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How Do You See
August 25, 2019 • Andy Hoot • Mark 8:11–38
Summary: The new clarity with which I was able to see the world when I got my glasses was very similar to how my life was changed when I became a Christian. I was overwhelmed with the things that I saw, some really ugly and some really beautiful, amazed by the change it brought to my life and was given an exciting vision for a mission for the glory of God’s kingdom. Join me tomorrow as we celebrate my ordination as a Pastor and address the question “How do you see?” Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic. My name is Andy. I thought Pastor Jan was going to be up here a second ago. Sorry for the delay. We had my ordination service, actually, last service. I wasn't sure if we were going to walk through it again, but you can call me pastor now. I've been pastoral resident at Mosaic since last September. I'm not technically a pastor here of Mosaic. I'm not a pastor of Mosaic. The pastors have put it before the church last service that in October when we have a members meeting the church will be deciding my direction and my path, and whether or not the members want to keep me here as a pastor. Pastor Jan is finally here. Welcome to Mosaic. If you're new to Mosaic I've served as pastoral resident, and we're happy to have you. Those who have been here all year I just want to ... I have a thank you prepared before getting off the plan here. Just thank you all for welcoming me, my wife, and my son, Drew, this past year. It's just been a thrill to be here, to learn through all the work under Pastor Jan, and Pastor Shane. My wife and I we both moved away from our families, but we don't regret it at all. We have a family here at Mosaic, and we just love it. So thank you for the many ways that you've served us. Today we're going to be reading a text from Mark, chapter eight, verses 11 through 38. The primary focus will be verses 22 to 38, but we'll bounce around. It's a lot of text. If you just follow along with me as I read God's word. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man, and begged him to touch him. And he, Jesus, took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on the eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, "Do not even enter the village." And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they told him, "John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets." And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels." This is the word of our Lord. Please bow your heads in prayer with me. Heavenly father, Lord forgive us for we are sheep. We're prone to wander, prone to stray, prone to just leave you, leave your direction, and put your word aside. Lord, in doing so our hearts are hardened. Our vision goes. We cannot discern your lead. We cannot discern your word. We cannot discern your spirit, and Lord we pray that you may give us a spirit of wisdom today, a revelation of the knowledge of you. Lord, we pray that you would enlighten the eyes of our heart. Let us know what it is the hope that we've been called to. Lord, let us know the glorious greatness, the immeasurable greatness of your power towards us who believe. Lord, we just pray as we follow you let us have faith. Let us take up our cross with boldness following in the path of our savior, Jesus Christ. What is the primary issue that man faces today? I'm not talking about something that if you just chose to address that it would just be like a Band-Aid, but I'm talking about something that would cause a cascade effect. You address this issue, and all of the other ones, big ones are still addressed. They get caught down the line. They get addressed down the line. I was walking through social media this week, and I saw a graphic that had a big tidal wave. It had several houses that the tidal wave was about to crash into. The tidal wave was labeled climate change. On the other houses that were about to get crushed there was health care, immigration, guns, free school, justice, and legal weed. This was certainly a graphic showing that if climate change was not addressed then all of these other issues, though, they are large issues to many people would not be relevant. Is climate change our biggest issue? Do you think any of the others mentioned are man's greatest problem? If you asked me before August 2011, when I first came to Mosaic I would have been all over this graphic fresh out of liberal arts college, and I would have just been weighing each option. I worked in a social justice education organization, probably would have argued for them. If you're in my family I probably would have emailed you just telling you of my passion to tackle these issues to save the world, and those were the worst emails. Which one do you think of these issues Jesus would pick? I vouch the answer is none of them. Jesus would have said blindness, not physical blindness, but spiritual blindness. Today our passage is all about spiritual vision. I'll address the question how do you see? And to come up with an answer we'll discuss blindness, corrected vision, mission vision, and blurry vision, so blindness. Where do I get the answer that man's biggest problem is blindness? This comes from the context of our passage. This is Matthew 8. This passage beginning with the healing of a blind man. Sorry, did I say Matthew? Mark 8. Mark one through eight reads like a comic book. It's Jesus calling his disciples with two words, follow me. It's Jesus on the boat in the storm and he says, "Peace, be still." And the storm stops. It's Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a few loaves and a few fish. It's Jesus feeding the 4,000 with a few loaves, and a few fish. It's Jesus raising a girl to life from death. At this point if I were one of the disciples I would just be thinking, "Man, life is good. I've got this dude on my side. I have everything I need. Let's stay here forever." The passage after this it's the transfiguration. Peter, James, and John see Peter in all their glory, and Peter just wants to stay there. I understand that, but this is a crucial point in the gospel. This is along with Luke this is one of the gospels geared towards the gentiles. The gentiles of the day they were pagans. They believed in spirits. They were happy to hear of this God man, Jesus, who exhibited the almighty power of a God, so the first half of the book exhibits his power. The second half exhibits his passion, his path to the cross. It's at this point Jesus is talking to his disciples. Right before the verses that we read in Mark 14 to 21 Jesus is on a boat with the disciples shortly after feeding the 4,000. They run out of bread and Jesus says, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." And they say, "Jesus, we don't have any bread." And he says, "Do you guys not yet understand?" At this point Jesus is making it clear to the disciples if you want to follow me you have to see me entirely for who I am. You have to see me not just as superman, not just as this almighty, all powerful deity, but you have to love me, and want to glorify my name for the suffering I'm going to endure for you. In going that way he addresses their blindness. We're saved by placing our faith in Jesus Christ going to the cross. To get rid of our spiritual blindness we need to place our faith in Christ. We need to see our need for him in that regard. This issue of blindness this goes all the way back to Genesis. When tempted by Satan, Eve ... Tempting Eve, Satan says in Genesis 3:4 "You shall not surely die when you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil." This is a partial truth. This is how Satan he's rarely going to insert himself with a blatant lie. He's going to tweak the truth. Adam and Eve we all know the story they ate the fruit, and they did see themselves. They saw that they were naked. Their whole just form of rationality, their whole system was tweaked, but they didn't see like God. In fact, they became blind by their sin. They became blind, and they could no longer properly see God for who he is as their sustainer, their creator, their provider, and their source of peace, and joy, and hope. That's the darkness. That's the blindness that we all still walk in today. Apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ how do we get out of this blindness? In the text it shows us Jesus extends a hand to the blind man. The blind man's friends bring him up. Jesus offers his hand. Jesus initiates the relationship to us. However, we have to be willing. There's a part of Mark where Jesus is in his hometown and they're skeptical. They're like, "Who is this guy?" This is Jesus. This is Joseph's son, and because of the unbelief he stops healing there. So this is a situation we need to see Jesus. We need to see our blindness, see our need for him, and ask for him to come to us. We have to be willing to receive him into our hearts. That's the gospel, but blindness is an issue that we're still wrestling with. The thing about blindness is that upon salvation we have to fight for the vision that we do get. We don't just wake up each day, and keep that sight. We have to remind ourselves of the gospel over and over again. Who exhibited just a quick study of what that blindness looks like in regular life? The perfect example, of course, was the Pharisees. In Mark 8, 11 to 13 we get a sense of how the blind function. The Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." And he left them, got into a boat again, and went to the other side. I've read this over and over again throughout my life. When the Pharisees asked for a sign that seems reasonable, but you have to remember the context. The Pharisees, this is Bethsaida. This is very close to the region where Jesus fed the 5,000, and it was really probably 20,000 to 25,000 when you consider women and children. The number that the text gives is men. So they would have known. They would have heard about this man. They might have been there, and been fed by him. Just this text, this seeking for a sign, this is all of us apart from Christ. We just want to use him for what we can get from him. So the Pharisees they were never really interested in getting God. They're interested in what he could get for them. They just wanted to test him. They wanted to find holes in his arguments. They wanted to find weakness in his power because they just wanted to go back to their regular life. They wanted to maintain their traditions, maintain their culture, maintain the status quo. The worst part about the Pharisees, the most mind-boggling part of the Pharisees is that they tried to cover up themselves. We're born as image bearers of God. We know there's something wrong with us. We try to atone for it. If it's not Jesus it's something else, and the Pharisees it was religion. It was adding rule and rule and rule on top of the Jewish law. They