56 How to Overcome Fear When Following Jesus Costs Everything (Matthew 10:24-33)

Krisan Marotta: Thank you for downloading Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're going to study Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33. This is the 56th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below the podcast, and you can also go to them directly at wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 5.6. Glad to have you along. We are continuing in chapter 10 of the book of Matthew. We are looking at the instructions that Jesus gave to the twelve the first time he sent them out to preach to the cities of Israel. As we've seen, Jesus is sending out the disciples to the cities of Israel to do exactly the same kinds of ministry he has been doing. Jesus has been healing people of all kinds of diseases and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that's what he charges the twelve to do. Matthew described Jesus as having the authority to do these things, and now he tells us Jesus gives the disciples authority to do these same things. And this is the beginning of the process by which the twelve become his apostles. This is an important first step in their training because they will become his representatives when he leaves after the resurrection. He tells them not to take provisions and not to charge for their preaching, so that they will be dependent on the people in the towns where they preach. And if they face hostility in a town, they're to leave it. As we talked about in the last podcast, Jesus has set up a test for both the people of Israel and the twelve. The cities of Israel must decide how to respond to the message of Jesus, and the twelve must decide to be faithful even when the people of Israel reject them. Ultimately, we know as the story progresses they will be speaking before Gentiles as well, but for now they are to remain in the cities of Israel. Much of the instructions we've seen so far has concerned the response they're going to receive, which will be very negative. Jesus has been telling them how they should think about being persecuted and how they should respond to it, and that theme continues in the passage we're talking about today. Let's start with Matthew chapter ten, verses twenty four and twenty-five. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house be Elzebel, how much more will they malign those of his household? Now, as we've seen, Jesus has been warning the twelve that people will react to them in the same way that they react to Jesus. They are going out as his representatives, and people are going to react to them as representatives of Jesus in the same way that they react to Jesus. What they're about to experience has a lot to do with their relationship with Jesus. And so Jesus starts this section talking about their relationship to him. And he explains that relationship in two ways. He is the teacher and they are the students, and he is the master and they are the servants or the slaves. As is only to be expected, students and servants are not above their teachers and masters. It is not for the students to teach the teacher. It is he who teaches them. It's not for the servants to tell their master what to do, the master is the one who tells them what to do. Especially in their culture, students were considered an extension of their teacher. The point of being a disciple is to learn how your teacher thinks and acts, and then to imitate him. Earlier in Matthew, the disciples of John came to Jesus and asked him why his disciples didn't fast. They don't ask the disciples directly, they ask Jesus because their assumption is that the disciples of Jesus are doing what they have been taught. The disciples of John assume that the religious behavior of the disciples of Jesus reflects the teaching of their teacher. So they're looking at the disciples of Jesus and saying, What kind of teacher are you? Why are your students not fasting? And we see this cultural expectation that the teachers teach their disciples a way of thinking, living, and acting. Likewise, there's a great expectation that the slaves and servants represent the master. The master is the head of the household, he is the one who is ultimately in charge, he makes the rules, but a servant can faithfully represent him. And we see this relationship in several of the parables that Jesus tells about slaves and stewards. The steward of a household deals with people outside the house on behalf of his master. If the steward enters into a contract or a debt, he does so on behalf of his master. But the steward is just a representative of his master. A good steward does what his master tells him to and acts the way his master wants him to act. This is the kind of relationship that Jesus has with his disciples. The disciples are in the process of becoming like Jesus because he is their teacher. As their teacher, he is passing on to them a way of thinking and living. And as their master, they are doing what he wants them to do. Their actions are becoming like his. The more they learn from him and obey him, the more they will become like him. As Jesus says in 1025, it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant to be like his master. That's the intended goal. That's the way the relationship is supposed to work. Therefore, people are going to relate to them as stand-ins for Jesus. The disciples are going out into the world to represent Jesus, and if the people don't like Jesus, then they're not going to like the disciples