The disciples once came to the Lord Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and we have sought to make that our own posture and our request in these summer Sunday mornings as we’ve listened to Jesus instruct us in the duty and delight of faithful prayer in the gospel according to Matthew. And today we’ve come to really what is an overlooked part of New Testament teaching on the discipline of Christian prayer. And so let me invite you please to take your own copies of God’s Word in your hands and to turn with me to Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, and look at verses 16 through 18 and Jesus’ teaching on the subject of fasting.
Most of us, I think, understand the basic concept – refraining from food for a specific period of time. That is a fast. We are probably aware of religious fasting. Muslims fast during Ramadan in February and March. You might know devout Roman Catholics who fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Maybe you’ve come across intermittent fasting as a wellness trend as people try to lose weight and improve their health. Fasting as a concept isn’t totally alien to us, but I guess that I am on pretty safe ground when I suppose most of us have never thoroughly engaged with the kind of fasting Jesus calls us to here in our passage. Understood properly, Christian fasting pushes us to reassess how much we long for Him. Our Savior’s teaching pushes us to ask ourselves, “What are we really hungering and thirsting for the most? Where is your true satisfaction to be found?”
Now we are going to examine Jesus’ teaching under four simple headings. First, we need to face the duty of fasting in verses 16 and 17. The duty. Secondly, the danger of fasting. There is a warning here in verse 16. So the duty, then the danger. The thirdly, the discipline of fasting in verse 17. The positive instruction Jesus gives us. And finally, the delight of fasting; the benefit we receive in the promise recorded in verse 18. So there’s our outline. I hope you’ve got it. The duty, danger, discipline and delight of fasting. Before we unpack all of that, let’s cry to God for His help and then we’ll read God’s Word together. Let us all pray.
O Lord, we are like those disciples who, those Greeks rather, who came to the disciples and said, ‘Sir, we would see Jesus.’ So now our prayer is, O Lord, that You would show us our Savior and show us ourselves and bring the good news about Jesus to bear upon our hearts. Instruct us, discipline us, rebuke us, train us in righteousness that we might be equipped for every good work, we pray even by this portion of Your holy Word, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Matthew chapter 6 at the sixteenth verse. This is the Word of God:
“And 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 their 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.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy, inerrant Word.
Let’s think about the duty of fasting, first of all. Fasting, for most of us, let’s be honest now, is just weird. It feels extreme, hardcore. Zealots fast, but ordinary Joes like me, ordinary Christians, they don’t fast. Do they? Well look with me please at verse 16. Notice carefully what Jesus says. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.” Or again, verse 17, “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.” Now don’t miss the similarity between these verses and Jesus’ words about prayer back in verses 5 and 6. Look back there please. Verses 5 and 6. These two passages follow precisely the same structure, using almost the same language. Don’t they? Verse 5, “When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.” Verse 6, “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” So it’s the very same language that we find in our text this morning that we found already at the beginning of this sermon series back in verses 5 and 6.
And I think we can draw at least two conclusions from that similarity or that comparison. First, that Jesus’ treatment of fasting exactly maps onto His treatment of prayer is meant to teach us that these two disciplines go together. Fasting, we might say, is an appendix to prayer. It is the partner of prayer. Fasting is to pray what “all caps” is to a text message. Like we are shouting. We are expressing emphasis and urgency and deep, heart investment in the concerns for which we are crying to God. Biblical fasting, let’s be clear now, it’s not penance. It’s not an attempt to score points with heaven or to manipulate blessing from the hand of a reluctant God. No, fasting turns the volume dial up to ten as we pray. That’s its purpose. When we fast, we are saying, “This much I need You. Like the pangs of hunger that my body feels right now, my soul, my heart needs You – Your help, Your grace, Your presence, Your answers.” And so first of all, fasting and prayer belong together.
