Sermon Tone Analysis

When You Fast

Matthew 6:18-20   |   Shaun LePage   |   August 27, 2006

 

 

I.

Introduction

A.   Opening

1.

When Hanani and some other men from Judah came and visited Nehemiah in the Persian capitol of Susa and reported to him that the Jews in Jerusalem who survived the Babylonian captivity were in great distress and the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates burned with fire, what did Nehemiah do? (Nehemiah 1:2-3)

2.     When it looked as though Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire was going to be successful, what did Queen Ester instruct all the Jews in Susa to do? (Esther 4:16)

3.     When David sinned with Bathsheba and she became pregnant, and Nathan the prophet informed David that God had declared that the child would die, what did David do?

4.     When Jesus began His ministry, what was one of the very first things the Holy Spirit led Him to do?

5.     Fast.

What did they do?

They fasted.

Nehemiah fasted and prayed.

Esther and all the Jews in Susa fasted.

David fasted and prayed before the Lord.

Jesus Himself fasted for 40 days and nights.

B.    Review

1.     Matthew 6:1 is like a central proposition—a purpose statement—for verses 1-18.

Jesus said, “*Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven*.”

Then He gave three examples.

Don’t */give /*to be noticed by men, but give with a God-focused motivation.

Don’t */pray /*to be noticed by men, but have meaningful communication with your Father.

The third illustration is fasting.

2.     I admit to you that I like food.

I greatly identify with what a Church of Christ pastor named David Chadwell wrote about food: “Now in the churches of Christ, we are against drinking, against smoking, against profanity, against gambling, and against numerous life styles.

But we are very pro food.

It is pretty much true that we will tolerate others speaking out against many life styles.

But don’t mess with our food.

We may not drink and we may not smoke, but we eat.

So don’t mess with my eating.

And when we eat, we want ‘good’ food, food that tastes wonderful, food that literally begs us to eat too much and then groan because we are too full.

That is the measure of good food at a great fellowship—the number of people who talk about how miserable they are because they ate too much.”

So, to talk about fasting.

To encourage fasting.

To fast—is very difficult for me personally.

I like food.

3.     It seems a little ironic to me that one week after talking about “fellowship” I’m now talking about fasting.

The American church tends to equate fellowship with food.

If there’s no food, it’s not fellowship.

It’s a Bible study or it’s a prayer meeting, but it can’t be fellowship without food.

Well, today I’m gonna mess with your food.

Not because God has anything against food.

In fact, fasting really isn’t about food at all.

4.     My belief is that fasting is a foreign concept to most us today.

Giving?

Sure.

We’ve talked about that one a lot.

Praying?

Absolutely.

We all know that’s important.

But fasting?

Where does this fit in?

Are we supposed to be doing this on a regular basis?

Are we unspiritual if we can’t remember the last time we fasted?

5.     CPS: Fasting is all over the Bible.

It’s a way of communicating to God how serious we are.

I believe the Scriptures tell us that there are times when we need to Cry out to God with an empty stomach and a desperate heart.

II.

Body

A.   Read Matthew 6:16-18.

B.    Verse 16—Jesus tells us how */not /*to fast: “*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*…”

1.     “*Whenever you fast*…” Notice once again that Jesus assumes we will be doing this act of righteousness.

Just as He assumed we would be giving (vs.1-4) and praying (vs.5-15),

He assumed we would be fasting.

We’ll come back to this.

2.     “…*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*…”

a)    Do you get the picture?

This person is fasting and they want everyone to know it.

They think fasting is a waste of time if no one looks on with respect.

If no one whispers, “He’s a pious fellow,” there’s no point!

Some in Jesus’ day purposefully looked gloomy and sad.

They even acted like they were going to faint so that they “*will be noticed by men*.”

This is how */not /*to fast: Don’t fast for prideful attention.

b)    Jesus calls this kind of a person a “*hypocrite*.”

A person who is pretending to be something he is not.

Someone pretending to be righteous, holy, devout, God-focused—but in reality, he is self-focused, prideful and sinful.

His “*reward*” is the worthless, fleeting admiration of other people.

c)    I hope this point has been made clear by the previous messages about giving and praying—this is about motivation, not secrecy.

It’s not about whether or not someone knows you’re fasting.

It’s about whether or not you fast so that you can show off—so people will think you are one godly Christian hero!

It’s not a sin if someone finds out you’re fasting.

Jesus fasted and Matthew knew it—he told us in chapter 4. In fact, if you’ve ever fasted, you know that sometimes someone needs to know—especially spouses.

Wives will get suspicious when you refuse to eat your favorite meal.

It’s not about keeping a secret.

It’s about motivation.

C.   Verses 17-18 tells us to Fast for the Father’s attention.

*“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*.”

1.     “*But you, when you fast*…” As I said earlier, Jesus assumes we will be doing this act of righteousness.

What this means is that fasting is a legitimate act of righteousness.

An acceptable tool for communicating with God.

We should all be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

a)    Let’s answer a fundamental question: What is fasting?

The Greek word used here literally means, “One who has not eaten, who is empty.”

The Bible presents four different kinds of fasting:

(i)   Normal fast.

No food.