SERMON ON THE MOUNT
FASTING
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 6:16-18
OCTOBER 21, 2001
In the year 390, in the Syrian border of Seleucia, which is in what now is Eastern Turkey, a man was born whose name was Simeon. He grew up to be the greatest Christian monastic of his generation. Today, church historians refer to him as Simeon Stylites. He is sometimes called Simon the Stylite. The word “stylite” means “pillar,” and Simeon was the very first of what were called the “pillar sitters.”
Simeon was 32 years old and the year was 422 when he left the world of normal behavior, and in his Christian devotion decided that he would spend the rest of his life living on the top of a pillar. For four years he lived on the top of a 9-foot pillar. For the next three years he lived on top of an 18-foot pillar. For the next ten years he lived on top of a 33-foot pillar. Historians tell us for the last 20 years of his life he lived on the top of a 60-foot pillar. He was a real “pillar of the church!” He spent the last 37 years of his life living on a pillar.
Now, the diameter of those pillars was six feet, so there was room for Simeon to lie down. He had a caretaker who brought food up daily and took down waste. Simeon lived 37 years in all weather on top of those pillars. He fasted, sometimes for long periods of time. He prostrated himself a thousand times a day in prayer. People began to come to see him. Theodosius, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, came with his royal entourage just to see this Christian monastic. Pope Leo I came with his ecclesiastical entourage to get a glimpse of this Christian ascetic to see the rigor of his spiritual discipline. The masses came. Thousands and thousands of people so that Simeon Stylite became famous in his own lifetime. On good weather days, people would actually bring lunches and they would have picnics as they came to watch Simeon live and fast on top of these pillars.
I think it is safe to say that Simeon Stylites represents the very worst of Christian asceticism because he took the spiritual disciplines and he turned them into spectacle. His asceticism was showy. His asceticism was ostentatious. His asceticism was vain. The word asceticism comes from the Greek word “askesis.” This word means “to exercise” or “to train.” It refers to spiritual exercise and spiritual training. In the theological sense, asceticism refers to a lifestyle of self-denial and self-discipline, adopted for the sake of a spiritual quest or a godly cause.
John the Baptist, biblically, was an ascetic. He was celibate and monastic. He fasted. He taught his followers to fast. He did not drink wine. He did not eat normal food. He ate locusts and wild honey. He wore simple garments made of camel’s hair. He dwelt in the wilderness. He was the last of the old covenant prophets. He was the herald of Christ. He was the forerunner of the Messiah. But I think for most Christians today, the lifestyle of John the Baptist seems very strange, particularly for Christians living in the western world. I think for most Christians today, the chosen lifestyle of Simeon Stylites seems downright bizarre. I think in this world of materialism and in the midst of our hedonism, even self-denial itself is not normally embraced. Most Christians today are suspicious of the excesses of asceticism and the unbalanced people who seem to be drawn to asceticism and ascetic lifestyles.
I think most Christians today are fearful or cautious with regard to the vain self-righteousness that ascetics sometimes exhibit. I mean, Jesus condemned the Pharisees partly because of the vanity of their own self-righteousness. They thought themselves better than other people because they fasted twice a week, every Monday and every Thursday. I think also in this western world, certainly in the post-enlightenment western world, we seek rational explanation. If we’re going to practice self-denial, we want to have a good reason. We want to know what the purpose is. Why live on a pillar for 37 years? Why spend 37 minutes on a pillar? I think a lot of people want to know why fast? What’s the purpose of fasting? Why does God want us to fast? And so, this morning we’re going to focus on this. This is very important. Why does God want us to fast? And He does. I mean, the Bible is clear God wants His people to fast. He doesn’t want us to sit on pillars, but He does want us to fast. The assumption that Jesus makes on the Sermon on the Mount is that His people WILL fast. He doesn’t say “IF you fast…” He says, “When you fast…”
So, this morning I want us to examine the three biblical purposes of fasting, but I want to preface this by a word of caution. There are some people who should not fast. If you have certain medical conditions, if you have a heart condition, if you’re a diabetic, if you’re pregnant, certainly you will want to talk to your doctor before considering a fast. I also want you to understand that I’m not going to be dealing this morning with How to fast. There are books that deal with that. Certainly, Richard Foster in his Celebration Of Discipline has a wonderful section in that book on how to fast. You can pick that book up in the Inklings Bookstore. Certainly, Dallas Willard in his Spirit Of The Disciplines and others of his books as well deal with how to fast. I want us to deal with why we should fast, why you should consider this in your life as a Christian.
