So what can we learn about a special visit Jesus took with his three closest friends to a mountain? That’s the question. What can we learn from a special experience Jesus had with his three closest friends?
Mountains are significant in lots of ways. You and I have this all the way down to our own contemporary parlance. We talk about a mountaintop experience.

One of my favorite historical examples of this kind of a thing is from the late great David Livingston, who you may know was one of the great Christian missionaries of all time, and he was the first European to see Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls, I’ll try not to get diverted, is one of the most spectacular natural sites in the world. It’s 5,604 feet wide.

That’s over a mile wide, and it goes down over 340 feet. It is the largest falling continuous sheet of water in the world, even to this day. And one of the most striking things about it is, it’s so much water in such a little time that it sends clouds of water vapor up into the sky that you can see from miles away.

And this is Livingston, and he was the first European to ever see this, and this is from his diary.

‘Five columns of smoke arose. The whole scene was extremely beautiful.
Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.’

Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight. It’s that kind of an experience.
So I want to look at it in some detail, and let’s figure out what happens….

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Ivanka Demchuk, "Transfiguration of the Lord", 2015 pic.twitter.com/EZ9O8PK6xv

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) February 16, 2026

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Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, "The Nativity" (c. 1670)#Art pic.twitter.com/rh8f6g4g6G

— Campbell F. Scribner (@ScribnerUMCP) December 24, 2025

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'Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost'

An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and reassures him, a scene from today's Gospel, by Wilhelmina Geddes, 1920, a studio piece now in the Stained… pic.twitter.com/UmWF9nRGcj

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) December 21, 2025

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“Prayer is like breathing. It is the air in which we survive spiritually.” – Elisabeth Elliot

Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. Psalm 55:17#elisabethelliot #prayer #christianbooks #faithful #spiritual pic.twitter.com/PYl0bzoDrN

— Elisabeth Elliot (@EElliotFdn) September 24, 2025

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“Now let me say a word to all of us about the importance of Christians being Christians. I want to speak to you from my heart and tell you that you matter not just to God, not just to me not just this Parish, but to this country and the most important thing for the country right now is for Christians to be Christians and to be salt and light.

There’s no question that the last week has been unspeakably difficult for our country. We had a man who was speaking publicly at a university in Utah senselessly murdered in cold blood. It caused terror and shock to the students, to the university, to the state of Utah, to the country and indeed to the world.

Whatever else you can say about this terrible event it represents the symptom of a country that is not well. We need Christians to pray for this country but we need more than that. We need Christians to be Christians in the public sphere in this country and behave in the public Square in a manner that conforms with the person and the teachings of Christ.

This means two things specifically for us. First of all, it means speaking against political violence from any point of view as ever being justified in the public square. Christians need to be people who defend free speech, but also who defend the importance of good disagreement in public and who do everything in their power to pray and speak against any political violence.

There is also something philosophical at stake and it matters. One of the very alarming things that’s happened in the last few decades is that a perspective has emerged, which has moved from arguing that words are bad to arguing that words in and of themselves are violence.

We need to be careful here. There is no justification for using free speech to deliberately incite violence from others or ourselves, but this is different.

What is now being argued is that words of a certain type from a certain vantage point are inherently violent and therefore people who use those kind of words and those kind of arguments are able to be responded to with violence in certain circumstances.

Do not fool yourself that this idea that political violence is justified is somehow hiding anymore in the dark subways or smaller parts of our country. What is so deeply disturbing about what this week represents is how many people in public from various viewpoints are more and more justifying political violence as a means of somehow being a solution to our problems Political violence has never been good. It will never be justified. It can never be condoned. It must always be condemned.

This is true for everyone, but especially for us as Christians. Let us renew our commitment to pray for this country and let us renew our commitment to seek the common good, to defend the importance of the public square and to defend the need to behave properly in the public square. And let us all work for the common good of our country.

Several people have argued that this week could be a turning point—let us pray that it is, in all sorts of ways, a turning point for the better, but let us, especially as Christians, respond by making sure that it deepens our resolve to be people of salt and light who speak the truth in love and who declare to all that speaking the truth in love matters. And let us pray that the God who brought his light into the darkness of this world, somehow brings his light out of this very dark week in Utah and in America.”

“All right, now let’s look at this particular struggle. It’s an incredible story, this. It goes in four parts, and what’s so powerful about it is it goes in a circle.

So it’s a bit, in a sense, misleading if you read the psalm too quickly, because the beginning verse, look at your text, verse one. Truly God is good to Israel. That’s actually the end of the story.

And it doesn’t feel all that powerful because he’s beginning at the end. So what you need to realize is, if you go to the end of the psalm, verse 28, but for me, it is good to be near God. See, this is a song about the goodness of God.

He’s telling you at the beginning, that’s where he ends up. But what you need to realize is, the journey through which he gets there is absolutely crucial. And it’s a very, very hard one, and it’s a very, very important one for us to understand.

So I’m going to go through it under four headings just to give you a way to follow. So I want to talk about the ledge that he ends up on. 

I want to talk about the lift that God gives him while he’s on the ledge so he doesn’t end up staying on the ledge.

I want to talk about the lesson that he learns. And then I want to talk about the liberation that God gives him as a result of this experience. So if you’re with me, ledge, lift, lesson, liberation.

All right, you all with me? Here we go. Verse two, it all starts.

This is very serious stuff, brothers and sisters. This is not some minor struggle. This is a member of the people of God.

He’s been at it for a while, and he’s going through a tough time. How do I know that? Well, look at your text.”

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“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26 ESV) pic.twitter.com/Y6zKL1d5Y2

— Joel (@GuitarmanJoel) July 23, 2025

“What does a wise life look like? What does a wise life look like? I want to be sure that we’re all on the same page as I begin.

That word wise is carefully chosen. In the Old Testament, the word for wisdom is coming from a very agrarian and earthy context. In Hebrew, you always start with the physical and the earthy and work your way forward to the more metaphorical or spiritual or less earthy.

So this word wisdom is used in the Old Testament for stonemasons and wood carvers. If you wanted to translate it in English, literally you would say skill. So the whole idea initially of this word is, you would look at something that a stonemason had made or someone who works with wood.”

“For those of you who know Granger McCoy in South Carolina, he comes to mind and you look at what they’ve done with the wood and you say, wow, that took a lot of effort, that took a lot of skill. How did you make that fantastic piece of art out of that piece of wood? It takes skill, that’s wisdom, in terms of its imprint on physical stuff.

And then it becomes metaphorical. And what it means is what you do not with wood or with metal or with stones, but what you do with life. You’ve been given the gift of life.

You actually didn’t have to be here. Do you know this about yourself? We didn’t need you.

God didn’t need you. He didn’t need the world. He didn’t have to make us.

He didn’t have to make this day. It’s all grace. It’s all gift.

But you’ve been given the gift of life. God gave it to each one of us. And the question is this, if you look at someone’s, not their stones or their painting or their woodwork, but if you look at their life, their whole life, all that they are, all that they do, can you then say, “wow-that is beautiful!?”

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Psalm 1:3 "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." pic.twitter.com/8rnCE69uRQ

— Christian Law (@clalaw) June 4, 2025

“Verse 6, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It’s a really amazing question. Calvin says, there are as many mistakes in that question as there are words.

It’s terrible. They just don’t get it. They don’t understand.

They don’t understand. They don’t understand. Why are they in the story?

Because they’re us. Because apart from the Spirit of God, we just don’t get it. Whatever else is going on, this is a people that don’t have understanding unless God gives it to them.

Do you see yourself in them? Only just getting started. That’s not the only thing that they lack.

They lack understanding. They also lack power. We know that because Jesus told them to wait.”

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This radiant miniature from the famous “Grandes Heures de Rohan” (1430/35) offers a highly original vision of Pentecost – one that breaks with standard iconography. The Virgin Mary is absent, and the apostles gather outdoors, gazing upward in expectation, hands raised in prayer.… pic.twitter.com/YaviyTBw3m

— Vir Desideriorum (@VirDesideriorum) June 8, 2025

One of the great Canadian Anglican pulpiteers of recent generations, Harry Robinson, was once asked what the greatest obstacle for him was in preaching.  He didn’t even hesitate.  “Overfamiliarity with the text,” he responded.

