The Spiritual Practice of Fasting: Lessons from Jesus

In this sermon, Reagan discusses the spiritual discipline of fasting, including its importance and benefits for Christians. He shares personal stories and biblical references to illustrate how fasting can help refocus our minds and hearts on the spiritual by abstaining from physical needs. Reagan also explores the teachings of Jesus and the early church on fasting, explaining how this practice can bring us closer to God. Additionally, he provides practical advice and suggestions for incorporating fasting into our lives today, encouraging viewers to try this ancient practice to enhance their spiritual journey.

00:00 Introduction and Handouts
00:22 College Memories and Experimenting with Fasting
02:13 The Spiritual Discipline of Fasting
04:16 Walking Like Jesus: Fasting and Prayer
05:25 Jesus' Teachings on Fasting
06:16 Understanding Fasting in the Bible
10:07 Practical Applications of Fasting
11:13 Jesus' Example of Fasting
17:51 Jesus' Instructions on Fasting
24:10 Fasting in the Early Church
26:28 Modern-Day Fasting: Suggestions and Benefits
35:06 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

As you know, we have a number of graduates, who will be going off into the world in different ways here very soon. And they say that college and that age, whether you're in college or you're joining the workforce or the military or whatever the case might be, that's a time in your life to experiment to try new things, to really find yourself and know who you really are.

And it reminds me of when I was in college and I was hanging out with a group of guys that were, you know, just kinda wild. And I'll tell you how wild we were. We started a nightly Bible study 11 o'clock, well, no, 1130 to midnight. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, a nightly Bible study.

And so, so what do a group of Christian guys like that do to try and experiment a little bit? Well, we tried, this is gonna be wild, A fast. Fast. None of us had ever fasted before, at least not by choice. And we, so we decided let's do a fast, and we do. We were gonna do a fast for 24 hours, starting at midnight, going until the next midnight.

We weren't gonna eat anything at all. We were allowed to drink only water, and we were gonna pray and study and do those other things. During that time. Now, if, if you remember being a teenager, raise your hand if you remember being a teenager. No, it's, well, ways back for some of us, some of somebody give me one of these.

What I remember maybe most about being a teenager is being hungry all the time. I just, I couldn't get full. And so this idea of 24 hours without food was a pretty daunting task at the time. But I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the, the focus that it gave me. And I decided I never want to do that again.

And contraband Taco Bell at one in the morning never tasted so good. I have done it again since then on a number of occasions, and I've come to appreciate fasting for the power it has to refocus my mind and more importantly, my heart on the spiritual by abstaining from something physical for a set period of time, fasting is not as common, a practice in our day as it was for Jesus.

Or the early church at least. Certainly not in America, and one reason is how fasting has been abused by some religious groups to turn it into something that Jesus never really intended. But I think obvious, the more obvious reason is that Jesus never commanded. His disciples to fast, and there is no such command by the apostles either.

According to the Mosaic law, the Jews were required to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement, and they had other traditions where they fasted to commemorate other occasions, but none of those requirements came over to the New Covenant in a way. Fasting is kind of like finding the quiet places that we've been talking about.

It's not something we have to do as Christians. There's no command from Jesus or the apostles saying, you have to do this. But while Jesus did not require fasting, Jesus practiced it. He fasted, he taught his disciples about it and how to do it correctly. The New Testament records, how it was practiced in the first century Church and extra biblical writings from the early church fathers show us that it was a very common practice in churches and among individual Christians for generations after the first century.

And so maybe instead of asking the question, do I have to, perhaps we should ask, am I missing something if I don't do this in my Christian life? How could this practice of fasting bring me closer to Jesus and the peace that he offers? So let's examine the spiritual discipline for a few minutes this morning and, and give some practical applications and suggestions on, on how it might help us to walk like Jesus by falling at God's feet in fasting.

Now, as you know, this is part of our congregational focus for 2025, that we walk like Jesus. Seeking to, to find the peace by imitating the prince of peace, find the peace that Jesus offers and, and we've talked about how we walk like Jesus by finding the quiet places. And this quarter we're talking about walking like Jesus by falling at God's feet.

And we've talked about prayer a good bit already in this quarter, but I want us to connect that to this idea of fasting this morning. We're grateful for the presence of all. Maybe this is not the lesson that you thought you were going to hear this morning, but, but stick with me if you would, because I think this is an, an ancient practice that might be helpful to us as we strive to be more like Jesus and walk in his steps.

Our pattern of study, as we've considered these topics of walking like Jesus have been threefold. We ask three questions, number one. What did Jesus do if I wanna walk like Jesus? How did he walk? And so we'll ask and hopefully answer this question about fasting number two. What did he teach his disciples to do?

That's what we are, we're followers of Jesus imitating him, both his life and his teaching. And so what did he teach his disciples to do in the first century? His literal disciples who were following him everywhere he went, but also those disciples who would come after like you and I. What did he teach his disciples to do?

Will strive to answer that question. And then in our third point, what should we do in imitation? So what does that look like kind of practically in the 21st century as Christians living today? And I'll give you a couple of suggestions on how you might implement this into your life. Before we answer those questions, however, let's, let's start with some facts about fasting.

This is not something that we're as familiar with as certainly they would've been in the ancient world. So, so what is, what is fasting? Well, fasting. Is simply going about something, going without something and, and typically it's food for a set period of time. Now everybody understands what fasting is because we have a word in English breakfast.

What is breakfast? Well, it's two words. Compound word. You break your fast, right? So you went without food all night, however long or short that night was. And so then you break that fast by eating something the next day. For people who are health conscious especially those who like to work out and those sorts of things.

Intermediate fasting, intermittent fasting has become fairly popular in America today. And so that's the idea. You're breaking the fast, you've gone without something and now you receive that thing again. And we might fast for physical reasons. Losing weight, getting in shape, practicing self-discipline, simplifying your life or.

Or maybe we've been forced to fast to prepare for a medical procedure or a test that requires an empty stomach or like I had to do a lot growing up. Dad says we're gonna get there by a certain time and we don't have time to stop to use the bathroom or eat or anything else. And so you gotta fast over that time.

But in a religious context, the physical thing that is being abstained from whatever that is, food or something else, is replaced. By something spiritual with the physical fast, we might just abstain from something. It's not replaced by anything else. But when we examine this idea in, in our Bibles, there is always this replacement idea that you're abstaining from something, but you're participating in something else.

And prayer is most often the spiritual replacement. Just like food is most often, the physical thing that is being abstained from fasting and prayer are repeatedly linked in the Bible, and we see that both old and New Testaments. I've given you a number of examples on the screen and on your handout to see where that idea of fasting and prayer or.

Interestingly, we don't have time to talk about it this morning. Sometimes fastings plural, and prayers plural. So this is something that somebody would've been doing in an ongoing basis several times. I'm going to be fasting at different points through the week or through the year. And notice, especially if you wanna turn in your Bibles to one Corinthians chapter seven, one Corinthians chapter seven and verse five.

We see that fasting doesn't have to only be about food, and, and that's not just true because it's something logical that we came up with as human beings. We see that in the Bible as well, and maybe certainly one of the best examples of that is in one Corinthians chapter seven in verse five, in describing the relationship between a husband and a wife, and the duties that husband and husbands and wives and privileges that husbands and wives has toward one another.

Paul says in chapter seven in verse five of one Corinthians, do not deprive one another of the sexual relationship except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting in prayer and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you. Because of your lack of self-control, and so you're fasting of this physical thing.

That's a good thing, an enjoyable thing, but you're fasting of that thing so that you might devote yourself to something spiritual. In this case, devote yourself to prayer. I. So we can apply this idea of fasting to other physical things such as taking a fast from your smartphone or your tv or streaming apps or video games or social media.

