The Life and Times of Matthew Henry | Behold Your God Podcast

Welcome to a special edition podcast from Media Grazie. I'm Matthew Robinson, director of Media Grazie.

I'm here with my good friend Dan Pugh, who I'm going to introduce to you in just a few minutes. We are outside the city of Oxford, England, on a trip with Jeffrey Johnson, Teddy James, and Stephen McCaskill as we shoot the upcoming church project, which we'll tell you more about in the show notes.

But we've connected with our good friend Dan Pugh. Dan is from the village of Caer Gwrle in North Wales.

Caer Gwrle. That's what I said. It is, yeah. Caer Gwrle. Can you say it for me one more time?

Caer Gwrle. That was what you said. And Dan has been a good friend.

I've counted you as a friend since meeting in 2013. Is that right? We met in 2014.

It was 14? I've been piecing this together chronologically in my mind in preparation for this, and we met in 2014.

But I think we were in the same room together in 2013. Okay. You spoke at a midweek meeting in Caer Gwrle.

You were visiting Darren Gilchrist at the time, who was then my pastor. And I remember you spoke, and I had no idea who

Media Grazie was or Beholder of God. I had no idea who you were. As 99 .9

% of the population, you were then. And now you've moved into this very special tiny fraction of a percentage of the population who does know who

Media Grazie is. Indeed. I just remember thinking to myself, I really like this guy. I can imagine if we ever got together and spent time together, we'd get on really well.

But I'll probably never see him again. And I was trying to work out, I wonder what he does. I thought maybe he's like a sales manager or something.

That's what I thought he was. I'm terrible at selling. But I remember being very struck and moved by the testimony you gave.

And yeah, I thought I'd never see you again, but we met in 2014 when I visited New Orkney.

Yeah, I forgot Darren had me speak at that. I think it was a midweek prayer meeting. And I just assumed that because you were there and I was there, that we met.

But we didn't meet actually until 2014. So what was that? How did that happen? So Darren and Rachel, Darren's ministry was a great blessing to me.

It really shaped me in many ways. And he introduced me to the Beholder of God study. And in January 2014, he invited me to come visit

New Orkney, Mississippi with him and his wife, Rachel. And we came. And he palmed me off to your family on one of the days, it was a

Sunday. And we went to the Brandon's and we spent time there. And that was the first day we spent together,

I remember. Yeah, you shot guns. Yeah, you showed me how to shoot guns. It was awesome. Shotgun, pistol,

I feel like Bond. Yeah, I remember we broke out the AR -15s. And any time somebody from the

U .K. comes over to the States, we always try to take them out and shoot guns.

And we break out the scariest looking ones, like they were AK -47s and all kinds of stuff.

You stepped right up to the plate. You were just firing them. It was great. It does something to a man. But then

I stayed with you for a bit. Yeah. Remember? Yeah. And I enjoyed it.

So I came back the next year, stayed with you again. That's right. And then we went to the Shepherds Conference.

We did. Los Angeles. And that was both our first time. We debuted

L .A. together. And I helped with the Minicache booth. So in 2016, we went to the

Shepherds Conference together. And I remember having a conversation there, maybe in the hotel breakfast area, about, you know,

Dan, what do you want to do? What do you think you want to do, you know, going forward? You were working, I think, at a bank in a finance position or something.

It wasn't a bank. It was like a data admin job. Yeah. So you were the CEO of a bank back home.

And I remember asking you, you know, I know, you know, you have the cars, you have the houses, you have all this stuff.

But I know it's not really satisfying you. So what is it that you really want to do?

And I remember you saying, well, I'm interested in doing film. I think I might be interested in doing documentaries.

Yeah. That was it. And, yeah, I mean, working with Mita Grache on the booth was kind of,

I was getting kind of a feel of the conference circuit and what you did with your life.

And by that time, I'd seen Logic on fire. I was working in the bank in office.

And I remember the moment I was sat at my desk and I was just thinking to myself, is there anything I want to do other than this with my life?

Because I'll gladly do this if this is what the world wants me to do, you know. No worries. But is this something

I've got a passion for? Because I never really had a passion for anything. And then I suddenly thought, ah, film and video.

I love that. But what can I do with that as a career? I don't want to do like TV or kind of Hollywood.

Not that I could do Hollywood. And then I suddenly, like a light bulb moment,

I don't know if you've seen Logic on fire, but the credits at the end and the pictures of the crew,

I was like, that's what I want to do. Make Christian documentaries. I don't know how, or Media Grata was all

I knew about that. So I thought, well, I guess they're the guys to reach out to and to talk to. Yeah. And I remember you asking, so what should

I do? How do you get into something like that? And my advice to you is the advice that I give to everybody who asked me that question.

