The “mountaintop experience,” Matthew 17:1-9
1. The Disciples Follow Jesus up to the mountain
• If you ever climbed a mountain it’s not easy huffing and puffing all the way. Small short hills cause me to huff and puff
• Following Jesus is not easy one might say there’s a lot of huffing and puffing
2. If we will follow Jesus to the top of the mountain we might get encounter some amazing stuff
• They see Jesus “transfigured” before them. When the experience was over, they knew their lives would never be the same.
• They encountered some kind of vision: “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him” (Matthew 17:2-3).
• Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of Israel!
3. Peter could have took a moment to have thought about the blessings he just encountered
• Peter seemingly says “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Matthew 17:4).
• There is Peter, like so many of us: barely taking a second to stop, catch his breath and behold the wonder unfolding before his very eyes!
• I recall videoing the basketball games of my grandchildren but not really enjoying the moment of just watching the game! So the next game I never videoed for that reason.
• Take time to consider the blessings God gives us , Precious moments with a child, a grandmother, mother , the church
4. Our Mountaintops Where are the mountaintops in our lives?
• Where do folk like us encountering the living God
• We have no clue where or when God’s going to show up — the spirit-wind “blows where it chooses,” as Jesus taught Nicodemus (John 3:8).
• We may be able to position ourselves in the right place at the right time.
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5. Places to encounter God our mountaintops
• Maybe When we pray. We May encounter the mountain top experience of God. Just talk to God
• Another way to ascend to the mountain is to read the Bible. This requires dedicated time, not a few seconds here and there.
• Another way to be on the mountain with god is by attending worship regularly. Now that suggestion may sound painfully obvious for any preacher to say from the pulpit, but there’s truth in it, all the same. You want encounter, feel God and the most obvious place is church.
• Isaiah was at worship vision of the angel holding the burning coal, and of God saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8).
• Another example is John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He was a priest in the Church of England, who thought his spiritual life was just fine until he accepted an invitation to attend a worship service. In Wesley’s own words:
• “I went very unwilling to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”2
