Itunes University - Review on three Biblical Missiologies

“Matthew’s Missiology,” “Luke’s Missiology,” and “John’s Missiology” – Three lectures by Dr. Craig Keener
Itunes University – Assemblies of God Theological Seminary Lectures
Reviewed by Andrew Gackenbach

Note: On Itunes Universtiy, “Matthew’s Missiology” and “Racial Reconciliation” both mislabeled as one being the other.

Dr. Craig Keener is a prolific New Testament scholar most well known for his IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament which has sold over 350,000 copies in nine languages. In a series of talks given at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary he presents the missiology of three of the gospel writers Matthew, Luke and John. He explains how each author had a different purpose in writing and a different story to tell. Beginning with Matthew he explains the emphasis on Jew/Gentile reconciliation and how it is not ethnic descent that saves, but turning to Jesus. He highlights the first chapter genealogy that cites four gentile women in Jesus’ family line and shows how Matthew used this genealogy to emphasize Jesus’ mixed ancestry and that He came to be the savior of the world, not just the Jewish world. Dr. Keener continues with explaining the missiology of Luke heavily focusing on the day of Pentecost, he demonstrates how the day of Pentecost and the ability for Peter to be understood by people of all languages served as an impetus for the gospel to be spread throughout the world. Finally, he presents John’s missiology emphasizing that Jesus died as our savior and our task is to present Him to the world, to reveal the living Christ in our lives. He illustrates this idea telling the story of the gentile woman at the well and how she joyously told her friends about Jesus and later introduced them to Him. Each of the three messages from Dr. Keener provides a different argument for the importance of missions, each one is informative and keeps the listener’s attention while focusing on why missions has to be the task of all of God’s people. I would recommend these three lectures to anyone not passionate about missions in order to show that all the Gospel writers communicated how Jesus was indeed passionate about missions.