What is Biblical Fasting?

By Steve Huber

Understanding Mental Health in a Christian Context

But Christians sometimes wrongly give that advice and and at this church, you know, there's two extremes. Some people see all kinds of mental health struggles. Whether you're someone who goes super high up and down, like a bipolar kind of thing, or anxiety or depression, no matter what the mental health struggles, sometimes people don't want to acknowledge that with Christians. Some Christians only talk about the spiritual issues with mental health struggles, and it's only like a gospel issue and matter of faith and teaching and and prayer. Some Christians overreact, and it's only physical and you just need, you know, medicine and often it's actually both those things. And we can talk about that and be humble and seek help and like model that. So just thank you so much. And we because Jesus gives grace and mercy and because he's so good and because our standing, we're completely accepted in Christ. We can be honest about all kinds of trouble, troubles that we're in, all kinds of struggles. Amen. Is does that sound like something in the Bible? Hey, let's seek to live that out as a community. People. We can talk about all kinds of stuff. So I'm just super grateful for. That story of Grace.

The Significance of Lent and Fasting

And so here we're going to pivot. And does anybody know what starts Wednesday. Anybody know what starts Wednesday. Non rhetorical question what starts Wednesday. Lent. So is this thing. It's this ramp to Easter. And we've talked about rhythms of discipleship a disciple is a learner and a follower. And you actually imitate patterns of living together with other disciples in the church. So the invitation to be a Christian is to build disciple and start doing Rhythms of Discipleship. One of those rhythms is feasting and fasting. And there's seasons and times in the Christian calendar. One of the most godly thing to do is to throw a party. No one celebrates Christmas with dislike. Hey, guess what? No cookies, no nothing. We're just going too fast for the world at Christmas. No Christmas is a time to celebrate. Christmas is a time to feast. Christmas is to say, look at how good God is to us. Look at what he's given us in His Son Jesus. We're going to feast fasting. Historically, has been something that the wider church down through the ages had done in preparation for Easter. And we're going to look at how important it is, how you can mess it up, how to seek to do it the right way. What are some baby steps? We're going to look at fasting and I got seven points. Don't freak out and be sad. The sermon is not going to be four hours long, but it is seven points. Just put on your seat belt. Let's ask God to teach us about this. Okay, I'm in teaching on this once a year and a lot of times like, you don't know what the impact of the sermon is like, hey, did you learn something about Jesus? Did you see some more, your sin and how you need grace? Did you get an insight and how the like, God's promises and how that applies to life? This will be really practical and I'm preaching a sermon knowing you'll either do it or not. And I want to encourage you. I want to call you to consider using this means of grace to increase your hunger for God.

Jesus' Teachings on Fasting

So here we go. Seven points. The first fasting is importance. Matthew six and when you fast, Jesus gives some teaching about fasting. And it's not like he's like, hey, if anybody's crazy enough to decide to do this, the Catholic Church is famous for actually practicing practicing this. And a lot of you probably think this is like a Catholic thing. Don't we believe in grace? Don't we believe in Jesus? And you actually ignore or suppress or just read over? It's assumed in the Bible that this is part of being a disciple. It's assumed that this is going to happen sometimes. In Matthew six, this is actually part of a sermon Jesus talks about giving to the needy, how to give to the needy, and how to pray. We don't think those two things are optional. Why would fasting just be some this crazy cool thing that just a small sliver of Eagle Scout Christians are going to do? Protestant Protestants, we forget. I mean, everyone wasn't Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley. You just go throughout the centuries, even across religious traditions, there's fasting. Jesus assumes there will be fasting. He tells us how to do it. There is a fast that the father will see and reward. It's not if, but when. Okay, fasting is ruined. Second point how can you ruin fasting? Matthew six 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 a reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 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. The way to ruin fasting is to do it, to be seen by others, like disfigure face. So, you know, wear burlap sack around. I'm so hungry right now because I'm so godly that I want to tell everybody what I'm doing, that they will see you. That is awesome. This is like the ancient version of a selfie. This person, the man, will be taking pictures of themselves while they're fasting and posting it. Don't do it for other people. Do it in secret for the Lord and it's okay to tell. Maybe you're Bible study. Maybe your group will do something together and that's okay. Okay, you can be like, hey, let's take a meal a week and fast for the church. Fast that we love each other, fast for each other in the group that we that break through in our lives. It's okay. There can be good motivations for sharing that, but ultimately we just need to have this clear in our hearts. We do this for the Lord. We got to say this, okay? It used to be you had to say, hey, this won't kill you. Fasting won't kill you. Now, a lot of people know about intermittent fasting, and we need to just check this in our hearts. Are we exciting about being skinnier? We are. But we need to say, God, we really want your secret reward more. We want the reward of the father. Father, we want more of you, father. We want more of your grace, more of your help. And not just to get skinnier. So there's ways to ruin it, okay? And I want to invite you to have some form, some fast, some simple thing you do that you will decide. So you like give me the definition of fasting here we go. Number three fasting is definition. And I've been influenced by John Piper's book, a book by a guy named John Piper, A hunger for God. And guess what? It's free and you can just Google a hunger for God. John Piper and there's a PDF super easy to find. John Piper a hunger for God, and a lot of this, this definition I've got from him.

