When you Fast – Do not Advertise
Introduction:
Generally speaking, Fasting is about going without food in order to spend time in prayer with God and meditate on God’s Word – this is noble but difficult. (But Fasting is not hunger strike).
In the passage that was read to us… we find that Jesus was not condemning fasting, but hypocrisy – fasting in order to gain public approval.
Jesus commended acts of self-sacrifice done quietly and sincerely. He wanted people to adopt spiritual disciples for the right reasons, not from a selfish desire for praise.
The basic purpose of fasting is humility of a person and his dependence on God. If we make a show of our fasting, there will be no reward other than the praise of men. This was the error of the Scribes and the Pharisees. They did some good things but with a wrong motive.
William Shakespeare once said that the world is a stage… and all the men and women are merely players.” “And one man, who continues the playwright,… “in his time plays many parts…”
Well Jesus teaching on prayer and fasting in the Sermon on the Mount is full with the language of the stage out here. Jesus teaches that we are not to do our charity in order to be seen by men (Matthew 6:1). We are not to give a theatre experience in real life, because the real audience for us is not people, but God.
To do things for only appearance (Matthew 6:5) is just dramatic and pretentious display (Matthew 6:16). Jesus calls the people who are motivated for such self-glory to advertise their prayer or fasting, as “hypocrites”! (which means play-actors!)
The word Hypocrite is a Greek word, and it stands for a person who wears a mask to act in a play on the stage of a theatre ( 6:5; 16; 7:5). Not necessarily an insulting term because being a professional job for a livelihood; but in the religious sense the word hypocrite here describes people who do good acts without good motives in real life
only for the sake of appearance.
So Jesus says such kind of fasting is hollow (empty/dead/flat/worthless/insincere/
pointless from eternal perspective).
Hypocrites like to have their deeds of fasting, prayer broadcast-ed and announced publicly. Jesus was not happy with those people who made publicity of their private prayer, because He knew that those people wanted the praise of men in order to feel good about themselves!
Advertising is one important way to attract new customers. And the key to marketing is offering an excellent customer experience. (that is what I was taught during my Commerce days).
But when we do business with God be it in fasting or prayer or anything…., we should not think about it in the sense of publicity.
So Jesus says when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face (v17). You see oil (perhaps olive oil here) was used a cosmetic a lotion. So Jesus is basically saying, “Go about your normal daily routine when you fast. Don’t make a show of it. And don’t be eager to give the impression of being devout. Because this is hypocrisy.”
Every pretension of being righteous should be avoided. Don’t advertise your righteousness in public. Because a tree is recognised by its fruit (Mt. 12:33).
Most of the advertisements are only screensavers. Because sometimes when you watch a product being advertised its working in the television, but when you get it home, its not functioning.
And so Jesus challenges us to get into the closet (Matthew 6:6), into the store room where God is already laying up our heavenly treasures (Matthew 6:20). Private prayer and fasting should be just that: you (v16 singular), alone in the presence of the all-knowing God (1 Samuel 2:3). But the reward on the day of reckoning will be public (Matthew 6:6).
But the Reward that God promises (v 18) for fasting is not material always.
But the reward for the hypocrites who advertise their fasting is (v16)
- Empty acts
- Applauded and seen by people.
• But they have moved nothing in the spiritual warfare
• They have not experienced a breakthrough, nor a deliverance, nor a miracle.
• They have not come closer in fellowship with God
True Christianity is not the gloomy and miserable affair which some of its play-actors portray (Matthew 6:16). So when we fast, Jesus says wash-up; brush up; and be your usual manner (Matthew 6:17). Jesus points out that the approval of God is far more to be desired than the applause of men (Matthew 6:18).
When we go about our righteous duties without drawing attention to ourselves, we are laying up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20). The God who reads our hearts and motives better than we can read them ourselves (Matthew 6:21) will make an open show of His approval on your life at the final curtain (Matthew 25:34-40). What greater appreciation can we possibly require?
But when was the last time you fasted? Maybe you fasted for a blood test, or perhaps you fasted before a surgery. Perhaps you had a stomach virus and you were not able to eat for 12 or 24 hours.
But we all possibly know that we fast to Know God Better. FASTING is not very popular today, even though it was an important spiritual discipline throughout the OT, the NT and Church history.
Tony Evans (the first African-American to earn a doctorate in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary) in his book entitled, “The Purpose and Power of Fasting,” writes these words, he says, “as far as I know there was not a single book written on the subject of fasting from the year 1861 to 1954” (nearly hundred years).
There is a place of fasting in the life of the believer.
Jesus assumes and upholds the fact of Fasting in Matthew 6:16-18, “…when you fast…” (in both v16 and v17). The Key words here are “WHEN YOU FAST.” Jesus doesn’t say, “if you fast,” or “stop fasting.”
