The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven - Paperback

The First Gospel. The Fullest Picture. The Most Important Document in the New Testament.

If you want to understand Jesus — who He was, what He said, what He did, and what it means — there is no better place to start than Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew is the first and, many would argue, the most important single document in the entire New Testament. It gives us the fullest and most systematic account of the birth, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. It contains the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, the Great Commission, the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, and some of the most searching and beautiful parables Jesus ever told. It is the Gospel that shaped the early church’s worship, catechesis, and mission — and it has never stopped doing so.

And yet for all its familiarity, Matthew is a Gospel that rewards careful, sustained attention. Read closely, it reveals a portrait of Jesus that is richer, more demanding, and more astonishing than a surface reading can convey.

The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven is Michael Green’s masterful, passage-by-passage exposition of this foundational Gospel — and it is one of the finest volumes in the Bible Speaks Today series.

What This Book Is

Part of the internationally respected Bible Speaks Today series published by Inter-Varsity Press, this volume brings together Michael Green’s gifts as New Testament scholar, evangelist, and pastor in a sustained engagement with Matthew’s Gospel from the first verse to the last.

Green’s approach is both academically responsible and pastorally immediate. He introduces readers to the background and structure of the Gospel — who wrote it, for whom, why, and how — before moving through it passage by passage, attending equally to what the text meant in its original context and what it means for Christian life and witness today.

The controlling theme of the whole is the kingdom of heaven — the central preoccupation of Matthew’s Gospel and of Jesus’ own preaching. Green shows how Matthew’s portrait of Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man, and the God who returns to Jerusalem as judge and redeemer is not a collection of isolated titles but a unified, urgent vision: this Jesus is king, His kingdom is at hand, and everything depends on how you respond to Him.

What the Book Covers: Key Themes in Matthew

Jesus as Messiah and King Matthew’s Gospel is saturated with the conviction that Jesus is the fulfilment of every promise God made to Israel. Green traces the messianic thread from the genealogy of chapter 1 to the resurrection of chapter 28, showing how Matthew builds his case with care and how each title given to Jesus — Messiah, Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man — contributes to a portrait of breathtaking scope.

The Kingdom of Heaven The phrase “kingdom of heaven” appears more in Matthew than in any other Gospel. Green gives sustained attention to what Jesus meant by it — not a future destination but a present reign, not a place but a power, not an escape from the world but a transformation of it. The parables of the kingdom, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Great Commission all belong to this theme.

The Unity of Old and New Matthew is the most Jewish of the Gospels, written for a community steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures. Green shows how Matthew’s repeated use of fulfilment quotations — “this took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet” — is not a mechanical proof-texting but a profound theological claim: the story of Israel finds its true and complete meaning in Jesus.

Discipleship and the Life of the Kingdom Matthew contains the most extensive teaching on what it means to follow Jesus of any Gospel. From the calling of the disciples to the Sermon on the Mount to the missionary discourse to the final Great Commission, Green traces the demands, privileges, and responsibilities of life in the kingdom.

The End of the Age The Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24–25 is among the most discussed and debated passages in the New Testament. Green provides a careful, balanced treatment — neither sensationalist nor dismissive — that helps readers understand what Jesus actually said about the end of the world, the coming of the Son of Man, and the urgency of watchfulness and readiness.

The Universality of the Gospel Matthew opens with Magi from the East and closes with a commission to “all nations.” Green shows how this Gentile frame is not incidental but central — Matthew’s very Jewish Gospel is also the most explicit about the universal scope of the Good News. The Great Commission is the hinge on which the whole Gospel turns.

Introductory Material and Study Guide

Green opens the volume with rich introductory material covering:

• The author of Matthew — who wrote this Gospel and when
• The original readers — the community for whom Matthew was first written, and why that shapes interpretation
• The popularity of the Gospel — why Matthew was the most used Gospel in the early church
• Structure and themes — a map of the whole before the journey begins

The volume concludes with a full study guide — making it ideal not only for individual reading but for small groups, home Bible studies, church discipleship programmes, and theological students working through Matthew for the first time or the tenth.

Key Themes Explored in This Book

The Most Complete Portrait of Jesus in the New Testament Matthew records more of Jesus’ teaching than any other Gospel. Green helps readers see how the different facets of that portrait — teacher, healer, exorcist, prophet, judge, redeemer — cohere into a single, magnificent whole.

A Very Jewish Gospel for All Nations Matthew’s deep rootedness in the Hebrew Scriptures is not a barrier to understanding — it is the key to it. Green’s scholarship makes the Jewish background accessible and shows why it matters for reading the Gospel today.

Jesus as Judge and Redeemer Matthew presents Jesus not only as a gentle teacher but as the returning God who comes to Jerusalem to judge and to save. Green does not soften this dual portrait — and readers will find their understanding of both grace and accountability deepened.

Relevance for Today’s Disciples Matthew was written for a community under pressure, living as a minority in a hostile world, trying to work out what faithfulness looked like. Green draws out the contemporary resonances with skill — showing why Matthew’s emphasis on discipleship, mission, and the kingdom is as urgent for the church today as it was in the first century.

What Readers Will Learn

• A passage-by-passage understanding of Matthew’s Gospel from beginning to end
• The background, structure, and major themes of the most widely used Gospel in the early church
• What Matthew means by “the kingdom of heaven” and why it is the Gospel’s controlling theme
• How Matthew presents Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man — and why each title matters
• How the Old Testament and New Testament relate in Matthew’s understanding — the unity of God’s revelation
• What the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, the Great Commission, and the major parables mean in context
• How to read Matthew as a call to discipleship, mission, and readiness for the return of the King
• How to use the full study guide for individual or group engagement with the Gospel

Who Should Read This Book

This book is essential reading for:

• Individual Christians wanting a thorough, accessible guide to Matthew’s Gospel from start to finish
• Small group leaders and Bible study leaders with a built-in study guide for group use
• Pastors and preachers preparing a sermon series on Matthew or any passage within it
• Students of theology and ministry encountering Matthew’s Gospel with scholarly support
• New believers wanting to understand who Jesus is through the fullest account of His life and teaching
• Anyone drawn to the kingdom of heaven — to what Jesus actually meant when He announced that the kingdom was at hand, and what it demands of those who enter it
• Readers of the Bible Speaks Today series expanding their library with this foundational New Testament volume

About the Author

Michael Green (1930–2019) was one of the most gifted and prolific evangelical scholars, evangelists, and communicators of the twentieth century. He served as Principal of St John’s College, Nottingham, as Rector of St Aldate’s Church, Oxford, and as Professor of Evangelism at Regent College, Vancouver. A leading figure in international evangelism, he was involved in the Lausanne Movement and was widely respected across denominational lines for his clarity, scholarship, and passion for the gospel.

Green’s gift was to make serious scholarship genuinely accessible — to bring the resources of academic New Testament study to bear on the life of ordinary Christian readers without condescension or oversimplification. The Message of Matthew is a fitting memorial to those gifts: a book that honours the text, serves the reader, and glorifies the Christ at the centre of it all.

Series Information: Bible Speaks Today

The Message of Matthew is part of the internationally respected Bible Speaks Today series, published by Inter-Varsity Press (IVP). Each volume in the series pairs scholarly integrity with pastoral accessibility, making them ideal for individual Bible study, small groups, church discipleship, and theological education.

Related Bible Speaks Today volumes available at forthetruth.in include:

• The Message of the Sermon on the Mount — John Stott
• Other Old and New Testament volumes in the BST series

Each BST volume stands alone but rewards collecting — together they form one of the finest libraries of evangelical biblical exposition available in the English language.