first question I have for us today is“Why don’t we fast”

And I have a few theories as to why we don't

1. It’s hard

That’s pretty obvious but fasting is hard! It’s not like praying where we can just take a couple minutes out of our days and fast really quickly. To truly fast, is not an easy thing to do.

But, most things that cause you to grow are hard!! Things like parenting, starting a new job, public speaking, learning a new language and then the obvious one at least to me is anything physical. Megan, my girlfriend, is running a marathon next weekend and that training is insane! She’ll just casually be like yeah tomorrow I’ve got to run 20 miles for my marathon prep and I’m like are you kidding me, 20 miles?!? That is crazy

But like all those things, fasting is hard and takes discipline. Just as we need to do those things to grow, God wants us to discipline ourselves to grow in him

We should be disciplining ourselves to form Godly patterns in our lives to grow closer to God. We should want and we should be actually growing in our walk with the Lord. We should not be stagnant.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 says

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;

or while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Paul tells us here to TRAIN ourselves for Godliness!

That word train comes from the root word gymnasia.. Which as you can probably guess is where we get the word gym. This is supposed to be HARD! Training ourselves to be more and more like Jesus is not an easy task and it is something that we need to work hard at, we need to sweat at it!

Training in the gym is tough, and we often refer to that kind of effort as discipline. In the same way, all Christians need discipline in their walk with God.

There is a quote from Don Whitney who has a great book on spiritual disciplines that says:

“And in my own pastoral and personal Christian experience, I can say that I’ve never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through discipline. Godliness comes through discipline.”

- Don Whitney

You will not ever in your lifetime reach your full capacity with God or full knowledge of God. We should be constantly growing in our walk with the Lord and fasting is a clear way that God gives us and tells us to grow.

I think the second reason we don’t fast is because other religions and

2. Many other people do it.

Right now, there are about 3.5 billion people or 45% of the world that are fasting

- Around 2 billion muslims are fasting for ramadan

- Around 1.5 billion catholics and others are fasting for lent

And we as western protestants, for the most part, look at fasting and say this is not required for us, we don’t have to fast and we aren’t going to do it. It’s a pendulum swing like most things in life. Because some other religions or sections of Christianity are legalistic, and we know that we don’t HAVE to fast in order to get into heaven so we just let it slide.

Martyn Llyod-Jones says it like this:

The tendency of a reaction is always to go too far.

In this instance, because the false Catholic emphasis on fasting is disliked, we tend to swing to the other extreme and to leave fasting out of account altogether.

But we see right away, the first 4 words of these verses on fasting, Jesus says “and when you fast…”

The same thing Jesus said about prayer he says about fasting. We are expected and Jesus assumes that we will be fasting as followers of him!

We are going to talk more about hypocrisy, everyone's favorite topic, a little bit later but again, as followers of Jesus we are expected to be fasting. And I am standing up here as a hypocrite right now because I do a terrible job at fasting. But as we mentioned early God is working in me and changing me.

This is kind of like changing our passwords to important things… I know we have a few people here that work in cybersecurity and cyber security advice is to rotate passwords and change your password every few months. Most people know this,we have all sorts of things known to try and help with cybersecurity so you can keep all your important things safe, yet I am willing to bet that most people here still just use their dogs name or their favorite child's birthday, hence why my parents always use Cole.

We know that we are supposed to fast, yet we continue to not do it anyways.

What is fasting?

Biblical fasting is very simply voluntary abstinence from food This is why we the first meal of the day breakfast, break-fast

You’re probably thinking yeah thanks very helpful Jack, that’s what I needed this morning, the definition of fasting.

But I think sometimes, we, myself included, throw around the term fasting a little too loosely.

We talk about how we are going to go on a phone fast, maybe a sugar foods fast, fast food fast, and of course the social media fast. All of these things can be very helpful, I know that, but I would caution us to use fasting or lump food fasting in with those things.

Nowhere in the Bible when it talks about fasting does it mention anything other than FOOD being the thing to fast from.

Personally, I think that is because of the two reasons we talked about earlier, God knows that we are going to be hesitant to do it and while all these other things might be very hard to give up, when we talk about fasting and fasting for biblical reasons , it always has to do with food.

Hypocrisy

Let’s look at the main point from Jesus on this section of fasting and that is everyone’s favorite: hypocrisy.

“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.

(Matthew 6:16, ESV)

Now there is some interesting historical background on this the pharisees would typically be fasting twice a week and what they would do in order for people toknow that they were fasting is they would make themselves physically look like they were tired.

And they would go to some very extreme measures to do this!! They are only fasting twice a week and typically on Mondays and Thursdays and we know now that if you fasted just those two days your appearance would not change. BUT the pharisees, their practice was to look sombre and disfigure their faces. The word translated disfigure (aphanizo) means literally to ‘make to disappear’ and so to ‘render invisible or unrecognizable’. They may have neglected personal hygiene, or covered their heads with sackcloth, or perhaps smeared their faces with ashes in order to look pale, wan, melancholy and so outstandingly holy. All so that their fasting might be seen and known by everybody. The admiration of the onlookers would be all the reward they got. (Stott)

This is the time where I have to stand up here and confess that I have been a hypocrite in this way too.