First of all, we fast for the sake of repentance. The Bible is clear that sometimes the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, prompts us as we come in repentance to express that repentance in some measure of fasting. In the Old Testament in the Jewish world, there was only one national fast day prior to the exile. There was only one national fast day, and that one national fast day was called the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. I think most of you know that the Day of Atonement has to do with sin. It has to do with repentance. It has to do with forgiveness.
It was on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest went in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. No one else could go in there. Even the High Priest could only go in there one day a year, on the Day of Atonement. He went in there with the blood of animals. There in the presence of God before the Shekinah, he sprinkled the blood of animals upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, seeking atonement for the sin of the people. On that same day, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest vested the sin of the people onto a scapegoat. It was a symbolic gesture, sending the scapegoat out into the wilderness, symbolically removing the sin of the people from them. It was on this day that all the people of Israel, men and women, were to fast in conjunction with their sin to express their remorse as a token of their repentance and seeking God’s forgiveness. Throughout scripture, time and again you see fasting associated with repentance.
Most of you have read the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel, and you’ve read the 11th and the 12th chapters, and you know the story of David and Bathsheba. You know how David, king of Israel, stood on his rooftop, the rooftop of his royal palace, and he saw this beautiful woman on another rooftop. He summoned her. He committed adultery with her. He murdered her husband Uriah by sending him to the front lines in a time of war and then he married Bathsheba.
David was a man of moral perplexity. His morality was enigmatic. It’s hard to evaluate. The Bible tells us he was the greatest of the kings of Israel. The Bible tells us he had a heart after God’s own heart. Certainly, from David’s line came the Messiah, came our Lord Jesus Christ. But he also was a fallen man, a man of weakness. His sin was grave. The prophet Nathan came to David and pronounced the judgement of God and called David to repentance. David did repent. In his repentance, he wrote the 51st Psalm. David, of course, wrote many of the psalms. The 51st Psalm is the fourth of the seven penitent songs, and it is perhaps the greatest. It’s in that Psalm that David expresses his remorse, his repentance after his affair with Bathsheba.
He writes these words: “Have mercy on me, Oh God, according to Your steadfast love. According to Your abundant mercy, blot out all my transgressions. Wash me of my inequities. Cleanse me of my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You and You alone have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight so that You are justified in Your sentence and blameless in Your judgements. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward person. Therefore, give me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop that I might be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness. Let these bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my iniquity. Blot out all of my sin. Create in me, Oh God, a clean heart. Put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence. Take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners will return to You. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, Oh God, Oh God of my salvation.”
Do you see his remorse? Do you see his penitence? Do you see his heart? But then he makes an incredible statement with insight that could only come from the Holy Spirit. He says, “For You, O God, take no delight in sacrifice. If I were to give a burnt offering, You would not be pleased. For the sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. A broken a contrite heart, Oh God, you will not despise.”
You see, David realized he couldn’t atone for his own sins. He couldn’t pay the penalty for his own sins. There was no sacrifice that he could make that would atone for his own sin. He was desperately in need of the mercy and grace of God. Of course, as Christians we know that atonement was provided by Christ. But David acknowledged that the only sacrifice acceptable to God was a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. True remorse. And so, we’re told, as we look at 2 Samuel, that David entered into a time of fasting. He entered into a time of fasting to express that broken spirit and that broken heart.
Would you ever consider doing that? Would we consider some period of fasting as a token of our broken heartedness with regard to our sin? Of course, the Bible makes it clear that there are times when we need to fast for the sake of humility. I mean, if you know that you’ve been engaged in some sin or there’s a part of your life displeasing to God but you don’t feel remorse, the Spirit of God might prompt you to fast in order that your heart might be broken, that you might learn humility and contrition before God.
