Spiritual Mountaintops

Lk 9: 28-40 DT/UT/CHV/Mid-City 2/20/11

This morning we’re going to talk about spiritual highs.  And for those of you who just thought about a joint….I’m glad you’re here, because you need this.  No, the high I am talking about it spiritual and has nothing to do with a joint. I’m talking about the moments where God gives you a profoundly special time with him.  For those of you who are here and you have a relationship with Christ, then you know there have been moments of spiritual ecstasy before in your life.  In these times, you feel drenched in God’s presence.  It is as if you are standing under the shower head and you can feel warm water running down over your entire body, only it isn’t water, it is the Spirit.

(1) God’s glory envelopes you; (2) your sin scares you; (3) your mediator protects you; (4) your direction becomes clear

In our text, Jesus’ face changes, his clothes become as bright as lightning, Moses and Elijah appear and the glory of the Lord is shining round about. This is clearly going to be one of those spiritual highs for Peter, John, and James.  In fact, in v34, it says that “a cloud appeared and enveloped them.”  That is what happens in these times of spiritual highs or mountaintops.  God’s presence envelopes you.  It is like walking into a spider web; you suddenly realize His presence is all over you, but it isn’t a bad stickiness, but is instead a beautiful stickiness, that of God’s glory, his Spirit, coming over you in power. 

JH Ranch.  A very clear example of this happened in my life the summer after my 10^th grade year.  I went to a Christian outdoors camp in Northern California, which by the way, was where I met my wife, so clearly, God’s glory was shining round about this camp if she was there.  But as I was there, God’s glory enveloped me.  It was like diving into water—his Spirit was all around me. 

Now since this time, there have been other spiritual mountaintops. One happened as I was standing at the altar, waiting on my wife to walk down the aisle.  I was surrounded by my family and best friends in the world, and there had been so much spiritual preparation that had gone into that moment.  Years of prayer, on behalf of so many, culminating in my bride walking down the aisle to meet her groom.  As she came walking down towards me in that wedding dress, the glory of Jesus was so thick.  The radiance of my bride, and the glory of Christ. 

Grace:  OK, so that is the first thing about these experiences.  They just come over you.  God leads you to the mountaintop.  You don’t know, necessarily, when it is coming, anymore than you know when lightning will strike, b/c the glory cloud can’t be controlled or manipulated.  Jesus invited Peter, John, and James to go to the mountain, and then God’s glory descends.  So the point is that these experiences come by grace and are initiated by God.  You can’t try to manufacture them.

This is an important point to me: that these heightened spiritual experiences come by grace and can’t be manufactured.  I think there are 2 wrong extremes that people go to on this.  Some of my Pentecostal brothers and sisters are constantly trying to work up a spiritual lather or, on the other end of the spectrum are the more stoic, doctrinal Christians who are suspicious of these spiritual mountaintop experience b/c they have never had one.  Both groups focus on the experience.  One because it is like a drug and the other because it is like a plague.  But the Bible encourages you to focus on Jesus, not the experience.  Jms. 4:8, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” (and envelope you.).  Grace flows from a person.  Draw near to the one who is full of grace and truth and He will envelope you

If you are here and you just checking out Christianity, and you know you have never had a deeply moving, intimate experience with God, then let me do my best to describe what it is like.  It is somewhat like those magical, weak-in-the knees type moments that you have when you fall “in love.”  If you have ever dated someone or been married, then you know at some point everything just seems to click.  Often times it is a bunch of little things coming together.  The perfume, the restaurant, the sunset.  But here is the thing: it isn’t a formula, b/c you can do the exact same date the next week and it can be a total flop, even though the conditions are the same.  It just happens.  Call it love/romance/magic/whatever.  All you know is that you hope that moment never ends, and then a little bit of drool trickles down your cheek. This “Falling in Love” experience is the closest comparison to what these spiritual high experiences are like.  Now, thus far,All we have done is describe the initial stage of God’s glory enveloping you.  But what happens next?

(2) Your Sin Scares You:  Typically, you will have the same response that the disciples have.  When God’s glory envelopes you, there will be a sense of dread over your own sin.  Look at v34, “a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.”  Why?  Why was there fear?

Well, (1) b/c of their sin,.  Throughout the Bible, you see that when people are confronted by the glory of God, they immediately realize just how bad things are in their life.  And Peter, James, and John knew the OT well--They knew that, in their sinful state, God’s glory would consume them b/c this is what happened throughout the OT. 