put on frames a lot like the people it's common now people walk around with glasses frames without lenses. They think that it's doing something for them. They think that it helps them to fit in with a crowd better, but really they kind of look foolish. What do you want to do with those people? You just want to poke them through the lenses to wake them up. That's us. I mean, it's easy to laugh at the Pharisees, but that's all of us when we're living, we're walking in our blindness, we're covering ourselves up with religion with means to attain self-righteousness. For me, I'm going to share a little bit about my testimony throughout this service to fit the occasion, but this was my life. I grew up in the church. I went to the church probably 95% of my childhood Sundays. I was baptized, confirmed. Went to church service, worship service, Sunday school, youth group, all in one day for most of my childhood. If you asked me if I was blind as I got older into my early 20s I would have said, no way. I'm a Christian. I go to church. I need Jesus, and he loves me because my sin is not as bad as everyone else's around me. My story is I had that attitude, but I was blind like the Pharisees. There came a point really the first challenge of my faith came in the week after I graduated high school. I went to a missions trip, and the message of the week was leave the American dream to follow God's plan. It sounds so simplistic, but I remember it today. I remember just hardening my heart against this idea. I saw my parents just climb up the middle class scale a little bit, and I wanted to continue that. I said, "No." I approached college without considering my faith. I went through college without pursuing Christian community. I went to church on Sunday mainly to feel better about what I did Saturday night. I just went there and felt guiltier. When I came to Mosaic, though, I came a year after college, August 2011, and just my eyes were opened. It's just shocking. This is shocking when you think of me I'm just a guy. Maybe I didn't hear the best preaching. We see in the text the disciples they walked with Jesus for about three years at this point. They saw him heal people. He even gave them the power to heal people. And they did not believe who he truly was that he was the God man, the Christ, and were working to that point with Peter. It's possible to be here. It's possible to go to church. It's possible to go through the motions, and still be blind. How do you tell if you're blind? Do you understand the song Amazing Grace? I heard that song thousands of times. I normally associated it with civil rights movies growing up, but it's one of the most popular songs of history. I went through church for 23 years not knowing what Amazing Grace was. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I never thought of myself as a wretch. If you have never thought of yourself as a wretch in need of God's grace you might be blind. Really ask yourself if you find yourself just going through the motions, if you are new to come to church you might be walking in this blindness. If you think you've been saved, but you've been stagnant for a while really just be honest with yourself, and really if you don't have the eyes to see we pray the Lord Jesus give us the eyes to see. Give us ears to hear, to know your word, know your love, know your voice amongst all the competing voices out there. I just encourage you to do that. One of the great things about just moving from blindness to life is that we get corrected vision. Again, this is focused on the blind man in verse 24. And he looked up after Jesus touched him the first time, and he said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. So I want to focus on it's trippy seeing people that look like trees. It reminds me of the ents in Lord of the Rings, and seeing things clearly. This is what happens with our life story when we come to faith. When your eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit, your heart is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the scariest part of conversion is just realizing that you didn't know you were blind until Jesus gave you sight. So it's scary to think about the depth of the sin you went into. The things that you justified, the things that you felt were okay. It's scary to think about the depths of sin that you could have continued to pursue if Jesus did not call you out of it and open your eyes. It's embarrassing to think about those previous wanderings, but when you get to that point this is why grace is so amazing. You see how God has preserved you. You see how he didn't let you wander as far as you could have. You see that he taught you different lessons along the way. Lessons that you often didn't know you need. Lessons you often didn't desire, but they were only to bring you to see him properly as Lord and savior. My story picks up after that missions trip it was five years of frustration. I went to college, and when I graduated high school I was on a peak. I was valedictorian of my class. I was captain of my school's best soccer team ever. I was lead off hitter for the school's best baseball team in history. I was homecoming king, dating the homecoming queen. Voted most likely to succeed. It's just silly stuff to think about now, but just in the flesh this is just the kind of stuff that boosts your sense of self-worth. College was rough. I played soccer, and four years of getting injury after