Tony Pagliarullo

  Scripture Reading Hebrews 2:14-18; Matthew 4:1-11 What a wonderful thought to know that God loved us so much that he did not leave us in our sin. He made it possible for us to enter into a relationship with him. How you ask? By Jesus taking on human flesh so that "He might destroy him who holds the power of death." What does it mean for Jesus to share in our humanity? This truth separates Christianity from every other religion because only in Christianity does one find the story of God becoming flesh and blood for the sake of his children. This is the extent of the Father's love that he would sacrifice his own son for you and for me.  The writer of Hebrews spends a lot of time emphasizing the Old Testament sacrificial system and how it has been fulfilled and reinterpreted by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Therefore in Hebrews 2:17 he points out the role of Jesus as the great high priest of our faith. The high priest is the one who made the sacrifice and entered the Holy...

  Scripture Reading John 1:1-15 The Gospel of John starts out differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Instead of beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, John begins with pronouncement of the eternal nature of Jesus Christ. The importance of this passage can be realized when we remember what Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." It is essential to our Christian faith that we understand God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--the Holy Trinity. The Trinity is a doctrine that is complex. It is difficult to understand all the details of it nevertheless, it must be boldly confessed by members of the body of Christ. When we think about the creation of the world, it is necessary that we realize that the Jesus who died to save us was the Son of God who was present at the beginning of all creation.  A key verse in this passage is John 1:14. I like the way some of the modern translations and paraphrases render this verse. This is how J.B. Phillips tra...

  Scripture Reading Philippians 2:1-11 SERVANT- -What image does this word bring to your mind? Does it make you think of a butler or a maid, as depicted on some of our favorite television shows? Is it a person that is a doormat or one that waits on others only because they are incapable of helping themselves? The world view around us leads us to believe that being a servant is a sign of weakness, a failure. The media pronounces loudly, "It is all about you! What do you want?" In contrast, the Biblical view is just the opposite, it says that being a servant is the highest honor one can have. It says to be a servant is to be like Christ. And what is a Christian? A person who wants to be more like Christ each day. Biblical servant-hood is demonstrating qualities such as selflessness, humility, and the ability to think of others first. Remember the childhood acronym JOY...Jesus, Others, and You! To be like Christ we must be willing to be self-sacrificing and to love others more t...

Scripture Reading Psalm 130 "I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help, my throat is parched" (Psalm 69:2-3). Have you ever been in the "depths?" Are you there now? There are moments in our lives as believers that we feel lost, far away from the One that saved us. We are fearful to approach the throne of our Almighty God. The question of why we must pass through these seasons is no mystery. We are sinners in a sinful world. Therefore our lives can become overwhelmed with our own sinfulness, the circumstances of life, and the influence of the world around us. We find ourselves focused on ourselves and our own misery and misfortune. We seem to forget the promises of the One who loves us most. It is then that we plead for mercy, for God to hear us from our "depths." The encouragement for us is that because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, He hears us....

Scripture Reading Ephesians 2:1-10 This wonderful passage reminds us of the grace of God at work in our lives. It is God's grace that saves us. Saves us from what? "The ways of this world" (vs. 2). This passage not only reminds us of the grace of God that has brought us from death to life, from darkness to light, from sin to salvation, but it is an encouraging passage for evangelism. Our witness for the Lord can be strengthened by these verses because in them we see the hopelessness of a life without Christ, a life that we used to live. Even if you came to know Christ at an early age you can identify with what Paul is stating in this passage because we are included in Adam's sin and the despair that surrounds those without Christ. We can see the lives of people all around us and see how meaningless it is to live entrapped by sin because they don't have a relationship with God. We can also look back and remember what our lives use to be and how God in his infinite ...

  Scripture Reading Romans 5:12-19 This is an important passage for us to study during Lent because it explains the Fall of humanity through Adam's sin and the redemption of humanity through the new Adam, Jesus Christ. In verses 12-14, Paul points out the Biblical doctrine of Original Sin, which means that we are like Adam in that we have rebelled against God and the result of our rebellion was death, both physical and spiritual. In addition to being like Adam in our rebellion towards God, we are implicated in Adam and Eve's sin because we are all part of the human race. So we are sinners based on the fact that as humans we are descendants of the first humans, Adam and Eve. We are also sinners because we have chosen to rebel against God. That is the bad news, but the good news is that there is a gift from God to us. The gift of salvation (or as Paul calls it justification) surpasses the disobedience of all humanity. The gift of Jesus Christ is the gift of a new life that begins...

Scripture Readings  Genesis 2:7, Psalm 103:1-14 Some of you may have Bibles that give you a footnote about Genesis 2:7. It points out that in Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, the word for man is adam . So the first man, Adam, was named as a representative of all human beings that would follow him. The Hebrew word for ground is adamah . Notice how similar adam and adamah are spelled. Also notice how when you pronounce them out loud, they sound similar. This shows our close connection as human beings to the dust that we shall one day become when we die.  The Bible says that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. This is a picture of how close and intimate God desires his relationship with each of us to be. The image of God breathing into Adam's nostrils resembles a kiss in a figurative sense. Think about a time when you have seen CPR done on a person and how closely the nose and mouth are connected in order to revive that person and bring that...