Welcome back to Aspastor John. This summer Pastor John is out of the studio preaching in Belfast in Scotland before returning to the States for a 40-day writing leave to finish up a book on Providence on the sovereignty of God a book he started last summer and hopes to finish this summer I cannot wait to see it and all of it the travel the book writing in this very podcast is all made possible by you. We are supported by the prayers and the funding of God's people.

So thank you for generously investing in this important and eternal work. So with Pastor John Busy we're diving into our archive of 1500 episodes and this summer we're pulling out some of your favorites about once every 50 episodes we release one that touches a nerve and touches the 300,000 play mark.

These are the elite episodes in our six and a half year history. We only have about 30 of them and here's one of them.

Fasting is the act of going without food for a certain amount of time. The act is not distinctly Christian nor is it distinctly spiritual either. It could just be a physical act and so Pastor John we get questions all the time about Christian fasting.

What is it and why do we do it and how would you frame this discussion and introduce Christian fasting?

Well first of all let's define fasting. Here's I think a pretty generally accepted definition of fasting among Christians over the centuries.

Fasting is a temporary renunciation of something that is in itself good like food in order to intensify our expression of need for something greater namely God and His work in our lives.

Now define like that fasting is not explicitly commanded in the Bible for Christians. Fasting doesn't have the same place in Christianity that it does for example in Islam.

The fasting that Muslims do during the month of Ramadan in Islam is a requirement of every real Muslim you can't really claim to be a Muslim if you say I'm just not going to do Ramadan fasting doesn't have that kind of place in Christianity but even though there's no command to fast in the New Testament.

Nevertheless there are indications that it was normal and that Jesus expected it would happen among his followers for example in Matthew chapter 6 verses 16 to 18 Jesus says when you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites for they just figure their faces that they're fasting maybe seen by others truly I say to you they have their reward.

But when you fast anoint your head wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who is in secret will reward you.

So several things stand out in that passage one is that Jesus says when you fast not if you fast that's what I mean when I say it seems that he expects that his followers will be fasting.

But even even more clear in this passage is that Jesus insisted that our fasting not be for the sake of impressing other people in fact we should go out of our way he says as much as possible washing our face combing our hair go out of our way to keep other people from knowing that we are fasting and that gives fasting for Christians a radically.

Godward focus and in that sense fasting is a great test and confirmation that God is real to us since in many situations God is the only person who knows your fasting and the discipline can impress anybody and all it can do is test whether you and God are really having a transaction here.

Another important passage for the meaning of of Christian fasting is Matthew 9 14 to 17 Jesus compares the old pre Christian fasting to old wine skins and the fasting that his disciples will be doing as new wine that won't fit into the old wine skins it blows them up.

In other words there is something new about Christian fasting that sets it apart from the Old Testament fasting they're not the same thing so here's what he says then the disciples came to to to John asking him why do we and the Pharisees fast but your disciples Jesus do not fast and Jesus said to them can the wedding guests.

It's more as long as the bridegroom is with them the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast.

No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or the patch tears away from the garment and the worst tears made neither is new wine put into old wine skins.

If it is the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed but the new wine is put in fresh wine skins and so both are preserved so Jesus says that his disciples are not fasting while he's with them he's the bridegroom present you know we don't fast when the bridegroom is there but when he's gone away he says which he has he's gone back into heaven.

Then the disciples will fast and what that seems to indicate is that Christian fasting is a kind of or a way of expressing our longing for the bridegroom Jesus Christ our king to return.

That's the connection between the fasting and the second coming of Christ one of the meanings of Christian fasting is that we are expressing our our our hunger for the Lord Jesus to come back and to take up his kingship in this world and what sets Christian fasting apart as unique new wine that can't fit into the old wine skins is that

Christ has already come the bridegroom the king has already been here we have seen him and known him we love him because we've tasted of his presence we have already tasted the presence of the kingship of Jesus.

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