Jesus here is regulating and correcting prideful abuse of the spiritual discipline of Fasting. We may not overlook giving or praying, but many today overlook fasting as a
spiritual discipline!
Jesus in Mark 2:20 made it very clear that he expected that his disciples would fast after he ascended into heaven. Jesus said, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”
Fasting was consistently practiced by believers in the Old and New Testament.
- Abraham's servant fasted when he was seeking a bride for Isaac
- Hannah fasted as she prayed for a child
- Nehemiah fasted and prayed before preparing a major trip to Israel
- Esther fasted when God's people were threatened of being slaughtered.
- The people of Nineveh, including the cattle fasted (unfortunately the COWS and the sheep did not have a vote!).
- Jesus before he began his public ministry fasted for 40 days.
- Paul fasted at the point of his conversion
But why Fasting?
Christian theologian Richard Foster explains that, “Fasting is the voluntary denial of (an otherwise) a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity.”
Fasting was mandatory for the Jewish people once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:32).
i. Fasting is an aid to intense prayer and
ii. Fasting is an aid to intensive seeking after God.
Fasting reveals the things that are CLOSEST to our HEART.
In the OLD TESTAMENT, fasting was in MOURNING over sin. But for the believer in the 21st Century, Jesus has REMOVED our SIN!
In the New Testament we find examples of why fasting was important:
1. First, Fasting is important when we need the Lord’s guidance.
Acts 13:2. The Church at Antioch prayed for guidance when establishing a plan for spreading the gospel.
Acts 14:23. Paul and Barnabas fasted before Appointing Elders in the new churches.
2. Second, Fasting is important during times of distress.
2 Corinthians 6:4–5 (ESV) — but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings,
imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ...
Paul experienced HUNGER for the sake of the Corinthians. Some commentators believe that this hunger is the hunger of fasting. In other words, Paul suffered for the church in Corinth by regularly fasting for their spiritual growth and maturity.
3. Third reason to fast is to separate from earthly things. Col 3:1-2 “since then you
have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
So the idea of FASTING is biblical! But advertising our fasting is unbiblical, because the very intensity of a serious fasting will keep a person away from even the thought of advertising about it.
a. Today I think we need to have fasting from electronics, as something even more beneficial than fasting from food. But why fast from electronics? Because:
- We are over-saturated with electronic information
- We over-indulge in entertainment.
- We can only see how much electronics influences our thinking if we STEP
- AWAY from electronics for a while and read the Bible and be in solitude with
- God alone.
When you fast from electronics don’t tell the world that you have not watched TV, or social networked for 10 days, because you were with the Lord.
But when you fast from electronics, from your smartphones and maintain time in solitude and quietness before God, you will realize how your LCD Televisions, Blu-ray Music, Facebook and Whatsapp were unbelievably loud in your life. I challenge you when you fast from electronics you will return to “normal life.”
(We need electronics but it should not make us compromise our fellowship with God)
b. We need times of fasting from people
I think there is a great need for us to learn times when we can fast from people. We just have a tendency to consume people, and we usually get severe heartburn from it.
When I suggest that we must fast from people, I am not suggesting that we have to be anti-social; but precisely we have to fast from them so that when we are with them we want to be a blessing to them and not a distraction.
You see in building a structure when we have the right tool, and know when to use it, it is critical to the success of that building project.
God has given each of us a powerful tool to use in order to increase our effectiveness in prayer, our spiritual power, and our ability to know God’s will, and that tool is fasting! But many today have left this tool in the truck and they try to muddle through life on their own.
But sometimes fasting is necessary on behalf of others who need the mercy of God in their lives. In the books of Daniel and Nehemiah we can read about times when great men of God fasted and prayed for God to relent from his judgment upon the people of Judah. (See Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 1.)
These men understood that God has every reason to bring judgment upon the people for their sin, yet they pleaded with him for mercy and to smile upon them once again. This is no advertisement! Fasting is a serious business for a Christian.
It is important to note, however, that fasting is not a “magic” way to make our prayers get answered, or to somehow force God into answering our prayers a certain way. God cannot be pressurized. We may still have to go through the difficult circumstance – but the more we are willing to fast and pray through the process, the more we will be rewarded with the power and the presence of God to strengthen us and give us faith for the journey.
CONCLUSION
God has given us a tool for springing up our communication with Him, and that is through fasting. It is not easy. And how exactly fasting works remains a mystery to me. But for those who are willing to make fasting a regular part of their life, history shows that God will unleash power into their lives. So, the next time you need to demonstrate repentance, or intercede for someone who needs to repent, or if you need wisdom or deliverance from a crisis – I encourage you to make a commitment to God to a set amount of time – and discover what saints throughout the ages have discovered….and that is this: fasting is a vital part of the Christian life.