Maybe it's a fast from cable news or sports or hobbies or more. This is not the idea of I'm abstaining from something sinful. We ought to be doing that anyway. It's abstaining from something non sinful. Maybe even something that's morally neutral or even morally good. It's a good thing, but I'm abstaining from something physical so that I might focus on something spiritual and maybe it's, you know, just kind of a good trigger for us.

If something of a non-spiritual nature is dominating your time and your thinking and your energy. Maybe it's time to try a fast from that thing, and if we do, may we resolve to walk like Jesus in doing so because this is the most important point really of our lesson this morning. Jesus fasted, and we see that very clearly on a couple of occasions, but most clearly in Matthew chapter four.

Would you turn there please in your New Testament to Matthew chapter four.

This text goes down through verse 11. We'll only look at the first few verses. This is immediately after Jesus was baptized by John and, and we remember the spirit came and, and lighted on him like a dove and a voice from heaven says, this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. And you can imagine those who were disciples of John on that occasion saying, man, I gotta know who this guy is, who is the son of God.

And immediately what does Jesus do? He leaves. He's led by the Spirit into the wilderness, free with me, verses one and two of Matthew, chapter four. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. So the spirit leads him into this wilderness, this deserted quiet place.

Where he fasted for 40 days. Now we know that Jesus is the son of God and certainly he can do miraculous things, and yet here he is being tempted as a man, and so it's likely that he is abstaining from food. He's continuing to drink water, but certainly anyone would be hungry after 40 days without food.

And in some ways the fasting was part of the testing. The first temptation that the devil offers to Jesus has to deal with his hunger, but maybe we lose sight of the fact that it wasn't just for the testing that Jesus fasted in other ways, the fasting prepared Jesus for the testing. In this period of fasting, he is focusing on God and things of the spirit so that he might be ready for the devil when the devil.

Faces him. And one of the great benefits of fasting is that it affords us insight into Jesus's own experience by making that experience our own in some way. We all have a better understanding of something when we go through it ourselves rather than other people telling us about it. We've got lots of babies in the auditorium this morning, and.

People told me all sorts of things about being a parent. They left out some things and I was pretty bitter about that the first year or so. But they told me all sorts of things that, that really, I didn't know, not, didn't truly know until I experienced that for myself. And there are a number of things in regard to our Christian walk that are the same way.

We, we certainly have better understanding if we actually experience something, practice something, rather than just kind of intellectually hearing or studying about it. And so we read Matthew chapter four in verse two again, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. I mean, that seems like an understatement, doesn't it?

I've done a little research into this, and yes, there is this idea that your body kind of shuts off that, that feeling of hunger to a certain degree. But after 40 days, I mean, we're right on the edge of how long a human can survive without food at this point. And fasting maybe helps us to put ourselves in the, the shoes of Jesus and others who have experienced hunger.

Most of us, I think this is fair to say, most of us have no idea what it's like to, to really go hungry. And that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing, but we have no insight into this understated phrase. Even more. It's difficult to have the insight that we ought to have in Jesus's response. Read verses three and four in this first temptation of Jesus.

Now, when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bred. What Satan is doing is he's offering Jesus a shortcut that none of the rest of us are offered saying, use your power as the son of God. To fulfill your desires rather than denying them as God would have you to on this occasion.

And so what is Jesus's response? Please notice very carefully, verse four, but he, Jesus answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. I've never had to. Live by bread alone. I've always had a lot more than just bread in my diet, but this idea of of not having anything of going hungry, well, maybe it can help us to understand that the way we really live as Christians is by what proceeds from the mouth of God if we seek to walk like Jesus and some of the things that Jesus did that maybe we've never done before.

Perhaps we can experience a small taste, pun intended, of perhaps why Jesus did those things and the peace that had brought him despite his circumstances. If you see that circumstances don't truly dictate the way we should feel and act as Christians, and it doesn't have to be to the same extreme. It's not to the same extreme as what Jesus did, but it should be a similar activity to what Jesus did.

I'm not. Suggesting or asking you to fast for 40 days, fast for a day, to get a taste of what it was Jesus did instead of going the whole night in prayer, as Jesus did do that if you would like, it would be certainly beneficial. Instead, pray for a whole hour and set that time and say, I'm gonna pray uninterrupted during this time.

