In order to keep our focus sharp I want to read the key verse for the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in...
Matthew 7:24 (NASB)
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
If we don't listen to and act on the words of Christ, we are wasting our time. To listen to and act on the words of Christ is to live the Spirit filled life. Anything else is just organized and institutionalized religion.
Jesus' teaching on fasting falls in the middle of Matthew chapter six. That being the case, I thought it would be important to look at what comes just before it and just after it.
We will talk about this in two weeks but at the start of Matthew chapter six, Jesus talks about privacy in prayer and in giving.
Then just before Jesus' teaching on fasting He talks about the quality of prayer and how it is related to forgiveness in our lives.
It is important to understand that privacy in prayer and forgiving others, which are results of our personal relationship with God, lead to quality of prayer and forgiving others, which are the actions of a personal relationship with God.
Having established the results and actions of our personal relationship with God, Jesus now talks about fasting. We will see that fasting is separation from the things of this world in order to bring us face to face with the living God.
When Jesus finishes His teaching on fasting, the next words out of His mouth are, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth." Fasting helps us to focus on the priority of Christ in our daily lives.
Matthew 6:16-18 (NASB)
[16] "Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
[17] "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face
[18] so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Jesus makes reference to several purposeful actions in this passage. He considers some of them to be negative, and some to be positive.
Jesus explains that fasting should not be something that is noticed by men. He wants His listeners to know that fasting is a private matter between them and God. No one else needs to know about it. God who sees and knows everything will know about our fasting.
That's what the text says, but as always, the text of a single passage must always be looked at, and studied in the greater context of the totality of the Scriptures.
Fasting studied in the context of the totality of the Scriptures and in light of Judeo-Christian, history is a daunting task.
In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster talks about some of the important aspects of fasting. (Foster)
There are many resources on the topic of fasting, but don't miss the main point of fasting. Fasting is, as Jesus said in our text, a personal thing between an individual and God. I guess, simply said, fasting brings us face to face with the Living God.
A simple description of fasting would be, diligently seeking God. So what are the results of diligently seeking God?
Proverbs 8:17 (NASB)
I love those who love me;
And those who diligently seek me will find me.
This verse is often misquoted. It is usually quoted as, "God rewards those who diligently seek Him." But, the verse does not say that. It says that those who diligently seek Him will find Him.
To say that God will reward those who diligently seek Him gives us the idea or implies that He will answer our prayers in our way and not necessarily in His way.
However, to find God is to find His will not our will. In addition, sometimes His will, especially His permissive will, is hard. To find God, to come face to face with God, is to come to the end of myself. It is to set myself aside and allow God anything.
I like what M. Robert Mulholland says; "The essence of fasting is the separation of ourselves from something in order to offer ourselves in greater measure to God. [...] One of the main purposes of fasting is to wean us from our dependence upon God's gifts and enable us to become dependent upon God alone." (Mulholland, 118-119)
Whenever possible, consideration of any Biblical truth should include a look at the life of Jesus and how He applied that truth. Without this look, our study is shallow at best. Our text tells us what Jesus said about fasting, but how did He live out fasting in His personal life?
Matthew 4:1-11 (NASB)
[1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
[2] And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
[3] And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
[4] But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"
[5] Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
[6] and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU; and ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"
[7] Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"
[8] Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;
[9] and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me."
[10] Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"
[11] Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
Notice that verse one does not say that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to fast. Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus has allowed the Spirit to deliberately lead Him into a place and time of temptation.
The Greek word used here for tempted is 'peirazo' (G3984). It comes from the Greek word that means, 'to make proof of'; it means to attempt, test, tempt.
The text says that when the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted Jesus fasted. The Spirit brought Jesus to a place where He would be tempted by the devil. In order to overcome that time of temptation Jesus fasted so He could keep His focus on God and God's will for His life.
Did you notice that Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and then He became hungry? I don't have to fast that long before I get hungry. I can go about twelve hour and them I need to eat. Humorous but that might tell us something about Jesus' focus during this time.
