Tony Pagliarullo

Scripture Reading Isaiah 50:4-11 This is the third Servant Song found in Isaiah. As you read this you probably noticed striking similarities to Jesus' death. Mark reads, "Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him" (Mark 15:15-20). Notice that the servant submits not to the authority of his accusers and oppressors but to the authority of the sovereign Lord. The Servant kn...

Scripture Reading Isaiah 49:1-6 Yesterday we looked at the first of four "Servant Songs" found int Isaiah 40-66. The first one introduced the servant, and we stated that as Christians we have come to understand the Servant of the Lord to be Jesus Christ. The second Servant Song, found in Isaiah 49 captures the thoughts of the servant and Yahweh's response.  As one reads verses 1-4, it is easy to identify with the words of the servant. We feel that we as servants of the Lord were called before we were born (vs. 1), that the Lord has protected us and kept us in the palm of his hand (vs.2), and that at times we feel we have labored in vain for the Lord (vs.4). However, that is where our identification with these verses stops. We must remind ourselves that this is about the Servant of the Lord-Jesus.  The Servant's words have been heard and now Yahweh responds in verses 5-6. In verse 5 there is a description of the Lord-Yahweh that is essentially a summary of verses 1-4. ...

Scripture Reading Isaiah 42:1-4 The second half of Isaiah (chapters 40-66) focuses on the Servant of the Lord. This recurring image has been interpreted in various ways throughout the years. The two main interpretations are to see the Servant of the Lord as a collective group (such as the nation of Israel or a remnant of faithful Israelites) or as individuals (such as Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, or Jesus). Some scholars suggest that the best way to understand this theme is to interpret it both as a group and an individual.  An important theme found in Isaiah is the idea of a remnant. This represented a group from the nation of Israel that God was preserving even though he was bringing judgment of sin through battles with other nations and eventually defeat and slavery in Babylon. Through all of these difficulties, God was preserving a chosen group for himself. So in one sense, these verses represent the faithfulness of God to use Israel to bring justice and to be faithful to living for...

  Scripture Reading Matthew 28:18-20 What do you do when you find out good news? What is your reaction when something great happens? You tell somebody! Usually the first person you see is the one that gets an earful about that great deal on shoes, the healing of a relative, or the birth of a baby. Can you imagine holding it in? It feels like your going to burst and it is impossible to sit still because you are so anxious to tell people so they can celebrate with you. Celebration...how would you like to celebrate alone? What a horrible birthday party it would be if it was only you. Easter is all about celebration. It is when we rejoice that he lives! We are created to have a relationship with God and with each other. We are created to tell and celebrate the good news of Christ's life, death, and resurrection.  The Great Commission was given to the eleven disciples and it is given to us as well. Tell others! The irony in the lives of so many Christians is that they proclaim that...

  Scripture Reading Matthew 7:21-27 The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who do the will of God the Father. It's interesting that Jesus says that there will be some who will have done miracles, cast out demons, and preached in his name who will not enter heaven because they didn't have a relationship with God. It seems that there are some who will appear to be followers of Jesus but really aren't. Perhaps it is also possible that there are some who by most standards one would not consider a Christian but who are actually busy doing the will of God and thus will be allowed entrance into the kingdom of heaven. It is not left up to us to make those decisions, our responsibility is to be doing God's will as we serve him on this earth.  Jesus illustrates his point by telling the story of the wise and foolish builders. Do you remember the children's song about this story? "The wise man built his house upon the rock/the foolish man built his house upon the sand/the ...

Scripture Reading Matthew 13:44-46; 6:33 Have you ever wanted something so badly that you were willing to give up anything in order to get it? I believe we have all at one time or another used our bargaining powers to get what we want. "You don't have to buy me anything else all year, if I can have this jacket." "I promise these are the only shoes I will ever need." "If I can have a car you don't have to buy me anymore Christmas or birthday presents!" I can vividly remember searching my room to try to figure out what I could sell in order to make money to buy whatever it was that week I just had to have. I was willing to give up everything to get what I saw as something more valuable. But what about eternal things, am I as passionate about them as I am materialistic things? What do we value? What are we willing to do to gain eternal riches?  The characters in this parable went to drastic measures to keep what they found to be the most valuable thin...

