We're actually not going to study Matthew 6, but we're going to begin by reading Matthew 6, verses 16 through 18. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this time that we have to Meditate on your word. We just pray that you would guide our thoughts and our hearts now as we consider this subject and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We've been looking at the subject of prayer for a long time now and last time in Matthew we looked at what Jesus had to say about prayer and beginning in verse 5, and he gave some instructions on how to pray and how not to pray. And then after this he, we looked at previously, he gave us an example of prayer. But then immediately after that long section on prayer, he says, and when you fast, And so here the Lord gives some instructions on fasting and we might come back to this passage maybe in a week or so but I thought I'd spend a little time on the subject of fasting in the middle of our subject on prayer because it seems that so often in the New Testament we read about fasting and prayer or prayer and fasting. They seem to go together. So we're going to look at this subject and just get a hopefully a little better understanding of what it means to fast. First of all, a little background about the subject of fasting and religious fasting. Pagans fasted. probably before believers in the true and living God were fasting, and certainly long before the books of Moses were written. And fasting was often associated in paganism with spirits and trances and dreams and mysticism and all the rest. And during times of drought and famine, when food was scarce or not available at all, pagan religious rites arose during those days and there was some kind of a religious attachment to a famine or a drought. And so these times of fasting were integrated into the pagan religious life. And almost every religion, every cultural group, has fasting as some part of its religious traditions. Maybe for a day, or maybe for several days, and Muslims fast for a month. But they only fast during the daylight hours. And that's called the... It's called Ramadan. And it was total fasting throughout the daylight hours, but then at night you could have your turkey with all the fixings, I guess. But there were all kinds of ways that fasts take place in various religions. Pagans have their way. The Jews had several fasts as well. And we read about them in the scriptures, and some of them are not mentioned in scripture, but they're being practiced by Jews today. One, several of them are connected to some kind of historic event that they wanted to commemorate, and they commemorated it by a time of fasting. They commemorated the destruction of the first and second temples with a fast called Tish B'Av. I'm sure I butchered that, but that's something like the name of the fast. And then there's another fast, and this one is mentioned in the Bible. Turn to Esther chapter 4, and this is referred to as the fast of Esther. And this fast today is observed the day before Purim, another day that was begun by Queen Esther and continued on to this day. But we read in Esther chapter 4 and verse 12, It says, and they told Mordecai Esther's words. And then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not within thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then there shall enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. So the background is the evil Haman was going to attempt to destroy all the Jews, to have a day to kill all the Jews. And he says, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, if all the Jews are. Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? a well-known expression in the Bible. And then in verse 15 it says, Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish." So here we have a fast that was held in conjunction with a calamity, a crisis in the time of Esther. The lives of all the Jews in Persia depended upon her having a meeting with the king to prevent this day of tragedy. And so, she asked her people to fast for her. And while it's not mentioned in the verses we just read about praying, I think it's assumed that when they fasted, they prayed. And these concepts are seen so often together. So Esther asked her country to fast. God didn't command it, but Esther asked them to, and the Jews still carry out, some of these Jews carry out these fast days even unto today. Never a requirement in the Old Testament, but it was practiced and still is. And then there's another Jewish fast day we're all familiar with, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And this is one of the holiest days in Judaism. And it involved a 25-hour fast along with intensive prayer and repentance. And so this was a time to think about your sins and confess your sins to the Lord. And the fact that a national fast occurred at this time did not mean that God was requiring fasting. God required the Day of Atonement, but there were other fast days that Israel kept traditionally, and because it was just their custom, but they weren't all required of the Lord. Now, the Day of Atonement was a required day of fasting and praying and repentance. But a lot of the Jewish fasting has to do with tradition. And there's nothing wrong with fasting because of tradition. They fasted and their fast days were held in conjunction with some point in their history that they never wanted to forget and the fasting was designed to just bring it to mind and so it would be on their mind all day. But that was a tradition and not a requirement. And then we come into the Christian Church in the New Testament, and unlike Judaism, Christianity has no holy days. Not even Christmas or Easter. There are no holy days. We don't have a holy day calendar in the Christian Church. And also, there were no special days of fasting for Christians. Now there are lots of examples in the New Testament where men did fast, But it was not a requirement for believers. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. In verse 5. Here the Apostle Paul is picking out a particular set of circumstances in the life of a married couple. And he says, defraud ye not, meaning don't abstain from sexual relationship one with the other, except with consent and for a time, meaning a short amount of time. And here's the reason, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. So here, fasting is mentioned in this husband and wife relationship, and it appears to be in conjunction with some kind of a calamity, some kind of a tragedy that they were facing, and whatever that event is, it's not mentioned in particular, could be anything. But the point is that they were to so totally focus themselves on prayer that they would pray right through mealtime. And they just did not have an appetite for eating food. For example, if their daughter was hit by a car and she was in the ICU and her life was hanging in the balance, That's not a time when the parents would probably want to sit down and have a big feast. That's a time when they were probably had no appetite. They were probably sick to their stomachs. And so in the process of seeking God's face in that time of calamity, like Esther, in time of seeking God's face and God's will and asking for God's mercy, they abstained from certain natural bodily appetites, like the physical relationship and eating food. And so the fast was really just abstaining, not for the purpose of abstaining or having a fast. The purpose was not fasting. The purpose was to pray and to seek God's face. And very often in times of distress, there is no appetite for the physical food or physical relationship. And we also have another example of fasting, I think is semi-related to this. Turn to Acts chapter 13. Another example of fasting, often in conjunction with something special or calamitous or tragedy taking place. This was not a calamity, but turn to Acts 13 in verse 1. Now, there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Mannan, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul, or Paul. And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they fasted and prayed, they laid their hands upon them and sent them away." So here we see the leaders in the church at Antioch were ministering. They were busy ministering to the Lord. And in that context of ministering unto the Lord, we're told that they fasted. And as they did, the Holy Spirit spoke and separated Paul and Barnabas unto the work that he had called them to. Now this was not a crisis, but this was an event of immense importance. God was calling these men to establish the first missionary journey to bring the gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth. So this was a critically important event. And so they were praying so seriously and so single-mindedly that they just did not have time for prayer or to eat. They just prayed and sought God's will through it all. They wanted to be single-mindedly focused on God and His will. And evidently, they prayed and prayed and just didn't eat for that particular period of time. It wasn't a crisis, but it was a critical point in the history of the church. God was beginning these missionary journeys. Let's look at a couple of other examples of fasting in a similar vein. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, I'm sorry, chapter 6 and verse 5. Or look at the end of verse 4. The end of verse 4, Paul says, In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, Paul was suffering through all of these things. He was experiencing one crisis right after another, and he says, and in fastings. He was listing all the things that he had to suffer for Christ's sake, and one of them was fasting, a time of no food. It didn't mean that while he was going through all of those things he decided not to eat in order to be drawn closer to the Lord. Rather, there were times when he suffered hunger. And he says it again if you turn in the same book to chapter 11 in verse 27. 2 Corinthians 11 in verse 27, he says, "...in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger, and in thirst, in fastings often, in cold, and in nakedness." So this fasting was seen in a list of bad things that he experienced, suffering. He was hungry and he fasted, meaning he abstained from food because likely there was none or very little cold and nakedness. And so Paul mentions fasting in his own personal ministry. in times of crisis, which seemed to happen at every turn for him. And so as a result of all these crises, the Apostle Paul just put aside his own physical needs and suffering, and sought God in prayer, unobstructed, undistracted, uninterrupted. So he just prayed right through, and as a result, he was so caught up in the spiritual realm, He just, the things of earth grew strangely dim and he just did not have the appetite for food. So Paul didn't go on a fast. And in the other examples that we saw in 1 Corinthians, Paul wasn't telling this young couple to go on a fast, but rather they were abstaining from certain things, not because there was merit or value in abstaining. There isn't. There's no value in not eating. There's no value in not having a physical relationship with your spouse. But there is value in abstaining from that so that you can devote yourself to prayer and seeking God's face in a time of crisis especially. And so some of the fastings that we read about were forced because of circumstances, some because of persecution when there was no food. And so in the New Testament, we do have examples of believers fasting and praying and praying and fasting, and they did seem to go hand in hand. But in most cases, the fasting was not something that they chose to do. I think I'll fast next Tuesday. That was not on their minds at all. Rather, it was something that they abstained from in the immediate because of the circumstances. And it may not even have been intentional. So Christians are not commanded to fast. And there is no benefit from fasting or just abstaining from food. It will make you hungry, but it won't make you holy. And there's no benefit in causing the body to suffer. or to abstain from some of the natural blessings that God gives us in the body. That, now you're verging into asceticism and we'll look at that and fasting a little later. But that is clearly heretical. When we think that there is merit in causing our physical body to suffer. That's the core of asceticism. And that's what Paul denounces in the book