What we need as individual Christians, we need as a nation as well. I want to read with you a quote from President Abraham Lincoln. This was part of an address he gave in 1863 on April 30 when he called the nation to a day of prayer and fasting. He called the nation to prayer and fasting. President Abraham Lincoln said these words. “It is the duty of nations as well as of men who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow. Yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon and to recognition of the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. The awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has grown but we have forgotten God.”
Those are great words from a great president. I think all nations, being fallen, need to come to God in prayer and fasting. Certainly, terrorism is wholly evil. What happened on September 11 is incomprehensibly evil, and God grieves with us. We have declared war on terrorism, but we cannot possibly win that war without the mercy of God. If we would have the mercy of God as a nation and as a people, we need to humble ourselves and come to Him in repentance and in prayer and fasting. We fast for the sake of repentance.
Secondly, we fast for the sake of intimacy with God. The Bible makes it clear if you want intimate relationship with God, if you want communion with Jesus Christ, it requires time in prayer, and as the Spirit leads, time in fasting. Fasting is not only for the sake of repentance but for the sake of relationship.
Barb and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in August. About a week after that, Barb gave me this card. It says, “Something about you just makes my little heart skip a beat.” You open it up and it says, “Your driving!” That’s true. My driving definitely makes Barb’s heart skip a beat. When Barb first heard that expression, “If you’re not the lead dog, the view is always the same,” she started laughing because it reminded her of my driving. She thinks I always need to be the lead dog. Of course, it’s not the truth. I don’t need to be the lead dog. But my driving is a problem. It’s a problem for Barb.
Through the years we’ve traveled, but it had been twenty years since we’d taken a trip just in the car because my driving bothers her that much. This year, we’ve done a lot of traveling. I’ve spoken at some conferences. We’ve gone on some educational trips. I’ve been gone quite a bit, but Barb and I needed some time, just the two of us alone together. And so, a few weeks ago, we decided to go up to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. I suggested that we drive up there. Barb said that she would only do that if I would promise that when we were on two-lane roads, I wouldn’t pass. I mean, unless it was like a tractor or something, I wouldn’t pass. And so I said, “Okay.”
We took off. We went up into Summit County, went up to Steamboat Springs, cut over towards Craig, and began to work our way up towards Jackson Hole. I honestly did not pass anybody. I explained this at the first service and a couple of husbands came up and said, “We’re so disappointed in you!” But I was trying to please Barb. The amazing thing is I actually enjoyed it. Instead of being focused on my destination and trying to get there as quickly as possible, I just relaxed and I enjoyed the scenery. Barb and I talked. I looked around at things. We put the Lord of the Rings CD on the disk player, and we just had a great time.
We got up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and found a little hotel where we found a room with a wood-burning fireplace. We went up to Jenny Lake, and we hiked around Jenny Lake, 6-1/2 miles, looking up at the grandeur of the Grand Tetons. We went to the Jenny Lake Lodge for lunch. We could look out the windows and see the mountains. We went up to the Jackson Lake Lodge. You can look out of those windows and see the moose. They’re right there before you. You can look beyond them, and you can see Jackson Lake and then see the Grand Tetons. We saw bear. We saw moose. We saw elk.
We went up to Yellowstone National Park to the Old Faithful Inn. We went out to see the geyser. We arrived just in time to see Old Faithful be faithful. It was just an incredible time of being together. You know, you need a time like that to grow your love and your friendship and your marriage. I mean, God wants us to spend time cultivating that marriage relationship, growing our commitment to each other, growing our love for each other, growing our friendship. It takes time.
The Bible tells us as Christians we are the Bride of Christ and Christ is the Bridegroom. There’s a sense in which the church of Christ is married to Christ. As Christians, there’s a sense in which we are married to Christ. He longs for a close friendship with you. He longs for a close intimate relationship with you. It takes time. You’ve got to work on it. It takes time.