either. Jesus says, if they call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign his servants? Calling someone Beelzebal is an insult. By this time, Beelzebub has become kind of a nickname for Satan. It comes from a pagan deity that was Lord of the Flies, but they kind of changed it to mean Lord of the Dung. And because Satan is Lord of everything unclean, it became attached to Satan. The idea is that many see Jesus not as coming from God, but as coming from the devil. Now in Jesus' analogy, Jesus is like the head of a household and the disciples are like his staff. The head of the household is the most important person in the house. If people hate him and treat him badly, well, they're not going to treat his staff any better. The disciples can't expect to be treated any better than Jesus is treated. They should not hope to be treated any better than he is because they are not above him. So they might be tempted to think, okay, you know, Jesus keeps getting himself into trouble, but I can do better than that. I can speak more gently. I can figure out a way to present this message that people aren't going to be so hostile. I'll just figure out a better way to, or more diplomatic way to do this message, proclaim this message, and I won't run into near the trouble he has. And Jesus is saying, that's not how it's going to work. You're not above me. The more you become like me, the more people are going to treat you like me, and if they hate me, they're going to hate you. The only way to stop this kind of reaction or to advance beyond him is to stop being his disciple or stop being his student. This idea is a theme that we find throughout the Gospels. For example, this is John chapter 15, verses 18 through twenty one. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. It's a very similar idea. The disciples have this ministry where they will be representing Jesus, they're going to be speaking for him, they'll be doing miracles like he has done, they'll be taking his ministry out to the cities of Israel, and they are going to receive the same response that Jesus would receive if he was there in person. Now, unlike the apostles, you and I are not set out as authoritative representatives for Jesus. But like the apostles, we are students of Jesus. We are his disciples and we are servants of our Master Jesus. We are striving to learn from Him and to obey Him, and that means that we too are becoming like Him. Now I don't have the same job that Matthew or John had, but I do have the same sort of situation as a serious disciple of Jesus. To the extent that we become more like Jesus, we have the opportunity to experience this same kind of hostility and rejection and persecution. And I'm going to talk more about that at the end, but for now let's move on in Matthew. Jesus has been warning them that he's sending them out as sheep among wolves. People are going to persecute them and betray them. And they might be having second thoughts about whether or not representing Jesus is such a good idea. And that's the fear that he speaks to next. Let's look at 26 and 27. So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. The word fear in this section doesn't merely focus on the feeling of fear. The idea here is that fear is a motivating emotion. I use fear to determine what I will do. For example, suppose that public speaking makes you sick to your stomach. Whenever you're offered any kind of speaking opportunity, you say, no, thank you. But you have this job, and your boss tells you you have to give a speech at a convention. What are you going to do? Well, the biblical way of framing that question is who do you fear most? You fear the painful experience of speaking in public and you fear your boss who has the power to ruin your career. Well, the thing that you fear most will determine what you will do. Now, we're I'm stating that negatively, but we could put it positively. You could say the thing that you most want will determine your actions. If you value your career more, then you will accept the speaking role. If you value removing stress from your life more, then you will refuse to speak. The thing that you fear is the thing that has the most power to influence you for better or worse. It's the factor that you pay the most attention to when making your decisions. And in this passage we're about to look at, Jesus basically says, Don't fear them. Don't fear the people you're going out to speak to who may persecute you. Fear God instead. Now he's just talked about how a servant is not above his master. If they hated the master, they're going to hate the servant. Therefore, this journey you're about to go on is going to be tough. And he continues and he makes four related points. So let's walk through them. Here's the first one in twenty-six and twenty-seven. So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. This is his first point. You might fear that your opponents will keep you from proclaiming your message, but God will ensure that nothing will hinder your message. Nothing is going to stop your message from getting out. Now Jesus uses this imagery in several different places. This imagery that what is spoken in private is going to be proclaimed in public. And I would argue that in these different contexts, he means different things. Sometimes this is good news that it's going to be proclaimed on the rooftops, sometimes it's bad news, depending on whether or not you want your secrets to come out. For example, in one context, Jesus is speaking about