Mount

Jesus was a man of prayer. He spent much of life in prayer and He taught us how to pray. He was the best example of what to do when life became too much. He would simply go away to place where He could be alone--away from the crowds, away from His Disciples. He would go off by Himself in the early morning or late at night. And when people went to look for Him, they found Him praying.

Jesus was the greatest celebrity who ever lived. Thousands of people followed His every move. Today, it would be reporters and paparazzi and groupies that would follow Him. It's hard for celebrities to find any privacy.

So, the question is: Where did Jesus go to, to escape the crowds? To find solitude? Peace and quiet? A quiet place that would quiet the soul so that He could hear the voice of God the Father?

Where you're standing is one location that seems the most likely.

Luke 5:16, "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

When you survey the geography of from , you see that there are many "lonely places" you can find to pray. In the hillsides along the northern shore of . If Jesus hiked a bit, along the desolate to the east.

Curiously, all three Synoptic Gospels mention Jesus praying on a mountainside. Matthew 14:23, "he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray." Mark 6:46, "he went up on a mountainside to pray."

The trouble with these two verses is that the context refers to a mountainside on the east side of the . Not the west side--which is where we are standing.

But turn to Luke 6:12. It says, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." Two points to make about that word, "mountainside." 1. "Mountainside" = (Gk) The mountain. Not a hill. A mountain. There is a different Greek word for "hill."

2. (Gk) The mountain. Definite article, "the." Meaning, the mountain Jesus was praying on was the only mountain in that area. Or the text would have said, Jesus went out to pray on one of the mountains.

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And, even though the text does not name the mountain, it was a mountain that everyone knew.

This place you're standing is Mount Arbel. At its highest point, Mount Arbel is 594 feet above sea level. You have a spectacular view of Galilee and the Golan Heights. It's easily accessible to the main road. After you come down Mount Arbel and head north, the first town you come to is Magdala (where Mary Magdalene came from). Then the road connects Magdala to Gennesaret to Capernaum.

This is the only place in Galilee that can properly be called a "mountain." Along the road network to the south is . But Mount Tabor is getting too far afield for Jesus to go there just to pray. To the west is Mount Merom. But Mount Merom is off the beaten track. And, of course, Mount Hermon (which we will see later today), is way far. Much too far for Jesus to travel to in one day.

Our theory is that Mount Arbel is the mountain referred to in Luke 6:12. Consider the rest of the text, beginning at Luke 6:17.

6:17 "He went down with them and stood on a level place. And a large crowd . . ."

Look down. There are plenty of flat, level places along the main road. Plenty of room for the large crowd of people from all over , , and Tyre and Sidon. Jesus always teaches in places that give Him maximum visibility.

6:20 "Blessed are you . . ."

This is not the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount was in Matthew 5, and happened on a mountainside. This is the Sermon on the Plain. A plain is a flat, level ground.

Jesus didn't just preach the Sermon on the Mount once and then forget about it. He used great teaching over and over again. That's why the Disciples remembered it so well after so many years.

You read the rest of the chapter. A of it sounds familiar from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. But it's not quite the same, because it's the Sermon on the Plain.

7:1 When Jesus is finished preaching the Sermon on the Plain, He goes up the road to Capernaum.

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So, the sequence of Luke 6-7 is this. Jesus goes up to Mount Arbel to pray, He comes back down and preaches the Sermon on the Plain, and then He goes back to Capernaum.

If Mount Arbel really is the mountain Jesus went up to pray, then it fits with the literary context of Luke 6-7 and the geographic context of what you see--the landscape, the road network, distances to travel.

One final point before we leave Mount Arbel. What was Jesus praying about Mount Arbel?

6:12 Jesus "spent the night in prayer." Whatever He was praying for, it must have been important. Because He was up all night, wrestling in prayer. There was something He was struggling with that He needed God to give Him the answer to.

6:13 It's morning, and Jesus hasn't slept. But He has the answer He needs. What was the question?

6:13-16 I need 12 Disciples. Which of these hundreds of men who I have gotten to know--which of these men should be the Twelve? God gives Him the answer: here they are.

6:16 Note that Judas is last. But also note that Judas was deemed worthy of being one of the Twelve. Note also what the text says about him: Judas "became" a traitor. He didn't start out a traitor; he started out as a Disciple who admired and loved the Lord Jesus.

Mount Arbel is the spiritual birthplace of the Twelve Apostles. These Twelve were among the earliest Christians. The first people who put their faith in the Lord.

From these Twelve--actually Eleven (minus Judas, who commits suicide after betraying the Lord)--the church is born. They make spiritual disciples. And those disciples make disciples. Until the church breaks through the walls of Jerusalem and spreads across and Asia Minor and Egypt and throughout the Roman Empire.

And across time and space. Across 2,000 years until the present time. Across 7,600 miles away from where we are standing, across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, across the continental United States, to Los Angeles, where we all came from.

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That's how far the Gospel has spread.

This mountain is also your spiritual birthplace. "Apostle" in the Greek means "one who is sent out." Sent out to do the Father's work.

On this mountain, Jesus commissioned the first apostles. But they are not the last. All of us are descendants of the Twelve, and we have the same description they do.

God sent you to . And from Israel, He will send you to go back home.

When you go back home to L.A., you look outside your window from home, or from City Hall East, and you see a different landscape. Not the Sea of Galilee or Magdala, Gennesaret, or Capernaum. But you see Inglewood, Altadena, Fontana. All these places need to be touched by the Word of God as well. And you need to do it. So, remember where it all started and where your spiritual birthplace is.

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