What do you think?
Rate this book
A Theology of Matthew's Gospel: Jesus Immanuel: Messiah of the Kingdom of Heaven, Israel, and the Church
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 history, theology, and literature. The first horizon focuses on Jesus's history 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 a 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.
The book emphasizes the three horizons that comprise Matthew's history, theology, and literature. The first horizon focuses on Jesus's history 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 a 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.
880 pages, Hardcover
Published October 7, 2025
3 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 1, 2025
This volume gets us close to the completion of the Biblical Theology of the New Testament series. I’ve reviewed them all so far and there’s not a dud in the bunch. Matthew deserves one of the eight volumes in this series and Michael Wilkins does a phenomenal job. I’ve had an over 20 year fascination with reading everything I could get my hands on about this wonderful gospel. With that extensive background, I can tell you that this book lacks nothing.
I feel this book could hardly be better. If I had to split hairs, maybe it could’ve used a few more charts. It’s not only the depth of coverage, but the conclusions themselves that I love. I guess you couldn’t feel the need to judge a book by me liking its conclusions, but I suggest you give it a chance. What he concludes, he develops persuasively. He covered all these background issues, but in someway in so doing he has gotten to the heart of Matthew.
The book starts a bit slowly. That is because the first two chapters cover topics I find less interesting. If we have to endure such things, I’m at least glad to see that he has dispensed with some of the dumber things that have come down the path of the scholarly world. “Q” isn’t the spectacular book behind some dependent gospels, but a foray into limited imagination; but I digress.
Chapter 3 is a skillful summary of structure. It has taken several books to put together what he explains well in a few pages. The next chapter is a literary and theological reading of Matthew’s gospel. It’s not exactly a commentary, but think of it as a collection of nuggets. In other words, it’s really good.
The next part has several chapters on major themes in Matthew’s theology. What he discusses is easily the main topics that have been on the agenda of many people over the last few decades or even longer. I call your attention to his fantastic chapter on the kingdom of Heaven. I especially was enlightened by it.
He’s also fair to various groups within Christianity. For example, he is kind to those who follow dispensational theology, but at the same time, he probably doesn’t really offend any reformed thinkers either. In other words, he’s not writing for a specific team, but is just trying to do the scholar’s task. He does it well.
This book is so good that it can probably take the place of 10 other releases from the past. You will want this one. 
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
I feel this book could hardly be better. If I had to split hairs, maybe it could’ve used a few more charts. It’s not only the depth of coverage, but the conclusions themselves that I love. I guess you couldn’t feel the need to judge a book by me liking its conclusions, but I suggest you give it a chance. What he concludes, he develops persuasively. He covered all these background issues, but in someway in so doing he has gotten to the heart of Matthew.
The book starts a bit slowly. That is because the first two chapters cover topics I find less interesting. If we have to endure such things, I’m at least glad to see that he has dispensed with some of the dumber things that have come down the path of the scholarly world. “Q” isn’t the spectacular book behind some dependent gospels, but a foray into limited imagination; but I digress.
Chapter 3 is a skillful summary of structure. It has taken several books to put together what he explains well in a few pages. The next chapter is a literary and theological reading of Matthew’s gospel. It’s not exactly a commentary, but think of it as a collection of nuggets. In other words, it’s really good.
The next part has several chapters on major themes in Matthew’s theology. What he discusses is easily the main topics that have been on the agenda of many people over the last few decades or even longer. I call your attention to his fantastic chapter on the kingdom of Heaven. I especially was enlightened by it.
He’s also fair to various groups within Christianity. For example, he is kind to those who follow dispensational theology, but at the same time, he probably doesn’t really offend any reformed thinkers either. In other words, he’s not writing for a specific team, but is just trying to do the scholar’s task. He does it well.
This book is so good that it can probably take the place of 10 other releases from the past. You will want this one. 
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
January 17, 2026
I thought about going even lower on my score, but knowing that this book is in some ways a summation of Wilkins' career, and because it's such a thorough resource, I couldn't go lower than three stars. Wilkins does some things well. The book is structured well and very accessible, and for a narrow corner of the Evangelical world, it will be affirming and helpful for preaching or personal study. Wilkins covers a lot of ground, showing that an 800-page book on Matthew was justified. It's nearly twice as long as the Revelation volume in this series, for example. But Wilkins fills the pages with important information.
However, I thought the book was too safe, and too cleanly angled to a very specific subset of Evangelicals. If you're from any other tradition, it's likely not only that you'll disagree with a lot of Wilkins' conclusions, but also that you'll be dissatisfied with the detail and level of attention that he pays to other interpretive possibilities. I made lots of notes in the book as I read through, and I thought about typing out here all of the places where I thought his arguments for his interpretations were based on faulty reasoning or incomplete data, but the review would get too long. My view is that this book is a product of a scholar being situated far too cleanly in a single tradition for far too long, so that one is too comfortable in their own echo-chamber. As Emerson once said, "If I know your sect, I can anticipate your argument." I was never really surprised by anything Wilkins argued, and that left me disappointed.
It's not a bad book. I enjoyed parts of it, and I'll likely use it, here and there, as a resource. Some people will love it.
However, I thought the book was too safe, and too cleanly angled to a very specific subset of Evangelicals. If you're from any other tradition, it's likely not only that you'll disagree with a lot of Wilkins' conclusions, but also that you'll be dissatisfied with the detail and level of attention that he pays to other interpretive possibilities. I made lots of notes in the book as I read through, and I thought about typing out here all of the places where I thought his arguments for his interpretations were based on faulty reasoning or incomplete data, but the review would get too long. My view is that this book is a product of a scholar being situated far too cleanly in a single tradition for far too long, so that one is too comfortable in their own echo-chamber. As Emerson once said, "If I know your sect, I can anticipate your argument." I was never really surprised by anything Wilkins argued, and that left me disappointed.
It's not a bad book. I enjoyed parts of it, and I'll likely use it, here and there, as a resource. Some people will love it.
October 25, 2025
Fantastic and enlightening new book on the theology of Matthew, with many exegetical and expositional comments.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews