Mosaic Boston

What is the most important thing about you? And, not just the thing you really want someone to know about you when you first meet them. I'm not talking about what you do for work, how much you make/have, where you went to school, your athletic prowess, or social connections. What's the thing, if you lose it, you lose everything? A.W. Tozer once said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.... The most portentous fact about any person is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like... The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him." What's most important about us isn't what we passively believe about God, but what we actively think about God today, because this impacts absolutely everything else. As our thoughts about God align with the true God, our perception of reality aligns with ultimate reality, which lea

Have you noticed the recent trend in Hollywood to make movies and shows about the end of the world? The future of our planet is always being threatened, by aliens, asteroids, floods, freezing, killer viruses, robots, mutants, nuclear weapons, and of course, zombies. Ours is a culture full of existential angst and Hollywood (and Politicians!) are cashing in on it. We're past the question, "Is the world going to when?" Not "is" but "when?" This is the perfect time to study the biblical apocalyptic literature in the Book of Daniel. The visions Daniel sees reveal a grim future full of chaos, conflict, and rebellion against God. However, Daniel assures us, salvation will come from the "Son of Man" to whom will be given "dominion, and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages" will serve him and "his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." No matter the chaos in the world around us, King Jesus is on His throne and in cont

Preaching famous texts is always challenging, because people think they know the story, and as the saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt." We're so familiar with the story, it's lost all relevance in our lives. The story of Daniel and the lions comes with an additional challenge: though famous, it has been famously misinterpreted! The usual interpretation goes like this: "Look at Daniel, he's so good! He trusts God. He's uncompromising. He's incorruptible. He's absolutely moral. Be like him and God will take care of you by protecting you and prospering you. He won't let anything bad happen to you. Despite all the dangerous metaphorical lions in your life, you won't have a scratch on you. Guaranteed. Just trust and obey." That's all fine and well, except that's not the point of the story and, it just isn't true! Many of us have been taught this false moralistic interpretation, and if you've been good, and bad things have happened, you're disillusioned. Or you read the story, and say, "I could never be th

Have you heard these phrases before? "Your days are numbered." "The writing is on the wall." "You have been weighed and found wanting." All three phrases come from Daniel 5. All three have made their way into the public imagination of our culture. All three pack a powerful emotional punch. These phrases are deeply moving because they communicate some of the most profound, self-evident truths about our existence. Our days are truly numbered (but by whom?), The writing is on the wall (but what does it mean?). Deep down inside, if we're honest, we know we are being weighed (by whom?) and we don't measure up (to what?). So what do we do with these truths? Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die? That's what the king does in Daniel 5, and we see how foolish it ultimately is. He sees the writing on the wall and continues boozing to blind himself to the more uncomfortable facts of reality. How then shall we live? Join us as we look at the powerful story in Daniel 5.

Do you ever feel like your own worst enemy? We’ve been walking through the book of Daniel, and we’ve seen how God is able to deliver us from our enemies and the trials of life. We’ve also seen how, at times, God chooses to not deliver us from our trials, but to deliver us by walking with us through our trials. Before any of this, however, God first needs to deliver us from the greatest enemy of all. Ourselves. The danger facing Daniel and his friends threatened their bodies, but the danger facing Nebuchadnezzar threatened his very soul. The threat of his own pride. Our culture sees pride as a virtue, but scripture tells us it is the deadliest sin. Pride is what made the devil the devil, and it led to the fall of mankind. Pride is at the root of every sin, every vice, and every evil the world has ever seen. It is also ironically humiliating. The great irony of pride is that while attempting to make ourselves into something more than human, we inevitably make ourselves into something less than human. Pride de

Today we have the blessing of studying one of the most famous and beloved stories in all of Scripture: the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery pit. It's a phenomenal testimony of the unwavering, ironclad, immovable faith of three young men, in the face of the most dire of circumstances. This text is chock-ful of faith-building and live-giving lessons. A primary question the text poses before us today is: am I going to declare the Lord to be my God, my primary allegiance, come what my, or will I bow to the multitude of glittering idols that the world present to me? The same battle these men fought, is actually waged daily in our hearts over much lesser issues. Furthermore, so many questions arise from the text: ~How can Nebuchadnezzar force everyone to worship this image he's built, immediately after he just proclaimed to Daniel, "Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings." ~Couldn't Shadrach, Meshach, and Abelnego have bowed down to this image in public, but still worshi

You ever feel like living a faithful Christian life is an uphill battle? Like the deck is stacked against you? Like you're Sisyphus, pushing a massive boulder uphill, and when you're almost at the top, you gas out and the stone comes tumbling down the hill, almost crushing you in the process? There are so many temptations in this world, and so many more in the city. How in the world can you remain faithful and flourishing, instead of faithless and languishing? You ever feel like you're the absolutely only Christian in your circles of influence? Maybe one of the only Christians in your whole school, company, and or community? Perhaps in your whole city? Well, you feel like that, because in Boston, it's statistically true. Sometimes, the Christian life feels like you're living in a den with lions, who are ready to devour you alive. Sometimes, it feels like there are lions on the outside, and lions of the heart on the inside. Join us as we start a study through the epic book of Daniel and learn some timel

Corporately, we'll celebrate the triumph of Christ over Satan, Sin, and Death on our behalf! As the Scriptures say: "Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

This Sunday, we are finishing our "Hard Sayings of Jesus" series with a look at Matthew 21:1-22, where Jesus rides in to Jerusalem on the occasion we have come to know as "Palm Sunday." We've chosen to include this passage in our series reflecting on the most perplexing teachings/actions of Jesus, because there's so much in this text that really seems out of place. Why does Jesus tell his disciples to just take some random person's donkeys? Further, why in the world does Jesus ride a donkey in to Jerusalem, especially if He's the Messianic King? What's up with people throwing their shirts on the ground? Palm tree branches? What's Hosanna mean (we sing it all the time, but what in the world does it mean)? Immediately after this pleasant, idyllic scene, Jesus goes to the Temple and goes berserk on the money-changers and sellers of pigeons. What?! Why are pigeons being sold in the Temple? And why such an intense reaction from Jesus? What's going on? The very next paragraph is also puzzling. Hungry/hangry Jes

A Canaanite woman begs Jesus to heal her sick daughter, and he responds by saying "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." What?! Did Jesus just call her a dog? What just happened? This text seems utterly incompatible with the character of Jesus. It seems shockingly intolerant. Are we missing something? However, the woman isn't offended and actually responds in such a way, that Jesus says "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire," and the woman's daughter was instantly healed. Jesus was impressed with this woman's humble chutzpah. She accepts Jesus' words with humility, but it's not a weak humility, it's a chutzpy humility. She exhibits an audacious, confident, brassy humility. It's extremely paradoxical, but humble chutzpah is the key to a great faith that unleashes the great power of God in our lives.

I don't know about you, but I think I've had my fill of the mosh-pit morass that this presidential election has become (and we've got 8 more months of it!!). As election season fatigue sets in, it's helpful to remind ourselves of who is really in charge: King Jesus! We all long for a leader who can bring true, lasting, meaningful change. We all long for a leader who is good, kind, benevolent (and honest!). Jesus is a King who has promised to usher in His Kingdom. However, his Kingdom is full of paradox and surprise. Today, we'll continue our series in the "Hard Sayings of Jesus" series, by looking at Matthew 11:1-19. The text begins with John the Baptizer, who is in prison for preaching the truth, sending his disciples to Jesus to ask: "Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?" This question comes as an absolute shock, because John, as a prophet of God and the cousin of Jesus, knew exactly who Jesus was. John knew that Jesus was the King come to usher in his Kingdom. Yet, John couldn't u

One of the cardinal rules of public speaking is: "Don't be boring!" I remember a preaching professor in seminary used to say, "Preaching a boring sermon is a deadly sin!" Why? Because the Gospel is anything but boring. Jesus is the most interesting man in the world (sorry Dos Equis guy). As the most interesting man in the world, Jesus' words are the most riveting words in the history of the world. His words are so interesting because they are so scandalous! Over and over in the Gospel accounts, crowds are amazed, astonished, shocked! They marvel, they tremble, they worship. Our culture needs to be shocked by Jesus. We need to be constantly re-shocked by Jesus. We are the most entertained and pleasured society in the history of the world, and still, we're the most bored. We've grown numb to God and to each other. We need to be tased by God's shocking truth and grace.

