Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones became the sole minister of Westminster Chapel in London, England in 1943, and continued his ministry there for decades.
On Friday evening, March 1, 1968, at the age of sixty-eight, Martyn Lloyd-Jones entered his pulpit as usual at Westminster Chapel, London, to preach on the Epistle to the Romans. His message was the 372nd in a series he had started over ten years earlier. His text that evening was Romans 14:17: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Lloyd-Jones made it all the way to “peace,” and planned to cover “joy in the Holy Spirit” in his next sermon.
Before he could return to the pulpit, he was diagnosed with a condition that led to surgery. Two months later, he decided to retire. He never finished preaching through the verse.
Later he told a group of preachers that God stopped him because he didn’t know enough about joy in the Spirit to speak about it.
His retirement marked the end of an era. Westminster Chapel never saw the same kind of numbers. His ministry as a pastor was over.
New Purpose
Lloyd-Jones wasn’t discouraged by this interruption to his ministry. He saw this interruption as a call to a wider ministry.
He shifted from local church ministry to editing sermons for publication. His sermons on Romans existed only on cassette tape. He began the process of converting them to manuscripts and editing them, eventually publishing them as a 14-volume set. He continued this work until his death in 1981, but others continued. The entire project took 33 years.
Lloyd-Jones also became a pastor to pastors, encouraging them and preaching in their churches.
His formal ministry ended, but his influence continued to grow. “His books, with the new global readership, continued to sell after his death, and in larger numbers than in his lifetime,” observes his grandson Christoper Catherwood. “As the biblical expression goes, he being dead still speaks.”
His pastoral ministry was interrupted, but his influence continues today. “Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the titanic figures of twentieth-century Christianity,” observes Albert Mohler. “What now sets him apart is the fact that his writings, sermons, and other messages are even more influential now, more than two decades after his death, than when he engaged in such a massive ministry at Westminster Chapel and beyond.”
Learning from Interruptions
I’ve been reflecting on Lloyd-Jone’s interrupted ministry and its lessons.
- We’re all going to be interrupted. One day we won’t be able to complete all the projects we’ve begun. Some of us are facing this problem right now: our plans for the year have been rudely tossed aside without warning.
- Lloyd-Jones trusted God with this interruption. He interpreted it as God’s will and submitted to it. His first impulse wasn’t to blame God, but rather to look at his own life and figure out what God may be teaching him.
- He also looked for new ways to serve. He could no longer pastor as he had, so he shifted his energies in a new direction. His ministry broadened after what looked like a setback, and we continue to benefit today.
I wonder if some of this is happening right now. Conferences are cancelled; churches can’t meet in person; many of our plans have been interrupted. What could God be teaching us? How can we shift our energies in a way that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible? What might God be doing in the middle of this interruption?
I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I can’t wait to find out.