hypocrisy, and for the hypocrite, this proclamation is bad news. The hypocrite makes it a habit to say one thing in public and something quite different in private. And to them this imagery is a warning. He's saying, You hypocrites, what is spoken in private will be proclaimed in public. You'll find one example of that in Luke twelve. One day God will make your hypocrisy known and you will be ashamed. But here in Matthew the context is different. In this case, it's a good thing that what is spoken in private will be made public. Jesus is sending the twelve out as his representatives. He has been speaking to them in private, or as he said, in whispers, and they are now to travel through the towns of Israel teaching what Jesus has taught them. They might be afraid that they will fail. They might be afraid that they will be unable to go out and make public the teaching that has been given to them in private because people are not going to like their message and are going to oppose them. People out there will hate what they are doing so much that they will seek to have them arrested, beaten, or even killed, and their message will be covered up. And Jesus is saying, don't fear them. They're not the ones to fear. God is ultimately in charge. They may try to stop your message from getting out, but God is not going to let that happen. God is not going to let anything get in the way of his message. No human opponent can stand against the message of God. So you can have confidence in your task on this journey. The message is currently concealed, and that I, Jesus, have only taught it to you, but God is going to make sure that that message is proclaimed from the housetops. All right, here's the second point, Matthew 10 28. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. You might be tempted to fear your opponents because they can kill you, and you might be tempted to appease them in some way, but remember they might kill your body, but they cannot stop God from giving you eternal life. So you ought to want to keep God happy and not them. Before we consider his main point here, let me talk briefly about a couple of side issues that the wording of this passage provokes. One is the distinction between body and soul. They can destroy the body, but they can't destroy the soul. Is Jesus proposing some sort of metaphysical explanation of humanity? When the substance that is the body is killed, then the substance that is the soul continues on? Well that's possible, but I don't think that's a necessary or required interpretation. There's a more common sense way to take this. What's the difference between a living body and a dead body? Both of them have a body, but something is missing from one of them. The life is missing from one of them. We can call it soul, we can call it spirit, we can call it energy, we can call it qi, we can call it life. The active, thinking, animated, choosing person is gone. There is something in us that is more than just the physical body because you can see when it's gone that the body left behind is lifeless. In our experience, if you destroy the physical body, you destroy the life inside the body. But God is in charge of that life, that soul, that person. I cannot ultimately take your life because God is the one who gives life. We may be able to end this physical existence, but God can grant or deny eternal life. Someone may kill me and end my earthly life, but in reality, they can't truly end my life because my life is in God's hands. As we saw with Jairus's daughter, God can give life back to a dead body if he chooses. And God can grant us life in an eternal body that can never die if he chooses. I don't think in this context that Jesus is trying to explain the metaphysics of existence. He's not saying something like, oh, well, you need to think of yourselves as two part body and soul rather than three parts, body, soul, and spirit. He's not addressing that kind of a question. The context is who do you fear most? People in this life can only destroy your earthly body, but they cannot take you out of God's hands. Fear the one who has the power to grant you eternal life. Now that sounds strange to us, but I think Jesus is saying, look, all they can do is kill you. Remember, in the ultimate sense, God is the one who has your life in his hands. The second side question is this word hell. Christians get really divided and upset about the topic of hell. The word in this spot is Gehenna, which is the name of the spot outside the gates of Jerusalem where the garbage was burned. Literally, Gehenna was an ugly, profane garbage dump where things were burned to get rid of them. Scholars debate the function and theology of hell in Jewish thought at the time of Jesus. Some see hell as a common metaphor for permanent death or destruction. So if you throw something in the garbage fire, then it's gone, there's nothing left but ashes. Others see it as an eternal place of conscious punishment. And I do not want to get into all that debate and discussion over whether hell is a metaphor or whether hell is a literal place. Clearly, in this context, it's a place you don't want to go, metaphorically or literally. However, you picture what that means, you don't want to end up in the garbage fire. Clearly, we don't want our lives to end up in the garbage fire, and God is the one who makes that choice. Well, that brings us back to his main point, which is don't let the prospect of being killed stop you from doing what God has called you to do. Why? Because