The Time Is Now! - Matthew 6:16-18 - March 4, 2012
Series: Kingdom Life – A World Turned Upside Down #20
Let’s open our Bibles this morning to the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew as we continue in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. If you’re joining us for the first time today, this series is called, “Kingdom Life – A World Turned Upside Down,” because that’s exactly what Jesus is showing us in these chapters of Matthew. It’s a world where our preconceptions, our values, our expectations even, are turned upside down and made new in Him. And what we discover is that we are called to, and enabled to live, a life that is radically different than the one the world holds before us. It’s a life that goes beyond the mere letter of God’s word and grasps the Spirit with which that word is given. Kingdom living finds its life in the attitudes and motives of the heart – the heart that is responding both, to the grace of God that we have received, and the mercy of God that we have experienced.
In Romans 12:1 Paul exhorts us with these words, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.” So the proper response to the mercy we’ve received in Jesus is to live a life that glorifies God. Hymn writer Isaac Watts described our response well when he penned those lines “Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.” In the verses we’ve been looking at over the last few weeks, Jesus is showing us what it looks like when we respond to God with everything we are, everything we have, and everything we ever hope to be.
The truth is that it’s easy to go through the motions of religion and faith and to give an outward appearance of righteousness and godliness. Man can be fooled by that but God sees right through it. Jesus’ words challenge us to consider the heart with which we do the things we do. In particular, in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, the challenge is to consider the motive by which we give to the needy, the heart that moves us to pray, and, what we’ll see today, the manner in which we fast. And what we’re going to see again this morning is a pattern similar to that which we have seen the last two weeks: A Warning Given, An Example To Avoid, A Principle To Follow, and A Reward To Be Received.
So let’s begin reading in Matthew 6, verse 16 … “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others 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.” (Matthew 6:16–18, NIV)
Just out of curiosity, by the show of hands, how many here this morning have fasted before? Not because of sickness, or medical tests, or trying to lose weight, but fasted as they sought God and gave themselves to prayer? …. How many do that on at least a semi-regular basis? …. Alright, you can put your hands down now. Thank you.
If we had asked those same questions even a hundred years ago chances are good that every hand in this room would have gone up. Yet fasting is something that has largely fallen out of popularity in evangelical circles. I firmly believe that we are the poorer for it. Now some of you might be thinking, “Good grief pastor, fasting is so Old Testament. What’s this got to do with us today?” If you’re a disciple of Jesus it has got everything to do with you!
Look at verse 16 – Jesus says, not, “If you fast,” but rather, “When you fast.” It’s the same language He uses when He talks about us giving to the poor and when He talks about us seeking God in prayer. And friends, there are at least two conclusions that we can draw from that fact. First, Jesus’ expectation is that His followers – that’s you and me – that we would give ourselves to fasting on a regular basis. Secondly, this must mean that fasting is a good thing for those who want to draw closer to God. And, if we kept reading, we’d discover that not only is it a good thing, but that there is in store for those who do it with right hearts, a reward from God Himself.
In the 9th chapter of this Gospel we are told how the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and said to Him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:14-15, NIV) There was a time, when Jesus walked with them in the flesh, when His followers did not fast. Jesus says the time will come when He is taken from them and then they will fast again. The time to fast is now, in our day, and until the day that Jesus returns.
So what exactly does it mean to fast? Well when we talk about a biblical fast from something it means we voluntarily go without that same thing for a period of time for the specific purpose of hungering after God. We set aside food and drink, for example, in order to hunger and thirst after God Himself. Today you will hear of people fasting for many different reasons. People fast for physical cleansing – to remove the toxins from their system. Some fast for personal discipline so that they aren’t ruled by the needs of the body. Others fast for weight loss - that’s called dieting by the way! Some fast for medical reasons. It is not uncommon to hear of people going on hunger strikes to draw attention to a cause or to make a political statement. They all might be fasting after a fashion, but not in the sense that Jesus is talking about, because none of those are biblical reasons for entering into a fast; none of them draw one’s heart or mind or soul closer to God and at its essence, fasting is doing without a lesser thing, in order to gain something even greater; in this case to draw closer to, to go deeper with, God Himself.
As I was studying for this message I went through every reference to fasting that we find in the pages of the Bible – and there are a number of them – both Old Testament and New Testament. I was looking to find the reasons that God’s people chose to fast in the past to understand why you and I might choose to fast in our day. And what I discovered was this, all the references to fasting fit into one of seven broader categories which we’ll take a brief look at right now just to give us an idea of what fasting might look like in our day.
The first reason for fasting that we come across is as a sign of sorrow for sin. It might be for personal sin or it might be for the sin of a nation. We find several examples of each in God’s Word. When people are convicted of the reality of specific sin, or sins, in their lives, they are moved to a godly sorrow leading to confession and repentance which is often expressed in fasting as they grieve the sin and the wrong they have done before the Lord. We find an example of this type of fast in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel. We are told there that Daniel, “turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” Daniel says, “I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you.” (Daniel 9:4–7, NIV) Daniel was broken by the sin of the people and fasted and prayed for confession and restoration.
