Lesson Notes

Introduction

• Brief Recap
  • Based on Don Whitney’s spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
  • Developing spiritual habits for the purpose of godliness – growing nearer to Christ and growing more like Christ
  • We’ve discussed: meditation, memorization, worship, prayer, journaling, silence & solitude as habits to help us grow in godliness
• Tonight we consider the least popular spiritual discipline in modern life
  • Fasting!
  • Don’t shut the feed off now or say “I can’t” – please hear me out!
  • I’m going to describe ways that every single follower of Christ can participate in fasting for the purpose of growing in godliness

Godly Fasting

• Fasting was practiced and taught by Jesus
  • It’s mentioned i Scripture slightly more often than baptism
  • Matthew 6: 16-18 – “when you fast”
  • Note that this paragraph is right after giving and praying – these three personal habits are treated as normal expectations for followers of Jesus
  • Matthew 9: 14-15 – Jesus anticipates us fasting
  • Various examples in Acts include Christians fasting
  • Those passages are generally ignored or falsely assumed not to apply in our indulgent, over-caloried, anti-self-denial culture
• Christian fasting = voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes
  • Rooted in our relationship with Christ and done from a desire to become more like Him
  • It’s always voluntary
  • It must have a spiritual purpose – or it’s miserable and doesn’t promote godliness
  • People often speak of “fasting” from social media, news, television, etc.
    • Abstinence form anything which is OK in itself for a spiritual purpose
    • That’s a legitimate extension of the idea and often helpful when something has come to have too much power over our lives and hearts
    • However, the Bible always means fasting from food and we need to add abstention from food to our regular tool kit of personal spiritual habits!
• Biblical kinds of fasts
  • Fasts can be categorized in terms of content (what you do and don’t take in), participants, and frequency
  • Normal fast – abstaining from food, but not water – the most common kind, what we see Jesus do in the wilderness for 40 days
  • Partial fast – limitation of diet, but not all food
    • Could be much smaller portions, so there’s always an edge of hunger
    • Or a limitation of foods, like in Daniel – vegetables and water only
    • This is a way for most with health concerns to be able to participate!
  • Absolute fasts – no food or drink – very rare
    • Ezra 10: 6 describes Ezra’s mourning for the unfaithfulness of Israel, avoiding food and drink
    • Esther 4: 16 asks for a fast for her for 3 days with no food or drink
    • Acts 9: 9 describes Paul going 3 days without food or water
    • Elijah possibly in 1 Kings 19: 8
    • Don’t try these!
  • Private fasts – most common type – it’s personal, Matthew 6: 16-18
  • Congregational fasts – entire body of Israel or a church – Joel 2: 15-16, Acts 13: 2
  • National fasts – King Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20: 3), Nehemiah 9: 1, Esther 4: 16, Jonah 3: 5-8;
    • Adams, Madison, and Lincoln all called for national fasts
  • Regular fasts – specified annually for Israel on Day of Atonement
    • 4 more fasts added annually during exile in Babylon
    • Pharisees fasted twice a week, though for wrong purposes
  • Occasional fasts – Special occasions when the need arises
  • Most common today: normal, private, occasional

Ways to Practice Fasting

• 2 rules from Matthew 6: 16-18
  • Don’t announce your fast by looking miserable and saying how hungry you are
  • Try not to let anyone other than God know you’re fasting unless you just can’t avoid it – but do tell the person who cooks in your house if it isn’t you!
• The issue is attitude – if somebody asks you about it, tell them, but do you want them to know so you can seem super spiritual or not?
• God will reward you – there’s no time frame on that reward, but be confident God will reward you when you fast in obedience to Scripture
• There’s no Scriptural command regarding how often or how long we should fast
  • God will bless us as we fast
  • The length of your fast is up to you and the Holy Spirit – could range from part-day to several days, though I would encourage you to begin with part of full-day 
  • If you skip a meal you normally have for spiritual purposes, that’s a fast
• Fast for a purpose!
  • If you don’t have a spiritual purpose,  you’re just working on weight-loss!
  • Fasting in itself has no spiritual value or credit – it’s all about what we’re expressing through fasting and the spiritual purpose we pursue
  • Without purpose, it will be miserable and self-centered, every hunger pang reminding you of how long until you can eat again
  • You must experience some hunger – it serves to remind you of your purpose
    • If you’re fasting to pray for a purpose, every time your stomach rumbles, stop what you’re doing and pray for that thing
• Biblical purposes for fasting
  • Not to impress God – He isn’t!
  • To strengthen prayer
    • Probably the most common purpose
    • Fasting tends to sharpen and focus our prayers, deepen our energy and urgency in prayer
    • Ezra 8: 23 – the exiles fast and pray for safe passage back from Babylon
    • Piper – fasting “is an intensifier of spiritual desire”
    • Fasting to strengthen prayer is biblical – Nehemiah, Daniel, Antioch
    • All the other purposes are really extensions of this one!
  • To more clearly discern God’s will  – Paul and Barnabas choosing elders in the churches in Acts 14
  • To express grief – for death or sin, in ourselves or others – seen in Old Testament
  • To seek deliverance or protection – again seen often in Old Testament – 2 Chronicles 20: 3-4, Ezra 8: 21-23, Esther 4: 16
  • To express deliverance or protection – again seen often in Old Testament – 2 Chronicles 20: 3-4, Ezra 8: 21-23, Esther 4: 16
  • To express repentance and return to God – 1 Samuel 7: 6, Joel 2: 12, Jonah 3: 5-8
  • To humble ourselves before God – evil King Ahab in 1 Kings 21: 27-29, King David – Psalm 35: 13
  • To express concern for the work of God in the world – fasting for causes like missions or revival, for God to work amidst tragedy, disappointment, or defeat – Nehemiah 1: 3-4
  • To overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God – Jesus in Matthew 4: 1-11 when struggling with temptation or know we’ll face a struggle, fast for strength
  • To express love and worship to God – Anna in Luke 2: 37 – worshiped with fasting and prayer; a testimony that you find your greatest pleasure and enjoyment in life from God
    • Spend the time you would have spent eating in praise and worship

Concluding Thoughts

• All fasts must primarily be about God – seeking Him is more important than what we’re seeking from Him by fasting
• Whitney, “There is no doubt that God has often crowned fasting with extraordinary blessings. Biblical, historical, and contemporary testimonies bear witness to God’s delight in providing unusual blessings to those who fast. But we should be careful not to develop what Martyn Lloyd-Jones called a mechanical view of fasting; that is believing that if we will fast, God is obligated to give us what we ask. We cannot manipulate God to do our bidding by fasting any more than we can by any other means. As with prayer, we fast in hope that by His grace God will bless us as we desire. When our fast is rightly motivated, we can be sure God will bless us and do so in the way infinite wisdom knows is best, even if it is not in the way we wanted.”

Homework

• Be on the look out – we’re going to be planning a church-wide day of fasting and prayer sometime in the next few weeks
• In the meantime, answer these questions honestly:
  • Will you confess and repent of any fear of fasting?
  • When called, will you fast as the Holy Spirit directs you?
  • Will you plan a fast of dedication to express your willingness to fast in the future?