As we continue our series through the "Hard Sayings of Jesus," we'll look at one of the most mystifying texts in all of Scripture: Jesus' teaching on the "Unforgivable Sin." Many Christians over the centuries have worried that perhaps they, unwittingly, at some point, have committed this sin. Just to calm the troubled soul of the Christian burdened by this worry: No Christian can commit this sin. If you are worried about having committed this sin, you cannot possibly have committed it. However, this doesn't mean we can just write off this text as irrelevant. I believe it has lots to teach us, including the realization of how glorious it is, that the Holy God of the Universe would forgive any of our sins, at all!! We must never get over the staggering fact, that our blasphemies and sins can be forgiven, though at such a great cost to the Lord. We also need the reminder that we can never take God's grace and forgiveness for granted. Forgiveness is not owed to us, it is gifted to us. Finally, we need to take

Today, we're beginning a new sermon series called, "The Hard Sayings of Jesus." Most of what Jesus said was absolutely clear to understand, though impossible to do (apart from the grace of God). Mark Twain spoke for many, when he said that the things in the Bible that bothered him most were not those that he did not understand but those that he understood quite well. However, Jesus did say some things, that were just perplexing. In John 6:60-61, after Jesus finishes a sermon, Scripture says that many of his disciples said: "This is hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?" So, we're devoting the next 6 Sundays to ponder the hardest sayings of Jesus, and revealing their vast implications for our lives. Join us this tomorrow as we look at Matthew 7:1-6, and consider what Jesus means when he says, "Judge not, that you be not judged."

Have you heard of "The Lady Macbeth Effect"? It's named after the Shakespearean queen who manipulates her husband into killing the king, and then is racked by shame and guilt. She start frenetically washing away blood on her hands that only she can see. She deludes herself that "a little water will clear us of this deed." But for all of her repeated washing, she cannot cleanse herself of the ever-consuming guilt. By Act V, the stubborn blood stains have driven the illegitimate queen to madness and suicide. Psychologists have coined the real connection between morality and cleanliness "The Lady Macbeth Effect." Not too long ago, two researchers published a paper in the Journal of Science arguing that the connection is more than metaphorical. In one set of tests, the researchers asked participants to recall an ethical or unethical act, and then asked them to fill in the missing letters in a series of incomplete words, like W_ _H and SH_ _ER. Those subjects who had recalled unethical acts mostly returned WASH a

What's your most prized possession? Of all the things you own, that belong to you, what do you treasure most? When I was 17 years old, I spent my life savings life savings on a car. Now my life savings wasn't much, about $3,000, but it was all I had and I earned it by mowing a lot of lawns in the summer, shoveling a lot of driveways in the winter, and raking a lots of leaves in the fall. So I gave everything I had, to buy my first car, a 1988 Audi 80. Man, this thing was a beauty! I washed it pretty much everyday, it was pristine inside, and the rims were always glowing. I treasured it like the apple of my eye. There were only two problems: it kept breaking down and I had zero mechanical skills (and this was before youtube university). I ended up having to get rid of the car within about a year since it became a money-pit. Of all God's most prized possession, Scripture says that God views his people as His "treasured possession" (Ex. 19:5, Mal. 3:17). God's people are the apple of His eye (Dt. 32:10). The i

When we think of grace, we think of it more like a couch rather than a coach. We think of grace like a couch: you sit, relax, chill and grace does all the work (maybe brings you a snack). We should be thinking of grace more like a coach. In Titus 2:11, the Apostle Paul says it's God's grace that trains us to renounce ungodliness. God sends Coach Grace into our lives to bring lasting transformation. Coach Grace motivates us, drives us, inspires us, energizes us, to achieve seemingly insurmountable levels of godliness. Transformation, like any form of change, always hurts... at least temporarily, but Coach Grace is there for us to help you train through the pain to become the person God has called you to be. In Titus 1:5-16, Paul gives a seemingly impossible list of qualifications for leaders in God's church. They are to be self-controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, etc. As I was reading the list, it hit me that there were no seminaries in Crete; no Christian bookstores, no Christian blogs, podcasts, confer

At the beginning of tomorrow's sermon, I'm going to take a look at what the Lord has done in and through Mosaic Boston, and also cast vision for all I long for the Lord to do in and through us in 2016. 2015 was an incredible year for our church body! In many ways, it was the greatest year to date, in terms of quantifiable growth. In order to be good stewards of God's grace upon us, we need to be aware of this growth, and make wise decisions moving forward, in order to fulfill the ministry Jesus has entrusted to us. Furthermore, we're launching a new sermon series tomorrow, through the phenomenal book of Titus. We're entitling the series "Boot Camp and Battlefields." The big idea of Titus is found in Titus 2:11, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness..." The grace of God is given to us to train us. We are to be Christians who are in constant training to lead the lives we are called to live.