The Purpose and Effects of Fasting

Okay. Fasting is a willing refraining from food, possibly other gifts combined with prayer that we might hunger after God's presence, power, glory, and breakthrough. Don't eat possibly combine. It pours on some other things combined with prayer that we might increase our hunger after God's presence, power, glory, and breakthrough. It's a temporary no to yourself or a deeper yes to God. And I said possibly other gifts like you've got to think it through. Don't just fast and say hey and then fill it up with Netflix. What are some other things that you could combine with fast? If you hate Facebook, don't fast for Facebook because it's meaningless, right? What are some other things you can plan out to press a pause to? To then combine with prayer and seek God? We're in a culture where we have constant electronic distraction consume, consume, consume. And so that's why it can be useful to combine not eating. With pausing some other gift to increase our hunger for God and so forthth point; fasting fruit. What's what are the effects of this? What do we want to get out of this? What is what does it do? Well, here's what it reveals. What fasting reveals. This is I'm going to do this real quick with fasting reveals what it expresses us and what it guards, what it reveals. It's all the ways we medicate. Everybody do. Does it? This day has been terrible. He knew what's going to fix it. Netflix, beer in a show, we medicate and we tend to turn God's good gifts as drugs to escape his reality. It's just in the human heart. Instead of worshiping God through his gifts, we tend to like kind of build our life around them, sometimes focus on him too much, and gospel fasting. We experience the groan. We don't medicate and it shows up. Man, I really do miss that. Viktor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor. He wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning deep book, a profound book, he wrote about one of the problems is modern life. And you think about this. This is like in the 1940s, boredom, boredom. We have more things than ever before. We're never bored. And it's actually bad for us. You don't even know what you're thinking. You don't know what's in your heart. And you pause and you're like, I miss this friend. I need to pray for my mom. I'm going to pray this for my kids. Allow God to reveal some things to you. Bring the grown to him. Viktor Frankl wrote, boredom is now causing and certainly bring you to psychiatrist more problems to solve than distress. And he talks about Sunday neurosis. It's the kind of depression would afflict people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives. When the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest. You see that there's some void in your heart in your life. There's some dryness. There's some coldness in your heart. Spiritually reveals some things to you. And then we don't just sit in that. We bring it to God. We ask God to meet us. So this is what that's what fasting reveals. Here's what it expresses. We say to God, God, we want you more in your gifts. We want you more in your stuff. God, would you hear the cry of my heart? I want you. It brings urgency to prayer. So I, I said, hey, the New Testament, the Bible assumes it's not if we'll ever fast. It's when one of the times of fasting we see is in acts 13. So this is acts 13. There's a church that I love, this church, Antioch. And we've actually said, hey, can we aspire for grace from Jesus to be like Antioch? Because they are a blessing to the region? And here's what happens in Antioch. Acts 13 while they are worshiping the Lord and fasting. So this is post the death and resurrection of Jesus, the gospel spreading out all over the world. And this church, they're interceding and longing and worshiping and fasting. Were they praying for wisdom? Were they praying for guidance? Here's what happens while they're worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. Then, after fasting and praying, they lay their hands on them and sent them off, and says, okay. And they fast and pray some more. It's mentioned twice, and they sent them off in this season. Yeah, we had to pray for our church. We had to pray that God