Scripture Reading Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus loved to use parables to teach people the truth of the kingdom of God. When Jesus taught using parables he was taking an example from the everyday life of his followers and using it to explain something about heaven or what it means to be a Christ follower.  In this very short parable, which is followed by an even shorter one, Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed. As Jesus says in the parable, the mustard seed was the smallest seed used by farmers during that time. The amazing thing about it was that it would grow and become quite large. The comparison that Jesus is making is that the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven starts out small but grows into something very large.  Think about it this way, the kingdom of heaven began with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but through God's plan of redemption through Jesus' death on the cross it has grown to include millions of people throughout the cent...

Scripture Reading Matthew 2:1-6, Micah 5:2 The prophet Micah prophesied the coming of the Messiah, from Bethlehem out of the land of Judah, seven centuries prior to Jesus' birth. Again scripture is fulfilled and Jesus' Davidic background is brought to our attention. The Jews, although blind to the servant king that the Messiah would be, were very well versed with the prophet Micah's words which said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem from the lineage of David. King Herod, appointed by the Roman government to rule Judea, Galilee, and other territories, was distraught over this question the magi from the east asked, "Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?" To the reigning king, this must have been quite alarming. He asked the chief priests and teachers of the law what they knew about this king. The fulfillment of Micah's words shook Herod. He was a man known for his ruthlessness and vengeance. It is known that he murdered his wife, sons, a...

Scripture Reading Isaiah 9:6-7 Isaiah is one of my favorite prophets. His life and ministry have always been sources of encouragement for me. The first part of chapter 9 foretells the birth of a child who will bring change to Israel and the world. We could spend a day talking about each of the four names of Jesus mentioned in verse 6 but we don't have the time. Wonderful Counselor, Jesus is our counselor through all the things that we go through. When we have a really bad day at school or a fight with our parents or brother or sister he is there. When we have a really great day, Jesus is still with us. He longs for us to share our thoughts with him when things are going great in our lives and when things are not so great. Jesus is the mighty God. We can never over-emphasize the divine nature of Jesus, He is God the Son. He is strong and mighty and able to do anything if he wants to. He is also the Everlasting Father. Jesus wasn't alive for just 33 years, he was the beginning of...

Scripture Reading Psalm 2, Mark 1:11 Psalm 2 is what scholars call a messianic psalm and a royal or kingly psalm. It is royal or kingly because it describes the reign of the Anointed One of the Lord. The psalm depicts a rather mighty, vengeful ruler who has no mercy upon those who oppose the Lord. One cannot read Psalm 2 without realizing the power, majesty, and terror that the Lord and his Anointed One evoke in the world. The psalm is written so that the reader gets a big view of God as the ruler of the universe. If we are to understand part of the grandness of God then we must affirm the kingly depiction of the Lord and his Anointed One.  Psalm 2 is also a messianic psalm, which means that it refers to the messiah. Psalm 2 has been interpreted throughout the history of the church as a Psalm that describes the Messiah and his actions as he rules from on high. Messiah means "anointed one," and as we see in verse 2, the Anointed One is counted as one who rules with Yahweh, the...

Scripture Reading Luke 1:26-33 Can you for one second imagine yourself in Mary's sandals? You are a young teenage girl, probably around the age of 15 and you find out that you are pregnant. If that's not terrifying enough you know you are still a virgin, and the child you are carrying is the son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of his people. What would be going through your mind? Fear, nervousness, anxiety, maybe a little joy and happiness, these are all emotions you might experience.  The words that the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, carry the weight of the world with them. The hope and future of humanity's relationship with God rest on these words. We often only think about this encounter that Mary had with Gabriel at Christmas time, but they are verses that we need to read throughout the year because they hold the hope of the world in them.  These verses are the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies. How wonderful it is to know that a young teenage girl was not a...

Scripture Reading Acts 2:29-36 Peter's sermon at Pentecost ties together so many important aspects of the Jewish tradition and the connection that it has with our faith as Christians. Peter's sermon was addressed primarily to other Jews (Acts 2:14). Peter's own faith was as a Jew who came to believe that a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth was the promised Messiah, who would reign forever on David's throne. Peter was pleading with his fellow Jews to open their eyes to the reality of their Messiah who had recently been crucified and resurrected from the dead.  Peter turns his sermon's focus to the greatest leader and hero of Israel, David. The shepherd boy, turned king was remembered as Israel's greatest leader and a spiritual giant for his radical obedience to God. Peter knew that to gain his audience's attention he had to focus on the greatest figure in their history.  Peter points out that David himself realized that the promise of a descendant to reign on hi...