If that is true on any great feast day it is true on Pentecost.  We read the story knowing what is going to come, forgetting that those there at the time had no idea what would occur next.

Jesus said “behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.”  Then he left. They did not comprehend his words.  Luke tells us at the key moment his disciples were not standing, they were sitting.

When the Holy Spirit came, Luke stretches language to its limit to try to capture what occurred: “a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind;” “tongues as of fire.” This was not anticipated—and therefore those present were filled with wonder and astonishment.

Earlier Jesus had said “the wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” And so, too, is it when the Holy Spirit blows into our lives.

After one particularly stressful day recently, I was sitting with my wife watching a taped favorite television program, “24.”  We were at a tense moment in the show.  It was late. Then the phone rang.

I was not thinking the most pleasant thoughts.  I was frustrated.  We stopped the show and I looked to see the number indicating that our oldest daughter, who is away from home at school, was calling. I bet you guessed I didn’t answer as hospitably as I should have.

The voice on the other end of the phone wanted to speak to her father.  I said hello and she proceeded to read me a passage from a 19^th century author she had just discovered.  She was breathless.  “Isn’t that fantastic” she asked. “I knew you would appreciate it the most—I just had to call and share it.”

Soon thereafter the voice was gone.  I was filled with sudden wonder, touched through joy by surprise.

I think of moments like that when I remember Pentecost, and I pray in this wonderful season that God will grant us new openness to whatever unexpected encounters the Spirit provides for us.

8th June is the feast of Pentecost #Pentecost
BSB Clm 835; Psalter; 13th century; England (Oxford); f.28v @bsb_muenchen pic.twitter.com/pOSBSZY4Ub

— Ennius (@red_loeb) June 7, 2025

“What do we hope for as Christians? What is the content of the Christian hope? Paul says in Romans 15, this wonderful verse, verse 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

So, Christians are supposed to be people who abound in hope. And my question is, what is the content of that hope? We are talking, brothers and sisters, about heaven.

And since we’re going to be spending eternity there, it might be interesting if we give it a few moments of our time….”

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Design for Christ Enthroned in the Heavenly Jerusalem, in the American Church in Rome. Attributed to Thomas Matthews Rooke (British, 1842–1942). Medium: pencil, watercolor and bodycolor heightened with gold on paper. Credit: Artnet. pic.twitter.com/nUafq2XaHu

— Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) January 17, 2025

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The ruins of Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire pic.twitter.com/TeBUyxN1ca

— Grizzlegutweed the Bear (@Grizzlegutweed1) May 13, 2025

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'Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendour.'

Psalm 29:1-2 pic.twitter.com/8OjEUcwOFM

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) May 11, 2025

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Happy #Easter! Commemorating the Resurrection of Christ after his Crucifixion on Good Friday, Easter is one of the most important Christian holidays. This dynamic drawing by Rubens from 1614 shows Jesus rising from the tomb pic.twitter.com/0XiN1fMvFI

— British Museum (@britishmuseum) April 1, 2018

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Palm Sunday stained glass window in Chester Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/4p4MkZ2jiU

— A Beautiful Culture (@ABeautifulCult1) March 24, 2024

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The Ten Commandments, 1516 #cranach #lucascranach pic.twitter.com/WCVDG4prk0

— Lucas Cranach the Elder (@ArtistCranach) March 1, 2021

“Where does Jesus want to take us in the adventure of discipleship? Where does Jesus want to take us in the adventure of discipleship?

Every word in that question is carefully chosen. I want to focus in on that little word, adventure. Most of us don’t think of discipleship and following Jesus as an adventure, but the Bible does.