The second conclusion we can draw from noticing how Jesus’ treatment of prayer and fasting map onto one another like this is that Jesus expects fasting to be as normative a part of the spiritual disciplines practiced by ordinary disciples as He expects prayer to be. “When you pray,” and “When you fast.” Not, “If.” No one doubts that prayer is a basic, necessary habit of a true Christian. We’d even say, I think, that prayer is more than just a habit or a duty. We’d say that prayer is an inevitability in the life of a real Christian. Prayer is oxygen. It’s breathing. You have to pray if you are a Christian. It’s as fundamental and necessary and instinctive as your next breath. Faith always calls upon God and that is prayer. It is faith calling on God. But then after teaching us so carefully and beautifully about prayer in verses 5 through 15, Jesus takes us back to the very same categories that He has used to describe the duty of prayer and He applies them now to fasting. And so fasting, just like praying, is to be basic and normative and ordinary and commonplace in the life of a Christian.
Now there is a moment later on in Matthew chapter 9 when Jesus is asked directly why fasting isn’t actually much in evidence in the practice of His disciples when it was very much the habit of the disciples of the Pharisees and even the disciples of John the Baptist. And in reply, Jesus explained that while He was present there physically with His disciples, it was like the bridegroom, present with his friends before the wedding. A time for feasting, not for fasting. For joy in what they now have, not longing for what they do not yet possess. But He said a time was coming when the bridegroom would be taken from them and then they would fast. He was talking about His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. That means this side of the cross and the empty tomb, while we wait for the return of the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is appropriate, normal, fitting for us to fast. Jesus has died for sinners and risen again in victory over the grave. And so we fast and pray in faith, in the expectation that His dying love has secured salvation to the ends of the earth. So our fasting and our praying, they are not last-ditch, desperate, doubtful, Hail-Mary pass hopes forlornly that maybe against all the odds the inevitable might somehow be avoided. That’s not what we are doing.
No, we fast and pray in light of Calvary and in light of the empty tomb and in light of Christ’s heavenly session reigning at the Father’s right hand until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. Christ is risen. Death and hell and Satan are defeated. Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ in the heavenly places, bought and paid for in His precious blood. And so we fast and pray in bold, expectant faith, but we also fast and pray knowing that the fullness of blessing, bought and paid for in the precious blood of Christ, is still not yet. Sin remains, doesn’t it? Temptation remains. Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Sorrow remains. Death remains. Not every tribe and people and language have heard the Gospel yet. Christ has not returned yet. The new creation has not dawned yet. The bridegroom has not come back yet to take His bride, the Church, to the wedding supper of the Lamb. And so fasting and praying, longing and aching for the will of God to be done, that’s fitting now, appropriate now, this side of glory. Fasting, Jesus is teaching us, is a normative pattern for life between the times, for life while we live in the present enjoyment of Christ’s saving grace, though we wait for the future consummation of Christ’s wonderful glory.
Now while we live and wait and struggle this side of the final consummation, I dare say that every Christian will have experienced moments when they have felt, you have experienced moments when you have felt your words in prayer to be altogether inadequate to express the urgency and the depth and the burden and the weight that we feel for the situation or the people or the needs that we are pleading for. We run out of words. Things are not the way they are supposed to be, or the way we are promised they will one day be. And so we pray and we plead and we cry to God. And sometimes as we do, we feel the frustration, don’t we, of running out of vocabulary. Words fail us, and of course we bless God for the Holy Spirit who intercede for us with groans too deep for words when we don’t know what to pray for as we ought. And so at times, the best we can manage is to punctuate our private prayers with a sigh or a tear or a groan, trusting that the Lord knows our hearts, even if we don’t have the words to express it all. That’s life while we wait for the bridegroom to return. Isn’t it?