Perhaps we have to suffer with patience, insults. We have to be willing to forgive those who have insulted us. And while that isn't anything compared to the cross, it does give us a taste of what Jesus went through. And in so doing, however small the taste might be, you will grow closer to him as you imitate him.

And if for no other reason than this, may I suggest that we try fasting. But there are other reasons, and we see that pretty, pretty clearly in our second point, that Jesus taught his disciples how to fast. Now, again, he didn't command them to fast. He didn't say there's something you had to do, but he said, if you're gonna do it, I'm gonna teach you the right way to go about doing it.

Turning your Bible to Matthew chapter six, if you would. Just a couple of pages over there from Matthew chapter four, right here in the middle. Of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter six, after he talks about. Our charitable deeds and how we do those to be seen of God and not of men and prayer as we studied a month ago, as we do those things not to be seen of men, but to be seen of God, perhaps the least studied of this trifecta of things.

And I know Preston talks about all of these t triads that are in Matthew, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. We find this idea of fasting in verses 16 through 18. Would you read with me beginning in verse 16 of Matthew chapter six? Moreover, when you fast do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.

Assuredly say to you, they have their reward, but you, you Christians, you kingdom citizens when you fast anoint your head and wash your face. So that you do not appear to be to men to be fasting, but to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly when you fast from food or something else.

Here, the direction from Jesus that he gives on this occasion he's contrasting what his disciples should do with the scribes and the Pharisees who were hypocrite. Generally the Pharisees, according to extra biblical records, they fasted twice a week. And in fact, we have a Bible verse that confirms that in Luke chapter 18 and verse 12 when the Pharisee and the tax collector go to the temple to pray in Jesus's parable, remember the Pharisees says, I thank you that I am not as other men are, even as this tax collector.

And what is the first thing that he says? I. Fast twice a week. I give ties of all I possess and so forth. But how would the scribes and Pharisees and others, how would they go about fasting? Well, many of these would do it in a hypocritical way. They express their sad countenance with a gloomy, dirty, external experience, and it's this kind of wrong attitude that Jesus is addressing.

Disfiguring their faces sounds a little weird to us. It's not like a a gargoyle, you know, on the side of a building. The idea is instead that they're neglecting their appearance, we might say they didn't shower, they didn't put on any makeup, they didn't clean themselves up. They're wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

Those sorts of things so that everybody knows I am in the middle of a fast. But Jesus says, clean yourself up. Act like it's any other day because nobody should know that you're fasting unless they ask. And, and that's the idea that Jesus is addressing. And so what Jesus does is he, he says there should be three things when you fast.

That should be true. Number one, when you fast, it should be authentic. It should be private. It's not something you're broadcasting to others as some sort of performance. If it's a food fast, don't make a big deal about how hungry you are or. Or where your coworkers, or when your coworkers eat, you look longingly at at their food.

Remember that group of guys I talked about at the beginning of the lesson? Well, there was one of those guys. He's a great guy. Very accomplished guy. He was an army ranger after we went to college. All these, these sorts of things. But it was interesting. You know what he did? He wanted to test himself a little bit.

And so instead of just fasting, he went down to the cafeteria. He went down to the cafeteria every meal, breakfast, lunch, supper, and he sat at his normal table and he just sat there without a tray. And what did everybody do? Jared, what are you doing? He's, and, and you know what he said, I'm fasting. That's exactly the kind of thing that Jesus says we're not supposed to do.

And coincidentally, he only made it through supper. 'cause finally people threw enough food at him that he gave into temptation, right? Instead, when we're fasting, we don't have to broadcast it. We don't have to post it on social media. We don't have to tell everybody how holy we are. This is something between us.

God, and so be authentic and private about that because we're seeking the attention of God, not of people when you fast. Number two, it is to meet God in secret. Jesus said that your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your father who is in the secret place. When you fast, God is there with you as as much as he is in prayer.

