The Three Mountains of Jesus

It's the first of the month, so we'll have communion in a few minutes. There are three mountains that I think of when I think of Jesus's life. I think of the mountain on which he preached the Sermon of the Mount. I think of the mountain of Transfiguration, on which Jesus looked off another glory. And then there's the mountain of Calvary. And I've seen from my own life that I have to beware, for those of us who are scribes, we have to beware of the Sermon on the Mountain, and making that the mountain we abide in. And we have to be scared about making a mountain out of the mountain of Transfiguration. It's Jesus's teachings, it is Jesus's glory, but it's the mountain of Calvary that should become our mountain. Because that is where Jesus will become personal. Because that is where we can hear and see and take in the Holy Spirit saying to us, I died for you, just for you. That doesn't happen on the Sermon on the Mount, it doesn't happen in Transfiguration. They're both blessed mountains, don't get me wrong. The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever preached. The Mount of Transfiguration is where Jesus was seen in his glory. But that's not when God took Jesus up into heaven, not after he preached the Sermon on the Mount, not after the Mountain of Transfiguration. The work was finished at Calvary. That's the mountain we need to make our home. And it's not a mountain where there's place for two of you. Your spouse can't join you on that mountain. Dear brothers, dear sisters, your children can't join you on the mountain, your spouse can't join you on the mountain. You have to go to that mountain alone and make that your home. There's no place for anybody else. And that has to be our home, the Mountain of Calvary. And we have to see that Jesus died for me, not for anybody else, not for my spouse, not for me. And that is where the personal loyalty of God will come into our hearts. It happens for some of us when we were born again, but we may have lost it. We may have lost that first love if some of us had it. If you've never had it, that's where we need to go. Like Pilgrim's Progress, all the burdens roll off on the Mountain of Calvary. It's not hearing a message from Jesus. It's not seeing Jesus transfigured. It is when I see that Jesus died for me. And when I see the Lord's death, and I see the Lord's sacrifice, and I have to stay in the Mountain of Calvary and say, Lord, open my eyes. Open my eyes. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. So I see that personal sacrifice. It isn't Jesus, the Son of God, who died for me. It is Jesus, my elder brother, who died for me. How I will weep if one of my children were to die. How my children will feel the loss if one of their siblings died. Who died for me? Jesus, Son of God, or Jesus, my older brother? Related, dear brother or sister, to your family. And say, God, I need your Holy Spirit to touch my heart. It's not Jesus, Son of God, who died for me. That He is. Not Jesus, the preacher of the greatest sermon, who died for me. That He is. But Lord Jesus, my elder brother, died for me on Calvary. Blow my heart open with that truth. And God, you need to be my real Father to me. I want to instinctively call out, Dad, to the Eternal Almighty God. I don't want doctrines. I don't want truth. I want to call you Dad. I want to call you my Father in a real way. I can't do it, Lord. I've been speaking your truths for many years. I need your Holy Spirit. As we heard, it's a way of life. The way of faith is a way of life. The way of revelation is the way of life. Otherwise, we'll have Jesus revealed as the Son of God one minute, and we'll be influenced by the devil the next. Peter did it. We can be revealed that Jesus is the Son of God, and we can deny Him. Sometime later, we need a life of revelation. We need a life of faith. We need fresh revelations of Calvary. That's why Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. Don't camp on the mountain of where I preach the best sermons. Don't camp on the mountain of transfiguration. Make your home on the Mount of Calvary. Beware, another story, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. You know what it says about them in Luke chapter 24? Maybe you can turn there, so we quickly see this. As we sit here today, Luke chapter 24, verse 32. Luke chapter 24, verse 32. He said, were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, and while He was explaining the scriptures to us? You know the story of the disciples who are on the road to Emmaus? They're not sure what just happened. Their master died, and Jesus joins them. They don't know who it is, and He expounds the scriptures to them from all of the laws and the prophets, and He shows them that Jesus should have died, and it says that their hearts were burning as the scriptures were explained to them, but it didn't do them any good. Let's beware of the burning heart. Burning hearts are not going to do you any good. Their hearts were burning on the road to Emmaus. Didn't do them any good. They still didn't know it was Jesus. It's when they said, no, no, no, keep coming with us, and they invited them into His home, and then you see in verse 30, this is after the burning heart. We can come to church, we can listen to sermons, we can hear about all great theology, and we can have a burning heart. Dear brothers and sisters, let's not be fooled. Verse 30, when He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread, and He broke it. Then their eyes were opened. What were their eyes open to? The last time Jesus broke the bread and broke it, and gave it to them. In the upper room. And it was a symbol to them. It reminded them of His death. It wasn't the sermon that changed their lives. It wasn't the burning heart that changed their lives. It was the broken Jesus for them. They saw that Jesus died for them. They saw who this person was. It was that Jesus died for me. Always be the answer, dear brother and sister, to our problems. It's not more sermons. It's not sermons by better equipped or more eloquent people. It's never going to do it. All we'll have is burning hearts on the road to Emmaus. Beware of the road to Emmaus. Keep going to the house in Emmaus. Go all the way into the house. Go through the sermon and the fiery sermons, and go and get into the house with Christ, and say, God open my eyes to where you were broken for me. And as I said, there's no place for anybody else in that house except you. You can't take your spouse with you, and you have nobody else to blame. You can't blame your spouse. You can't blame your children. You can't blame your parents. You can't blame your past. You have no excuse. God's ready to be experienced and enjoyed by all of us. But let's not stop on the road to Emmaus. Let's not stop on the sermon on the mount. Let's not stop on the mount of transfiguration. Let's go all the way to the upper room where he shows us that he's broken for me, and to Calvary where he bled for me. Everything will be different if I found out that my older brother died for me. Everything will be different, dear brother and sister, if you really lived your life knowing that your older brother died for you. It'll be different. We need the Holy Spirit. So we're going to have the broken bread. We're going to drink of the cup of the blood of Jesus that symbolizes the blood of Jesus. It's not going to do anything to you. There's no supernatural power in the bread or in the wine. Nothing. It's just a symbol. But it's a symbol of a commitment that we're going to make. The symbol of a commitment we're going to make as we leave this place primarily. We're going to go past the road to Emmaus, to the house in Emmaus. We're going to go past the sermon on the Mount. We're going to go past the Mount of Transfiguration. We're going to the Mount of Calvary, and we're going to stay there. We're going to build our home there. That's the commitment we're making. We can pass out the bread in the cup. That's being a spirit of prayer, saying, Lord, I want to commit to this journey. It's a sober reverence, spirit of reference. Please do this. Let's not take this lightly. The bread in the cup are for those who have been baptized. The bread in the cup in this church is not for those who have not been baptized, and it's not for those who have not given their hearts completely to Jesus. If you're on the fence, don't take it. And if you've not made the first public confession of your faith, which happens through baptism, hold off. Go in the order that the Lord describes. Don't take communion before baptism. God's word says, be baptized first, which is where you say you are not only giving up your sin, you're dead to your sins, and you're dead to say you're selfish life. And if you've gone back on that commitment, and you're not ready to fully commit yourself to the Lord, don't take the bread of the cup. But if you are this determined in your heart, those of you who have been baptized, if you've been determined in your heart that you are going to make your home on the Mountain of Calvary, and that you're going to make your home in the house of Emmaus, where God's broken for you, then we welcome you, even if you're not a member of this church. Let each man, let each woman examine themselves. Let's take a few minutes and be in quiet before the Lord.