On The Mountain With God Series

Mountain Top Experiences

Throughout the Bible we find a motif or a theme of mountain experiences. Mountains in the ancient world were seen as places where the things of heaven and things of earth intersected. In Scripture we find mountains as a places where surrender happens, where communion with God happens, where worship happens.

In Eden - which Ezekiel describes as a mountain - was the place where humans and God were to be in perfect fellowship - where he would teach and instruct, but in that place, rather than surrendering - they saw and took and ate - causing sin to enter the world. (Ezekiel 28:13-14, Genesis 2, 3)

Mt. Ararat - where the ark that Noah built rested after the flood - Noah - in appreciation for God’s salvation - built an altar and worshipped. That’s where God promised not to utterly destroy the land in the same way. (Gen. 8:20—21).

Mt. Moriah - after taking things into his own hand by having a child through a servant woman (Gen. 16), Abraham is called to take the promised heir, Isaac to a Mt. Moriah to offer him back to God as a sacrifice (Gen. 22). His act of surrender brought prompted God to provide a substitute offering and resulted in a promise of blessing. That mountain ended up being the place where Solomon built the temple. (2 Chr. 3:1)

Mt. Sinai or Mt. Horeb - As we read earlier, this is the place where Moses and some of the leaders met with God and ultimately where God reveled to Moses how his people should live and worship. On this mountain God provided the plans for the tabernacle which ultimately became the model for the temple (Ex. 19-32).

We could continue by considering so many places in Scripture where significant spiritual events happened on mountains - Elijah and the prophets a Baal, Elijah and his encounter with God on Mt. Horeb, David and his failures on Mt. Zion, and more.

There is something about being on a mountain that makes us feel close to God. The change of perspective, climate, atmosphere have an impact on us. The exhaustion or fatigue that we may feel after ascending reminds us of our weakness and God’s strength or majesty. Tim Macky, in a podcast series on this topic, noted that being on the mountain, especially high mountains, makes it feel almost otherworldly - like you are a visitor to another realm (The Bible Project Podcast - Mountain series - October 2024-February 2025).

We often regard special encounters with God like a mountain top experience. Maybe it’s a retreat or a hike on Sugarloaf or even climbing in the mountains of Saudi Arabia, mountains can have a significant impact on our lives. God periodically uses mountain top experiences both figuratively and literally as a means of testing us, communing with us, and causing us to grow with Him.

I bring that up today, because as we continue looking at the book of Luke, we find Jesus going to a mountain to pray. It is after this all-night prayer vigil that he descends and names his 12 apostles. Let’s look at Luke 6:12-16 together.

Luke 6:12–16 ESV

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

As we reflect on this passage, we’ll look at three of Jesus actions, considering how we can learn from and then apply what Jesus is doing here.

The first action that we’ll consider is Jesus’…

Prayer on the mountain (12)

This is not the first time that Jesus has removed himself from the population. After his ministry in Capernaum, he sought to leave for a desolate place (4:42) - assuming he was going away to pray.

But here, Luke is unique among the gospels writers at this point in the narrative to communicate that Jesus went to “the mountain to pray.” But this was not a brief prayer session, this was an all-night prayer vigil. Let’s consider this idea of prayer.

Prayer

For most of us, we sort of understand the concept of prayer - talking to God. Maybe we’ve learned different prayer formulas like ACTS - adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Maybe we’ve even learned to pray according to the Lord’s prayer or praying according to Scripture. Maybe, some of our prayers are limited to a meal-time grace or the corporate prayers prayed a church. When we really get down to it, prayer is a significant activity.