If you're fasting with the right attitude, he knows you are fasting and he knows why you're fasting and that should be enough for us as his disciples. And when you fast, it is to seek God's blessing by the spiritual thing that you're doing. Jesus said again, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Come to God empty through fasting, and he will fill you up with food to eat that you do not know about. As Jesus said to his disciples in John chapter four, fasting is a form of sacrifice, and sacrifice is just giving up something that you want, my phone, my food for something that you want more, the presence of God.

His blessing and direction in my life. Now, it is interesting if you turn over to Matthew chapter nine, that Jesus's disciples did not fast regularly. While he was on Earth. So while Jesus was here, he did not fast regularly, and this stood out to a certain degree. Again, I think that shows how performative and how public this was because they could tell Jesus's disciples aren't fasting like everybody else.

Well, in verses 14 and 15 of Matthew chapter nine, this is how that goes down. Then the disciples of John came to him saying, why do we, in the Pharisees fast often? Your disciples do not fast. Well, one answer Jesus could have been given was, well, because you're a bunch of hypocrites and, and my disciples don't act like they're fasting when they're fasting, but instead, here's the answer that he gives, verse 15, and Jesus said to them, can the friends of the bridegroom mourn?

As long as the bride groom is with them, but the days will come when the bride groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast. Jesus says the same thing in Mark's gospel and in Luke's gospel as well, and he makes explicit that what he's talking about is I'm not gonna be here forever, at least not in the flesh.

And once I leave, that's when my disciples will choose to fast. This. Fast. From fast maybe was to emphasize the joy that they should have in Jesus being with them. And fasting is often rightly associated with somber serious attitudes, even mourning as we think about fasting. But once Jesus ascended back into heaven.

Fasting became common again in the early church. We see that in acts. We see that in the letters to the Corinthians with Paul's personal fasting. And as people who are seeking to be a continuation of the simple first century New Testament church, it makes sense that we would emulate and imitate these first Christians in this practice.

So our final question this morning. What should you do as a 21st century disciple of Jesus? Well, again, I've said you don't have to fast. This is not a requirement. And of course, everything in Christianity is voluntary. It's a voluntary religion. There are consequences, but it's voluntary. But what should you do?

Well, may I suggest that if you choose to fast in a religious sense, fast with purpose, make it intentional. Don't abstain from food or something else for no reason. Biblical fasting included planning to do something, food or something else do without that something, while also planning to do something for a specific spiritual reason.

Consider the following reasons why people fasted in the Bible. I'm gonna give you a list from the Old Testament. And then I'll give you a list from the New Testament. This is on the back of your handout. If you wanna turn over there. Don't panic. We're not going to all of these scriptures. I know some of you saw two pages on this handout and we're thinking, okay, I know Reagan, how long is this gonna go?

Just very quickly, this is for you to study on your own time and consider. But I want us to think about these are all of the reasons why they fasted in the Old and New Testaments to complete spiritual work. Like Moses when he was completing the 10 Commandments, this work from God, I want to get this work done for God.

Perhaps I need to fast to get it done. To emphasize repentance to God. Maybe this is the most common reason that people fasted Eric mentioned this in his Lord Supper talk with the city of Nineveh, but we also see the, the nation of Israel. We see groups of people. We see individuals like sorrow, Saul of Tarsus fasting as a means to emphasize, I'm truly sorry for what I have done, and so I'm gonna go to God in prayer and repentance.

During this time of fasting, I. They also fasted not just to pray. All of the, almost all of these are associated with prayer in some way. So this is an addition to prayer. But oftentimes it was to pray for others and to pray for others who were far away. Nehemiah fasted and called other people to fast for the people who were far away in the land of Israel, the people who were back in the homeland after the return from captivity.

Let's pray for those people by fasting to emphasize our reliance on God like Daniel. To mourn over sin and separation from God like Daniel and and like, like we read in Matthew chapter nine, this mourning that Jesus was no longer on Earth and that he had been crucified, that would lead to fasting and to seek God's protection like Esther did, and she asked others to do as she was going to appear before the king, a Haus.