I actually just got a question through Instagram private message a couple of days ago from a kid in the

Philippines. And he was, how do I start making Christian documentaries? And my answer to him is just start making

Christian documentaries. Absolutely. And if you have any technical questions, then there are answers for those things.

And we live in the day where there's no reason that you can't learn to do anything that you want to learn to do.

There was a time when there's a saying in the States that a guy goes into an old

Western village and he orders a glass of iced tea. And the bartender says, I'm sorry, we don't have any ice.

The guy who had the recipe died and we don't know how to make it anymore. So there was a time in life when you could, when the guy who has the recipe could die and you just wouldn't have access to that information anymore.

We live in an information age. And if you want to know how to do something, technical skill can be acquired.

And so my advice to you was go make a movie, you know, go figure out what you want to do and make a movie.

And we're interviewing you today, not just because you're such a jam up good guy, but because you have done just that over the last year and a half.

You have made a film called Matthew Henry, the life and times of the

Bible commentator. That film is finished now. And we are going to distribute that film for you in the

States and even here in the UK because we've watched it. And I think that it is.

I think you did an excellent job. You know, Stephen and TJ and and us, we've we've watched it a couple of times and and have just been impressed with.

I mean, you know, it is it's a great what do you call it? A great freshman film. I mean, you know, you come right out of the gate and it's it's it's very informative.

Philip Eveson, who I want you to tell us about in just a little while, is there. Philip is a spiritual man.

And so there's something of a spiritual ministry just in this historical documentary, because he's always pointing to the to the beauties of Christ that Matthew Henry saw.

And, you know, technically it's it's well done. And so, you know, tell us a little bit about the film and tell us a little bit about maybe who

Phil Eveson is. Well, I suppose if you're going to give a strapline to the film, it would be the man behind the commentary.

So what commentary is that? Exactly. I'd hope most people would know, but you never know.

Matthew Henry wrote a commentary 300 years ago is when he lived. And he wrote an exposition of the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation.

He died before he could complete it. The last Romans to revelation was written through shorthand notes by his friends.

And it's probably the most well -regarded commentary, one of the most well -regarded commentaries in the world.

When did he live? He lived 1662 to 1714. So he's in he's he's a

Puritan. He is. He's a Puritan. He lived towards the end of the Puritan era. Right. But he is a

Puritan. Sure. And so this commentary is maybe the only commentary. I like how you say it.

This commentary is it's the only commentary that is still in production and has never not been in production.

Is that the truth? That's the truth. That is the truth. 300 years. No other commentary has lasted that long.

And it's been I mean, Whitefield used it. Charles Wesley used it. It's been commended by, well, pretty much every prominent minister.

He spoke highly of it. J .I. Parker speaks highly of it. I heard about it growing up.

My father loves it. And he just it's a very rich commentary, which is expositional, but also devotional and has an applicatory quality to it.

He applies it to the Christian's life. It's a very warm commentary. Right. And the man has a beautiful way with language and with words.

Yeah. So it's not a technical commentary in the sense of, you know.

So the first 60 pages on Ephesians is all about where is the where is this located?

And, you know, all of these different technical aspects. But it's very much seeing

Christ and applying, as you said, you know, what the what the passages are talking about in a very warm and devotional way.

It's the kind of commentary that you can read devotionally. I mean, you know, in your morning devotions, you can as you're reading along, you can go and then consult sort of run right alongside of Matthew Henry and to get a very warm sense of what the text is saying.

Indeed. And at the same time, it's not a devotional. It's a very thorough, comprehensive, almost squeezing out of everything that's in the passage.

His group of narrative of the biblical narrative is fantastic. And he doesn't leave anything out.

It's well rounded. So probably it goes without saying that the thing that Matthew Henry is most well known for is the commentary.

But that's not the only thing that happened. He had a fairly interesting life. And your film does what?

The film tracks his life, his personal life, his family life, his ministry. The way the film came about,

I read Philip Eveson's biography of Matthew Henry. He grew up and lives currently in Wrexham, which is 10 minute drive from my house.

And he I read this book in preparation to make the film. It had been suggested to me that I make the film by my pastor.

We sat down, me and my pastor, and we were discussing media resources for the church. And he said, why not make a 20 minute biographical video about Matthew Henry?

