March 2021 Reflections

by Krisan Marotta | Mar 28, 2021 | News, Reflections

How did you like the fulfillment passages? I’d love to hear your feedback.

In April, we’ll study the temptations of Jesus from Matthew’s gospel. While I’ve taught this passage many times, the podcast gives me the ability to teach it without a time constraint for the first time! I will finally be able to really explain the Old Testament background, the parallels to the Exodus, and how Jesus fulfills God’s promises to the children of Israel.

For each temptation, we’ll analyze why the choice is wrong, why it’s attractive to Jesus, and how he responds to it, giving us a model for facing temptations in our own lives today. I hope you learn as much as I did.

Thanks for listening and welcome new subscribers!

March 2021 Podcasts

05 Matthew 2:13-15 Out of Egypt

Matthew tells us the life of Jesus “fulfills” something spoken by the prophet Hosea. Yet Hosea is not “predicting” anything; Hosea is looking backward to the Exodus. What is Matthew doing? He’s pointing out the theological connection between Israel as God’s son and the Messiah, God’s son.

06 Matthew 2:16-18 Rachel weeping

In this third fulfillment passage, Matthew compares the murder of the young boys in Bethlehem to the Rachel weeping in her tomb for the captives about to be deported to Babylon. In both events, all hope seems lost.

07 Matthew 2:19-23 A Nazarene

This quotation presents the hardest challenge because no passage in the Old Testament says the Messiah will be called a Nazarene. Instead Matthew is summarizing an idea taught in the prophets. We need both grammar and historical background to understand him.

08 Matthew 3:1-12 John the Baptist

John the Baptist was the herald who announced the coming of the King. His message had two parts: repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The king is coming. It is time to turn back to God and follow his Messiah.

New Bible Study resources

A listener asked for help with word studies. I’ve started a new series of resources pages with tools to help your word studies. The first ones published this month.

Need help figuring out how to listen to the podcast?

Listeners have told me that their podcast feed is often limited to the last 20-30 episodes. You can find all previous podcasts on WednesdayintheWord.com and you can make your own “app” to locate them quickly.