In Matthew’s gospel, the 9th chapter, and in Mark, chapter 2, and in Luke, chapter 5—in all three of the Synoptics—there is this passage where the disciples of John the Baptist come up to Jesus Christ and they say, “How come John instructed us to fast and the Pharisees fast but You do not have Your disciples fast? Why is that?” Jesus said, “The wedding party doesn’t fast when the Bridegroom is with them. When the Bridegroom leaves, then they will fast.”
You only understand that passage in light of the union between Christ and His church and the fact that He is the Bridegroom. When He was with His disciples, He did not have them fast, but when He ascended into heaven, they began to fast. Through the generations, Christians have fasted. There are Christians all over the world praying and fasting today, and part of the reason is they seek intimacy with Christ. They want to cultivate that love. They want to cultivate that relationship.
How about you? How deeply do you long to have intimacy with Christ? Do you ever pray and feel like you’re just talking to the wall? Do you ever have times when you just don’t feel God’s presence and you wish you could? Would you ever consider even a brief period of fasting for the sake of your relationship with Christ? You see, we live in a world and in a culture where we are so focused on pleasure and entertainment, and food is a big part of that pleasure and entertainment. Sometimes we need to break from that focus in order that we might focus on Christ.
I think biblically you could make an argument for a variety of fasts. It’s possible that you might fast from certain foods instead of all food. It’s possible that you might decide to fast one day a week or one day a month. It’s possible you might decide to fast from something other than food. You might decide to fast from television for some period of time, that you might focus in a new and fresh way on prayer and scripture and on your relationship with Christ. It’s possible that, in your effort to focus on Christ, you might be led to fast from sports. I mean, we’re a culture where we’re so focused on sports.
Last Sunday during the Bronco game would have been a great time for a fast. Yesterday during the Colorado Buff game would have been a great time for a fast. But would you consider any kind of a fast for the sake of focusing on Christ and your relationship with Him and humbling yourself before Him, seeking Him? That’s the language of scripture. People fasting that they might seek the Lord. So, we fast for intimacy with Christ.
In Exodus 34, we read how Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and his face was aglow. Why was that? Because he had spent time in the presence of God. Do you want that to be true of you? That people could see you’ve been with God? That they can see it on your face because you’ve tarried with Him?
Thirdly and finally, we fast for the sake of power. We fast for the sake of repentance that we might express our penitence. We fast for the sake of intimacy that we might have communion with Christ. We also fast for the sake of His empowerment. We fast for the sake of empowerment.
The year was 1948 when Albert Einstein made this statement. He said, “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.” Who was he referring to? Would that he had been referring to Christ, but he was actually referring to Mohandas Gandhi, who had just been assassinated by a radical Hindu who did not like Gandhi’s tolerance of religious diversity. Mohandas Gandhi was called Mahatma, which means “great soul,” and he was great. He was great. He was the spiritual and political leader of India. Through his philosophy of non-violence, he led India to its independence.
He was known for his fasting. He fasted individually, and he called his people to fast. He fasted for the sake of power. He acknowledged this. He fasted for the sake of power. He fasted that it might give him social political power. When he wanted the British government to repeal a piece of legislation, he fasted, and he had his people fast. They fasted with the threat of fasting unto death until the government would repeal that piece of legislation. If often worked. It gave him power.
When the Hindus and the Muslims began to war in India, Gandhi called his people to fast. Again, to be willing to fast unto death until the Hindus and the Muslims would lay down their swords and cease to fight. He found political, social power through his fasting.
As Christians, we’re called to a different kind of fasting. We don’t really seek social political power. What we seek is divine power. We seek the power of heaven. We seek the power of God. We seek the power of Christ. The Bible is clear that God sometimes chooses to release His power when we humble ourselves in fasting. There’s an amazing little passage in Matthew’s Gospel, the 17th chapter, 21st verse. Jesus has just been up on top of the Mount of Transfiguration where He had taken Peter, James, and John with Him. He had just come down from the Mount with Peter, James, and John, and they encountered the other disciples who had not gone up. The other disciples had just failed in a ministry situation where they had tried to cast a demon out of a little boy, and they had failed. Then Jesus came up and ministered to this boy and He cast out the demon. The disciples said to Jesus, “Why is it that we were not able to do that?” Jesus said, “This kind comes out only with prayer and fasting,” or, “This kind comes out only with much prayer and fasting.”