Because all the locations, like most of the locations about Matthew Henry relevant to him, are within an hour's drive from my home, other than the

London locations. Which gives you a leg up over a lot of people who are interested in getting into Christian documentary.

You're a half hour drive from, as you said, almost every significant area of Matthew Henry's life.

So it's all right here. It's all right here. So I thought, I'm kind of uniquely, almost providentially placed to make this film.

Nobody else is quite possibly going to come and do this film. And I've got Philip Eveson on my doorstep, who is a

Matthew Henry guru, expert. I read his book in preparation for this.

I was going to sketch a 20 minute biography of Matthew Henry for the church I was at.

It was like a church resource. I was reading it and the man's life just gripped me.

He went through a lot of hardship, a lot of bereavement. He grew up in the weight of the act of uniformity.

1662 he was born, the same year it was passed. And that act was a government legislation that required every minister in the

Anglican church to conform and prescribe to everything written in the

Book of Common Prayer. And anyone who didn't do that would be excommunicated not only from the church, but they would be excommunicated from their home, their livelihood.

They lost everything. And you read in his diaries the accounts of what happened to him and how the sorrow and the pain of it really affected him and troubled him.

And yet, through it all, his eye is always on Christ. In a very real way, it brought me to tears at times reading the book.

How much he went through and how much he would not only look to Christ, but he'd read his summaries of his life for the past year and what his reflections were.

And he'd say things like, I've had many mercies the year that has passed. How little

I've done for God. He'd be preaching the day after his daughter died.

And I thought, man, what an example and what an inspiration. His ministry was blessed.

His life gripped me. And I thought, nobody knows this story. All they know is this guy, this name on his spine, who made this commentary that everyone knows about.

And I thought, it's a story that the world needs to hear. And nobody else is going to tell it.

So I thought, I may as well tell it. And Philip Eveson agreed to do the film. So he presents the film.

If you want to get an idea of what it's like, you can imagine it as a Welsh David Attenborough. That's what he's like.

He's very engaging. And he tells the story very well. And so, yeah, it was a privilege to work with him on the film.

Yeah. And also, it's called Matthew Henry, The Life and Times of the Bible Commentator.

So we take little vignettes, segues into sort of significant events in the history, the times he was in, legislation that was passed, other things like that.

But interesting side notes. Yeah. One thing that I'll say about the film is it is very detailed.

What's the running time? Two hours. So it's a two -hour. And you spend the first several minutes.

I mean, you have a fairly good idea of what kind of man his father was before you really get to Matthew Henry in the film.

Philip Henry was less so now. By the time, he was quite well -known, almost as well -known as Matthew Henry.

Yeah. And so I wanted to get that into his early life. He grew up playing with King James.

Is that right? They were boyhood friends? King James and King Charles II. Yeah. His father,

John Henry, was Charles I's assistant or servant, personal servant to the king.

Amazing. Yeah. And his son, Matthew Henry, was a remarkable child from very young.

There's a part where Phil says that he was reading and maybe even explaining parts of the scriptures to the family when he was three years old.

Now, I don't know what your three -year -old does, but I have a four -year -old, and I'm really impressed when, like,

I think, man, this kid can really play this Nintendo Switch. He was a lot better at Sonic the

Hedgehog at four than I was in high school. So I have hope for him, but he's not exegeting the scriptures at three, to my shame.

I don't know if it was three years old, but it was pretty close. I know he could read the Bible very well at three.

I think at nine years old, he was leading prayer meetings with his sisters. Yeah. Who does that?

Matthew Henry does that. Matthew does that. He did that. He's an exceptional human. Yes. There are child prodigies out there, but he seems to be a spiritual man, a spiritual child, have some grasp of these things.

Do we know when he was converted? We do. He was converted around the ages of 10 to 11.

It was under his father's ministry, after which he then went home and started writing down the marks of a true believer.

He'd be exploring this at the age of 12, 13, examining himself, making notes of what it meant to be a

Christian. Going on from that, as he grew up into his 20s,

Eveson talks about how the counsels he gave, the writings he wrote to his friends, sounded like that of somebody who was in his 60s, who was a wizened, gray -haired, mature counselor of the faith.

Remarkable man. We don't make much of men, but God, through Christ, gives gifts to the church.

He gives us preachers and teachers and evangelists. Clearly, these are giftings that come from the

Lord Jesus to a young boy as a gift to the church. What's amazing is, through his writings, it's not just limited to the commentary.

We have other books that he wrote. We have books that his father wrote on prayer. They're very helpful. Those gifts are gifts that keep on giving.