Verse three tells us that the tempter came to Him. The word 'tempter' used here is the same Greek word used in verse one for 'tempted'. Think about that for a moment... The tempter is...
The tempter came to test Jesus just as he tests you and me. The tempter came to make proof of Jesus relationship with God the Father.
When we look at the temptations of Jesus, we tend to make a big deal about stones, bread, and quoted Scriptures.
We tend to make a big deal about temple pinnacles, rescuing angels, and quoted Scriptures.
We tend to make a big deal about mountain peaks, the glory of the kingdoms of the world, and again, quoted Scriptures.
However, we miss the point if we do not understand what temptation is. You see, according to our text, temptation is not always an enticement to do evil.
All of the temptations the tempter brought to Jesus were not bad or evil things; they were not actions that would anger God. The tempter was testing Jesus' relationship with God the Father by getting Jesus to do things outside of God's timetable and method.
Jesus would eat again but He would eat on God's terms and within God's timetable. This included that last meal He ate when He broke bread with His disciples. God's timetable was for Jesus to eat just before He went to the agony in the garden, the torture of the cross, and the finality of the tomb.
If Jesus did not have the kind of focus on His relationship with God, that would keep Him from turning stones into bread, He certainly would not have the kind of focus it would take to go to the cross.
Jesus would experience the rescue of the angels of God when they would push back the great stone in front of the tomb where Jesus lay dead. Then He would escape to life again.
It was His focus on His relationship with God, there in the wilderness that prepared the human Jesus to trust that when He could not call for the angels to rescue Him, they certainly would be there by the command of His Heavenly Father.
Jesus will one day have all of the kingdoms of this world and their glory for Himself. That day is yet to come, but be very sure, that just as Jesus came out of the tomb, He is coming back again to claim back the creation from the tempter.
All of these must be in God's way and within God's timetable. Jesus focus and relationship with God in the wilderness prepared Him for the eternal future yet to come.
Verse 11 is also important. "Then the devil left Him and Angels came and cared for Him." The tempter wants to show you that by the proof of his testing, God is not the priority in your life.
The Spirit lets us, sometimes even leads us to be tempted and tested -- not so He can see where our allegiance lies, you see He already knows that. He lets us, and sometimes even leads us to be tempted, to give us proof of our priority in life.
Now we must come back to our text one more time lest we fall short of understanding fasting.
Matthew 6:16-18 (NASB)
[16] "Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
[17] "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face
[18] so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Jesus wants us to understand that fasting is a private thing between a man or woman and Almighty God. That implies that there is an attitude of fasting that is very personal and private.
In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable that helps to get this idea across.
Luke 18:9-14 (NASB)
[9] And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
[10] "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
[11] "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[12] 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'
[13] "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
[14] "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
This Pharisee was proud of his fasting and tithing. He was a religious man, but he was a man full of pride. Fasting and tithing in pride are not fasting or tithing at all. Done in pride, they are only a purposeful outward display of religion. Done in pride they show allegiance to self.
When Jesus came on the scene to start His earthly ministry, one of the first things God did was to lead Him into the wilderness to be tempted. He fasted so that He could focus on God's will and timetable.
Fasting is a setting aside of myself to allow God's purpose, will, and timetable in my daily life. Have you come to understand, focus on, and live out God's will in your daily life? Are you surrendered to His timetable?
Fasting is all about God not you. Let's pray.
I want to thank my research assistant, Debi Peck, who provides many of my resources. I also want to thank Vonda Watson-Bostick and Robyn Harper, who help me with editing.
CWS-NT - AMG Complete Word Study Dictionary - New Testament (CWS_NT). Cedar Rapids: Laridian Electronic Publishing, 2007.
Foster, Richard J., Celebration of Discipline. E-book by PerfectBound.
Mulholland, M. Robert Jr., Invitation to a Journey. Downers Grove, Illinois. InterVarsity Press, 1993.
NASB - New American Standard Bible (NASB). Cedar Rapids: Laridian, 2002.