injury after injury. In a two, three month season you get injured once it's so hard to make that up to get back in the season. That part of my identity was crushed. I went to a top three liberal arts school in the country, and just faced every overachiever's nightmare realizing that I was just average when the playing field got more difficult. Then that relationship, the storybook relationship with the homecoming queen it didn't work out. As many times as we watched The Notebook together it just didn't last. I was heartbroken for several reasons. I went through this process. It was just depressing. The way that I responded it was not just sit and be depressed all the time. It was like I'm going to muster up. This is who I am. I'm going to work harder. I'm going to study harder. I'm going to train harder. I got another relationship, and I wanted to fill myself. I had this void in my heart that I just needed to fill. I graduated, finally. I got a job right away, but I never got satisfied, and the hole in my heart grew even larger. I was just constantly asking why God why? One of the hardest parts about that process is I grew up in a good family, awesome parents who were rocks, and just going to them with this frustration, this brokenness, this sadness, and they couldn't help me. I just looked at my life in that period just why God? Why? Why me? Just self-loathing, self-pity, but the thing about the gospel is that when our eyes are opened it all makes sense. He corrects our vision. I view that process. I'm not just here to give you a sob story about my fall from small town glory to larger city larger realm sadness. I truly see God used that process to strip me, take out all the idols in my life that kept me from worshiping him as Lord. Also, in the process as I clung to idols and fell into deeper sin he revealed just the depths of the darkness within me. Some of you could be listening to this and saying this is a guy a big fish in a small pond, but just when your eyes are corrected you really begin to see how the Lord works like this. He loves his children. He disciplines them. He's going to extend irresistible grace until they submit to him. This is in Hebrews 10, five to 13. The first three verses come from Proverbs 3. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you're left without discipline in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children, and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best for them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. When we have corrected vision if we're not waking up each day, and just reminding ourselves of our need for the Lord, need for him as savior and Lord, we don't strive for holiness out of thanksgiving for what he has done for us. We won't see the Lord. We won't see him properly, and our story, that corrected vision will slowly go away, and the self-pity, the self-loathing will continue. It's my experience, it's God's word that says he disciplines his children because he loves them. Those who have eyes to see know this. You get to this point when you realized every life experience, every triumph, every failure, every test, every sorrow is one that he's used to prepare us to see him properly. When the Holy Spirit gives us those eyes we don't just get clear vision. We just don't get corrected vision. We get mission vision. This is in Mark 34 to 38. What does this mission look like? And calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels." Now over the years I've watched a lot of war movies. Some of my favorite characters are Richard Winters in Band of Brothers, Legolas and Gimli, Aragorn, even Merry and Pippin, and even just reading the Bible. Young King David seeing Goliath and just challenging him there at the battlefront when men are all sitting on the side. The thing about these guys for years I just didn't understand what is driving them to be at the front? What is causing them to want to be there in the center of the action? The thing is when you see that the Lord uses you, he prepares you, he uses every good and bad moment in your life you can trust that he's going to use every future moment to prune you, to shape you, to mold you, to get you to continue to see Christ. You have this vision. You want to be like these guys. We don't become bloodthirsty ogres, but we don't become people that sit around and think about all the time what they gave up for the Lord. The house they could have outside of Boston. The comfort they would have if they lived at home closer to their parents, but the Christians should be like these guys. Who doesn't like Aragorn? Who doesn't like Gimli and Legolas? These guys who just sacrifice their comfort for a greater cause. They could have sat aside, but they didn't. So we're people like the disciples when they suffer for the word shortly after Pentecost they're praising God. They cannot but continue to speak of what they've seen and heard regarding Jesus. I have to admit this is the ideal. This is the strong call. I pray that some of you just feel emboldened to just hear this, to think about it, to use your vision to guide you, and motivate you to step forward into the battle field for the Lord. I still struggle with this. When I first came to Mosaic I think it's just little subtle ways we back off. When I first came to Mosaic I was working downtown and the lunchtime conversation is, hey, how was your weekend? I always had a response for Saturday, and I'd always