A second reason for fasting is to humble yourself before the Lord. As Ezra led some of his people out of exile and back to Jerusalem he proclaimed a fast so that they might humble themselves before the Lord and seek His provision for the journey. (Ezra 8:21, NIV) To fast in this way is to remember our dependence upon the Lord for all the things we need; to acknowledge that the moments of our life are in His hands; and to trust Him for every need.
People also fast in response to a specific need in their life, or the life of another. David fasted for his child who was ill. Nehemiah fasted out of heartbreak for the needs of the refugees who had returned to Jerusalem and that God would grant him favor in the presence of the king as he brought a request to him. A specific need causes us to seek God’s healing, wholeness, power, or intervention. Such fasting proves our hearts, the depths of our desire to see God move in our midst.
A fourth occasion for fasting is to inquire of the Lord. God’s people have fasted as they have sought God’s guidance, His will, His leading when they are faced with difficult decisions to make. It’s as the disciples are fasting and praying and worshipping that the Holy Spirit speaks to them and sets aside Barnabas and Saul for the work of the Lord.
A fifth reason to fast is the commissioning of God’s people for a specific ministry. In the book of Acts we read how “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord.” (Acts 14:23, NIV) Fasting was part of the commissioning of individuals to do the work that the Lord had set aside for them to do.
A sixth reason to fast was fasting as an act of worship. A willing sacrifice to God as you seek to draw closer to Him. We’re told that the prophetess Anna, worshipped in the temple night and day – how? By fasting and praying. (Luke 2:37, NIV) This was her act of worship before a holy God.
And then a seventh and final reason for fasting is for spiritual revival. Out of an awareness of the need for a mighty move of God in your life, or the life a people, that God’s will would be done and His name lifted high. In this sense fasting can even be seen as a spiritual attack against sin in our lives. Fasting proves where the heart is. When we hunger for God, more than we hunger for bread, more than we hunger for the things of this world, we shut the doors that Satan would be able to enter in to and use to tempt us.
So those are the seven broad reasons for fasting that I found as I searched God’s word. It doesn’t mean the list is exhaustive but it does give us a place to start and something to consider as we contemplate reasons why we might choose to fast today.
Jesus fasted, didn’t He? In fact, that’s how He began His ministry among us. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit came upon Him in a powerful way and led Him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In preparation for that testing we’re told that He fasted for “forty days and forty nights.” (Matthew 4:1-11, NIV) This was, in a way, His commissioning, His preparation to enter into the ministry God the Father had set before Him.
Pastor and author John Piper writes this: “It seems to me that this story should shake us. Here is Jesus standing on the threshold of the most important public ministry in the history of the world. On his obedience and righteousness hangs the salvation of the world. None will escape damnation without this ministry of obedient suffering and death and resurrection. And God wills that, at the very outset, the ministry be threatened with destruction—namely, the temptations of Satan to abandon the path of lowliness and suffering and obedience. And of all the hundreds of things Jesus might have done to fight off this tremendous threat to salvation, he is led to fast.” (John Piper, www.desiringgod.org)
If Satan had succeeded we would be without hope and without God in this world; prisoners of our sin, and objects of wrath before a Holy God. And yet Jesus prepares to overcome this challenge to the fate of billions of souls, by fasting. That, if nothing else, should give us pause to consider fasting in a new light! For when Satan came and tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread, Jesus responded by saying, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4, NIV) To know and experience true life, you and I need more than just bread that satisfies the stomach – we need food that satisfies the soul and quenches our thirst for righteousness. We need to hunger and thirst for the things of God and for God Himself. That is what fasting is all about!
How hungry are you for God?! How far are you willing to go to seek more of Him? How much are you willing to do without that you might experience more of God? Fasting, like nothing else I can think of, reveals where the heart truly is, for the ultimate purpose of fasting is to rely more on God, and less on ourselves and the things of this world. We do not recoil at the necessity of prayer, nor giving to the needy. Yet when it comes to fasting we turn away and say, “we do not see the need.” The flesh is weak; we think the cost too high. Yet we can only think that, when we do not understand what it means to truly fast, and what such fasting brings, so let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ words to us this morning.
There is, of course, A Warning Given. “Do not,” He says in verse 16. It’s a word of caution. It’s a warning of danger. It’s a cry to consider the motives of the heart as you set aside food and drink to seek after God. There is a way to fast that is good and right and true and pleasing in God’s sight and then there is a way to fast that is pleasing to man. Keep your place here in Matthew for we will return to this passage shortly, but turn with me for a few moments to the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 58, beginning in verse 2.