I'm really happy that you were able to put the film together and it's available now.

Even if you're only interested in history, you should be interested in who

Matthew Henry was, because his life and the life of his family touches so many very significant historical areas.

Yes, the historical areas are important. But also, my hope and prayer is that the film will be a blessing to a wide variety of people, from ministers to parents, families.

There's stuff in there. There's lessons we can learn in there about how to do family worship, how to deal with bereavement, how to deal with problems, difficulties, strains in ministry.

A wide gamut. My hope is that it will be of benefit to many. What you were saying about Christ raising up men, and Christ working and transforming men, that's the sense

I got reading it. It was real. It wasn't like this ivory tower, great monolith of a man who had these faculties that are far beyond anything we can have.

Maybe so. Maybe he had a good education. Yes, he did. He was taught by his father very well, who was educated in Oxford.

But his testimony of his life is one that is in many ways very simple.

It was a simple faith he had in his God, in his Saviour. And his desire, if you read his diaries and his letters, you can see that his desire at all times is to bring glory to his father, to have closer communion with his father and with his

Saviour. That's where his heart's desire is, in so much grief and heartache and confusion.

And that time that he was living in, there was plenty of persecution as well. It wasn't an easy time socially, culturally, to be a

Christian. And always he's looking at his needs of sanctification, his need for the

Lord's help, the Spirit. It's so important to understand. We do talk about men from the past a good bit, and yet we are always saying, look, we don't want to make much of men, because men are just men.

The best of men are men at best. And it's important for us to not think of these guys as though when

Matthew Henry is walking through life and he's facing bereavement, he's facing persecution, he's facing hard times, that he looks in the mirror and goes, come on, man, you're

Matthew Henry. You can handle this. People are going to make films about you. You're going to write a

Bible commentary that's going to be in print for 350 years straight. Not at all. They were just men who looked into the

Word and bet everything on the fact that the God that they met in that Word really is who

He says He is, and really supplies all the believers' needs. And we are all made of the same stuff.

If you're listening to this podcast and you are a Christian, and you are filled with the same spirit as these men, you have the same scriptures that these men read, and you have the same

God, and that God's arm is not any less strong to save or to work in our day than it was in their day.

And so we want to point you to these men, not because we want to make much of men, but because we want to remind you of what

I just said, that we do have the same God, and He still works in our day and in our generation.

Our job is to trust Him the way that they did and to risk everything that He really is who

He says that He is. And so my hope is that this film will just be another part of gripping this generation and generations to come with those realities, and that the

Lord will raise up. He will give gifts to this day and this generation that are equal to and perhaps go far beyond these men that we're so inspired by.

Again, this is your first film. This is you coming right out of the gate as a young man who wants to make

Christian documentaries, and so you just pick up a camera and go and do that. You asked me several years ago for advice for people who may have a desire to go into making documentaries.

So now I'm going to ask you if you have any advice for people who are listening who may have the desire to go into making documentaries.

I'd say pick up a camera and go film.

Find a subject or a person from history whose life speaks to you, whose work speaks to you and has helped you, or an issue that you feel is important and that is needful to talk about today, and go film.

Reach out to people who can give you advice. Matt's here. Yeah, the only thing that I would add to that is, you know, it's not a calling.

I don't think you can say in the same way that a minister has to be called by God, but it is in a different category,

I think, from, well, I just want to do something, I don't know, it might be fun. I just want to do this.

I mean, everything that Medi Gratia has done and everything that I want us to ever do, it's not driven by, hey, this might be fun, or hey, we might make some money doing this, you know, or hey, we should, because you are well -versed in the fact that that's probably not going to be the case.

Absolutely. We don't want to give anybody the idea that, hey, if you want to make some money, get into the

Christian documentary world. Absolutely. Yeah, so it's got to be something that you have a passion for.

It's got to be something that you feel this is what you need to do in one sense.

It's what I felt. I felt like I can't not do this. And also, there's no magic formula.

You don't need to go to school for it. You don't need to get a degree and a PhD in it or a Master's.

You can teach yourself. I taught myself. There's plenty of resources online that you can use, and it is an accessible,

I was talking to TJ just today about how accessible this is now. It's not like for the filming elite.

It is something that if you have a camera and a tripod and some editing software and a laptop, you can do it if you have a passion for it.

That is important, by the way. You've got to have a passion for it. It can't be something you think, well, that's a nice idea. I might do that.

I pursued this film single -mindedly for a year and a half. It was like a train

I was on. It has to be something that you're very focused on and that you're very single -minded about.

I would say that's important, too. Sure. The only thing that I would add to that, if you are listening to this and you're thinking about doing that, there's always a question of motivation in the

Christian life. If your desire is to make a name for yourself, if your desire is to just,

I don't know, just do something because whatever, well, it's not a black and white moral issue, but the thing that I can testify that the

Lord will bless is a desire to make Christ's name known and to point to Him through whatever film you're working on, whatever

Bible study project, whatever media project you're working on. If that's your desire,

I want to make Christ known and I want to use this media to do that, then you can have confidence that Christ is more zealous to make

His name known than you are. Why would you ever feel that way to begin with had it not been placed there by Him?

You can pursue those things in confidence. Also, the thought that kept coming to my mind as I was seeking to embark on this was it kept coming back to me, only what's done for Christ will last.

If you're out just to make a name for yourself, as you say, or to see what you can gain from life, whether it be a career or family, friendship, hobbies, pleasures, we're on this earth for such a short period of time.

What are you going to do with that time? And what are you going to do with the gifts that you have? If you feel you've got a gift in this area of making films and documentaries, then that's great, but motivation, as you say, is absolutely key.

That was the key driving force for me. I want to make something that will be used for His glory and to help fellow believers, and not just believers, but help fellow believers in their walk with the

Lord, and also show people the Gospel. People who may be interested in Matthew Henry historically,

I've met people like that who are not Christians who think, Matthew Henry, yeah, he wrote Down the Road, but have no interest in the

Lord or in Christ or any of His claims on us or His love for us or His sacrifice for us.

And that's what I want. I want this film to be used for. I've made it, and now

I leave it in the Lord's hands. As I let it go into the world, it's going,

I pray, with the blessing of the Lord. I believe that it will. I believe He has a purpose for it, and I hope that that's the case.

I really do. Because, yeah, it's what we leave behind.

I'll be gone and forgotten in 60 years, gone to be in glory, which is far better.

But what I leave behind is not Dan Pugh's film, a film by Dan Pugh. What I hope

I leave behind is a life that is a testimony to the grace and power of God and of Christ in a person's life, and what

He can do and what we can become for His sake when we are enraptured by these truths in a way that grips us and is our all in all, we cast ourselves upon it.

And it's not, in the same way that making a documentary is not something, it's not a plus thing, it's not this is what

I do. Oh, yeah, and it's about Jesus. These men were people who were all about the

Lord Jesus Christ, and He wasn't a caveat or a footnote to their lives.

Matthew Henry wasn't a commentary writer first. He wasn't a preacher first. He was a

Christian, and a follower of Christ first. Well, again, the film is

Matthew Henry, The Life and Times of the Bible Commentator. It's available worldwide at themeansofgrace .org,

mediagratia .org, and everywhere where fine Christian documentaries are sold.

Dan, thanks for spending some time with us. We had a great day getting to run around, do some film stuff, and thanks for telling us and telling the people about this film that you've made.

My pleasure, brother. Thank you. He was an

Irenic man. He had a peaceable spirit about him. By that time, the strength and power of the

Puritan movement was very much on the way. Matthew Henry, let's say it this way, lived at the end of the

Puritan age and was a stalwart leader among the few

Puritans that remained. He was a positive Puritan. He expected great things of a great

God, and he saw those things in his own ministry. Thinking of some of the challenges and the recommendations that we hear today, be an expositor of the

Word, sequential expository ministry, and others say, well, preach the Word. Matthew Henry's doing both twice every

Lord's Day. His commentary was a staple for evangelical

Christians in the decades and centuries that followed. The commentary has been in print for 300 years, which hasn't happened with any other commentary that we know of.

1662 is an important year, especially for non -Anglicans. It was the year the

Act of Uniformity was passed, causing some 2 ,000 ministers of the Gospel in England and Wales to be removed from the people they served and prevented from exercising their

God -given callings as Gospel ministers. It's often referred to as the

Great Ejection. But as every dark cloud has a silver lining, so this grim year for many godly preachers was also the year

Matthew Henry was born. God would use him not only as a

Gospel preacher to his own generation, but for the spiritual benefit of succeeding generations of Christians.

For Matthew Henry is perhaps best known for his writings, particularly his internationally renowned

Bible commentary. Join me on a journey through places and through history as we look at the life of the man behind the commentary.

Thanks for listening to the Behold Your God podcast. All the Scripture passages and resources we mentioned in the podcast are available in this week's show notes at mediagratia .org

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