Scripture Reading Matthew 22:41-46 The religious leaders of Jesus' day had been asking him questions in order to trap him in a lie or blasphemy. In this passage the Pharisees are asked a question that every person must answer at some point in their lives. "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" The Pharisees answered according to what the Jews believed about the lineage of the Messiah. They knew that God had promised David that the Messiah was to be one of David's descendants. Jesus responded to the Pharisee's answer by quoting scripture in which David calls the Messiah (Christ) his Lord. Jesus' question confuses the Pharisees. What Jesus was pointing out and what the Pharisees refused to see was that the Messiah was not only a descendant of David, he was David's Lord.  The question for each of us is what do we think about the Christ? Are we silent and confused like the Pharisees? Do we acknowledge God with our lips but nothing in our heart ...

                                                                                         Scripture Reading      Ezekiel 34:1-24 Ezekiel was a prophet who lived during the time when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and thousands of Israelites were taken back to Babylon to live in exile as refugees. In addition to the Jews who had been taken into captivity, other Jews had been scattered throughout the Middle East.  This passage is both a critique of the leaders of Israel for their selfishness and poor leadership of the people of God, and a message of hope in the coming restoration of the people of God. The hope of this passage is that God will place a shepherd over them like David (vs.23). This does...

  Scripture Reading Jeremiah 23:5-6 One of our professors in seminary would always tell us, "context, context, context...those are the three most important principles of properly interpreting a biblical text." This is certainly true with this passage. Jeremiah was a prophet who constantly reminded the Israelites of the future hope of Yahweh that was contained in the promises of the Messiah.  The first four verses of Jeremiah 23 are Yahweh pronouncing his promise to gather his people back unto himself. It is important that we see the faithfulness of God in these verses. His purpose has always been to call a people to live in relationship with himself.. The Lord demonstrates his covenant commitment. Remember his covenant with Israel was always contingent on what he did, not what Israel did. So we also see in the context of this passage the overarching theme of God's faithfulness to his promises.  Bound to God's covenant promises to David was the promise of his descendan...

Scripture Reading 2 Samuel 7:1-29 Throughout Lent we have talked about God's covenant with Abraham that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We now turn our attention to God's covenant with David. This was not a new covenant; rather it was a renewal of God's eternal covenant with his people that he redeemed from Egypt. God's covenant with David was renewal for his people with specific details and promises to David.  David's greatest desire was to build a place for the Ark of the Covenant, which represented God's presence with his people. David thought it was ridiculous that he should be living luxuriously while God's ark was still housed in a tent. God had other plans for David. God's plan for David's life was different from David's plan for his own life. God knew that the best thing for David was not what he wanted but what God had ordained for him. The Rolling Stones have a song that says, "You can't always get what you want but you just mig...

Scripture Reading 2 Samuel 5:1-5 David has the privilege of being the second king in Israel's history. He followed the reign of Saul. The text points out that even during Saul's reign David proved that he was a mighty military leader which was absolutely necessary for a ruler during that time period. The interesting thing here is that the people recognized the leadership qualities of David and sought him out as their king. David was anointed king at Hebron and then the writer says that he ruled for forty years as king over Israel.  This passage seems rather odd as we focus our attention on the cross of Christ, but we must read between the lines. Remember David was the person to whom God said that the Messiah will come from your lineage. He promised David that his descendants would rule Israel forever. What God meant was that Jesus Christ would be the eternal king to rule on David's throne. In many ways the life of David serves as an example to his peers of what the Messiah ...

Scripture Reading Matthew 5:17-20 The Sermon on the Mount from which these verses come from has been a source of constant controversy in terms of interpretation throughout the history of Christianity. The meaning of these verses is important because it helps to determine one's view of Jesus as Messiah and the role of the Law in the life of a Christian.  Jesus' use of the Law and the Prophets applies to the entire Old Testament. He emphatically states that he has not come to tear down or do away with the Old Testament but to fulfill it. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament in several ways: 1)he was the fulfillment of the promises of god to Israel, 2)he was the fulfillment of the prophecy that referred to the coming Messiah who would save God's children, 3)he lived a perfect life, never sinning, so he was the only person to ever keep all of the Law (there were only 613 commandments and restrictions).  So then the question for us as Christians in the year 2020 trying to be obedie...