There is a great moment in Jeremiah early on in the story. Jeremiah has been called, and the Lord has known him since he was in his mother’s womb. But things have gotten started, and there have been ups and downs, and Jeremiah feels like there’s been more downs than ups. And he’s getting tired. So he prays to the Lord, and he basically says, This is getting too hard. What do you think you’re doing? Can you make it a little easier? And the Lord responds in this way, chapter 12, verse 5. If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan, (where there may be things like lions roaming around)?

“Eugene Peterson wrote a whole book on that verse and that theme. Its title is Run with the Horses, the quest for life at its best. That is the way that discipleship has been understood in the tradition that’s handed down to us. An incredible adventure, a breathtaking life of excitement and thrills, an unpredictability, a life which is full of deep purpose and faith.

Oh, it sounds like our Lord even. The glory of God, Irenaeus once said, is a human being fully alive. Well, if you want to know what God wants for humanity, look at Jesus, he’s fully alive, all the time. He’s giving life, he’s living life, he’s being life, he’s life incarnate. That’s what God wants for us.

Jesus says it this way in John 10, verse 10. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. You all with me so far? Okay, so here’s the question. How do we do that? How do we get that kind of life? How do you live a life that is an adventure of discipleship? All right, well, I appreciate you asking a question. Turn to Luke chapter 5 and this magnificent story of the miraculous catch of fish…

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🚶 where will your adventures take you today?

📍 Richmond Park

📸 James Kliffen pic.twitter.com/KbSmZp3QxB

— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) February 11, 2025

Let us take them each in their turn. We want to begin with verses 14 and 15. So first of all, the surprise of Jesus’ ministry. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. Luke is at great pains to get us to understand that the same Spirit that led him to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days is the same Spirit that is leading him to do this. It’s the same Spirit that came down when the father’s voice said at his baptism, this is my son with whom I’m well pleased. He’s led by the Spirit. This is a depiction of the Spirit led life. And what needs to strike you about this scene is word is getting out about this guy. We can just capitalize on last week’s sermon about that wedding in Cana. Remember that most of the people at the wedding didn’t even really know what was going on at the time. But believe me, that was the best wine anybody ever had. And after that, everybody in Cana of Gallile was talking about him. And they didn’t just talk about him there. 

They talked about him when they went along the road, and when they visited relatives, and word is getting around. So if we look at Mark chapter 1, Jesus is preaching, Jesus is teaching, Jesus is healing people of demons, Jesus is healing people of physical diseases, and the word is out about this guy, and there’s a real buzz. At the end of Mark chapter 1, talk about capturing the idea, Jesus has done a whole day’s ministry, he’s completely exhausted, the disciples can’t find him, so they go find him. He’s out by himself at a lonely place where he’s praying, and when they get to him, they say this, how’s this for an advertisement? Everyone is looking for you. 

It’s stunning, the level of surprise that we’re meant to have as we get our early depiction of our Lord’s ministry. And please note, look at your text carefully, the repetition of that little word, all. Twice. All the surrounding country, and he taught in their synagogues being glorified by all. And even though it isn’t in our reading today, it’s only the next verse down. I’m going to cheat a little bit because it’s also part of Luke’s narrative.

At the end of all this in verse 22, just in case we missed the first two alls, there is yet another all–‘And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.’

“This is an amazing ministry. It’s full of popular interest, intrigue, curiosity, and excitement. This is the way that ministry is supposed to be. To glorify means to honor, to praise. It’s a word that means heaviness, and it means that they can’t fully express the heaviness and the weight of Christ’s character because they’re so amazed and stunned by the level of what he’s doing and how he’s doing it. They have no categories for this guy. It’s fresh, it’s stunning, it’s marvelous, it’s surprising. Everybody with me? So surprising Jesus, who’s done all these surprising things, comes to his own synagogue. Hmm, I wonder what’s going to happen.” 

