Pastor John MacArthur went to be with the Lord yesterday, July 14th. He was 86 years old. You can read the full statement from the church here.

In light of his passing, I wanted to take a moment to write a little tribute to Pastor John. The Lord used him mightily in many believers’ lives, so it is a fitting way to honor his legacy by recounting just a few ways his teaching has shaped my own life and ministry.

I had the opportunity to graduate from The Master’s Seminary, serve as a deacon at Grace Community Church, and work at Grace to You for several years. And before that I listened to hundreds of his sermons and was a voracious reader of his books. So, it’s safe to say MacArthur has had no little influence on me. But, if I had to narrow it down to one thing, it was John MacArthur’s high regard for the Word of God that has had the deepest impact on my life, and the ministry of Redeeming Productivity itself.

The Clarity of Scripture

I did my undergraduate education in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While I was there, I fell under the influence of a pastor named Rob Bell.

The Enemy really did a number on me at Mars Hill. But the worst part was that in that church, my confidence in God’s Word was eroded. The specific point of attack was the clarity of the Bible.

The assaults on Scripture’s understandability were mostly indirect. They came in subtle insinuations like, “Well, you know so many scholars disagree on this interpretation,” and “This is poetic language, we aren’t meant to understand it,” or in the false humility of rhetorical questions like, “Who are we to think we can understand the Bible?” But they had their effect.

By the time I finished college, I was confused and adrift. I was keenly aware that if I couldn’t reliably understand the Bible, then my entire worldview was resting on quicksand. Without the special revelation of Scripture, how could I know who God is? What He wanted from me? Or even have the confidence to know the gospel itself was true and that Christ was a worthy object of my faith?

This crisis of faith also happened to come during the 2008 financial crisis, which hit my home state of Michigan extra hard. So, upon graduating from college in 2009, I couldn’t find a job in my degree field. So, I ended up working for my friend’s janitorial company. I work nights cleaning office buildings. And every night, I’d hear John MacArthur on Christian radio as I drove between job sites.

I’d heard his name before, but this was my first introduction to his Bible teaching. The thing that first struck me about MacArthur’s teaching was the confidence, and not in a good way. I’d been well trained to be skeptical of anyone who claimed to know what the Bible meant by what it said. So at first, I thought, “Man, this guy is arrogant!”

But I kept listening.

And, over and over again, Pastor John didn’t just declare what the passage meant; he proved the meaning from the Bible. He’d use the context, cross references, and air-tight logic to whittle down the possible interpretations, until you were convinced this was exactly what the passage meant.

It was during those late nights that I developed a conviction that God’s Word could be understood. And if it could be understood, I reasoned, I needed to understand it. And so a hunger for the Word was born in me that eventually led to me pursuing a biblical education at The Master’s Seminary.

The Authority of Scripture

John MacArthur is a bit of a polarizing figure.

Most people only have a passing familiarity with his ministry because of the theological controversies he’s been involved in. But what people don’t realize is that John MacArthur was just a Bible teacher who actually believed God’s Word has relevance for our lives. That since it’s God’s Word, it can speak authoritatively on issues, and that our role is to obey what it says.

When I was a member of Grace Community Church, I remember hearing new seminary students remark (sometimes with obvious disappointment) that the regular Sunday sermons weren’t all diatribes and controversy. In fact, during my 7 years there, most Sunday messages were pretty boring! What I mean is they weren’t full of hot takes or take downs. It was just the simple, steady teaching of God’s Word.

The difference with John, however, was that unlike so many modern preachers, when Biblical teaching came into conflict with the spirit of the age, instead of avoiding the issue or apologizing, John would show how the Scriptures speak to that issue. And he would do so directly. He didn’t mince words. But he did this not because he was a brawler just looking for a fight, but because he actually believed that God’s Word had authority.

From John MacArthur, I learned that when the Scriptures speak, God speaks. It can be tempting to treat the Bible as merely theoretical, a safe book to be brought out just on Sundays for a comforting word. But John taught in a way the forced you to see that the Bible’s teachings aren’t merely notional, they are packed with promises and, indeed, commands. And our role isn’t to excuse or minimize those commands, but to to joyfully submit to Christ’s Lordship as expressed through His Word even when that submission is out of step with the world.

The Sufficiency of Scripture

A third doctrine I learned from MacArthur, and saw exhibited in his teaching ministry, was that of the sufficiency of Scripture.

The New Testament says that God’s Word contains all that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) and that by it we may be fully equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15–17). And these were truths I heard again and again from John’s pulpit ministry, and which trickled down to me through my professors at the seminary.

John MacArthur showed me how the Bible’s teachings aren’t merely relegated to the “spiritual” parts of our lives, but His Word has relevance for all areas of life. The Scriptures inform how you do business, how you parent, how you think about current events, and, yes, how you get things done.

Redeeming Productivity was born out of my conviction that, as important as the issues of work and time management are to our lives, the Bible must surely speak to them. It was a conviction arising from a strong belief in the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. And that was something that the Lord taught me through the ministry of John MacArthur.

Conclusion

56 years of ministry is quite the legacy. And I’m sure many of you could share stories of how the Lord used John MacArthur’s ministry in your life. But I just wanted to take a moment here to give thanks to the Lord for how he used this man to shape my Christian life and the ministry of Redeeming Productivity.

Please, be praying for the Lord’s comfort for John’s family and Grace Community Church, as well as for wisdom and direction for the many ministries that he had a hand in.