#081 "Fasting on Purpose: What Hunger Reveals About Desire" (Matthew 4:2)

"And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." (Matthew 4:2)

Why would the Spirit lead Jesus into hunger—and why is this critical to understand? In this episode, Kate dives into Matthew 4:2, where Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness reveals what truly satisfies the human heart.

Tracing the echoes of Israel’s forty-year wilderness story, Kate shows how Jesus does something completely new. He chooses the Father’s word over bread, obedience over shortcuts, and trust over relief. Fasting emerges not as spiritual theatrics or self-punishment, but as allegiance: a declaration of superior love for God.

Connecting Old Testament shadows to New Testament fulfillment, this conversation also confronts a modern dilemma—many of us aren’t starving for God; we’re simply full from nibbling off of the table of the world. 

Rooted in grace, not guilt, this episode offers a biblical vision of fasting and practical guidance for letting hunger drive you back to Scripture, prayer, and deeper joy in Christ.

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Transcript

Framing Jesus’ Mission And Cost

Kate 0:00

Hey guys, this is Kate from Abidable.com, and you're listening to the Abidable Podcast. I'm just a regular wife and mom who's had my life transformed by learning to study the Bible on my own. If I can, you can. On this show, I help you know and love God more by abiding in Him through His Word yourself. What Jesus was about to undertake is unique in the history of the world. No other man ever set his face to live and die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1.29. Jesus knew that his task as the Son of Man was to give his life as a ransom for many, Mark 10.45, and that he came into the world to save sinners, 1 Timothy 1.15. He knew from Isaiah 53 that it was the will of God to crush him and to lay on him the iniquity of us all, and by his death to justify many sinners. He knew that God had passed over many sins in former days, and that the vindication of the justice of God was at stake in his life and ministry. Romans 3, 25 to 26. He knew that God's truthfulness and all his promises rode on Jesus' faithful and obedient fulfillment of every word spoken in the Old Testament, Romans 15. He knew that all this would cost him his life and that the torture would be unspeakably shameful and painful. Mark 10, 33 to 34. The Father knew this was coming, and the Son knew it was coming. And so the Father commissions the Spirit to fly like a dove upon the Son at his baptism to assure him of the Father's love and to make manifest beyond all question the approval of the Father. One of the wonderful effects of the Father's words, my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, is to assure Jesus and us that the fire of misery that Jesus was walking into was not owing to the Father's displeasure. Already the Father was preparing Jesus and us to know that the desperate cry, Why hast thou forsaken me, would not be the last word. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The first act of the Spirit in Jesus' ministry was to lead him into the wilderness and to expose him to Satan's testings. Under the Spirit's leading, Jesus prepared himself for this testing by fasting. What in the world is going on here? I've opened today's episode quoting from John Piper's amazing book, A Hunger for God, which you must read, and which I'll link in this episode's description. I also quoted Matthew 4, 1 through 2. Our verse today is verse 2. Last week we looked at verse 1 and why the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for this temptation from the devil, for the great duel foretold in Genesis 3. Now, today we're going to try and comprehend why Jesus fasted the entire time he was there. What does this mean and why for 40 days? On top of the loneliness and desolation and danger of this wilderness wasteland, and on top of having the absolute worst company he could have, the devil, Jesus fasted. And so he was hungry. God was hungry. This Greek word means to suffer want, to be needy. It's connected to a root word meaning to be poor. Jesus suffered want, was needy, and was poor. Why? Buckle up, friends. Today is going to be intense. You're not going to get out of this one unscathed. Preparing this episode took me extra long. That's why I'm late in getting it to you because I had some serious repenting to do. I really had to wrestle with some things. I had to ask myself some hard questions. This message was so personally convicting for me. I knew that I had to address some things before I dared teach on this topic or bring you guys this info. It's been a beautiful, hard, wonderful thing. I'll share more on that later. But first, real quick, want to be part of what God's doing here at Abidable. For just a few dollars a month, you can support our mission to help people know and love God by abiding in Him through His Word. Check out the link in the show description to learn more. All right, again, for our verse today, we are in Matthew 4 2, which says, And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. This is an iceberg verse, isn't it? It seems totally straightforward. Like what you see is what you get. Jesus fasted 40 days, and yeah, he must have been hungry. But there's 1,000 feet of ice beneath the surface here. And while your mind is going to be blown, what I really pray for is that your heart will be open to what you're now the bulk of our time together today is going to be spent on fasting. We're still going to look at some questions that arise from the various gospel accounts, like was the devil testing Jesus the whole time in the wilderness or just at the end? Was he alone or was he with animals, etc., etc.? But I realize that all of that will fit better into our study for verse three. So hold that thought, okay? Today we're going to focus on Jesus fasting. So, why is the very first act of the spirit to lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? And why does Jesus use fasting as the tool to overcome this temptation? We know he also uses the word, but we can't overlook fasting, right? Doesn't that seem a bit counterintuitive? If things are about to get real hard, why would you add having no food to your plate? This story should shake us up a bit and confuse our instincts. The Spirit is leading Jesus. So that means that the Spirit's will and plan and desire for Jesus is to use fasting to triumph over temptation. Let's get some more of Piper's help. He says, Jesus is standing on the threshold of the most important ministry in the history of the world. On his obedience and righteousness hangs the salvation of the world. None will escape damnation without this ministry of obedient suffering and death and resurrection. And God wills that at the very outset this ministry be threatened with destruction, namely the temptations of Satan to abandon the path of lowliness and suffering and obedience. And of all the hundreds of things Jesus might have done to fight off this tremendous threat to salvation, he is led in the spirit to fast. If Satan had succeeded in deterring Jesus from the path of humble sacrificial obedience, there would be no salvation. We would still be in our sins and without hope. If it's starting to feel like there are flashing red lights going off in your mind, good. This is a big deal. I don't know about you, but as I did my initial read and annotation of this passage, my first observation and therefore a hypothesis was that Jesus overcame the temptation of the devil by using the word of God. And while we're going to find his use of scripture to be instrumental in his victory, we must not overlook what was going on foundationally. Jesus was fasting. He was also doing somewhat of a reenactment. If you've been diving into this verse already, you've likely made the connection between Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness and Israel's 40 years in the wilderness. Each of the verses Jesus quotes in our passage here in Matthew comes from Deuteronomy and Israel's time in the wilderness. Jesus is being tested in the wilderness and is using the verses Moses spoke to the people of Israel who were being tested in the wilderness. Next week we're going to see that Satan tries to tempt Jesus into turning stones into loaves of bread to solve his hunger problem. Jesus responds to this attack by quoting Deuteronomy 8, 2 through 3. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Let's go right into the origin story to see similarities between this and Israel's time in the wilderness. Again, this is Deuteronomy 8, 2 through 3 in full with some notes added by Piper. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. Note, Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you. Note, Jesus is being tested to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger. Note, Jesus was being made hungry by his fasting, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. No, just as Jesus says to Satan. What I'm going to say next is very exciting. The Bible is filled with shadows and types, things that were pointing to things that will be. I'm going back to Piper because how he phrases this is critical to our understanding of why Jesus is reenacting Israel's wilderness wandering. Here's what's happening. Old Testament shadows are being replaced with New Testament reality. It means that something greater than Moses and the wilderness and the law and Joshua and the promised land is at stake here. It means that the time of fulfillment is at hand. The promise to Moses from Deuteronomy 18, 15 is coming true, which said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. It means that God is now with the incarnation of his son preparing to deliver his people, the new Israel, from the Egyptian bondage of sin into the promised land of forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life. To do this, he has sent a new Moses as the head and representative of the whole new people that Jesus will gather from the Jews and Gentiles. On their behalf, Jesus will now be led by the Spirit into the wilderness. He will stay 40 days to represent 40 years. He will be tested as Israel was tested, and he will hunger as Israel hungered. And if he triumphs, he and all his people go safely into the promised land of forgiveness and eternal life. Piper continues, now we can see the meaning of Jesus' fasting more clearly. It was not an arbitrary choice of something to do in the face of satanic temptation. It was a voluntary act of identification with the people of God in their wilderness deprivation and trial. Jesus was saying, in effect, I have been sent to lead the people of God out of the bondage of sin into the promised land of salvation. To do this, I must be one of them. That is why I was born. That is why I was baptized. Therefore, I will take on the testing that they experienced. I will represent them in the wilderness and allow my heart to be probed with fasting to see where my allegiance is and who is my God. And with the Spirit's help, I will triumph through this fasting. I will overcome the devil and lead all who trust me into the promised land of eternal glory. In other words, Jesus' fasting was not only preparation for testing, it was part of his testing, in the same way that hunger was a test of faith for the people of Israel in the wilderness. Moses said, God led you in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not, and he humbled you and let you hunger. So it was with Jesus. The Spirit led him into the wilderness and let him be hungry that he might test him to see what was in his heart. Did he love God or did he love bread? But that doesn't mean that his fasting was not also, even at the same time, a weapon in the fight against Satan. Fasting tests where the heart is. And when it reveals that the heart is with God and not the world, a mighty blow is struck against Satan. For then Satan does not have the foothold he would if our heart were in love with earthly things like bread. Let me summarize what Piper is saying here, because this is big stuff. Jesus is our New Testament reality of an old testament shadow or type. The promised land is at stake, but this time it's the promise of deliverance from sin, the promise of forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. Jesus is being tested and facing temptation and attack in order to become one of us, to represent us, but also to perfectly do what Israel wasn't able to do and what we aren't able to perfectly do, to prove that our allegiance is to God. Jesus' fasting was how he humbled himself and how God was able to test what was in his heart. Would he love God and choose him? He would. And this test was also a weapon. What destroyed Satan's scheme was the fact that bread had no hold on the heart of the bread of life. His heart was wholly devoted to his Father. We see this idea play out again later at the beginning of Jesus' ministry when the disciples are worried that Jesus hasn't had anything to eat. In John 4, 32 and 34, Jesus says, I have food to eat that you do not know about. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Now we're going to get more into the manna and bread thing when we look at verses three to four, where Satan tries to tempt Jesus to essentially make manna for himself like his father did in the wilderness. But for now, understand that Jesus is pointing to something beyond the bread, something beyond even the miracle of the bread, or what could be a miracle of him turning stones to bread. As he's fasting and physically starving for 40 days, the message he is sharing is that we do not get our deepest satisfactions in life from food or from things, but from God. Jesus is showing us that God is enough, that relationship and fellowship and unity with his Father is his ultimate choice. This is the most important lesson for us from Jesus fasting in the wilderness. Jesus's hunger for God more than bread was his weapon against lies and temptation. Piper helps us to see that Jesus is saying, I have been sent to suffer and to die for my people. The only hope of carrying this through is to so love God, my Father, that he is more precious to me than even the demonstrations of his miraculous power to relieve me of my distress. I know it is his will to crush me and put me to grief for the sake of his people. Jesus was not going to let Satan take advantage of the test to trick him into worshiping the bread or the miracle of the bread. He was on a mission and he would pass the test that the Israelites failed. They were tested a little bit. Jesus would be tested much more hung on Jesus test than theirs. So the fast for Jesus was the test, but also, as Piper puts it, the triumph. It was the test of his deepest appetite and the triumph of his hunger for God above all things. And therefore it was also a triumph over Satan. The Calvary road was the way to his own death and the defeat of the devil. At the cross, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. That's Colossians 2.15. The road that led to this defeat started with a 40-day fast. And in that fast, Jesus demonstrated the power that enabled him to bruise the serpent's head at Golgotha. It was the power of faith, that is, the power of a superior satisfaction in God above all things, even the miraculous gifts of God. This deep confidence and contentment in God sustained Christ all the way to the end. Jesus knew what he had left in heaven, and he knew what he was returning to. This was his great hope and joy. He once said to his disciples, If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. To return to the Father with the fruit of the travail of his soul, the church, was Jesus' great desire. On this his soul feasted, and this is what sustained him in fasting and dying. At the deepest level, fasting answered one question about Jesus. What satisfied him most? Jesus' answer was clear. Even while his body was starving, his soul was feasting. His strength came not from bread or even from miracles, but from a superior satisfaction in his Father. And that brings us to us, because fasting exposes something in us, what we're feeding on. If fasting revealed that Jesus loved God more than bread, then it's worth asking, what might fasting reveal about us? It would reveal what we are hungry for. And here is a painful and convicting reality. Most of us aren't starved for God. But just because we don't hunger for God, it doesn't mean that we're satisfied. I'll say that again. We don't starve and hunger for God, and yet we're not satisfied. Often we're just full, full of noise, comfort, distraction, control, and other small substitutions that dull our appetite for the real thing. That's why fasting feels so foreign. It threatens the things we use to cope. Fasting exposes what we turn to for comfort and stability. And yet scripture shows us that fasting isn't about punishment or spiritual heroics, it's about awakening desire. John Piper puts beautiful words to what Jesus is trying to reveal to us in the wilderness. If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God, and it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food. And the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast, this much, oh God, I want you. We'll be right back after this message. Do you know about our how to study the Bible course? As we're walking through Matthew 4 together, you are seeing the simple, repeatable steps I use to study God's Word, and you can learn to use them too in our How to Study the Bible course. This 20-lesson video course will help you better know and love God by abiding in Him through His Word. You'll learn not just why to study, but how, with practical skills like annotation, cross-referencing, word studies, and more. It's rich enough for seasoned believers, yet clear enough for beginners. And every lesson comes with workbook activities to deepen your learning. You'll get lifetime access for your whole household, bonus resources, and even a coupon for a free abidible study when you finish. So while I love having you listen to me here on the podcast, I'd also like to extend a very warm invitation to you. You are able to abide in the Bible yourself. Learn more about the course today by clicking on the link in this episode's description. And now back to the show. Fasting reveals what we hunger for, and often it's for lesser things than God. No wonder we aren't fully satisfied. We nibble at the table of this world, and our souls are stuffed with small things. But there's great news for all of us and an incredible tool that Jesus has shared with us: fasting. Fasting makes room for the great things of God. You can awaken and develop an appetite for God, and it's not as complicated as you might think it is. So here's how we're going to spend the remainder of our episode. We're going to try and wrap our brains around fasting so that we can learn to follow Jesus' example when God calls us to do so. Again, Jesus' example demonstrates to us that it is possible to be fully satisfied in God. The reality of his wilderness obedience, thus overshadowed, meaning redeemed, the shadow of Israel's unfaithfulness, of their failed tests in the wilderness. And they failed because they were unable to be fully satisfied with God. This is the same struggle we face as we nibble on smaller things that the world has to offer. Joseph Wimmer says, the weakness of hunger which leads to death brings forth the goodness and power of God who wills life. Here there is no extortion, no magic attempt to force God's will. We merely look with confidence upon our Heavenly Father and through our fasting say gently in our hearts, Father, without you I would die. Come to my assistance. Make haste to help me. We might think we need physical or emotional or financial assistance. We may believe that educational or employment success will satisfy. We may have ideas about relationships or purchases or physical traits that will fulfill us, but this is not the assistance we truly need. The only way that we will, as Piper puts it, finish our course and keep the faith and persevere to the end is by looking to Jesus. That's Hebrews 12, 2. We need divine assistance to see and savor the glory of God in Christ. The Bible tells us to look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. Remember that from our jars of clay study of 2 Corinthians 4. We are to, as Colossians 3 2 says, set our minds on things that are above. This is God's will for us. And learning to do this feels really, really, really important as a Christian in this world right now. I knew that walking into the wilderness would be a battle, that facing the enemy and unmasking his character and tactics and strategy would tick him off. I'm battling to get you guys these episodes, but I'm also doing my own personal battle. God is revealing the things that I hunger for instead of him, the things that I use to numb, to escape, to withdraw, namely my obsession, unhealthy obsession with current world events, and my withdrawal to the comfort of my own home or my bed, food and physical unhealthiness. I am so physically unhealthy and in so much constant pain that I numb out oftentimes with food. I just give up and eat. It's been hard to look at all these things, to admit, to admit them and to address them. But it's made less hard when I understand what he's up to, what he's doing. He's battling to set me free from the things that master me that do not and will not ever satisfy me. You guys know that I love his word, that I feast on it, that I've been continually in it for nearly five years now. But here's what's kicking my butt. Through Matthew 4-2 and this study of Jesus fasting in the wilderness, God is revealing to me that the desires for other things, even good things above God, choke the word and prevent me from being satisfied in Him alone. This is the battle I'm actually really flipping excited and fired up to fight. Piper says, Therefore, the fight of faith and the battle to behold the glory of the Lord day by day is fought not only by feeding the soul on truth, here it is, but fasting to put our appetites to the test and if necessary to death. The fight of our faith is not only about feasting on truth, but also fasting to test what might be falsely filling us and to put those things to death if needed. This is gonna hurt. There are things that have mastered you that right now you are enslaved to, meaning that they have eclipsed your love for God. Testing them through fasting from them is going to be painful. I'm not gonna lie. It might even feel impossible. You love these things. You cozy up next to them. They likely could even be good things. Piper says the greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, though it can be, but the prime time dribble of triviality that we drink in every night. The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies, but his gifts, and the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God Himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable. Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, this is Luke 8.14, as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life. In Mark 419, he said, The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Oh my gosh. Take a deep breath, you guys. The pleasures of life and the desires for other things, these are not evil in themselves. These are often not even vices, they're gifts from God. They're your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV watching and internet surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God. What are we to do? This is exceedingly convicting, isn't it? Now you guys can see why I was late in getting this to you. Take comfort in knowing that the Lord is dealing with me too, friend. He's showing me deadly substitutes that I've accepted and that I don't want to let go of. He's revealing them to me and I'm clinging to them with white knuckles and gritted teeth. I am so grateful that God loves me too much to let go of me, even while I'm still clinging to these stupid things. So let's make some headway together. The next logical step is for us to get a better understanding of what exactly fasting is and how we can walk it out. Because it still feels out of reach as a practice or discipline. I need to know more. Again, I'll be relying heavily on what I learned from Piper in his incredible book. He did a really good job summarizing what the Bible says about fasting, and so I'm going to try and do that for you now. So first, write this down. This is Piper's big idea, and it should be ours too. Christian fasting is the hunger of homesickness for God. I hope that flips your idea of fasting on its head. I'll say it again in a different way, as Piper did. The birthplace of Christian fasting is homesickness for God. And here are the two halves of Christian fasting. One half is losing our physical appetite in order to increase our longing for God. And the other half is the threat to our longing for God because of the intensity of our physical appetite. Piper says Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of a superior satisfaction in God, it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away. Let me put that plainly because this is a little hard to comprehend. Fasting is both the result of loving God more than anything else, and a deliberate way to fight for that love when it feels threatened. Now, when we think of fasting, we have to understand that anything can get in the way of our deep satisfaction in God, not just food. And the test God puts on our desk is not placed there out of cruelty, but love. He knows that we are designed for a relationship with him and will only ever be satisfied if we are satisfied in him. So he gives us this tool of fasting to provide us with what Piper calls the actual lived-out reality of our preference for him over all things, because we easily deceive ourselves that we love God unless our love is frequently put to the test. And we must show our preferences not merely with words, but with sacrifice. And this is where fasting becomes such a gift to the true Christian. It is a means to an end, an end that frees us to look to Jesus more than anything, to be transformed into his image, and to finish our race having chosen him above all else. Piper calls fasting the hungry handmaid of faith. He posits that fasting is so valuable to faith, and here is a really helpful practical example that he offers. What a servant, fasting, the hungry handmaid of faith is. Humbly and quietly, with scarcely a movement, she brings up out of the dark places of my soul the dissatisfactions in relationships, the frustrations of the ministry, the fears of failure, the emptiness of wasted time. And just when my heart begins to retreat to the delicious hope of eating supper with friends at Pizza Hut, she quietly reminds me, not tonight. It can be a devastating experience at first. Will I find spiritual communion with God sweet enough and hope in his promises deep enough, not just to cope, but to flourish and rejoice in him? Or will I rationalize away my need to fast and retreat to the medication of food? The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6 12, I will not be dominated by anything. Fasting reveals the measure of food's mastery over us, or television or computers, or whatever we submit to again and again to conceal the weakness of our hunger for God. Okay, so fasting reveals the measure of a thing's mastery over us. But what does the Bible say about fasting? Here's a summary of some of Piper's main points, but this is again where I really want to encourage you to pick up his book, A Hunger for God, so that you can get the full context. Here are seven points from the Bible about fasting. One, the kingdom has come, but it's not complete. Fasting lives in the tension of already and not yet. Jesus teaches in Luke 11, 20, and 17, 21, that the kingdom of God has already broken into the world through him, but that we are still waiting for its fullness. Matthew 9.15, Jesus says, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away and then they will fast. So why do we fast? Because Christ has come and because we long for his return. Fasting is not a denial of joy, it's hunger for more joy. Two, fasting is for longing, not for earning. Fasting expresses desire, not discipline for its own sake. Prior to and in Jesus' day, fasting was associated with religious behavior like mourning, desperation, and longing. And Jesus says that longing makes sense when the bridegroom is absent. In Matthew 9:15, he says, can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? So here's the biblical logic. When Jesus was physically present, it equaled celebration. When Jesus is bodily absent, it equals longing and fasting. So we fast not because God is distant, but because we want Him closer. In 1 Timothy 4 4, he says, everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. And in 1 Corinthians 8 8, he says food will not commend us to God. So here's the important correction: Fasting is not self-punishment, spiritual brownie points, or proof of holiness. Fasting doesn't reject God's gifts, but it does reorder our loves. 4. Asceticism can't change the heart. Self-denial alone has no power to defeat sin. Paul warns that strict rules about food and the body look spiritual, but don't actually transform us. In Colossians 2.23, he says these all have an appearance of wisdom, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So the point here is that you can starve your body and still feed your pride. Fasting without love for God can strengthen the will while leaving the heart untouched. 5. Eating or not eating is secondary. The heart is central. Fasting matters because of why, not whether or not you do it. Paul teaches that both eating and abstaining can honor God. In Romans 14, 6, he says, the one who eats eats in honor of the Lord. The one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord. And in Colossians 2, 16, he says, Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink. So what's the core principle? Fasting is never commanded universally, but longing for God is. So fasting is a servant, not a master. 6. Jesus says, My disciples will fast, but not in the old way. The fasting that Jesus taught was not as it was done in the old religious way, but as new longing. Jesus does not abolish fasting, but he does transform it. He literally says that the old way of fasting won't work. In Matthew 9, 17, he says new wine is not put into old wineskins because they would burst. New wine is put into fresh wineskins. So what does this mean? The old fasting equals ritual, obligation, and performance, but the new fasting is about desire, ache, love, and hunger for Christ. So Christian fasting is not about what you give up, it's about who you want more. And here's our seventh point: this is the age of holy hunger. We fast because we live between presence and fulfillment. Jesus is with us by his Holy Spirit, but not yet with us in full glory. Philippians 1.23 says, to depart and be with Christ is far better. And 2 Corinthians 5.8 says, we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So why do we fast now? Because something in us knows this world is not enough. And we can lovingly express that ache through fasting as we await the day when we will depart to be reunited and home with Christ. Now, how are you doing? Are you feeling excited, convicted, overwhelmed, ashamed? If you are feeling any type of shame or condemnation or hopelessness or stress, let's call that out for what it is. The voice of the enemy of your soul whispering to you in the wilderness, be gone, Satan. We refuse to listen to your lies. We want freedom. Here is the gospel encouragement you need right now. This is what Piper calls the center of Christian fasting. He says the decisive triumph of the Son of God, the Messiah, entering history and dying and rising from the dead and reigning over history for the salvation of his people and the glory of his father. Christians are a people captured by a great hope that one day they will see and be enthralled by the fullness of the glory of God in Christ. But what is decisively Christian in this is that our hope is rooted in the past historical triumph of that very God over sin and death and hell by the death and resurrection of Jesus, who offered himself once for all as a sacrifice for sin and sat down at the right hand of God. The great, central, decisive act of salvation for us today is past, not future. And on the basis of that past work of the bridegroom, nothing can ever be the same again. The lamb is slain, the blood is shed. Shed the punishment of our sins is executed, death is defeated, the spirit is sent, the wine is new. Christian fasting rests on all this finished work of the bridegroom. It assumes that it believes that and it enjoys that. The aching and longing for Christ and his power that drive us to fasting are not the expression of emptiness. Need, yes. Pain, yes. Hunger for God, yes, but not emptiness. The first fruits of what we long for have already come. The down payment of what we yearn for is already paid. The fullness of what we are longing for and fasting for has appeared in history and we have beheld his glory. It's not merely future. We do not fast out of emptiness. It's not about never having experienced the goodness of God, friend. It's about understanding his completed work and rejoicing in it, having tasted his goodness and therefore wanting more. It's about breaking the addictions and substitutions and attractions that are so much less. May we put them to death. May we put them in their rightful lower position. But we need to fast from time to time in order to allow God to show us what is in our hearts. And when what is revealed isn't great, we know that we have forgiveness and grace to help in our time of need. We know that we have the power of the Spirit who dwells in us to overcome every power that binds and holds us. We know that because Jesus came, lived sinlessly, died shamelessly, and resurrected victoriously, nothing that we have put above Christ has the power to separate us from his love. Now we don't presume on this grace so that we can keep on sinning, so that we can lift our chains of bondage in mockery to the one who broke them. No, we raise our feeble hands and our rattling chains with a plea through a fast saying, Help me, Lord, help me love and desire you more than these chains. What does the future look like for us, friend? The future here in the wilderness and beyond, the future days as we wait for our promised reunion with Christ as we wait to go home. I'll tell you one thing that we can be sure of, one thing we should welcome and embrace homesickness for God, hunger for Him. I'll close with this beautiful vision from Piper. He says, The strongest, most mature Christians I have ever met are the hungriest for God. It might seem that those who eat most would be least hungry, but that's not the way it works with an inexhaustible fountain and an infinite feast and a glorious Lord. When you take your stand on the finished work of God in Christ and begin to drink at the river of life and eat the bread of heaven and know that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get hungrier for God. The more satisfaction you experience from God while still in this world, the greater your desire for the next. For as C.S. Lewis said, our best havings are wantings. The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ, the more homesick you get for heaven, the more you want all the fullness of God, the more you want to be done with sin, the more you want the bridegroom to come again, the more you want the church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus, the more you want a great awakening to God's reality in the cities, the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached people of the world, the more you want to see false worldviews yield to the force of truth, the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed, the more you will long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea. Friend, let's stop nibbling at the table of this world. Let's allow God to awaken in us a true hunger for him that can and will fill us to overflowing, to simultaneously satisfy us and give us the holy desire for more. Ask him where he might want you to start. Bring that simple fast before him with hands held open and say, I want you, God, more than this thing. Lay it down. And if you pick it up again, grace. But grace again, my friend, is not meant to lead to acquiescence. It's meant to lead to repentance. So put it down again and again. Release your white knuckle grip and unclench your teeth. Surrender it to him by looking to him instead of to it, and let him set you free as you hunger more and more for him. After 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus was physically hungry, but he endured that physical hunger because his hunger was for something greater, his own father. And that hunger was satisfied each morning and each evening. He had food the devil didn't even know about, and his food was to do the will of his father, and that's exactly what he was doing. Your best havings aren't the things that you nibble on, friend. That's a lie. You've been tricked, I've been tricked. As C.S. Lewis said, your best havings are wantings, wantings for him. He is an inexhaustible fountain, an infinite feast, and our glorious Lord. Drink at the river of life and eat the bread of heaven. You have food the world doesn't know about. Your purpose, as was Jesus's, is to do the will of the Father, to love him with all your heart and live for him alone, because he alone is God. Glorify him by fasting to acknowledge your hunger for greater things and as a weapon against lesser things. As Piper says, God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. You know, I wonder, did Jesus sing Psalm 63 when he was in the wilderness? This is the psalm that David sang from that exact same wilderness of Judea when his life was in danger. I think there's a strong possibility that Jesus sang the same song. Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. Go into your wilderness, singing and unafraid, remembering that your hunger is proof that God Himself is drawing you to the true feast, that the bread of life, Jesus, secured victory here in the wilderness and up on the cross, enduring these 40 days of hunger, because his food was to do the will of the Father. And the will of the Father was to pull up a chair for you at the banquet table so that you would never hunger or thirst again. And that's it for this episode. If you know someone who would be blessed by what you just heard, please share the Abidable podcast with them. Keep spreading the word so we can make much of the word. Drop us a review, tell us what you love and what you're learning. Check out the link to learn more about partnering with us by buying us a coffee one time, by joining our Abidable Plus Women's Membership community for $10 a month, or by becoming a monthly supporter. For those of you following along in the workbook, go ahead and begin working on our next verse in this series, Matthew 4-3, on pages 16 to 19 in your study workbook. Ideally, you would have this section done before you listen to the next episode, number 82. Our verse next week is Matthew 4.3, and the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Jesus was hungry. As we saw today, he'd been fasting for 40 days. So what does the tempter, the devil, do first? He attacks where he thinks Jesus will be most vulnerable, trying to undermine his very identity if you are the Son of God. He tries to tempt him into proving he is the Son of God in order to meet a very real need that Jesus has: hunger. Show me who you are, prove your power by turning stones into bread. How diabolical. This verse is the beginning of the three temptations from the devil and the three responses from Jesus. There is so much for us to learn here together as we unveil the tactics of the devil. Know thy enemy. Next week, we're going to weaken Satan's power over us by unmasking two of his greatest areas of attack: identity and need. I'll pray for us and then close us out with our memory work for verse two. God, you know everything that we just discussed and everything that's in our hearts. You know the things that we nibble on at the table of the world, the lesser things, the things that we try to use to numb, to conceal our ultimate hunger, which is hunger for you. God, we ask that you would teach us through the practice of fasting, through the discipline of fasting, even now by calling us specifically. I know that as we're listening and as we're talking, there are men and women listening who know exactly what it is that they need to begin fasting from, that there is something that has taken its place in their heart above you, Lord. And so I pray that you would give us through the power of the Holy Spirit the discipline, the power, the control, the desire, and the love for you in order to put that thing in its rightful place beneath you or put it to death. God, we cannot do that without you, but we know that you call us to that because you love us, you want us to walk in freedom, and you want relationship and fellowship with us. So we come before you asking for supernatural help in moving forward in our understanding of what fasting is, that it is homesickness for the closeness of you, and that it reveals the things that we have put in place of you. And so as we learn, as we grow and as we move forward, we ask you to lead us in the power of the Spirit, just as you led Jesus in the power of the Spirit, and that it would reveal as you test us that we really do love you and help us to really choose you as we're maybe asked to sacrifice things that are really hard, put things to death that we've really grown to love. Do what you need to do in our hearts, God. Only you know, each person that's listening, what the next steps might look like. And so I ask through the power of the Spirit that you would enable each one of us, including myself, to walk that out in faithfulness because of love. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's close by doing our memory work together. I'm going to repeat Matthew 4 2 five times. Say it out loud with me or quietly to yourself. And after fasting 40 days and forty nights, he was hungry. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Matthew four, two. Remember, you are able to abide in the Bible. We'll see you next time. Until then, let's abide.