Mt. Sinai:  This incident must have reminded them of Mt. Sinai in Ex. 19.  On Mt. Sinai, when the cloud of God’s glory descended on the mountain, this glory cloud was so powerful that it shook the whole mountain, and anything that touched the entire base of the mtn, much less the cloud itself, died.  And a voice came out of the cloud and it terrified the people; no one could listen to it.  Peter, James, and John must have been thinking about Moses request to see God’s glory and go into the cloud and God says, “You can’t, or you’ll die. (Ex. 33).  And here they are, and all of a sudden, down comes the cloud, but to their shock, they aren’t being consumed. 

(3)  Their mediator protected them: Jesus stood between them and their sin and God’s glory and says, “I will identify with them.”  I am going to atone or pay for their sin.  , “I will give up my glory, and experience utter humiliation, so that those who stand in me, whose trust is in me, can taste and smell and hear and experience the glory of God.” 

Why can Jesus do this?  Why can he alone mediate God’s presence?  V35 “This is my son, who is my glory.  My son is the glory.  That cloud in the OT was an old, primitive form of my glory.  Let me now show you the perfect way for you to see and experience my glory. Everything you have ever seen before, earthquake, wind, fire, pillar of fire (which were all ways God’s glory was revealed in OT), all showed me, but now you see the most full form of my glory, the perfect form. This is Col. 2:15—Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.

Now this is really hard for San Diegans to get there heads around.  

Bono:  "Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: 'I'm the Messiah.' I'm saying: 'I am God incarnate.' . . . So what you're left with is either Christ was who He said He was-the Messiah-or a complete nutcase. . . .

I know lots of you don’t like what I am saying.  This is, as I spend my time talking to skeptical San Diegans, perhaps your greatest concern:  that Christianity seems exclusive, intolerant.  And without question, Luke is saying here, “There is only one mediator between God and man, and His name is Jesus.  No one else can handle the glory of God.  Everyone else will be consumed.  You either go to God through Jesus or you don’t go at all.”

Is that exclusive? Yes, but I want you to think with me for a second.  First of all, Christianity is far more inclusive than any other major world religion.  See every other religion has a standard for who reaches nirvana or enlightenment or Allah and in every other religion good people get in and bad people draw the hot flaming straw.  But in every book of the Bible God says, “Actually, all of you are excluded.  None of you can handle my glory. Anybody who touches the base of the mtn will die.  No one, not even Moses can handle God’s glory. But everything changes when we have one to mediate the glory of His presence.  So in the most gracious act in history, God says, “Not just good people can come into my presence, but anyone.  All of you are welcome, but there is only one way to come, because no one else can mediate my presence.  No one else can handle my presence.”

And here is the crazy thing.  The God of the Bible is actually fare more inclusive than even the most secular of San Diegans who pride themselves on tolerance and inclusiveness.  Let me explain.  2 weeks ago I was sitting in my study preparing my message on Saturday night at 9:30.  4 gun shots rang out.  I ran over, shut the blinds to our home, and dialed 911.  Within 2 minutes, police were swarming the streets.  We don’t know exactly what happened, but the neighborhood has formed an unofficial CSI party and the gossip is rolling.  And they think one couple is responsible—the bad couple.  And this couple is being cut off.  And before you point the fingers at my neighbors, hold on.  Don’t we all do this to some degree.  People that scare us—bad people or just people that are jerks, we cut them out of relationship, don’t we.  But think about it.  Not God.  God goes after bad people, the people society cuts out of relationship, and envelopes them in his glory.  Paul—the guy who is trying to destroy Christians.  Mary Magdalene, the prostitute.  The Samaritan half-breeds.  The thief on the cross.  Don’t you see how much more gracious God is than even people who pride themselves on tolerance.  Because they won’t tolerate intolerant people.  Everybody is exclusive in some way.  Not Jesus, he comes and mediates God’s glory to bad people, and I for one am so glad.

That is what you must wrestle with this morning.  Jesus, and Jesus alone, can handle the presence of God b/c He is God. I

TRANS: OK, so these mountaintop experiences envelope us God’s presence, our sin scares us and drives us to Christ and then one more thing happens: on the mountain, Jesus directs us.(4) Your Direction Becomes Clear 

V35:  This is my Son, whom I have chosen:  listen to Him.  We have already communicated that God is singling Christ out here and saying, “He has the same authority I have.  He is my perfect representation, so what is the logical response:  listen to Him.  Follow what he says.  Do what he says.  So the point of these mountaintop experiences is that you listen to Christ.  He has taken you to the mountain, where the air is clear, to communicate to you through His Spirit & His Word.   

