Wednesday in the Word

what the Bible means and how we know

2021 Reflections

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2021 Reflections | WednesdayintheWord.com

I spent 2021 in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 1-7. Teaching through the Sermon on the Mount has long been on my bucket list of passages to teach and I’m grateful to have reached that goal.

If it were actually possible to compile a list of the “Bible’s Greatest Hits,” I’d put the Sermon on the Mount on it. After all, in this sermon the Messiah himself answers the question: “who will find eternal life?” That’s pretty important to understand.

What surprised me is how much time we spent in the Old Testament in order to understand Matthew.

Other highlights for me included: 1) finally getting a handle on the “fulfillment passages” from chapters 1-2; and 2) teaching through the temptations of Jesus without a time limit. While I’ve taught the temptations many times, I’ve always had to pare down discussion of the Old Testament passages Jesus quotes due to time constraints.

I’m still working through my file cabinets of study notes trying to turn them into resource pages on this website. But with life returning to some sense of pre-COVID normal and the time I spent on Matthew, there wasn’t as much time leftover to spend on resources this year.

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2021 Highlights

  • Created 35 podcasts on the Gospel of Matthew plus 3 by Dr. Erika Moore.
  • Upgraded the podcast feed from Google’s defunct Feedburner. Sadly, I lost many of my statistics in the process. But the podcast is now more accessible and easier to produce.
  • Organized the podcast into seasons. (Matthew is season 18).
  • Added 60 resource pages including a new section on Greek word studies.
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5 “most” podcasts

The 5 most downloaded podcasts published in 2021:

  1. 23 Matthew 5:10-16 Persecuted
  2. 33 Matthew 6:11 The Lord’s Prayer: Daily Bread
  3. 35 Matthew 6:13 The Lord’s Prayer: Temptation
  4. 04 Matthew 2:1-23 The early life of Jesus
  5. TIE: 34 Matthew 6:12-15 The Lord’s Prayer: Forgiveness and 31 Matthew 6:1-6; 6:16-18 Giving, Praying & Fasting

5 most downloaded podcasts during 2021:

  1. 03 Philippians 1:12-26 To live is Christ
  2. Return of the Unclean Spirit, Matthew 12:43-45
  3. 07 2Peter 2:4 Does Peter quote Enoch?
  4. 09 Philippians 3:12-21 Understanding maturity
  5. 09 2Peter 2:10-12 Who are the “glorious ones” and why are they reviled?

5+5 (10) most downloaded podcasts overall:

  1. 07 2Peter 2:4 Does Peter quote Enoch?
  2. 03 Philippians 1:12-26 To live is Christ
  3. Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30
  4. Return of the Unclean Spirit, Matthew 12:43-45
  5. 01 Nehemiah 1:1-3 Introduction
  6. The Friend at Midnight, Luke 11:5-8
  7. 01 Romans 1:1-17 The Power of the Gospel
  8. 02 Jeremiah 1:4-10 What does God want from me?
  9. 09 Jeremiah 23:1-8 Who will help us out of this mess?
  10. 05 Isaiah 49:1-3 The Ministry of the Servant
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Who Listened?

While about 60% of WitW listeners live in the United states, we had listeners in 97 other countries in 2021. Here are the top 10 countries after the United States:

  1. France
  2. Belgium
  3. Philippines
  4. Singapore
  5. United Kingdom
  6. India
  7. Australia
  8. Canada
  9. New Zealand
  10. South Africa
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Resources Added

Bible Study

Charts & Lists

Geography & Background

History

Who is/What is?

Word Studies

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Please tell your friends about the podcast — but more importantly encourage them with something you learned.

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Next: January 2022

Previous: December 2021

Previous: 2020 Reflections

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

(This article has been read 39 times plus 5 today.)

Related posts:

  1. January 2021 Reflections
  2. April 2021 Reflections
  3. December 2021 Reflections
  4. May 2021 Reflections
  5. November 2021 Reflections