Mosaic Boston

In Philippians 3:12-21, Paul shows us how to live in response to amazing grace. Knowing he was completely unqualified for the position God gave him, Paul begins to “Run Like He Stole It” without looking back! Jesus qualified him when he was completely unqualified, so Paul makes it his aim to run faster, work harder, and grow up into a life worthy of the Gospel. Hear this great message from Ivey Rhodes, the current church planting resident at Mosaic Boston.

As we continue our journey through the book of Genesis, we learn about the first city ever built. The city was built by Cain. Although God created everyone to find their deepest satisfaction in Him, by fully glorifying him, Cain seeks to build a life and city apart from God.

In Genesis chapter 4, through the story of Cain and Abel, God reveals some profound truths about the nature of our hearts and about the subtlety of sin.

In Genesis 1 and 2, the Lord God created the cosmos and humanity perfectly. He looked at all creation and proclaimed "it is very good." Everything was flawless. Chapter 2 ends with Adam singing a long song to Eve. After their wedding, they were meant to blissfully "live happily ever after" in paradise, with all of their needs met and desires satisfied. They had a perfect relationship with God, perfect relationship with each other, and a perfect relationship with nature. Unfortunately, the idyllic life didn't last. Genesis chapter 3 gives us a play-by-play recounting of humanity's fall into sin, suffering, and sadness. This account explains why the world is not as it ought to be and why we aren't the way we're supposed to be. This text makes sense of the brokenness of the world around us and the brokenness inside us. Fortunately, the text also foreshadows the Gospel. God will not leave humanity in it's brokenness. Instead, God promises to send the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who will deal the Evil One a crus

While Genesis 1 describes God's general purpose in creation, chapter 2 explains His more specific purposes for our lives. God reveals to us his plan for our work, rest, gender, sexuality, singleness, and marriage. Did we cover all those hot-button issues in one sermon? You bet. And you don't want to miss it!

Many are familiar with Genesis and it's epic themes of Creation & Fall, of Calling & Blessing, of Covenant & Promise. Many are familiar with the timeless stories of Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, Noah & the Ark, Babel & beyond. However, most Christians fail to understand Genesis as Jesus understood Genesis. Jesus interpreted Genesis as a book about Himself! In Luke 24, while traveling on the road to Emmaus with two disciples after His Resurrection, in order to bolster their faith in Himself, He took them to the Scriptures (instead of showing them his wounds and having them touch his resurrected body!). In Luke 24:25-27, Jesus says “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Jesus revealed what the Old Testament had to say about Him, beginning with Genesis. What does Genesis say abo

Every year, right about this time (late August, early September), just before the new surge of people into the city, we pause everything at Mosaic, and remind ourselves of the mission before us. Church is a family and once any family grows, it needs to get organized. Like every organization, churches have the tendency to subtly drift from their original objectives. This is called mission creep. Ironically, often after initial success, the organization begins to widen its scope and little by little, it forgets why it exists. In churches, it usually entails the church taking on more and more good tasks, which ultimately eclipse the great task of the Great Commission. Mission creep also occurs when members of a church stop rowing in the same direction and start charting their own course and pushing for their own agendas. A famous Russian poem beautifully illustrates this dynamic (yes, I'm quoting a poem, you're welcome). "The Swan, the Pike, and the Crab" by Ivan Krylov: WHENE’ER companions don’t agree,

A couple years ago, we went through a series at Mosaic, entitled "This Changes Everything." In this teaching series, we talked about how the person and work of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, doesn't just save our souls, but the Gospel also is meant to transform all the most practical areas of our life: work, money, sex, relationships, and the church. Many people view the Gospel as the way we enter the Kingdom of God, and then everything else is done through our sheer efforts. This is a wrongheaded approach to the Christian life. The Gospel isn't just an entry point to a life with God, it's also a force for growth in your walk with God. This is exactly the point the Apostle Paul wants to drive home, even in the way he structures the last part of his letter. After spending 11 chapters beautifully elucidating the Gospel, Paul then pivots and says "therefore," meaning now, based on everything I've just explained, this is how you shall live. He writes, "I appeal to you therefore, brother, by the mercies of God..."

Sick of the election yet? Cheer up, there's only than 3 months left of it (!). Today, we'll be talking about a more encouraging kind of election. This one isn't about Hillary and Donald (thankfully). We'll be diving deep into some of the most profound but also historically confusing chapters in all of the Bible. Most churches never even crack open the book of Romans, not to mention Romans 9-11. So, you, Mosaic, are in luck! We'll be wrestling with questions like: what is unconditional election? Does God really predestine people to salvation, even before they are born? How is that fair? Isn't this flagrant favoritism and injustice? What about everyone else? Doesn't God love everyone equally? Are we just robots then? Do our decisions matter? If God does elect people to salvation, then why do we need to share the Gospel? Why put so much work into evangelism? Once we grasp the meaning of election and its connection to evangelism, we too will cry out with St. Paul, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and

I really hope you're enjoying the Book of Romans as much as I am! As we soar over this most profound book and get a glimpse of the breathtaking vistas, you can't help but be amazed at God's glorious plan of salvation through the Gospel. In chapter 6, Paul pauses to deal with a question that naturally arises when people hear that we're saved simply by grace through faith in Christ, not because of anything we do. If our good works add nothing to our justification before God, and our righteousness is not our own, then why in the world do we need to do good works at all? Why fight sin? Why fight temptation? Why not just give in? If we've been set free from the demands of the law, why can't we just live free, doing anything we want? Remember the exhilarating feeling you experienced when you first got your driver's license? Woo hoo!! Freedom!! Time to hit the road! One of the things you quickly realize (especially after that first speeding ticket): you're not as free as you thought. With the new freedom to driv

How do you measure success? What does a great life look like? Most people would measure success by wealth, power, comfort, popularity… but how does Jesus measure success? This week we conclude our series on the 7 letters to the 7 churches in Revelation by looking at Jesus’ letter to the church in Laodicea. The Christians in Laodicea were physically healthy, economically secure, and socially accepted. They had all the outward signs of success, but spiritually they were failing. In fact, Jesus had absolutely nothing positive to say about them as a church. So where did they go wrong? Despite their failures, Jesus hadn’t given up on Laodicea. In fact, He counsels them on how to turn things around and become everything He had called them to be. Join us today as we study this church, and learn what it means to have a successful life in Christ.

