A Theology of Matthew’s Gospel: Jesus Immanuel: Messiah of the Kingdom of Heaven, Israel, and the Church (Biblical Theology of the New Testament | BTNT)
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Overview
A Theology of Matthew’s Gospel develops the perspective that Matthew wrote his Gospel to identify, defend, and proclaim Jesus Immanuel, “God with us,” as the Davidic Messiah who fulfilled the OT expectations of humanity's redemption. Matthew’s Gospel establishes Jesus’s identity as the heir to the promises of Israel’s throne through king David, and heir to the promises of blessing to all the nations through the patriarch Abraham (1:1). So, this first Gospel offers evangelistic hope in Jesus's message of the gospel to Jews, contending that they should turn to Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah (Matt 11:2-6). But, strikingly, Matthew’s Gospel also offers evangelistic hope to Gentiles, emphasizing that salvation through Jesus Messiah is available to all the nations (28:19).
The book emphasizes the three horizons that comprise Matthew’s gospel: history, theology, and literature. The first horizon focuses on Jesus’s historical ministry. Here Matthew provides for us a record of God’s activities in history in the arrival of Jesus Messiah and the kingdom of heaven. The second horizon develops Matthew’s theological perspective for his audience(s). Here we attempt to understand and isolate Matthew’s unique theological perspective of God’s activities in Jesus Messiah. This is a central focus, emphasizing Matthew’s theological perspective of the Old Testament, Christology, the kingdom of heaven, discipleship, the Church/church, Israel (past, present, and future), the death and resurrection of Jesus, mission/commission, and eschatology/eternity. The third horizon emphasizes today’s reader(s) engaging with Matthew’s Gospel as literature. Here we attempt to capture the significance of the perspective of today’s reader’s understanding of Jesus Messiah’s activities in history and Matthew’s theological perspective for the contemporary church.
In this book we view Matthew’s perspective of God’s activities in Jesus’s unfolding earthly ministry. The alternating sections of narrative and discourse provide for his readers Jesus’s example to follow and Jesus’s words to obey. Therefore, Matthew’s Gospel is at least in part a manual on discipleship to Jesus Messiah in the kingdom of heaven. In the six Narratives, Matthew reveals Jesus’s true identity in his deeds, and introduces themes that will lead to instructions to Jesus’s disciples in the Discourses. The six Narratives provide the example that Jesus’s disciples are commanded to obey. In the five Discourses, Matthew records Jesus’s instructions, commands, parables, directives and prophecies that will guide his followers in their discipleship to Jesus until the end of the age. Combined, the narratives of Jesus's life provide Jesus’s example to follow, and the discourses give Jesus’s instructions to obey, and are the basis of our ongoing transformation to become like Jesus.
- Develops the perspective that Matthew wrote his Gospel to identify.
- Emphasizes the three horizons that comprise Matthew’s gospel.
- Views Matthew’s perspective of God’s activities in Jesus’s unfolding earthly ministry.
- Part 1: Introductory Matters as a Foundation for Matthew’s Theology
- Part 2: Literary/Theological Foundations for Understanding Matthew’s Theology
- Part 3: Major Themes in Matthew’s Theology
- Part 4: Final Matters
Mike Wilkins has marinated in the Gospel of Matthew for nearly fifty years. Thus, as readers we are the beneficiaries of his mature exegetical and theological reflection on the Gospel. Wilkins’s study is comprehensive, exploring the history, structure, content, theology, and relevance of the Gospel of Matthew. Wilkins’s work is also written in a clear and accessible way, making it one of the most valuable studies of Matthew’s Gospel today
—Thomas Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Writing from a faithfully evangelical Christian approach, Michael Wilkins provides a thorough, wideranging, comprehensive, and up-to-date work on Matthean theology that will profit all interpreters of Matthew’s Gospel.
—Craig S. Keener, Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary
Michael Wilkins has written a definitive presentation of the theology of the First Gospel. His exegetical analysis is rooted in deep research, his theological discussions are both comprehensive and focused, his evaluations of variegated theories on a host of hermeneutical questions are both fair and balanced as well as decisive, and his style is eminently readable. Students, pastors, and scholars will be richly rewarded when they study the Gospel of Matthew with the help of this magnificent volume.
—Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mary F. Rockefeller Distinguished Professor of New Testament Emeritus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminar
- Title: A Theology of Matthew’s Gospel: Jesus Immanuel; Messiah of the Kingdom of Heaven, Israel, and the Church
- Author: Michael J. Wilkins
- Series: Biblical Theology of the New Testament
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2025
- Logos Release Date: 2025
- Pages: 835
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. Matthew › Theology; Jesus Christ › Messiahship--Biblical teaching
- ISBNs: 9780310172734, 9780310270874, 031017273X, 0310270871
- Resource ID: LLS:THGFMTWGPL
- Resource Type: text.monograph.biblical-theology
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-10-07T20:05:39Z
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