I’ll never forget the first time I heard John MacArthur preach.
I was in long auditorium in Chianciano, Italy. With 500 other people.
But I felt as though it was just me and him in that room.
The night before that sermon I had done what I had done pretty much every night for the past couple years, I woke up in a panic in the middle of the night, crying and deeply fearful. I had eternal questions on my heart that only the Lord could answer through His word.
In just a few days I would embark on an intense journey where I would read the entire Bible in just ten weeks, do evangelism for the first time in my life and be exposed to pastors and missionaries and their teaching at a bible school in Italy. But the Lord in his great mercy and kindness decided to expose me first to his Sovereign hand through the preaching of John MacArthur.
Those few days in Chianciano were life changing. He preached as he often did on the sovereignty of God. Not just in salvation, though of course he talked about that, but His sovereignty over all of history and over each of our lives present at that conference.
It was just what I needed to be exposed to before delving into his word and reading it from cover to cover at such a fast pace.
It was just what I needed to hear before heading to the street to tell people about Christ for the first time.
And it was just what I needed to hear to break out of my prideful heart that lived as if I was the center of the universe and everything revolved around me instead of God being the center and everything revolve around Him.
It wasn’t long before my whole life was turned upside down. Suddenly my heart was directed toward an understanding about God that shifted my whole perspective not only about history but about my life. And things that made me cry only a few weeks earlier now I was thanking God for.
The Lord used John MacArthur’s preaching to set my path in a whole new place, and I can confidently say that if it weren’t for his preaching that week in Chianciano I would be a different person if alive at all.
Of course, I ended up moving to Los Angeles simply because I wanted to learn more from that man whom God used so mightily in my life. And in time I ended up not only calling him my hero, but my pastor and even my friend.
My story is unique in one sense, the country where I first heard him preach might be different than yours. The situation that I was facing might be different as well, but the fascinating thing is that so many reading my words, I’m sure, are thinking that wat I expressed here rings true in their heart as well.
Just a quick glance at Facebook shows the myriads and myriads of people John Macarthur impacted. They speak of him as their hero. They speak of him as their pastor, and they speak of him as a friend.
And the big question is why did we all consider him a friend to us? Regardless of how many pictures we have with him or moments alone with him?
As I was preaching John chapter 10 not too long ago, I was considering the stark difference between the false teachers Jesus condemns and Himself. Jesus compares Himself to the false teachers who are thieves and robbers (John 10:7). They want to take the sheep and use them for their own gain. Ultimately, they want to take the glory away from the true shepherd Jesus Christ. He on the other hand wants to give life and life abundant (john 10:10). He gives his life for the sheep (John 10:11).
He goes on in the next few chapters to train his disciples on how to be faithful under shepherds and shows them how to love one another (John 13:34-35), how to wash each other’s feet (John 13:14), how to abide in Him (John 15:17) and how to be like he is (John 15:12-13).
The thing that distinguishes a false teacher from a faithful one is this: the false teacher wants you to recognize and depend on their own voice, the faithful teacher wants you to recognize the voice of the Lord. The sheep hear Christ’s voice and follow him (John 10:27-28), therefore a faithful under shepherd trains the Sheep Jesus entrusts to them to discern through all the voices to hear the voice of Christ.
The reason we all love John MacArthur is because he did just that. The reason why John MacArthur became famous (at least Christian famous) is because he taught us that. He taught us to recognize the voice of God. He taught us to long for the savior.
He taught us that life is entirely about knowing God and making him known. He was a man whose greatest joy was knowing Christ and making Him known.
That’s why he’s our friend, because he faithfully and fearlessly pointed us to the greatest friend we could ever have, Jesus Christ whom he is seeing face to face as we speak.
Thank you God for John MacArthur, and for making him a man who was faithful to you, fearless to preach the truth and a friend to so many who desperately needed to be pointed to the only one who could save, Your Son Jesus Christ.