"Who can make it stop?" This was CNN's headline this morning. After living through another blood-soaked, tear-filled, gut-wrenching week, I think many of us are asking the same heavy question. It's a question that acknowledges our helplessness. It's a question that realizes we are faced with problems greater than even our collective resources can solve. It's a question that longs for someone powerful enough to intervene. Who can make the hate stop? Who can make the racism stop? Who can make the injustice stop? Who can make it stop? Profound question. It's a question that erupts out of brokenness, anguish, and humility. I can't make it stop. You can't make it stop. Even we, can't make it stop. Who can make it stop? Jesus Christ can make it stop. "I know that you have but little power," say Jesus to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3, and to us. But fret not, he says. "I am the one who holds the keys to all the doors. The doors I open, no one will shut, and the doors I shut, no one will open."

Are you a tolerant person? It’s a questions we’ve all either asked, or been asked. If you’ve asked that question, you were probably curious to know if the person, or people, you were addressing could love you if they really knew your beliefs or lifestyle. If you’ve been asked that question, you may have worried that you were about to be ambushed. Sometimes the real question behind the question is, “do you agree with me, because if not then I’m not going to tolerate you!” Part of our struggle with this popular question, is that our culture has redefined tolerance, and forgotten why it could be good in the first place. I say “could” be good, because the Bible assumes there are times when tolerance is actually not good. It’s possible for tolerance to be unloving. It’s even possible for tolerance to be a facade to a subtle form of hatred, a cover up for indifference. Today we will be looking at Jesus letter to the church in Thyatira. The letter is perplexing, but also enlightening because we see Jesus commendi

A.W. Tozer once said: "A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-christians of our day, 'Thou shalt not disagree,' and a new set of Beatitudes too, 'Blessed are they that tolerate everything for they shall not be made accountable.'" These words seem to be truer than ever. Our culture appears to be putting more and more pressure on the Church to conform to the prevailing culture's values. To conform to the culture, the Church is pressured to compromise both theologically and morally. In a seemingly noble desire to accommodate the culture, the church begins to compromise the truth. Once the truth is compromised, morality follows suit. Idolatry and sexual immorality always go hand in hand--spiritual infidelity and sexual infidelity are bedmates. Eventually, compromise renders the witness of the Church null and void. Though the pressure comes from outside the church, the decision to compromise always comes from within. One small compromise here and one small compromise there, and before you know it, a church

Throughout church history, Christians have been persecuted for simply remaining faithful to Jesus Christ. Though we enjoy relative religious freedom, Christians worldwide are continuing to suffer for their faith. Several watchdog organizations have published papers saying that "2015 was the worst year in modern history for Christian persecution." With North Korea leading the way, and militant radical Islam rapidly expanding, today is one of the most dangerous times ever to be a Christian. The Christian persecution watchdog "Open Doors" has released a statistic recently stating that, today, a Christian is martyred for their faith every 5 minutes. More Christians have been martyred in the 20th and 21st centuries, than all the previous 19 combined. Though we might not be martyred for our faith in this country, the political and cultural landscape is certainly making it more difficult to publicly proclaim the name of Christ and his teachings. Our culture seems to be tolerant toward everyone, except Christians.

Today we begin a new sermon series at Mosaic through Jesus' seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. The incredible unvoiced assumption behind these letters, is that just as much as Jesus Christ loves and cares for the universal Church, he loves and cares for particular churches. As the Apostle John gazes at the glorious Christ in Revelation 1, Jesus turns John's gaze to seven individual churches. The more we love Jesus, the more we love what Jesus loves, and Jesus loves his churches. The deeper our commitment to Jesus, the deeper our commitment to what he's committed to: his Church. Each letter, addressed to each of the individual churches, begins with the phrase: "I know...". Jesus writes, "I know your works..."; "I know you are enduring patiently..."; "I know your tribulation..."; "I know where you dwell..."; "I know your love and your faith...". Jesus is paying incredibly close attention to his churches. This is simultaneously a great comfort when we feel that no one notices

When you hear the parable of the good Samaritan, where do you cast yourself within the story? On a particularly good day, we may feel like the good Samaritan. Or, at least, if we just tried a little harder, or we were at the right place at the right time, we could be like him. We're inspired by how Jesus describes his acts of compassion, and we get pumped up to "Go, and do likewise" in a broken world. And we should--- we understand more of the heart of God when we enter into the midst of suffering. Other times, when we've turned up our headphones to ignore that person on the T, or directly avoided that person in the office who is having a bad day, we feel like the Priest or the Levite. And we should--- we hear "Go, and do likewise", and excuses flood our mind. "What about my time and my schedule?" "What if it's unsafe?" "Is it right to give money out like that?" "I don't think I'm gifted to do that." Some may be valid, some maybe not so much. But how many of us would cast ourselves as the guy beaten a