would give grace to our church. We had to pray, God, hey, it's been a year. We've been through some transition and some hard things. God, we want to bring that heartache to you. And there's been staff transition we have asked you to provide. We want to pray for peace. We want to pray for next steps. Pray for your group. Pray for other Christians in your lives. I had the opportunity last week to preach at a dear friends church. He's actually preached for us and taught us. And it's we see churches in the New Testament relating to each other and being friends, churches helping churches, and this church in Oklahoma. Front Line Church is a communal line of churches, much like the Liberti Communion. And, our leaders have been blessed by them, and Liberti leaders have been blessed by them and vice versa. One of the ways my faith was stirred this week, you know, there's a lot going on in the world. There's a lot to mourn. And also in the gathering of like 150 pastors from around the world, I just was reminded God's drawing people to himself. People are meeting Jesus. Hey, parents, how about this? You freaked out about your kids. Do you have kids? You weren't walking with Jesus or kids resisting things, resisting the truth of God. God, I don't want that. I need that. What if in lent we just asked God to give fuel to our faith, to pray for our kids? I came back pray more boldly for one of my children in particular. Knowing God loves long stories. He loves them. What have we prayed for people in our life to meet Jesus? What have we prayed for? Blessings in the church. Our. Are you freaked out by the news? Are you sad about what's going on in the world? What's this thing Russia and Ukraine and our leaders. A lot of people are upset. What does God want us to just say we watch news, get anxious and sad, then do something else? What if we turn that sadness? God, you've told us to pray for all people, for kings and all those who are in high authority, that we would live lives of peace. Could we pray for return civil dialog amongst all world leaders and local leaders and pray for our state and pray for peace in the world? Pray for schools for common sense policies, to bless schools. What if we turned our angst instead of always just getting cranked up by the news? Let's get cranked up in a way that makes us seek the face of our father. To be a people of countercultural peace, we need to be people of countercultural rhythms. We don't just get freaked out by the news. We pray, what if all Christians everywhere did that? Let's pray. Let's go. Does God want us to say, God? We want you. We need you. Know what fasting expresses? We want the reward of the father. We want your presence, your love, your wisdom. I am being with all these pastors. Was such an encouragement, such a, you know, a blessing. I was like, this is so true, this is so good. And my heart can so quickly and tiredness become cold. Fasting is an opportunity to bring our cold heart to God. God, we want your love, your presence. Would you lead us? Here's a paradox the most mature Christians are the hungriest for God. The most mature Christians are like God meant. I want more of his presence. The most mature Christians like man. I've experienced countercultural peace and God's reality. I want more of that. The paradox is, the more you have, the more you want fast for God's justice and peace in the world. Lord, we want you. And this is all under fasting fruit. Fasting guards something we don't want to be ruled by innocent things. We will just be run by innocent things. You know, some of you are like a the Eagles one. It's not quite March Madness yet. Your lives lack direction and purpose. Why even get out of bed? We have deeper things to live for. Friends. We have deeper things to live for. Here's a John Piper quote. Fasting proves the presence, fans, the flame of that hunger. It's an intensifier of spiritual desire. It is a faithful enemy of fatal bondage. Is he going to go? Fatal bondage to addictions, drugs, greed? No. Fatal bondage to innocent things. It is the physical exclamation point at the end of the sentence. This much? Oh God, I long for you and for the manifestation of your glory in the world. Lord, we want you. We want you.