Some of you might remember, two years ago here at church we did a 3 day fast, it was around this time of year because I remember coaching baseball during that time and maybe some of you can relate with your fasting experience but I wanted to fast because I had never done it before, it seemed like a good challenge and I didn’t really know much about it or its purpose

But I really wish I would’ve read and pay attention to this section more because it was probably the second or third day of the fast, very tired and hungry by this point and I showed up to baseball and another coach asked me Jack you look really tired today and I was like yeah I know I’ve been fasting for the past couple days.

I look back on that now and I’m just like JACK you hypocrite!!! This is exactly what this verse is telling us not to do. Jesus' main concern with fasting, along with prayer and giving to the needy is that we would do it to gain a reward from man when the reward that we get from him is far greater than that.

He goes on in verse 17 and 18 and says

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.

Now this is easy to look at and get a little confused, we don’t really anoint our heads very often, some translations say to put oil on our heads we don’t really do that either and Jesus I thought we weren’t supposed to draw attention to ourselves.He is really just saying to act normal. Act normal, be clean, don’t draw extra attention to ourselves, don’t post about it on social media. Just act normal.

It’s this battle between hypocrisy vs reality. We can lie and deceive our way around humans. Make them think that we pray, that we give money, or that we fast. But when our true audience is God, he cannot be fooled, he knows our heart and that should be the audience we care about.

So my first application for us today is a question to you and it’s a hard one.

What is something that you do that is hypocritical?

I would even go as far to say that if this question is not hard, you’re probably not thinking hard enough about it.

We talked a little earlier about how this is the 3rd of 3 spiritual disciplines Jesus talks about in Matthew 6 and a question that kept popping up in my mind when prepping for this sermon was

Why are we typically good at praying and giving and so bad at fasting?

It’s ironic and sad that Jesus stresses how not to be hypocritical with fasting and to do it in secret yet we are very bad at it. But good at praying and giving, which even though is told to also be done in secret, are often done publicly or able to be seen by other people.

I think this is really highlights the parts in our walks with the Lord that are typically hard.

For the most part it’s easy to be kind to others. We know that’s a part of our walk to care about the poor, to care for others. Our relationship with the Lord is important, praying, going to church, being in his word.Yet the one we neglect the most, is ourselves.

It’s easier just to say okay yeah Lord I will care for others, I will give away some of my money, I will pray to you, I will come to church but as soon as we are asked to look at ourselves and change, that is where it typically gets hard.

So, What is the purpose of fasting? Why should we fast?

Because Jesus did!!

Jesus is the perfect example of all these spiritual disciplines and fasting is no exception.

I mean how cool is it that our God sent his son Jesus, and in the process of doing the most amazing thing ever, living a sinless life, dying on the cross for our behalf and for our sins and then rising three days later on the cross BUT he also was the perfect example to us of how to live out what he is teaching.

Isn’t that a big pet peeve of probably most of us in this room, when a teacher teaches something but can’t do it themselves. Like you aren’t going to go get singing lessons or any musical lessons from me, I am not going to be helpful in any of that.

But Jesus gives us so many different examples of him practicing these spiritual disciplines:

Jesus prayed - many times - Luke 5:16 and Matthew 14:23

Jesus worshipped - Matthew 26:30 and Luke 4:16

Jesus memorized scripture - Matthew 4:4 and Matthew 22:29-32

And Jesus fasted -

We see this in Matthew 4

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

We do not fast because it makes us holy, we do it because we love Jesus and he commands us to.

It’s like going on dates and spending time with your spouse or hanging out with your friends. You do it because you love them and you want your relationship with those people to grow and stay healthy!There are many other biblical examples of how we should fast correctly and when we should fast that I’m going to touch on in a little bit but staying just on Jesus here, we see that he is telling us in Matthew 4 while he is fasting it says in verse 3

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 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.’”

The Lord can fill me. We fast to find satisfaction in God alone, and not food.

So, How do we fast Biblically?

What does biblically fasting look like?

Well, like I said earlier there are many examples from the Bible of people fasting in the correct ways and I think they can be put into three major categories:

Weeping over sin, when people felt guilty

Seeking God for a particular direction or request

1. - Nehemiah fasts after the walls of Jerusalem have been torn down, and its gates have been burned with fire. The people there are struggling, and God is not receiving the glory He deserves from that city or its people among the surrounding nations. This deeply moves Nehemiah, causing him to weep and mourn for days.

-Nehemiah 1:4

- In Jonah 3:5 it says The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

2. This is probably the more common reason for fasting and a lot of things can fall under this category. We see many examples of this type of fasting

- In Exodus 34 Moses fasts for 40 days and 40 nights on mount Siani waiting to receive the 10 commandments from God

- In Esther 4 When Esther found out about the plan to destroy the Jews in Persia, she and her fellow Jews fasted from food and water for three days before going to the king to plead for his mercy.