In the New Testament, we see people fasting for these and other reasons as well to worship God like Anna did in the temple with fastings. And prayers that she would often do there in the temple to prepare for temptation and testing like Jesus to seed on the word of God like he implies there in Matthew chapter four and verse four, I don't live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, perhaps reading your Bible is what you do while you are fasting to make God directed decisions like Jesus and others, as we see here, to seek God's blessings in his work.

Like the church in Antioch, when they sent out Paul and Barnabas. De seek God's wisdom in appointing leaders like Paul and Barnabas did when they were appointing elders in every church in Acts chapter 14. All of these are good reasons why we might fast to replace something physical with these spiritual things that we can do in service to God.

Prayer in replace of food is the basic fast. Clearly there are many other physical things we could abstain from and many other spiritual things we could replace that activity with. Are you willing to try? Are you willing to give it a try? Well, let me suggest two things then, if you are considering falling at God's feet in fasting.

Suggestion number one, pick a day next week. Ah, why not this week? Pick a day this week. To skip one meal. Now I know what some of you're thinking. There's no loopholes here. It's not, well, I fast every morning at breakfast. I'm just gonna keep doing that. No, skip a meal that you normally eat on a regular day and devote that time, however long or short it might be.

I know some of you got 15 minutes, have 15 minutes for lunch. Some of you maybe have an hour or however long you want to take, but however long it would normally be, use that time for something spiritual. I heard about some godly parents who were having a, a class on raising their kids. This was many years ago, and in that class they decided, well, let's try this week on Friday at lunch, we're gonna skip lunch and we're gonna have a fast so that we might pray for our children and one of the fathers and mothers in that particular study.

They intended to just do it that one Friday, but then they did it the next and the next, and now decades later. Friday is their fast day for their children, and even though those children are raised and gone and out of the house, they still spend lunchtime on Fridays fasting and praying for their children and now grandchildren and the wellbeing of their family.

I'm not asking you to do it for the rest of your life, what I'm asking you to do. Try it this week and just see, see if it's beneficial and see where it might lead as we strive to imitate Jesus in this way. Devote that time, however long it might normally be to something spiritual. Number two, pick a non-food fast Again, this week, this month, it's the beginning of May.

To use that as an opportunity to emphasize the spiritual. And what I would suggest is look at that list that I've given you on the back of this handout. Pick one of those things and say, I need to be doing this. And then find a non-food fast, whatever that might be. Say I can cut this out. At least cut this out for a specific period of time and use that gained time to do this spiritual thing, for example.

Maybe you restrict your phone use to essentials, only silence, all notifications, and every time you wanna look at your phone and that dopamine rush you need to hit every time you wanna play a game or watch a show, say a short prayer instead, ideally, by denying yourself of physical food or whatever the physical denial of the fast might be.

You can refocus your life on the importance of your spiritual needs instead of your physical needs. Fasting is fundamentally about a recommitment to the spiritual by replacing the time that we would generally spend on physical things with time spent in prayer, study, reflection, and good deeds. It's like turning the computer off and turning it back on again.

I need a reset to see what's really important and taking away the physical reminds me that while I am a physical being, I am not just a physical being and the spiritual part of man is what is most important to God. One author says Fasting is useful to humble us, to bring us to reflection. To direct the thoughts away from the alerts of this world to the bliss of a better, but I think one of my favorite quotes about fasting is this one from Dallas Willard Fasting unto our Lord is feasting.

We might say, if you really think about it, feasting on him and on doing his will, may we have the hunger of a poor college student. Seeking to do the things of God because Jesus promises that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. Do you have that kind of hunger this morning? Do you know that you need to come to God?

Well, there are all of these people in this room who are rooting for you to come to him, to know him, and to know the peace that only Jesus can give and. If you're already a Christian, you realize you've not had that peace in your life and you need prayers, maybe even fasting in your own life or in the lives of your brothers and sisters, won't you come now and ask for that very thing while together we stand and while we sing, just.