of Colossians. So there's no benefit from our physical body's suffering. whipping yourself in the back, as the priests were told to do sometimes in their seminaries. And pagans did that. Remember the Baal worshippers, they leaped on the altar and God wasn't doing anything. So they cut themselves with lancets and the blood flowed all over the place, hoping to elicit some sympathy or mercy from their God by suffering, causing the body to suffer. God doesn't want us to cause our body to suffer. There are enough occasions when our bodies suffer because we lived in a cursed earth. But there's something very valuable to giving ourselves wholly to prayer. So that we are so focused on the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm just overwhelms our natural needs for a physical relationship or food or whatever it might be. So fasting in the New Testament is not what men commonly think about when they think of going on a fast. And we see sometimes fasts were fasting from foods for a limited amount of time. Maybe a day. Maybe just missing a meal. Or 40 days. There were fasts that went on in the Bible. Jesus abstained from food for a long time in the temptation. And other fasts were not just limited in time, but limited in the types of food that they were eating. Look at Matthew chapter 3 in verse 4. Matthew chapter 3. and verse 4. At the same time, John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leaven girdle about his loins, and his meat, or his food, was locusts and wild honey. And so here we see that John the Baptist had a very sparse diet, and this was considered a fast. In Matthew 11, it says that John came neither eating nor drinking. John fasted. Now, it doesn't mean that he didn't eat or drink anything. He would have died in a hurry. But he limited the variety of foods that he ate for whatever reason, and it was considered a fast. He abstained from certain foods. And also we see in the Bible that fasts had various purposes. Some were national holidays, like the fast of Easter in present-day Judaism. Some were religious days, days of repentance and mourning and prayer, the day of atonement. And some were out of necessity because of a drought or a scarcity of food. And turn to Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27. And here we have the story of the Apostle Paul put on a ship heading out to Italy. And in this context, Just consider how the word fasting is used. Acts 27. Now, a little background. Paul was put on a ship with other prisoners. So this is, it was a wheat, a grain ship, and they were bringing grain from the Middle East and selling it in Europe. And they used the top of the deck for transporting prisoners. And Paul and a group of men were on that boat. They were prisoners. And as soon as they headed out to sea, there was a horrific storm. And the boat was about to be dashed into pieces. And the storm continued for two full weeks, 14 days it said. And so this was a time of distress. If you're a sailor, if you're on that boat, if you're anybody on that boat, this is a time of distress. And so these men... were working around the clock just to stay alive, bailing out the water that splashed over, fixing the sails or doing whatever they had to do. It was non-stop just to try to keep themselves alive. They were tossed at sea. They were sick. The storm was unrelenting. And then look in verse 33. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting. Now they weren't, they didn't choose to go on a fast. They were on a boat that was about to sink, and they just couldn't eat. They had to just keep themselves alive, bailing out, whatever it was. You have continued fasting and have taken nothing. Wherefore, I pray to you to take some meat, eat some food, for this is for your health. For there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you.' And when he had so spoken, he took bread and gave thanks in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. And then were they all of good cheer, and they all took some meat or food. Now verse 33 says that these men were fasting. They weren't eating. Many of these men would have been the prisoners that were on the boat with Paul. They probably weren't men of God that were seeking God's face. They were probably men who cursed God. They were criminals. But it says in verse 38, when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. They had a cargo of grain. So it wasn't a lack of food. This was a grain ship. But it was in the midst of what almost seemed like a hurricane at the sea that just stuck over that area for two weeks. They had no appetite for food. They had no time for food. They were just trying to keep the boat afloat and prevent themselves from sinking. But in the meantime, an angel appeared to Paul and told him that all their lives would be spared. And so Paul had to convince them to just take some time to eat because they were about to have to jump in the water and swim to the shore. He knew they would need some strength. And so he convinced them to stop. Everything was going to be okay. The angel of God told them, you're not going to die as long as you stay in the ship. And the boat did finally smash into pieces and they had to float on to the shore on pieces of wood. So this was not a national day of remembrance that these men were keeping, and this does not appear to be a religious fast that these criminals, especially, this was something that was forced upon them. Distressing circumstances. Their lives were at stake, and they were busy just keeping the water out. And so what we see in the New Testament is the term fasting Doesn't necessarily mean a religious fast. Very often it was just the absence of something. It wasn't something that you do, it's rather something that you don't do because you're so focused on prayer and seeking God's face. So we'll look at some of these other purposes for fasting next time, Lord willing. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth of it. We thank you, Lord, that you have just revealed your plan of holiness and sanctification, Lord, and help us to keep our minds focused on your word and not what men practice. And we'll thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen.