A megachurch pastor reminded believers not to focus on behaviors while ignoring the essence of the Christian faith, saying the nature of fasting was more important than the act.
In a sermon titled "Fasting for Whom" and released on the WeChat account of "SaRang Chinese Ministry" last Wednesday, Rev. Dr. Jung-Hyun Oh, the senior pastor of the SaRang Church in South Korea, said, "When the people of Bethel asked God whether fasting was necessary, He replied, 'Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets?'"
How did Isaiah, the representative of the prophets, speak about fasting?
The pastor cited verses of Isaiah 58:6 to describe, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" He added, "The true fasting is to care for the disadvantaged groups in society and to obey God’s words in daily life. So when facing questions about the nature of fasting, we should respond that we would follow through with true fasting."
Based on Zechariah 7: 9-10, he also pointed out what was true fasting, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'"
The first thing our Lord Jesus did after fasting for forty days was to proclaim prophet Isaiah's saying: "The spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
"We believe that spiritual freedom is true freedom", he said, "The Pharisees were representatives of those who claimed to be consistent with what they believed but actually ran counter to them. They were not offering worship to God, but to themselves, as they were just self-compassionate, self-satisfied, and self-centered. But the tax collectors were true worshipers who worshipped in spirit and in truth."
"What is important to our hearts? Do not be like Pharisees who fasted on the outside, but be a tax collector in this age who beat his chest every day and prayed to the Lord for mercy. If you want to offer true worship in spirit, you must be victorious in the congregational worship every Sunday. If worship is the root, then our daily life is the fruit. If the congregational worship is the foundation, our daily life is a construction built on it."
Finally, the pastor reminded believers that if they worked on weekdays like Cain, they would not be able to present offerings that are pleasing to God like Abel on Sunday. He expected churchgoers to go about their daily lives as if they were attending congregational worship.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