the blessing God has promised you is bigger than death. It transcends death. God has promised you eternal life. Eternal life is something only God can bestow, and typically it comes after death. All the people of God will experience death, but for believers, that's not the end of the story. The promise of God is that his children will be given life in a new and resurrected body. So the disciples are not to fear their opponents because the worst their opponents can do is kill their earthly body, but their opponents cannot take their hope of eternal life. So when you're trying to decide how to act in a specific situation, your motivating factor should be what God can do to you, not what other people can do to you. And you can see that the disciples have a personal choice to make. This journey is raising big questions that they have to settle. They're being confronted with whether they really understand the promises of God and whether they really believe the promises of God. It's not just about this message that people out there are going to hear, it's about their choice to follow Jesus and believe or not believe the promises of God. Okay, his third point. This is Matthew 10, 29 through 31. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. You might fear the great power your opponents have to bring suffering and death to you, but in reality, God is the one with the power. He is the one who determines how all this works out, and he is on your side. The issue here is who is really in control of the situation. Jesus is sending them out like sheep among wolves. They can expect to be persecuted and rejected and hated, but who is really in control? In the scheme of things, sparrows are a dime a dozen, and yet God determines the fall of every sparrow. Not one sparrow dies apart from the will of God. Now think about what God's relationship is to you, his people, his disciples. God is so intimately involved in your lives and your destiny that a picturesque way of describing that is he knows how many individual hairs are on your head. You are very valuable to him. And let's talk about what he means by valuable in this context. God's primary concern in his creation is with human beings whom he has made in his image. The whole story of creation is about the rescue and redemption of human beings. As human beings, the disciples are more significant to God than sparrows. Furthermore, as believers, the disciples are among those whom God is going to bless with eternal life. They can have confidence that they are valuable to God and He plans to do good for them. And if that's not enough, they're apostles. They have a mission that God cares about deeply. God has chosen them to perform an important role in the history of redemption. So as human beings, as believers, and as apostles, they can be quite confident that this mission they are on and their ultimate well-being is of much greater significance to God than the sparrows. God determines every aspect of a sparrow's existence, so how much more will that be true of you? And Jesus' point is they should not fear what their opponents might do to them because it is God who's in control. And not just is he in control, he is on their side. They can count on him, and they are valuable to him. Once again, God is the one to fear, not their opponents. And that brings us to the fourth point, Matthew ten, thirty-two and thirty-three. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Now you might fear identifying yourself with me, Jesus, because your opponents hate me and they have the power to hurt you and kill you. But in fact, if you tell your opponents that you are with me, I, Jesus, will tell God that you are with me, and God has the greatest power to do you good. As Jesus has been saying, those who hate him will hate his apostles. Prudent fear might dictate that they refuse to tell anyone that they're with Jesus. They might go out there and do a few miracles, but refrain from telling anyone by whose authority they are performing these miracles because mentioning the name of Jesus might land them in jail. They might be tempted to act that way, but again, God is the one to fear, and Jesus is with God. God has sent Jesus, God has granted Jesus his authority, God has testified that Jesus is the Messiah, God is clearly with Jesus, and if you want to fear God, then you have to also fear Jesus. The danger is if they separate themselves from Jesus to preserve their lives in this world, then Jesus will separate himself from them. As we saw with the healing of the paralytic, God has given Jesus the authority to forgive sins. As we saw with the raising of Jarius's daughter, Jesus has power over death. As we heard in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has authority over who enters the kingdom of heaven. If we separate ourselves from Jesus, then we will lose our lives in the kingdom of God. In this world, it is dangerous to be associated with Jesus, but when it comes to your eternal destiny, it is dangerous not to be associated with Jesus. The question again is who do you fear? Who has the most power to influence your life? Who has the most power to do you great harm or great good? The opponents of Jesus who might kill you if you identify yourself with him, or the God of creation who will bless you with eternal life if you identify yourself with Jesus. Which one of those has more power over you? All right, let me make a couple of closing comments. First, this question who do we fear is a question of belief. In this