Derek Thomas on “The Doctor”
What makes a great preacher? Today, Stephen Nichols is joined by Derek Thomas to reflect on the life and legacy of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a medical-doctor-turned-pastor whose powerful preaching marked the church in the 20th century.
DR. STEPHEN NICHOLS: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. We are recording live once again from the Ligonier National Conference. And again, I have my Welsh friend, Dr. Thomas with us. Dr. Thomas, it's good to see you.
DR. DEREK THOMAS: Good to be here.
SN: And last time we were together, we talked about the Welsh Revivals, 1904, 1905, Evan Robert and the legacy of the Welsh Revivals. But there's another contribution of Wales to church history that I want to talk to you about on this episode. And that is someone that you met and have heard preach on numerous occasions, and that is the Doctor. So tell us about the Doctor.
DT: Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a doctor, I mean a medical doctor, and a very good medical doctor. He was in London in the sort of private sector of medicine and with royalty visiting him and seeking his opinion. And then as a young man felt the call to ministry and became a preacher, first of all in Wales. They were shocked that he would leave Harley Street in London to go to a fairly small Presbyterian church in South Wales.
SN: He was on a trajectory, probably the top of his field, top in his chosen career, and makes this change.
DT: He's regarded as the best preacher of the twentieth century by many people, not just Welsh people. But Ian Murray, for example, has written a two volume, just beautiful biography, and I had the pleasure of meeting him. He moved from Wales, of course, to London and to a congregation just opposite Parliament and the Abbey, and had a congregation up until the late 60s or so when he retired. But he was still traveling in the 70s.
SN: You first heard him in college?
DT: Yes. I was converted in 1971 and somewhere in '72, '73, he would come every year to Aberystwyth where I was studying. And he would preach. It would be in August, and he would preach in Welsh in the afternoon and English in the evening. And they would find the biggest church in town, and it would be full packed to the gills.
SN: Now, would he be more dynamic in Welsh language or English language, or did you not detect it?
DT: I did not actually hear him preach in Welsh. His manner of preaching was quite extraordinary. He'd begin very low key, providing you with lots of background information about the text and so on, but it would build to an inevitable conclusion, and it would always end with something like a crescendo. And I remember listening to it as a young convert sitting up in the balcony and literally the hairs on the back of my head were standing up, and I was telling myself, "Breathe," because of the intensity of the concentration in the room as he preached. He's famous, of course, for preaching through Romans, and at least through the half, the second half of chapter 14 when he stopped. These were sermons that he preached on a Friday evening, a thousand men. A lot of the ministers would take the train to London and listened to him. I heard him speak at the Puritan Conference, what became the Westminster Conference, in the time when he and Jim Packer, for example, would've been the key speakers. And he's quite extraordinary these days. Of course, you can listen to all of his sermons online for nothing, or you just go to the MLJ site and I think within my eyesight, it's down here to my left.
SN: The trust has a booth here at the conference.
DT: And you should avail yourself of listening to a sermon of Lloyd-Jones from Romans, and it'll change your life.
SN: I think that is a wonderful prescription regarding the Good Doctor to listen to a sermon. Maybe we could even say listen to a sermon a week from the Good Doctor.
DT: That'd be great.
SN: That’s Dr. Derek Thomas on the Doctor, Martin Lloyd-Jones. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.