That’s Matthew 17:21, and it might not be in your Bible because some Bibles skip from Matthew 17:20 to Matthew 17:22. They leave out verse 21, and that’s because there’s conflicted manuscript evidence. The Textus Receptus includes Matthew 17:21. The Textus Sinaiticus and the Textus Vaticanus leave out 17:21, so there’s conflicted manuscript evidence.
People want to know, did Jesus really say that? Did He really say that you only have power for demonic ministry when you pray and fast? Did He really say that? We can debate that until the end of this age, but it really doesn’t matter because we know from other passages of scripture that fasting enables the power of God to be poured out. We know from other passages of scripture that the power of God is poured out upon ministry when people humble themselves and fast. The power of God is poured out upon prayer and healing when people humble themselves and pray and fast. In Acts, chapter 13, we see how Paul and Barnabas are being commissioned for ministry. The people fasted that the power of God might attend their ministry. In Ezra, chapter 8, we see how Ezra is leading the Jewish people on a thousand-mile march back to Jerusalem, and he calls upon the people to fast that the protection of God might come upon them.
All through scriptures we see fasting associated with empowerment. Christians throughout history have known this. The year was 565 was St. Columba left Ireland and he came to Scotland. He came to a little island on the coast of Scotland called Iona. The island is only three miles long. It’s only 1-1/2 miles wide. It is virtually barren even today, but he came there in the year 565 and he built a monastery. He came with his disciples. He built a monastery. From that little island of Iona, the gospel of Jesus Christ went forth and converted the nation of Scotland. Incredible. We were just there on that little island of Iona a few weeks ago. You can still sense the presence of God. Monasteries are still there and there’s the Iona Christian community there. It’s an amazing thing. How could it be that the power of God so went forth from that little island? The answer is St. Columba and his people prayed and fasted before they entered into ministry.
You can go off the coast of England as we did to a little island called Lindisfarne, sometimes called Holy Island. It was there in 635 that King Oswald, the second Christian King of North Umbria, invited St. Aidan to establish a monastery. St. Aidan came in 635 to establish a monastery on that island. The monastery still exists there today. St. Cuthbert came in 664, and he enlarged the ministry in the monastic community. From that little island the gospel went forth and converted England. How could that be? Because St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert had spent weeks in prayer and much time in fasting, seeking the power of God. We should know this today.
In October of 1971, James Dobson, the president and founder of Focus on the Family, 30 years ago, made a decision that he would fast every Tuesday for his children. He needed the power of God. He was worried about his kids. He felt the need for God’s power poured out in mercy and grace, and he made the decision to fast. The results have been great.
Would you ever consider doing that? I know you love your kids. Are you concerned about the way they’re turning out? Do you pray for them every day, and would you ever be willing to fast, if only for a short time, humbling yourself before God, seeking His power in the lives of your kids?
I notice in the bulletin today we have a page that’s really devoted to parenting. It tells us about various parenting classes that we can attend. I would encourage you as parents, as moms and dads, to attend those parenting classes. We need help. This is a difficult culture, a dangerous world, hard to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I notice also on the same page there’s a wonderful program called “The Quest for Authentic Manhood.” It’s a dad/son deal. We want to encourage you to be part of it. You can find out about it at the Family Ministries table out in the lobby today. But you also are going to need the power of God. You’re also going to need the power of God even in your parenting.
We need the power of God to help our nation in this time. I noticed this past week that the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has called upon Catholics nationwide to fast one day a week as long as America is engaged in this war on terrorism. This cardinal has called upon American Catholics to fast that justice might be accomplished through this war on terrorism and that peace might be the results and that spiritual revival would then come to our nation. It’s a wonderful call, and we do need to pray, and we do need to fast for this country.
Certainly, the Holy Spirit is seeking to prompt our hearts today that we might be open to this. Now, I sensed in the last service as people looked at me, I could see that some people were thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding,” but I’m not. God wants us to humble ourselves in prayer and fasting for the sake of repentance, for the sake of intimacy with Christ, and for the sake of His empowerment in our ministry and our lives and all that we do. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.