Practical Wisdom for Fasting

What have you fasted to just know more of? Jesus in Lent? That's the challenge. Let's look at fasting. Is timing. Okay? The next point, the timing of and I'm going to take us back to the gospel we've been going through in Mark. Okay. This is Mark two. Check this out. Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people came and said to him, why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast? But you're disciples do not fast. And Jesus said to them, will the wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them. As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. In that day, no one shows the parts of us shrunk cloth and an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it. The new from the old, and a worse tear is made, and no one puts new wine and old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, the wine, and is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. So, Jesus, you can see how funny it is. It's like the disciples of John. Fast. The Pharisees are fasting and they're doing the Old Testament fast. They're longing for the Messiah and for the appearance of the Messiah, and for God to fulfill all his promises and for the kingdom of God to come. And every time we see Jesus, it's like he is a plate of wings in his hand. And he's had these parties with some people that look kind of questionable. What's up? All those guys, they're not fasting. And Jesus said some things that are amazing. He's like, well, when the bridegroom's there, the party is on and in the Old Testament, you got to get this in the Old Testament. Who's the bridegroom? This is an amazing image of the Jesus taking for himself. The bridegroom is God. The bridegroom is God himself. Like Ezekiel 31, though I was their husband, he's talking about his people. I was your husband. Isaiah 62 as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you. A Jesus is saying, I'm the bridegroom. He is the Messiah. And so while they're with the Messiah, they don't fast. They have the Messiah. But Jesus, after his death and resurrection, in a sense, he's going to be taken away. And though we know him, yes, it's going to be a new kind of fasting. And he gives two little illustrations where you don't mix the old with the new. You can't put, you know, mix these two kinds of cloth and one shrinks and it just makes the terror worse. You can't do this with the wineskins. New wine goes in new wineskins. What's the new fasting? What's the new Jesus has come fasting. Well, here's what it is. We don't fast because we don't have Jesus. We fast because we want more of Jesus. We don't fast because the Messiah has never come. We fast because he has come and we want him to come again. We know who Jesus is. And here's the, there's an already not yet tension in the New Testament. And here's what I mean. This is a theological term. The already not yet. Those of you are Christians, you already know Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. You have been adopted. Jesus has already come. He's already been raised from the dead. And not yet are we all that we will be, not yet has been eradicated from our lives. Not yet. Do we have new, imperishable bodies, bodies that won't die like Jesus? There are promises yet to be fulfilled. Not yet has Jesus renewed all things. There's a lot of. Not yet. And so we fast and pray for all of those. And there's this tension between rejoicing and groaning in the New Testament. A favorite verse, in Second Corinthians five. And I might even use this next week for starting point. But second Corinthians five, it says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come, and we are truly new. And also in the same chapter, the Apostle Paul opens that chapter, mentioning how we groan. We're being burdened not that we'd be unclothed, but that we would be further clothes, that what is going to die may be swallowed up by life he has prepared us for. This very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. We're groaning. We're groaning. There's things that we should groan about. If you're awake, you're like, long for your kids to own Jesus, follow Jesus, live in the middle of God's will, seek him. We long for more people to know Jesus. That's why we're send out church plants. It's still a good thing to do. Here's a Francis Chan quote in the book A hunger for God. We fast because we long for God's glory to resound in the church, and we long for God's praise to resound among the nations. We fast because we yearn, think, grown for God's Son to return God's kingdom to come. Ultimately, we fast simply because we want God more than we want anything else this world has to offer, and we're trying to increase that in us. God, would you increase that in us, please? Fasting and how does fasting end? Well, it ends every year. With Easter we have Easter. Jesus is risen from the dead. The tomb is empty. Let's rejoice. What do you do at Easter? You feast. In reminds us the ultimate end. How does the Bible end? Not a fast. The Bible ends with the wedding supper of the lamb. The Bible ends not with a fast, but a feast, and we fast, knowing how the story will end. I love this passage in Isaiah looking thousands of years in the future, Isaiah says, on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast. A feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, a rich food full of marrow, of aged well, well refined, and he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that has cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people will be taken away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken, and it will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. That's what we long for. There is a feast and God takes away death forever for the world and wipes away the tears. That's the end and lasting. Lastly, And we can have the team come out fasting wisdom. I just want to give you some of some wisdom for fasting. This is what I mean. Okay. Some people have medical conditions or you're pregnant or you have an eating disorder. There's situations where you actually exercise more faith by eating rather than fasting. So let's acknowledge that you have to do it in a healthy way. But I want to encourage you to just start super simple, start small, and be willing to stink at something. Are you willing to stink at something? Maybe it'll remind you that you're saved by grace, not because you're awesome at it, you know? Maybe you're like, I forgot, or you just felt sorry for yourself and went to Burger King. Whatever it is, start again. Believe in grace. G.K. Chesterton said, if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. Try skip and be on pray you know, go 24 hours, go dinner to dinner, go 24 hours, dinner to dinner and go off in a secret place and pray. And you have to plan that so you don't do that on a day where you're like, oh, hey, I have to, you know, crank or, you know, walk 10,000 steps in that period. So you could probably do that. There's types of fast you could do only vegetables, juice, water, only fast lunch, pick something, try something, be willing for God to meet you with his grace. And let's deepen our hunger for God. Let's hunger after him. Let's ask God to meet us.

Started this week. Lent starts and then we have a series. We're going to look at the teachings of Jesus between now and Easter. I'm going to let Jesus speak to us. We're going to be fasting, longing for more of Jesus and that God would increase his hunger after him. And from now until Easter, we're going to let Jesus speak to us and look directly at the teachings of Jesus.

Let's be expectant. Let me pray for us, Lord. I just pray for grace for all of us that you would meet us. In this. We pray. I pray for people here to pick a simple, fast a day or multiple days and do it between now and Easter. And I pray you'd meet us. Lord, we pray our hunger for you would increase. We pray you'd be honored in this. We pray that our prayers for others in our lives would have fresh faith. We pray we'd see. When I pray in lent that people would meet Jesus at this church, we pray that together we pray there'd be deeper faith for our kids. We pray there would be deeper faith for new stories. We pray there will be endurance and patience and struggles that have been long with mental health stuff, with sin battles that we've been kickboxing for years and years. Help us, meet us. Lord, we pray that our hunger for you would increase. And we pray, Lord, that you would meet us with your presence, a deep knowledge of your love and your peace. We pray all this in faith in Jesus' name, Amen.