context, Jesus is not addressing the question of whether I owe God anything or whether the biblical worldview makes the most sense. He's not arguing about ethics or morality or that we have a moral obligation. He's not arguing that it's loving to go out and proclaim the gospel. He's approaching this question from the very practical perspective of which choice is in your best interest? So to his disciples, he says, I'm sending you on a journey where you could get jailed, beaten, or killed. Why would you want to do such a thing? And his answer here is because you fear God. In terms of your self-interest, who has the most power to bless or harm you? Who has the most power to influence your life and your destiny? The twelve disciples here are being put in a pressure cooker situation. They're going into new cities and towns with the expectation that it's not going to go well for them. They are not going to be treated kindly and they may be threatened or killed. Well, what motivates you to walk through the gates of the next city or town after you've been beaten in the last city? That kind of situation forces them to settle the question, what's most important to me? Who am I counting on? What do I think is true? They have to truly believe that their eternal destiny is in God's hands and that God has given Jesus the authority to grant eternal life. They have to believe that refusing to trust Jesus or identify with him means forfeiting eternal life. So the disciples are wrestling with that question as they walk toward the people in the next town. Do I really believe that Jesus is the Messiah? And am I willing to trust him? Well, our life circumstances are different today, but I think all of us face that same question. Life puts us in places where we have to make decisions about what we value, who we trust, what we're going to pursue, and who or what we count on. We have to decide if we're going to identify ourselves with Jesus and face the hostility of the world or not. Maybe we'll be persecuted or killed, maybe we'll be mocked or canceled from social media. Maybe we'll be overlooked for a promotion or lose a friend or a family member. But all of us have to face that question at some point: what is my life going to be about? What am I going to believe so much that it changes the way I think, respond, and choose? And I make those decisions based on what or who I fear most. Here Jesus is telling us the wisest choice is to fear God. If I fear God most, then I will be willing to take on the difficult, the dangerous, or the costly. We are in the same situation as the disciples were in, in that all of us must make choices based on whether or not we believe that God has our destiny in his hands and he has revealed himself through Jesus Christ. Each of us must decide that question. Who or what do you fear? What has the most power or influence over the way you are going to live your life? Finally, I made the statement earlier that they are facing hostility from the world because they identify with Jesus and they're becoming like him. They're in the process of becoming like Jesus because he is their teacher. As their teacher, he is passing on a way of thinking and living. And as he is their master, they are doing what he wants them to do. Their actions are becoming like his. The more they learn from him and obey him, the more they will become like him. What does that look like? What does it mean to become more like Jesus? Is this a blank canvas that we are free to fill in with our own ideas and colors? Or does Scripture speak to this issue and tell us what it means to be more like Jesus? Well, I think Scripture answers this question. I want to step outside this passage and think about how the Gospels, particularly what we've seen in Matthew so far, speaks to this issue. One of the themes that runs through the Gospels is this conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of his day. Jesus explicitly attacks their teaching, and in the end, they are the ones who have Jesus arrested and killed. After the resurrection and the ascension, the apostles are going to go out to these same sorts of people and face the same reaction. Broadly speaking, we can say that Jesus challenged the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, about two categories of things, self-righteousness and worldliness. And we've talked about each of these concepts before, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, but let me review briefly. Basically, self-righteousness is an attempt to feel good about ourselves by lying. For example, self-righteousness redefines godliness as a series of moral religious practices that are quite doable. I do these things so that I can feel good about myself and I can step back and say, hey, look, I did that. I'm righteous. And we believe we're righteous because we have successfully accomplished the things that we have described and defined as righteousness. In the Sermon on the Mount, we saw Jesus explain that righteousness and godliness is a much deeper question. You can't reduce it to a series of activities that you can say, oh yeah, I did those, and oh yeah, I avoided those. Godliness is a matter of the heart. That's why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. If you want to really understand the depth of what God requires, then you have to fall on your knees and say, Have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. You can't stand before him with your list and say, Oh, look, God, I've checked all the boxes. Self-righteousness lies about our sinfulness and our need for mercy. We lie to ourselves that we are good enough, or at least better than that other guy over there. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax gatherer, the Pharisee prays, Thanks for making me such a great guy. The tax gatherer prays, Have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. And Jesus says, the tax gatherer is the one who was justified before God. Self-righteousness often involves being unmerciful toward the faults of others. Highlighting the faults of others makes me look better. I can say, look, I checked all the boxes on my list, but you know, you didn't. You missed a few. I can really stand out when I point the finger and say, you didn't finish the list. Not like I did. And if I don't see my own need for mercy, then I won't understand why other people need mercy. After all, I got there without any mercy, so they should too. And again, we see that most clearly in the parable of the unforgiving servant. Now we could go and look at many places in the Gospels where Jesus calls the Pharisees out on these kinds of issues. We saw a number of them in the Sermon on the Mount, and I think this answers the question: what does it mean to become more like Jesus? In the Sermon on the Mount, we saw Jesus emphasize the need for an honest confession of sin, a humble desire for God's mercy, a willingness to pursue true righteousness, a willingness to admit that we lack true righteousness, and a willingness to be merciful because we understand the value of mercy. All of those things are things that the Pharisees of Jesus' day did not get. They didn't practice them, they didn't teach them, and Jesus calls them out on it. They reject Jesus and seek his death because he contradicts their shallow, self-righteous religion. Jesus calls them, and by extension us, to deeply confront the two great commandments, love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Then we are called to be honest about our failure to keep these commandments, to confess our sins to God and seek His mercy and extend that mercy to others. I think that's a big part of what it means to be becoming more like Jesus. The other big area of conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees was worldliness. And again, we talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount. Worldliness is the belief that we can get what we most need from this world now. We think what we really need are the benefits this world can give now, like financial security, prestige, fame, fortune, pleasure, comfort, security, and so forth. And the Pharisees discovered that being a religious person could give them great worldly benefit. They were admired and respected by their peers. They were seen as moral and pious and good, and they were the top of the social ladder. Now in our culture today, being religious doesn't pay off so much anymore, but in their day it did. In their day, being the most religious or seen as the most religious made you popular. It won you the respect of others, and it would gain you political power and sometimes financial security. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says the Pharisees have their reward in full now because what they want most are the rewards of this world. But followers of Jesus are called to rightly evaluate the gifts of this world in relation to the eternal promises of God. Any religion that is based on getting ahead in this world has missed the point. We are called to believe the promises of God and hold the treasures of this world loosely. If it costs me everything I have in this world to enter the kingdom of God, that price would be worth it. We're called to seek first the things of God and to realize this world is offering counterfeit idols. These twin issues of worldliness and self-righteousness are at the heart of the conflict that Jesus had with the Pharisees. And it seems to me that these are the issues that mark us as disciples of Jesus. The more we become like him, the more we will abandon worldliness and abandon self-righteousness. These are the issues that won Jesus the hatred of the Pharisees. And it seems to me the more we take his teaching to heart, the more we will be like him in these ways, and the more potential we have to experience that same kind of rejection from our world. As we learn from him, we will be pursuing what God tells us is true righteousness. We will take sin seriously. We will pursue mercy and forgiveness. We will value faithfulness to God and we will believe the promises of God. We will seek salvation in the eternal kingdom of God rather than the treasures of his world. And by the grace of God, those kinds of attitudes and beliefs will come to characterize our lives and our values and our choices. The more our lives reflect those values of rejecting worldliness and self-righteousness, the more we will stand as a kind of rebuke to the world and the more potential we have to come in conflict with the world. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all previous episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, no donation requests, and no ads. It's all free to help you improve your study skills and understanding of scripture. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, but most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. My theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician, Reggie Coates. You can listen to more of his music at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.