- Paul and Barnabas fast in the new testament multiple times

- Acts 13:1-3 - the disciples fasted and prayed before dedicating Paul and Barnabas to their next journey

- Acts 14:23 - Paul and Barnabas and the "brothers" fasted and prayed before appointing elders to function in the local church- And In Ezra 8 we get one of the most beautiful descriptions of fasting, I’m going to read Ezra 8:21-23

There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

Again what a beautiful example this is to me of how to fast biblically. We can see in all these examples that fasting is important and that prayer and fasting are often linked together. We don’t fast everytime that we pray but it is clear that when we are seeking a special request or guidance from God that fasting is encouraged.

John Stott says it like this

The evidence is plain that special enterprises need special prayer, and that special prayer may well involve fasting.’

The third one is one that hadn’t seen or heard of before but I love..

3. Solidarity with the poor

We can fast as a way to love those who are less fortunate than us. The idea of this comes from Isaiah 58:6-7

“Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed[a] go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

And we see Jesus also suggest this kind of fasting in Luke 16 in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We see many people in our world that our hungry, without food and fasting on purpose, maybe taking money that you would’ve spent on a lunch out and instead fasting and giving it away with the intention of praying and caring is a great way to express solidarity with the poor.But, ultimately we fast to express love and worship towards God. It is a way to humble ourselves before God, express sadness for our sins, and depend on God alone for his future mercy and grace. Fasting is a means to an end, not the end itself.

Now the fun topic…

Our Reward

Jesus makes it clear that the hypocrites have already received their reward which is public and human praise. He knows that is a tempting reward and we will struggle with doing this to receive human rewards but he continues to remind us to turn our attention towards the reward that we will receive through him.

What kind of reward are we getting from the Father through Jesus? We know it’s not the praise of man. It’s not money or a new car or new house, we see the next verse right after this is about laying your treasures up in heaven, it's almost like Jesus knew where our thoughts would be going.

I hate to break it to you but we don’t receive a tangible physical reward for fasting, but the benefits are great.

As we have talked about one of these rewards is that it is a way for our relationship to grow with Jesus and I love what John Piper says about our reward from fasting for the Father for the sake of your own soul, and in response to Jesus, and for the advancement of the kingdom of God's great saving purpose to glorify his name

We could receive great tangible rewards for fasting!! Let’s say your family is making a big decision about moving to a new city for a job and you decide to pray and fast for this decision and maybe you move and the job works out great or you instead get a promotion at your current job.

Or a close friend has a health scare and you feel convicted to fast while you pray for them and they are healed!! Praise God that he gives us these wonderful glimpses of his kingdom and blessings on Earth.

But just because we fast or pray or give does not mean we are guaranteed a reward.

This one analogy I read was called the “penny in the slot” I had to look that up andfound out it’s basically just a vending machine but I thought wow that makes a lot of sense, and how a lot of us view it. That our relationship with God is like this vending machine where we pray or we tithe and we gain favor from God. Fasting might be a little different because it’s harder so maybe we think of fasting as instead of just putting in $2 to get a soda. Fasting is $50 for some wireless headphone or a portable charger, something like that. We get a much bigger reward if we fast.

Main Street, I hope that is not the view of fasting or any of the spiritual discipline that we take away from today

This was a quote that stuck with me this week:

The moment we begin to say, ‘Because I do this, I get that’, it means that we are controlling the blessing. That is to insult God and to violate the great doctrine of His final and ultimate sovereignty. No, we must never advocate fasting as a means of blessing.

We fast because we love our God and we do it in secret for his glory!!

Application/Conclusion

As we close today I want to wrap up where we have been.

There are billions of people around the world fasting right now and I believe as Christians that is part of the reason we run away from fasting, that and because it's hard.

But it is an expectation of the christian life, from Jesus that we are fasting and fasting not for our glory or to let others see that we are fasting but to do it in secret, for his glory and our good.

There are many different ways to fast:

- For special requests and guidance

- For self discipline

- For repentance

- Solidarity with the poor

- And many others

Sermons like this are hard because the reality is as much as we talked and thought about fasting today, much like a summer camp or retreat, we will most likely in the coming days, weeks or months fall back into our old habits and forget about fasting.So my challenge to you this morning is simply, to fast.

Fast because it is in expectation from Jesus for christians to do so. Fast in secret because it is not about you gaining glory or praise it’s about Jesus getting the glory. Fast because it is a way for us to grow in our walk with the Lord! Fast because it is honoring and worshipful to our God who deserves it!

What a great God we have that allows us to get closer to him and creates ways for us to know him more.What a great God we have that cares far more about our hearts than our actions. What a great God we have that does not rely on imperfect people like us to do specific things in order to gain his reward.