Ex:  No where is this more clearly illustrated than in CS Lewis’s book the Silver Chair, which is the 6^th book in the Chronicles of Narnia.  Jill meets Aslan, who is a lion and is the Christ-figure in all of the books.   Aslan comes to Jill and she has a spiritual mountaintop experience.  He gives her 4 signs, and he makes her repeat the signs over and over, b/c these are going to be critical for her later in life.  The glory cloud came over her.  Aslan, who is the Christ-figure, drew near and he spoke, giving her direction for her life, to follow 4 signs saying, “Remember, remember, remember the signs.  Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night.  And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs.  And secondly, I give you a warning.  Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia.  Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia the air will thicken.  Take great care that it does not confuse your mind.  And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there.  That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances.  Remember the signs and believe the signs.  Nothing else matters.”  And then Aslan sends her back down into the valley, and she promptly forgets the signs.  10:54-12:25 in The Silver Chair (“The Signs”)

A couple things stick out here.  (1) The air on the mountain is clear.  When God draws you there, soak up what he has for you during this time.  Just as Jill could clearly understand Aslan here, so can we often clearly understand God when his glory comes over us during these times.  So listen, and take his direction to heart and remember the signs he gives you during this time. (2) Signs=Word of God.  When Lewis keeps saying “signs” Clearly he is referring to the word of God here.  Aslan tells Jill to know them by heart, to say them right when she wakes up & before she goes to bed.  What he is saying is really is really Ps. 1, “Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Meditates day and night.  When you first wake up, when you go to bed.  This is why, historically, followers of Jesus start their day off with Him by listening to Him speak through the Bible.  Remembering the signs.  I don’t know about you, but for me the air seems so clear in the morning when I am with Jesus and He speaks through the word.  Then oatmeal starts flying.  And meetings go sideways.  And emails sink their teeth into me.  And the air gets thick and the signs from Jesus seem lost.  This is why I have to keep coming back—meditate day and night, morning, evening and in the middle of the day.  The air is clear.  (3) Notice where Aslan sends her.  Back into Narnia, where the air is thick and the signs will be hard to make out.  In the same way, the direction Christ sends Peter, John, and James is back down the mountain into the valley.  Peter wants to stay, but he won’t let him.  He sends them back into the valley of life, where it is messy, and the air is thick, and where life blurs God’s glory.  Jesus is sending them back into the dangerous places of life, back where, as v 37-40 tell us, demons shriek and sufferers weep.  Translation:  Jesus is sending them into the hurting places of the world.  He doesn’t want them to wall themselves off with Christian friends and Christian retreats only; no, go to the broken people and places of San Diego and bring healing.  And yet, all the while, listen to Him.  Or to use CS Lewis terminology, “Remember the signs.”

For example:  When I had that spiritual mountaintop experience after 10^th grade, God gave me clear direction for my life, and it was through his word, mainly, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  At that time, I worshipped athletics.  Football and basketball were everything to me.  My greatest hopes, dreams, and cares were all wrapped up in balls.  And God revealed to me that these things meant more to me than He did.  He began to reorient my priorities and showed me how much more weighty, and glorious, he was than football.  And the other thing had to do with the girl I was dating at the time.  It was really clear to me for the first time that

I wasn’t equally aligned with the girl I was dating (the Bible calls this being equally yoked).  I could see these things clearly, and His Spirit illuminated portions of His word.  Now, when I got back down into the valley, applying and remembering the signs was difficult.  I constantly would forget and set my heart on sports again; and then I’d remember, and repent, and in faith turn to Christ.  Or with my x-girlfriend.  It seemed so easy to say we should break up on the mountain, but it was lonely in the valley.  Maybe I had missed it; maybe we are right for each other.  But then I would repent, and remember, and return to Christ, the true lover of my soul.

And here is the hope.  Jesus, in sending you back down into the valley, isn’t sending you anywhere he didn’t go.  Think about it: He went through this mountaintop experience knowing that it was preparing him to go where Moses and Elijah, that is all the law and prophets, had pointed: down into the valley, to the place of deep despair, to the lepers, to the outcasts, to the demon possessed, to the poor and hurting.  You see, he was going through the valley to a very different hill, called Calvary, and here, he wasn’t going to hear the Father’s affirming voice, but his silence; the glory cloud wasn’t coming down to envelope him, but to consume him.  God’s lightning of blessing became the lightning of his wrath on Calvary, so much so that it turned all the lights out and a gloom spread over the land.  And, so, if he can go through that valley and handle that mtn of darkness and come out on the other side, he can take us through whatever valleys he is calling us to, and give us a courage and strength that we never knew possible, and lead us to the eternal mountain of God’s loving presence.

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