Scripture Reading Luke 1: 67-79 Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was a voice of hope in the midst of despair for the Jewish people. His story started with doubt when he was told he was going to be a father even though he was very old. Because of his doubt he was not able to speak until his son was born. Then he began to praise God for his faithfulness to his covenant with his people (verses 67-75).  We can never be reminded enough that the story of God and his people began with Abraham, was renewed with Moses and David, and fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. This fact, this hope in the promises of God, was what sustained the Israelites through years of difficulty, hardship, and persecution. This hope is what Zechariah was so excited about.  The words of Zechariah turn to a more personal note as he rejoices over the wonder that God has chosen to use his son as part of the great salvation story! Zechariah's prophecy reminds us of the choice of Almighty God to use frail, w...

Scripture Reading Hebrews 13:14-21 The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the life we now live will not last but that our hope is in the heavenly city that awaits us when we die. As Christians we know that our hope is only in God and the miracle of sending his son to die on the cross for our sin. What then should our response be to God? "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name" (Hebrews 13:15). Our only proper response is to praise God and thank him for his love and grace that made it possible for us to have a relationship with him. How often do you thank God for saving you? How can your whole life become a sacrifice of praise to our God?  The author of Hebrews reminds us that part of our gratitude to God for our salvation is to "do good." By this he means that we should live godly lives. Everyday we need to remind ourselves that as Christians we are to live lives that reflect Christ in ...

Scripture Reading Jeremiah 31:27-34 "I will be their God, and they will be my people." That is the promise of God to Israel and to us today as heirs of God's covenant with Israel through the death of Christ. Jeremiah reminds us that God's promise to Israel was to establish and everlasting covenant with them. The original covenant promises of God to Israel came to be viewed as the old covenant when Jesus came and said he was establishing a new covenant. This new covenant is what God is referring to in these verses.  Jeremiah's most important contribution to biblical thought is the concept of the new covenant. God says that there will be a difference in the the old covenant that he made with Israel and the new one that he will make. God recalls the people's unfaithfulness to God. He even compares himself to Israel's husband and Israel as the unfaithful wife. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the L...

Scripture Reading Romans 7:7-12; 8:1-4 The main point Paul is attempting to make is that through the Law he realized what sin was. "Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet'" (Romans 7:7). It's the same principle of when someone tells you not to do something you hadn't even thought about doing until they said something to you about not doing it. For instance, if you are walking in a park and you see a sign that says "Stay off the grass," it will probably arouse in you an intense desire to walk all over the grass even though before you saw the sign you hadn't even thought about walking on the grass. Paul is saying that the Mosaic Law is what points out our sin to us in hopes of driving us to see our need for God.  In chapter 8 the incredible news for those who are believers is that there is no condemnation. That means because of Chr...

  Scripture Reading Galatians 3:15-26 "What then was the purpose of the law?" According to Paul the Law serves to lead us to God. The Mosaic Law which includes the Ten Commandments was given to show them the need for the Promised Seed to come. The Promised Seed was Jesus. It is through Jesus that Abraham becomes a blessing to the whole world.  The Law is like the signs at Six Flags that say you must be a certain height to ride this ride. If we don't keep the Law, which we can't because we are sinful, then we realize that we don't meet God's standard. So we need someone who can meet that standard for us. Because of Jesus' sinless life he was able to offer his life as a sacrifice for us who as sinners, deserve death. The Law was instituted by God to demonstrate our need for Christ. When we look at the Law and its requirements we realize that we have broken at least one of God's commandments and in most cases all of them (at least in our heart). God's...

  Scripture Reading Exodus 19:5-6, 20:1-17 Exodus contains the story of God rescuing his people from slavery and bondage and bringing them out of Egypt into the wilderness to prepare them for their inheritance of the land promised to Abraham. In Exodus 19, God leads Moses up Mount Sinai to have a little chat. God talks to Moses about Israel being his chosen people whom he will bless and who are set out to be holy, different from all the other peoples of the land.  Exodus 20 is the account of Moses telling the people the Ten Commandments God had given to them as guidelines of their covenant with him. God was establishing Israel as a holy nation. These ten commandments were not intended to be posted in every public place in Israel, rather they were intended to serve as the contract or guidelines of God's covenant treaty with Israel. The Ten Commandments were to remind Israel of who God is and who they were. That's why the beginning focuses on God and his act of saving the people...