God is speaking of the people of Israel and He says of them … “For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
The people are crying out to God. They appear to be seeking Him as they fast. They are going through all the motions of faith and yet their hearts are not right, their motives not pure. God goes on to say, “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
The people claim to want to draw nearer to God and to know Him better and yet they don’t see the disconnect between what they are fasting for and how they are living their lives. They are hypocrites – the very people Jesus tells us not to be like. A hypocrite is a person who claims to be one thing but is really something very different; who says one thing but does another; one who wants others to see in them a spiritual depth that is not really there. The people of Israel fasted and cried out for God’s ways, His will, His kingdom to come and yet they lived as hypocrites embracing those things contrary to God’s ways, His will and His kingdom. And so God goes on to remind them when we fast we need to really be desiring and seeking the same things that God desires and seeks, or our fasting is just empty ritual. Listen to what God says …
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:2–8, NIV)
The hypocrites are our Example To Avoid. “Do not be like them,” says Jesus. Their hearts aren’t right. When they fast they’re really just putting on a show for others to see. They go around with the sad faces, they cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes so that everyone sees how super spiritual they are. Yes they are fasting – they are going without food and drink for a time – but they are hungering more for the approval of man, the praise and recognition that man will give them – rather than from a heart hunger for God. Jesus says that they have received their reward in full. They have put on a show, as it were, and received rave reviews from their audience. But they should have been fasting for an audience of one: for God alone.
Then He gives us A Principle To Follow. When you fast, let it be between you and God. Let it truly be to seek God’s face, His wisdom, His guidance, His will, His kingdom. Don’t make a show of it. Like everything else in life, if the motivation of the heart is not a love for, and a crying out for more of, God, we enter into the realm of hypocrisy. So as far as the world is concerned let it appear that the day of your fast is no different from any other day. Dress how you normally dress, look how you normally look. If you are fasting on a work day and your co-worker notices that you are not eating, don’t worry that your secret has been discovered; don’t fear you’ll lose the blessing of fasting. It’s the heart attitude, the motive, with which we fast that is important and that makes the difference. Having someone discover that you fast is a far cry from fasting to be seen. There is a world of difference between fasting for the applause of man and fasting for the approval of God.
Prayer and fasting are intimately joined together in the life of one who would seek to draw closer to God in this way. The time you would spend in meal preparation and in eating is given over to time in prayer seeking God’s heart. And so just as we saw last week, when we looked at Jesus’ teachings about prayer, we discover that fasting is to be radically God oriented. We saw that as we prayed that it was all about God. We were to pray for His glory, the coming of His kingdom, and that His will would be done on the earth as it is in heaven. When we fast, we fast because we long to see those same things come about. That God’s name would be known in our homes, our churches, our schools, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our nation. That He would be honored in our hearts and homes. That His kingdom would expand and that the one who knows God not at all, would discover the wonder of the Savior. That His will would be realized in our lives; that the rough edges would be made smooth, that the sinful longings of the heart would be replaced with a hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God.
Fasting is an act in which we seek the Lord with all of our heart and there is A Reward To Be Received as we do so. And again, the word used of the reward received of God is a different word than the one used to describe what the hypocrites receive for their fasting. In their case they receive what they are simply due. They sought the praise of man, and, having obtained it, have received their reward in full. But the word used of the one who fasts with a heart seeking God’s glory speaks of a reward that far outweighs anything that might be considered our due. It’s a reward that flows, not out of merit, but abounds in God’s grace. This, Jesus says, is the reward for the one who fasts with motives pleasing in God’s eyes. It’s a reward that will be realized both in the here and now, as we see God moving in deeper ways in our lives and drawing us closer to Him, and a reward that will be realized in a fuller sense the other side of eternity.
So how does a person go about fasting? First, seek God’s purpose in it. Don’t fast just for the sake of fasting – in a way that’s what the hypocrites were doing. Instead consider what it is that might lead you to fast. Whatever the reason, the desire should be that God be glorified because fasting is to be radically God oriented.
Secondly, there are different types of fasts lasting different lengths of times. There is no need to be legalistic about it. You might need to consider medical realities. It might not be safe for you to fast because of some illness you have, or because of some medication you are taking. If there are any doubts, talk to your doctor about it. Your fast might take the form of one meal a day; it might be a whole day; it might be a series of days. Your fast might be simply fasting from food but you are free to drink liquids throughout the day. You might choose to enter into an absolute fast for a period of time – refraining from all food and drink. You need to be careful with this because if you carry things to an extreme you could do damage to your body. So start slow. There are a number of good books out there that can give you helpful tips if you wanted more information on how fasting might become a part of your life.
Thirdly, as you fast, remember your purpose in it; stay focused. It’s easy to get distracted, or to use the time you would normally spend preparing a meal and eating, for something besides prayer and Scripture reading and worship. Remember that your heart, as you fast, should be to draw closer to God and to seek Him with body, mind, soul and spirit – so stay the course that you might rejoice in the reward.
If you have never fasted before, I am sure that this is a lot to take in all at once. But my hope for us is that as individuals, as families, even as a church, that we would begin to set aside times of fasting as we seek God, and His glory – His will and His kingdom – together. My challenge to you is to pick one meal, or one day, to set aside for hungering after God in a new way in this coming week. If you think you would be willing to do that I want you to raise your hand as we pray together – but don’t raise your hand if you’re not going to do it – God will see right through that. Let’s pray …