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Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
Christ Teaching in the Synagogue at Nazareth pic.twitter.com/EhZW8EqAwD

— PubHist (@Pub_Hist) April 30, 2022

“First of all, it’s a party. We could just spend the rest of the morning on this. God likes parties. You do know that. Heaven is going to be one big party. Jesus liked parties. Jesus was a party animal. He went to lots of them. He told stories about parties. He was a very fun guy to be with. Who do you think made monkeys? God or Satan? I sometimes say to people and they look at me like I’m funny. But you can’t really look at a monkey for very long without starting to laugh. It’s part of God’s creation. God has a magnificent sense of humor. So did Jesus. He was a fun guy. It’s why he attracted so many crowds so often in so many circumstances. And it’s a very ordinary wedding in a very ordinary town, in the town of Cana, some nine miles north of Nazareth where he grew up. And it’s an environment where his family seems to be familiar.”

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For the day that’s in it. Veronese’ wedding at Cana, how many times have we stared at this painting only because it is in the same room as a young Miss Gioconda. 🤷🏼 pic.twitter.com/GU461bPNqW

— Alan O’Neill (@ApmNeill) January 19, 2025

“Happy Christmas, that’s what they say in England. I’ve always loved it. Happy Christmas. I have a simple question for you. What does Christmas actually mean? Gonna go right down the middle of the plate, right for the jugular this morning. What does it actually mean? And can I just start out by observing with you that we’ve been given a tradition, we stand on the shoulders of people who’ve come before us, they’ve given us the church, the church has a liturgical calendar, and in the wisdom of the church and the liturgical calendar, Christmas is a 12-day season. Sometimes it even has two Sundays like this season. And the reason it’s a 12-day season is because it’s so super significant, we need time to fully try to think through some of what it means, which is what we’re going to try to do this morning. So here’s what I’m going to say. That it happened, how it happened, and why it happened. What does Christmas mean? It happened, how did it happen, why did it happen? You all with me? All right, ready, set, go. First of all, that it happened….

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London's National Gallery has restored Piero della Francesca's Nativity. The painting is unfinished and was damaged in the past: notably the faces of the two shepherds on the right have been erased. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/r6BiFjebmU

— Rembrandt's R👀m 🖌 (@RembrandtsRoom) December 22, 2023

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“The Annunciation” (1652) by Eustache Le Sueur at the Louvre pic.twitter.com/WNlYXKvrcp

— Ryan (@alwaysonoffense) March 25, 2021

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Bacchiacca (1494 – 1557)
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness pic.twitter.com/6CXlpnuAiE

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) June 15, 2024

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Ephesians 6:10✞ pic.twitter.com/AbeBCbf8zT

— Catherine ♡ =^..^= (@Catangels) November 13, 2024

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Ephesians 4:1-2

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,”

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;” pic.twitter.com/iBwxIOaJDy

— Mike C (Let me 🙏 for you) (@clanceman65) October 29, 2024

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Manna from the Mountains
IN WHOMS – In Ephesians
1. We have Redemption (1:7)
2. We trusted (1:13)
3. Believing we are sealed (1:13)
4. We have an inheritance (1:11)
5. We are builded together (2:22)
6. The building is framed together (2:21)
7. We have access (3:12) pic.twitter.com/sgDfuAskoR

— Bro Dave Noffsinger (@mbcbrodave) August 20, 2024

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Ephesians 2: 1-10 pic.twitter.com/ZyRILawekr

— coins (@coinsblanciak) September 29, 2024

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Christ Healing the Deaf-Mute
from Das Plenarium by Hans Schäufelein, 1517
happy Sunday pic.twitter.com/HFINDxGGZg

— Marysia (@marysia_cc) September 8, 2024

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Today's art: The Multiplication of Bread and Fish – Van Limburg brothers https://t.co/adtpCwP3I5 pic.twitter.com/nkkmm5qezG

— Art and the Bible (@artbible) September 6, 2022

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Today Jesus sends out the twelve apostles (Mk 6:7-13). In the original Greek, an "apostle" is one who is sent. All of us are are "sent" to do a certain mission in our lives. The most important part of that mission is remembering who sends us. A meditation: https://t.co/YLZ7HcHtGC pic.twitter.com/iKMe3qKS5E

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) July 14, 2024

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“And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.”
Mark 6:5-6 ESVhttps://t.co/QgHoI84y7M pic.twitter.com/HGiiaRyWHe

— Will Worsham (@wworsham) November 11, 2021