Mosaic Boston

When Jesus Christ calls Christians to proclaim the Gospel, He calls us to present it in the most understandable way. This is called contextualization. However, since the Gospel naturally offends ego, in an attempt to make the Gospel understandable, we sometimes try to make it more palatable. This is where contextualization can potentially subtly morph into syncretism. In the process of making Christianity more palatable, we make it powerless.

How did Jesus love people? He ate and drank with them. Eating and drinking? What's so spiritual about that? In Luke 5:27-32, we read a story about how we can eat and drink with intentionality to make friends and talk about things of eternal matter.

If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, you know that the Christian life can be a lot like soccer. It’s difficult to know if you’re in the right place at the right time. It seems that once you’re in the right spot you have to adjust to challenges, unforeseen circumstances or difficult decisions. You’re often left asking, "Is this really God’s will for my life? What does God want me to do? Should I be where I am?"

Thousands are celebrating graduations in Boston, and I wonder how many allow themselves to be honest about the unwelcome sadness. In Luke 5:17-26, we have a story about a person who had a clear "If only I... , then I would be happy." What's your "if only"? Was it getting that degree? Getting that job? Accomplishing that goal? Did it satisfy? Maybe temporarily. But then what? Is there even such a thing as sustainable satisfaction?

We live at a weird time in human history. Society is over-sexualized and under-loved. We are simultaneously more connected and lonelier than ever. We have a basic human need for affection and touch and many of us are starving for it. Some have touched to heal. Some have touched to harm. Join us as we consider the power of touch from Luke 5:12-16, where Jesus touches to heal and to cleanse.

Does God have a plan for your life? If He does, can we miss it? Jesus did teach us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So if we have to pray for God's will to be done in our lives, can I miss out on His plan? What if He calls me to be poor, or to suffer, or to be faithful but obscure? What if He calls me to be a missionary overseas, or even worse, what if He calls me to stay in Boston and tell Bostonian pagans about Jesus? In Luke 5, we look at Jesus' charge to Simon Peter to find out.

How are we to understand God's promise that we will do "greater works than Jesus did?" (John 14:12) Especially when we look at our text, Luke 4:31-44, where Jesus teaches with authority, casts out demons with authority, and heals with authority. So many questions. Demons? Exorcism? Healing? What does God's Word have to say about the spiritual realm?

We've subtitled this sermon series "How to love your nearest neighbors," with the assumption that often, those closest to us are sometimes the hardest to love well. This is especially true with kids. Our kids see us all the time, when we're at our best and when we're not so much. Deuteronomy 6 is one of the most profound teachings in all of Scripture on parenting. It teaches us that the first step to successful parenting is growing in your love, as a child, for God the Father.

As we continue our "People Skills" series tomorrow, we'll turn to Matthew 18, where Jesus teaches his followers how to handle conflict when it arises in our spiritual family. What do we do when our spiritual brothers or sisters sin against us?

Dr. David Butler discusses the people skills needed in marriage, the most intimate relationship in our lives, focusing on the commands found in Philippians 2:1-11. The goal of marriage: showcasing the love of Christ to others.

This week we are kicking off a new series called “People Skills” and starting off with the topic of friendship. How do we make friends, or keep friends? For cynical Bostonians like us, is it even worth the effort? The good news is that it is worth it, and Scripture reveals both the wisdom and the power that are necessary for us to have amazing friendships no matter what life throws our way.

In the Gospel story, we find the worst news about us, and the best news for us – and why it matters.

We live in a world that is out of control and beyond our control. We work hard to create order out of the chaos of our lives, but even at the pinnacle of our powers, we can't control most of which sets the course of our lives. We are finite, dependent creatures, and we don't like it. This is why the idol of control is so powerful. It offers us power, control, influence, authority, and we're willing to sacrifice whatever this idol demands to get everything it offers. We conclude our Detox series by looking at Jesus' trial before Pilate.

One of the most dangerous toxins to our spiritual life and growth is the toxin of comfort. Comfort kills all growth, but especially spiritual growth. When we worship at the alter of the idol of comfort, by orienting our lives around becoming as comfortable as we possibly can, our souls are lulled to sleep and we are rendered ineffective. We lock ourselves in cages of comfort, and we becomes shells of our potential selves. We need a spiritual detox from the toxicity of comfort.

This week we will study the idol of Affection. This idol goes by many names: romance, intimacy, but most often, simply "Love." We are indoctrinated with the claim: Love is god. We are taught that without a romantic relationship, our lives are meaningless; without romantic love and affection, we are somehow incomplete. Like every idol, this one overpromises, under-delivers, and always breaks our heart. Perhaps the physically strongest person in all of Scripture, Sampson, was slain by the idol of affection.

A detox is a process by which a person aims to cleanse the body of toxins or unhealthy substances. In the same way that our bodies incrementally and imperceptibly accumulate toxins, our souls do the same. A little here, a little there, and without realizing it, we've found ourselves in a spiritual funk. During this year's season of Lent, we will spend 4 weeks going through a spiritual detox of sorts by analyzing the heart's deepest idols: significance, affection, comfort, and control.

What’s so amazing about the Gospel is how honest it is about our depravity, but also about God’s goodness. It tells us that we are so wicked that Christ had to die for us, and yet so loved us that He was willing to do it. It tells us that God owes us nothing, but He gave up everything so that through faith in Christ we can be saved. In Luke 4, we learn about how Jesus and the Gospel offend everyone, especially good, religious people.

One of the amazing things about Jesus's life on earth is that he was "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Immediately following Jesus's baptism, Satan musters all of his powers to wage spiritual warfare against Jesus through temptation. In Luke 4, we look at three ways that the devil tempts Jesus, and how we can fight sin and temptation in our own life.

One of the strongest desires of the human heart is to make our loved ones proud of us. We're born with this innate desire. The thing missing in many people's lives is the incredible, soul-satisfying feeling that your Heavenly Father is proud of you. We often settle for the fickle pleasure of people, but it's never enough. Deep down, we long to please our Creator. This desire, to be pleasing to God, is the mark of a Christian – it's proof of being a child of God. So, how do we please God?

John Lennon once said, "Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God almighty." This brilliant little nugget encapsulates our schizophrenic inferiority and superiority complex. Let's allow the Holy Scriptures to reintroduce Jesus to us, fully God, fully man, who came to save us from both our superiority complex (He is our Lord) and our inferiority complex (He is our Savior).