Luke 5:33-39
And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
Lessons
1. Fasting is a spontaneous and voluntary response to:
a. Mourning, which is the most common (1 Samuel 31:13/1 Chronicles 10:12 2 Samuel 1:12, 2 Samuel 3:35, Ezra 10:6, Nehemiah 1:4, Esther 4:3, Job 3:24, Ezekiel 24:18)
b. Sin or repentance of sin (1 Samuel 7:6, 1 Kings 21:27, Daniel 9:3, Joel 1:14, Jonah 3:5 )
c. Hopeless and desperate situations (Judges 20:26, 2 Chronicles 20:3-4, Ezra 8:21, Daniel 10:2-3)
2. Spontaneous and voluntary fasting is always accompanied by prayer in the early church (Acts 13:2-3, 14:23)
3. Jesus neither rules out nor requires His followers to fast but when they do they are to do it in secret (Matthew 6:16-18, Luke 5:34-35)
4. Fasting was never meant to be religiously structured (Matthew 6:16-18, Luke 5:35-39, 18:12)
Reasons we see people fasting