But I can’t help but wonder if perhaps, as we live through that reality, if we haven’t ignored, overlooked, the additional tool given to us by the Lord Jesus for just such moments. Fasting is bold, italics and underline. That’s what it is. It’s the bold, italics, underline button on the tool bar of our prayer lives. It adds another dimension of emphasis and intensity beyond anything words alone can supply. Fasting is an ordinary duty, a useful tool in the faithful prayer of God’s people for life between the times. When words run out, Jesus has given us tools to use, like fasting, to lend additional emphasis and urgency to our cries to God. “Is there a connection,” I ask myself, “between my own lack of prayerful fasting and a lack of lasting fruit from the ministry of this pulpit? Is there a connection between our absence of fasting as a congregation and our comparative fruitlessness in evangelism? What about the prevailing power of habitual sin in our individual Christian lives? What about the unanswered prayers that haunt us and leave us broken?” What would happen, I wonder, if prayer was wedded to fasting as a regular part of our ordinary, private devotional lives and of our life together as a congregation? The duty of fasting is here. Do you see it? I hope you begin to feel the pull and the weight of it.
But suppose you are persuaded of the duty to fast, let’s be sure we don’t miss the important word of caution Jesus immediately supplies. Look again at the passage. Notice what Jesus says now in the second place about the danger of fasting. The duty, now the danger of fasting. Look at verse 16 again. “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 their reward.” You should fast but be careful how you fast. Fasting, like a naked flame, can be a useful tool or a deadly danger, depending on how you use it. The hypocrites that Jesus is talking about are likely the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his own day. The hypocrites, they want to make sure everyone knows whenever they are fasting, and so they make themselves look extra gloomy. They disfigure their faces, Jesus says.
Now probably Jesus is smiling when He says this. People listening are chuckling a little bit when they hear Him say it because there is irony in His words. You may remember that the term “hypocrite” originally comes from the stage. It was a play actor who wore a mask, which is exactly what the Pharisees were doing – putting on a mask when they went about pouting and feigning sorrow and looking melodramatic and gloomy. It’s just a mask. It’s fake emotion. And the term translated “to disfigure their faces,” has the connotation of making something unrecognizable, which ironically is the very thing they were seeking to avoid. They wanted to be recognized. Jesus says they are doing all of this to be seen by others. He’s poking fun, do you see, at the absurdity of our religious pride.
The truth is, fasting, like practicing your righteousness in general, fasting tests our hearts. If you are really doing your acts of righteousness for the glory of God, from sincere motives, you will take care not to show them off. “I don’t do that,” you tell yourself. But not so fast. It’s harder to avoid than may at first appear. Think about it when you do something stretching, something that pushes your faith, something a little bit out of your comfort zone, something that demands some sacrifice. Hasn’t there almost instantly come a quiet whisper in your ear, a little nudge along the way, to boast just a little bit? You can do it subtly. A humble brag. Just drop it into conversation along the way. “When I was fasting the other day, you came to mind, and I thought I’d give you a call.” “Oh, you were fasting? Aren’t you spiritual!” That’s what we want, isn’t it? We want a bit of praise. Flatter me, please. That’s what we want. We want to be made much of.
Search your heart, Jesus is saying. Beware of practicing your righteousness before people to be seen by them. If you fast or do anything in the service of King Jesus to impress your peers, then the praise of your peers will be all that your fast or your service will ever be worth. That’s what Jesus says, isn’t it? “Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.” The reward of their fast is making an impression on their peer group, not realizing all the time that such a fast is a stench in the nostrils of God. How easy to do things, spiritual things, for selfish ends. Fasting, in particular, has a way of forcing us into a direct confrontation with the sly temptations of ego that fester in our hearts. The duty of fasting. The danger of fasting.
And now thirdly, notice the discipline of fasting. Look again with me please at verse 17. “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 so Jesus isn’t simply warning us about the danger of misusing fasting; He is teaching us positively now how to fast in a way that honors God and is good for us. And the first thing to get right, if you resolve to obey the Lord Jesus and begin the practice of fasting in your Christian life, the first thing to get right has to do with our audience. Who is fasting for? We’ve already seen fasting is not for self. It’s not for self display. We are not trying to impress people with how spiritual we are. Fasting is for God. It is for His eyes only. “Fast,” Jesus says, “that your Father who is in secret might see it.” He sees in secret.
I sometimes get letters mailed to First Presbyterian Church marked, “For the Attention of David Strain.” True, prayerful fasting is a letter marked for the attention of God alone. It’s meant to express your heart desire for Him, for His name to be hallowed, for His kingdom to come, for His will to be done. It is meant to give emphasis for your desire for His provision – your daily bread. For His pardon – forgive us our debts. For His protection – lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Fasting says to the Lord Jesus Christ, “You are the bread of life to me. You are living water to me. I need You. I want You. I am seeking You. I can’t live without You. I am hungrier for You than I am for my next meal.”
Secondly, if we resolve to obey the Lord Jesus and begin to fast and pray, notice how we are to go about it. First, the object of fasting. Now, how to fast. Jesus says “anoint your head and wash your face.” That is, pay the same attention to looking presentable that you normally would. Don’t adjust your appearance or your routine in any way that would call attention to the fact that you are engaged in a private fast. Take practical, concrete steps, so far as it is possible, to avoid any temptation to make people take note that something is out of the ordinary with you. Don’t trust your heart, Jesus is telling us. Don’t set it up so that someone comes along and asks you why you are looking so bad today, and so now with feigned humility, pretended reluctance, you can admit in hushed, conspiratorial tones, “Don’t tell anybody, but I’m fasting.” Don’t do that. Ordinarily, fasting should not disrupt your routine. Nobody should know.
And saying that allows me to add as a little aside here what I hope is obvious as a word of caution. I want to be clear, fasting isn’t for everyone. Some people may be hindered by the providence of God due to infirmity or ill health from fasting. Fasting should not disrupt your life in a way that calls attention to what you are doing and imperiling your fragile health would certainly fall into that category.
Okay, well, suppose I have persuaded you and you decide to make fasting a part of your spiritual regimen and you are going to start this week. How might you go about doing that? Let me suggest three practical steps to take as you begin. Suggestion number one – start small and have a clear plan. Start small and have a clear plan. Look at your calendar. Pick one meal – maybe breakfast or lunch, whichever meal would be least disruptive, least obtrusive. And set apart that time to pray and to read God’s Word. If you have the time, listen to a sermon, read a helpful Christian book, perhaps identify a missionary, a non-Christian friend, a family need, an area of personal, spiritual growth in your own life that needs particular attention, and devote the time you’d normally be sitting at a restaurant to focused prayer for those things instead. You might need to leave your desk at the office and go sit in the car in the parking lot to do it so that nobody notices. That’s fine. There are simple, easy ways to do this. Start small and have a plan. That’s the first thing.
Suggestion number two – maybe after you’ve done that, next week try a day-long fast. Perhaps the easiest way to do that is to fast from after your evening meal one night through the start of the evening meal the next day. You might need to tell your spouse or one or two others, just so you can plan accordingly, but I’ve found when I have done that, that it allows me to fast with a minimum of disruption to family routines.
Suggestion number three – try a fast with some close Christian friends. Jesus’ prohibition in our text is against fasting in order to be seen by others. It is not an absolute prohibition of fasting together with other people. In fact, the Bible has lots of examples of God’s people doing exactly that together. You can find corporate fasts in the Old Testament – Judges 20:26, 1 Samuel 7:6, Ezra 8:3 – just to name a few. And in the New Testament, God’s people fast together – Acts 13:2-3, Acts 14:23. The people of God gather together and they fast and pray together. That’s appropriate. And in keeping with that pattern in our own congregation from time to time, we have had days of fasting and prayer – fasting throughout the day as we go about our business, gathering together at the end of the day to worship and pray together before we go to break our fast.
But you can do this on a much smaller scale. Maybe with your small group, decide on a day you are going to fast together. Maybe instead of meeting as you normally would for breakfast or lunch, you are going to fast and pray together; come together and pray. Maybe you are texting each other throughout the day for mutual encouragement and accountability. Maybe you get together at the end of your fast to give thanks to God and break the fast together. I’ve done that with a group of men here, fasting from one lunchtime gathering all the way through to a late lunch the next day. And we were texting each other, encouraging one another, and it was a great help to us.