tell people about Saturday, but never about Sunday when I went to work, when I spent time in fellowship, when I really felt alive, felt like my life was transforming. It's just little subtle ways that we back off. These are the ways we need to stand firm. We need to tell people of our joy, our love of Christ, our love of the church. This is where we derive much joy, and I think just good reminders that we're to be a priesthood of believers, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not of people, but now you're of God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We're motivated by God's mercy and God's grace. Imagine a church that fulfills this vision. The Israelites fell, and now here in the church it's our opportunity to carry on this vision. It's not just the pastors who are the Aragorns, the Gimlis, the Legolases, it's all believers. Just today I want to clarify one thing I don't want to say is that the end goal for everybody is vocational ministry. I don't want to imply that. That scripture we just went through, 1 Corinthians 12, in our sermon series talking about the body. Everybody is given different body parts, different spiritual gifts for the benefit of the church, and the upbuilding of each other, but if it's not vocational ministry a lot of people struggle with, well, what is it? The answer is what has the Holy Spirit given you eyes to see to improve the church? How has the Holy Spirit impressed it upon your heart to represent Christians outside of the church throughout the week? Those are simple things, but when you really think about them they can bring profound change. I was talking to a guy he's been at Mosaic for a couple of months. He's a naturally introverted guy. For his work he's bouncing around across the country. I sense a true love for the Lord. He was telling me one thing that I see in church is I've been in community groups at several different places. The community group leaders, the small group leaders, the hosts, those two in every group they're always great. They always reach out to everybody, but very few people, very rarely do the rest of the people come and approach me. In that moment I want to console him, but that vision that he has that he sees that happening that's a gift from the Lord. How do you pick up your cross? You see a need and you fill a need. I think the best part about Mosaic is that a lot of people get this. I think we have 80 plus people involved in setup, tear down, and greeting, and security. Just amazing, not including minimal. We have it's not just the 10% doing 90% of the work at this church. We have people that have come to life. They've been given eyes to see. Their vision has been corrected, and they're just praising God, and they're motivated to tell people of the work that God has done in their life. They're on mission, and you just don't get this feel at a lot of churches. That's why my wife and I we moved up here to be here to be where the spirit is clearly moving, but I do think some of you might not be with me. You might not be Christian you're just questioning, but some of you probably have your born again card, but you're just stagnant. There's this confusing part of the text where the man Jesus seemingly, partially heals the guy that has blurry vision. I want to talk about blurry vision. Verse 23, again. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. What's going on here? Why not a full healing? Jesus fed 4,000 at the beginning of chapter eight. He did all those other miracles that I mention throughout the first eight chapters of Mark. Was there something wrong with the fish that he ate when he served the 4,000? What's going on here? Can we trust him as an almighty, all powerful God? Yes, this is a story where we should gaze in awe and wonder about Jesus that he does after the second step actually heal the guy of blindness, but this is really a lesson to his disciples. Remember before this verse 14 to 21 they're still thinking, "Jesus, we need bread from you." And he says, verse one, "Do you not yet understand?" So there's a reason this blindness story, two step healing story is right next to Peter's admission of Jesus as the Christ paired with his rebuke. Jesus is teaching the disciples that their view of him is not sufficient. It's inadequate. They're just like the blind man with only partial vision. I just want to explain this. Verse 29 and he asked them Jesus asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." This seems like a great moment. Peter is saying you are the Christ. You are the fulfillment of all of the scriptures. You're the messiah, the king of kings, the Lord of Lords, the one we've waited for. This seems like a great moment, but verse 31 things take a turn. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but turning and seeing his disciples, he rebukes Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." So this seems like this great moment, and then Peter is rebuked, and called Satan. So what's going on here? Jesus knows that at the back of Peter's mind not that Peter was following Jesus because he saw him as Lord, the savior. Peter just like the Pharisees the Pharisees wanted Jesus to help them anything it was to overthrow the Romans. Get rid of Roman occupation that plagued the Jews for decades and decades. So Peter like the Pharisees, like the disciples, the rest of the disciples when they only want bread he doesn't want Jesus. He wants what Jesus can bring to him. He wants what he can get from God. Peter's view of Jesus is inadequate. It wasn't complete, and that's why Jesus says, "Get behind me Satan." This partial view of Christ's identity was bad, it was evil. It was just as useful as that blind man with partial vision. And in that day you think there's no medicine, no glasses, like that blind man really couldn't do much if people looked like trees. So a partial view of Christ is condemned in Matthew 7, 21 to 23. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." So Peter likes the idea of a Lord this all powerful guy. He doesn't see his need for a savior. There's something inherent since the fall our flesh pushes against this need, this dependency on another being that being God. Peter just does want God himself, and believing that Jesus was the atonement for his sins. He gets God. He's not satisfied with that. He just wants freedom from the Romans. So this was me. This is my testimony. At Mosaic the light switched. Again, I had that church background. I didn't know I was a wretch, and just that conviction that I finally got at Mosaic that the Lord had prepared. He had primed my heart to finally get into that position after 23 years of being in the church. I saw him as Lord all those years. I finally saw him as savior. The ultimate prize that we get in this life is God himself, peace with him, hope in him, love from him. So I've talked about Peter saw him as Lord, and didn't see him as savior. I had the same experience, but there are a lot of ways that we can have blurry vision. Just the different inadequacies can lead to different problems in our life. So if you see Jesus as Lord, but not savior that is just like the Pharisees. You don't see your name for him you're not going to have the affection, you're not going to have the love to follow him with a pure heart, with love, with thankfulness. It's going to eventually turn into cold, dry religion with those lensless glasses on, but you can also see him as a savior, but not Lord, and these are the people they just love the idea. It really appeals to their emotions to have somebody love them to the point that they would go to the cross for them, but when push comes to shove when it's hard to follow Jesus, when it's not culturally common, when it's not popular you just shove Jesus into the corner. This was me at college at times as well. I was guilty of this. He's your homeboy on Sunday, maybe when you go to CG, but the rest of the week you're just not representing him at all. How else can we be blurry? You can be distracted. This comes from Jesus saying, verse 14, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod." This is saying remember a little leaven ... He's talking about bread. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. There are plenty of woke social media influencers, plenty of news personalities, life coaches, professional coaches, even doctors, and therapists who are completely blind. They don't know Jesus yet we let our guard down, and let them have a voice in our lives. That day it was the Pharisees. It was Herod, the local governor who reported to the Romans. Jesus warns against letting them in. Another way your vision can be blurry is you can be farsighted. In Boston, we don't have a lot of people like this. If you identify as Christian you're normally legit because there's no cultural benefit, and nobody's going to like you in the office because these are people that's it. They acknowledge Jesus as one. I've been reborn. He's risen from the dead ascended to the right hand of God. It's just a matter of time before he comes back. It doesn't matter what I do between now and then. I don't have to evangelize. I don't have to share the gospel. I'm saved and I'm good. That's sinful, that's evil, that's an inadequate view. Just the son of man Jesus calls himself the son of man in this text that was an indirect way of reminding the disciples that he would come back. The son of man is a term from Daniel 7 where Jesus talks about a figure that's going to come back at the end of time, make all things new, bring true justice. Some people can forget that son of man, and the next way to be blurry is you can be nearsighted. So like the disciples you've seen Jesus work miraculously in your life, but all you care about is getting bread on the table. You forget how powerful he is. You forget he's your savior. You forget that he's going to come back. He's going to make all things new, so you just get scared. You get paralyzed. You don't do anything with this nearsightedness, but if Jesus is who he says he is, if he is our Lord, he is our savior, he is going to come back one day to make all things new what do we have to lose? That's why I'm here. That's why I've taken the steps along the ministry. I've embarrassed myself over and over again trying out different activities in the church. Put myself out there within friendships for the sake of God's kingdom, and it doesn't always work out well, but when we place ourselves as a lamb, a sheep for the slaughter the Holy Spirit uses our humble efforts. So how is your vision? Do you see? Are you blind? Is your vision blurry? Are you nearsighted? Farsighted? Distracted? Is your view of Christ inadequate? You only see him as Lord or a savior? You need that full vision. To get that full vision you ask the Lord, Lord give me eyes to see. Give me ears to ear. Like I said you want that concentrated that missional vision. You have to wake up each day and put your gospel glasses on. Imagine somebody with glasses a big prescription for really weak eyes waking up and saying, "I don't need these today. I'm just going to go to work without them." That would be ridiculous, but what about in pursuing our heavenly mission? If you're not waking up each day reminding yourself of your need for Jesus as savior and Lord. Not finding peace in the fact that he will come back you're going to be blind. You can drift. You'll lose the vision. The more people who wake up each day, and put on their gospel glasses, the more people who constantly remind themselves of their need for the Lord, need for a savior, the more will bring about a cascade effect of change. Whether that happens in our day all praise and glory, and honor to be God, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Please pray with me now. Heavenly father, we praise you for just your patience, for your long suffering love. Lord, we know your love. We know your grace. We know your mercy, yet we still sin against you. We still don't trust you. We don't long for your return, and we tend to check out when things get difficult. Lord, give us eyes, open our eyes to see our need for you. Give us a mission for our lives in and through the church, and outside of it. And, Lord, God, just keep us concentrated. Help us to see you developing our story for the sake of your name. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Pray 'Till You Make It
November 27, 2016 • Ivey Rhodes
Some days prayer is the only thing that gets you through. There is a real sense in which we should pray, to make it through the day. And that isn’t a bad thing at all. Prayer helping us through tough times is Biblical. We see that idea throughout the Psalms and from Jesus himself. Check out church planting resident Ivey Rhodes' sermon on prayer and how it helps us through the ups and downs of life.
Run Like He Stole It
October 9, 2016 • Ivey Rhodes • Philippians 3:12–21
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.
The One Who Showed Mercy
May 29, 2016 • Drew Dolan • Luke 10:25–37
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 and left for dead in the road? Maybe once in a while, when things are really bad and you feel really desperate? Perhaps the key for us in becoming a good Samaritan is that we must realize our poverty, our brokenness, and our own need for the one truly Good Samaritan.
The Freedom of Finished
January 10, 2016 • Charlie Dunn • John 19:30
Have you ever completed a project, only to realize minutes later your work has been undone? You hit the bottom of your inbox, but by the time you send your last reply there is a new message waiting for your response. You clean the house, and before you can sit down to admire your work the kids' toy box has already exploded across your living room. So much of life comes with the feeling that there is always more work to be done. It can be exhausting. Frustrating. Nothing is ever finished! Today we are excited to have Charlie Dunn, the planting pastor of Hub Church in South Boston, with us to preach on Jesus last words from the cross. What are the implications of Jesus' words, "it is finished"? What is finished? Is anything ever really finished? Join us as we worship together and dive in to the hope and the freedom that are offered through the completed work of Jesus Christ!
A King and His Resolutions
January 3, 2016 • Drew Dolan • 2 Kings
"It's a New Year and that comes with new energy and passion to bring about change in our lives for the better. But more often than not, we hear stories about how people just didn't follow through. That diet just wasn't "for them". The gym just didn't "work with their schedule". The new Bible reading plan just wasn't "giving them what they needed". Data show that 25% of us will have fallen short of our New Year's Resolution in just one week! And the people written about in the Bible are no different. Peter says he'll never deny Jesus, but he does. David is made king as a "man after God's heart", but he falls into sin. Today, we'll be looking at a less famous character of the Bible, King Hezekiah. He's called the most faithful king of Judah, but even he falls away from what he set out to do for God. See just what his ancient situation says about our current one, and how Jesus' resolve is what we must ultimately rely on."
Come and See
July 13, 2014 • Josh Lott • John 1:35–51
“Come and see!” Hearing those words can evoke different emotions. There’s a bunny that we have been watching in our backyard, and we have seen it grow from its infancy into adulthood. When my wife says to “come and see,” I know that I’m going to be looking at a cute rabbit that's getting bigger and more fluffy by the day. But “come and see” can also bring about negative emotions. Last week I was at my parent’s house and the “come and see” that was used there on a regular basis was directed at my sister, telling her to “come and see” the messes that her daughter was making. Whether good or bad, the invitation to “come and see” should be answered by us actually coming to see what’s going on. In John 1:35-51, the passage that we will be looking at on Sunday, Jesus gives an invitation to “come and see”. What he invites us to come and see is far greater than anything that we have ever beheld on earth, and it will forever change our lives. Join us at Mosaic Church this Sunday, as we come and see what it is that is before us!
