Mosaic Boston

If you've been following along with us at Mosaic, you know that we're approaching the 4th installment in our 5-part series, called "Why God Why." We've attempted to show that Christianity makes emotional sense, personal sense, and intellectual sense. Faith in Christ sustains both the weight of the heart and the mind. Last week I attempted to make the case for theism. However, even if there is a God, how do we know it's the Christian God? How do we know that Jesus Christ is God? Wasn't he just a man? Even if he was a great man, and a powerful, charismatic leader, wasn't he still a man?

We continue our "Why (God) Why" series tomorrow by making the case that "Christianity Makes Personal Sense." What do I mean by this? I mean: Christianity provides the most substantive, substantiated and satisfying answer to the question: "Who are you?"

A few years ago, a group of atheists in England financed an advertising campaign where they wrapped buses with the following message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The questionable word in the ad isn't "probably"; it's "enjoy." This is a categorical error. There is much more to us, and life, than enjoyment. We can't just "enjoy" life, because we have more emotions than "enjoying." When we're not enjoying life, we're busy feeling hope, boredom, curiosity, anxiety, irritation, fear, joy, bewilderment, hate, tenderness, despair, relief, exhaustion, heartache, etc. The Resurrection of the Son of God, speaks to our minds, our souls, and our hearts.

If you've ever read Acts 28, you might have noticed that the ending is incredibly anti-climactic and actually kind of random. Why in the world doesn't the author of Acts, Luke, tell us what happened next to Paul? Did he preach the Gospel to Caesar? Did he go to Spain and then to Europe? What happened next?!?! How did he die? Why don't we get any details? It feels like that really unsatisfying finale to [insert your favorite show or book]. Well, actually, Luke is doing something really brilliant. At the end of the book of Acts, Luke has Paul "fade to black" and redirects the camera...at the reader! The point of Acts 28--is that there's an Acts 29. The story of Jesus is to be continued through you! Now, what's that look like?

"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are "It might have been." That's not in the Bible, but the general sentiment is. In our text tomorrow, the Apostle Paul is on a ship headed to Rome, which gets caught in a storm, and ultimately destroyed in a shipwreck. Paul had warned the centurion not to embark on the trip, but he decided he was smarter than Paul. So after the ship is on the brink of destruction, Paul says what everyone would say: "Men, you should have listened to me." He doesn't stop there though, and offers them words of encouragement, guidance, and life.

In our text this week, the Apostle Paul is on trial before King Agrippa, a person who has the authority to either free Paul, or crucify him. Instead of giving a pure defense, proving how all the trumped up charges against him were utterly baseless, Paul starts preaching the Gospel to Agrippa. At this point, Agrippa screams out: “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” Does Christianity make you crazy? That's the question we're dealing with this week. Indeed, there are lots of people who claim to be Christians, and do really fanatical things that absolutely contradict the teachings and life of Christ. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm thinking of people whose lives and life choices make absolutely no sense apart from Jesus Christ. People like Mary, Paul, Peter, John, James, Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm, Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, William Wilbeforce, Dietrich Boenhoffer, Martin Luther King Jr. and many, many more. These are people who lived lives of re

The Christian life begins with faith. Just faith. Simply faith. Nothing but faith. However, this faith isn't simply knowing some truths or facts intellectually. Genuine saving faith is a pulsating connection to God. It's a vibrant relationship. When we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we are deeply connected to him. Scripture even talks about us being "in Christ." We are in him, and he is in us. If we're connected to Christ, we cannot but be transformed. Our life looks and feels different. We live for what he lives for. We want what he wants. We dream for what he dreams. We pray: "May your will be done, in my life, as it is in heaven." We love him and we long to please him, so Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." We obey, not to be accepted; in Christ, we are accepted, so we obey.

After studying this week's text (Acts 23:12-24:21), I can't believe Hollywood hasn't cashed in on making a movie about Saint Paul. I'm thinking a franchise in a similar vein to the Jason Bourne trilogy. If Hollywood thinks Noah is epic, the book of Acts could blow the Ark out of the water! This week's text has drama, intrigue, conspiracy, serpentine plot twists, 40 Jewish dagger-carrying-hunger-striking assassins, 470 Roman soldiers marching through the night, corrupt religious officials, lying lawyers, crooked politicians, and God's hand guiding his child through it all. Maybe some of the writers at Mosaic could propose something to Netflix? (When it goes huge, don't forget to tithe... and buy Mosaic a building) The 19th century missionary, John Paton, faced similar threats as he brought the Gospel to the island of Tanna. "One day," he wrote, "... Natives in large numbers were assembled at my house. A man furiously rushed at me with his axe; but a Kaserumini Chief snatched a spade with which I had been work

We’ll be looking at Acts 22:30-23:11, where the Apostle Paul makes the startling claim: “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” What in the world does that mean? What’s a conscience? How can we live lives in all goodconscience? Is that even possible? Is our conscience a valid guide? The sweet graphic below makes for a phat t-shirt, but is it good theology? These are all great questions, which we’ll be wrestling with Sunday.