So my point is – and I hope you can see – fasting doesn’t have to be difficult. It certainly doesn’t need to disrupt your life. And it mustn’t draw attention to itself. There are ways to go about it, most of us can implement, without too much difficulty. Jesus’ call to a habit of devotional fasting isn’t so out of reach as we might at first have imagined. You can do this. You can do it. The duty of fasting. The danger of fasting. The discipline of fasting.
And finally, the delight of fasting. Notice the promise that is affixed to fasting at the end of verse 18. “Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.” It’s the same phrase that Jesus has used already in this chapter at the end of verse 1, again at the end of verse 4, and again in verse 6. God rewards the faithfulness of His children. And we are sometimes uncomfortable with that idea, aren’t we, of rewards for faithfulness because it sounds to us like works-righteousness or like we earned something that God is now required to give us as wages. But that objection really evaporates, especially with the respect to fasting, when you remember what it is that we are doing. Fasting is a graphic way of emphasizing emptiness, spiritual hunger, personal insufficiency, profound need. Fasting is the empty beggar’s bowl of faith enacted and dramatized, looking to God alone to satisfy.
Properly understood, it really is the opposite of a meritorious work. It’s actually an admission of bankruptcy put into action. And when you see that, doesn’t it make Jesus’ promise in verse 18 actually altogether amazing? Amazing. The Father rewards His children when they come fasting and saying to Him, “I’ve got nothing. I can do nothing. I’m hungry; feed me. I’m empty; fill me. I’m broken; heal me. I’m guilty; forgive me.” “Naked come to Thee for dress. Helpless cling to Thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die!” That’s what you are saying in a fast. Jesus says the Father rewards that. The Father meets our unworthiness with grace upon grace upon grace. That’s what He is saying. Above all else, the great reward He gives to those who diligently seek Him, fasting and praying in humility from faith, the great reward He gives is His Son. He gives His Son. Jesus is manna from heaven, the bread of life, the living water, which if you drink it you will never thirst again. Fasting says, “More than daily bread, I need You, Lord Jesus.” The Father who sees in secret will reward you with Jesus. He will bring His Son to you by His Word and Spirit to comfort you and instruct you and shape you and remake you into His likeness, more and more. Brothers and sisters in Christ, fast and pray. Seek the Lord. He loves to draw near to His children when they do and to give His Son to you.
The duty of fasting – it’s a “when” and not an “if.” Is it a “when” in your life? It is bold, italics and underline for the text of our prayers. Is it? Is it emphatic for you? Is it a way for you to say, “This much, so urgently, I need You”? The danger of fasting – beware of your prideful heart. Don’t do your deeds of righteousness to be seen by others. The discipline of fasting – anoint your head, wash your face, go about your day, don’t disrupt your routine, make a plan, keep it simple, work with others. And the delight of fasting – those who fast and pray in faith, looking for the smile of God, receive their reward from our Father who sees in secret. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Fasting is that beatitude enacted, dramatized as it were, in our own devotional routines. Take Him at His Word and see how God answers and rewards and fills you by bringing you nearer and nearer the bread of life and the water from the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ.
May the Lord make it so. Let’s pray together.Our God and Father, how we adore You for the Lord Jesus who is all our hearts really need. Forgive us for glutting our spiritual appetites on the white bread of earthly pleasures when You spread a banquet table in the Word of God and in the grace of God in Christ for us all. Help us, awaken in us, whet our appetites for more of Him so that we might gladly put away lesser pleasures that we may take hold of the greater, knowing Jesus, resting on Him,, and being remade by Him. O God, teach us to fast and to pray, not from ostentation or self-display, but for Your glory and as we do, keep Your Word, Your promise, and reward Your children as You see us serve You in secret. For Jesus’ sake we pray, amen.