What drives you? What make you do the things you do and make the decisions you make? We like to think of ourselves as very rational creatures. So why is it that we often act so irrationally? We do things we know are wrong. We don’t do think we know are right. We frequently make choices that aren’t in our best interests or in the best interests of others. The Bible says that we are creatures of desire. Knowledge is a powerful motivator, but ultimately we are guided by the desires of our heart. The bad news, as the prophet Jeremiah points out: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 So what hope do we have for our failing hearts? Join us tomorrow as we continue our series in the book of Acts (Acts 21:27-22:29) and see how God took an angry violent man named Paul, and radically transformed the desires of his heart.

Do you ever get discouraged? Maybe you’re feeling it right now. What do you think of when you hear the word “encourage?” …Peppy, cheerful, maybe even cheesy sound bites of unfounded optimism? Sounds lame. Look at the word though. [En]courage. Or better put, “fill with courage.” The bible talks a lot about encouragement, some people even claim to have the gift of encouragement, but where does courage come from? More importantly, why is courage needed? Join us tomorrow as we continue our series from the book of Acts, and examine how Paul encourages the churches in Acts 20.

Acts 19, where the Apostle Paul preaches the Gospel in Ephesus and calls people to worship Jesus instead of false idols. Instead of debating the cogency of Paul's arguments, the people realize that if they follow Jesus, they will lose their jobs making idols and will no longer profit from tourism to the pagan temples in their city. They realize that if they follow Jesus, they will have to make a huge sacrifice. However, they don't want to make a sacrifice, so instead, they reject Jesus.

This is why we're following up the Mystic series by jumping back into the book of Acts. The book of Acts is all about what the first Christians did! Their faith transformed their lives and ultimately transformed the world. Join us tomorrow as we study Acts 18, where the big idea is: "Do not be Silent!"

Did you play any team sports as a kid? I know it's out of season, but baseball was by far my favorite. I was a pitcher, and I used to spend hours practicing with my dad in the back yard. It was those hours of practice that prepared me for game day. But imagine if I never left the back yard. If I never joined a team, put on a uniform, got in the game... would I really know what it was like to be a pitcher? God hasn't just chosen us for himself, he's chosen us for his team. He's given us a purpose and new identity in Christ! Join us tomorrow as we take a look at 1 Peter 2:1-12 and the surprisingly interconnected disciplines of Solitude & Community.

I don't know about you, but I'm totally incentive-driven. I always need to know why I should be doing something and why it's worth my time, especially when the activity takes effort or seems counter-intuitive. Whenever I was told I should be doing something, my knee-jerk reaction is to ask, "Why?" Floss your teeth; why? Eat your vegetables; why? Do your homework; why? Exercise; why? Obey the speed limit; why? Be smart with your money; why? Stop asking so many questions; why? I've found that prayer is in the same category for most people: we know it's supposed to be sort of good for us, but it's hard to do, so we push back with: Why? Well, tomorrow, we'll attempt to answer that question.

Last week, we started a sermon series called "Mystic" to help you train yourself in the disciplines of the Christian soul. Tomorrow, we'll be talking about "giving" as a spiritual discipline. Jesus said, "It's more blessed to give than to received," and to receive more of this blessing on a continual basis, we need to train ourselves to give systematically and develop a lifestyle of generosity. Giving is to become the muscle-memory of our souls, becoming the natural response of our souls to the needs around us.

Have you ever heard someone say something like: "I'm not religious; I'm spiritual'? At Mosaic, we're cool with that statement, as long as it points us back to Jesus, his saving Work, and the spiritual life he calls us to experience, daily. However, we don't want the quip, "I'm spiritual," to be excuse for spiritual vagueness and laziness. We want to grow in true spirituality by exercising our souls regularly in the manner our Lord has prescribed for us.