Pastor John MacArthur’s Last Lap

Pastor John MacArthur has long said that he doesn’t believe in retirement.

“You don’t retire from a calling,” said Grace Community Church’s shepherd back in 2022. “You don’t retire from being a pastor. You’re faithful to the end.”

Dr. MacArthur then added, “The end is when you can’t do it anymore.”

The beloved preacher and teacher stopped short of waving the metaphorical white flag last week, but after struggling to recover from heart surgery and an extended seven-week hospital stay, he made it clear the finish line is in sight.

“I realize I’m on the last lap,” he told attendees of the annual Shepherds Conference via video. “That takes on a new meaning when you know you’re on the short end of the candle. I am all thanks and praise to God for everything He’s allowed me to be a part of and everything He’s accomplished by His Word in these years of ministry. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.”

John MacArthur has been leading his Sun Valley congregation since 1969. “Grace to You,” his national radio preaching ministry, began somewhat by accident in 1977.

The seeds of that broadcast outreach were sown only a few months after Pastor MacArthur arrived at Grace Community Church. A group of men approached one day and suggested the church begin recording his sermons. They proposed a “tape ministry” that would minister to shut-ins and provide a practical way to evangelize those who might never darken the doors of the church. With the explosion of cassette tapes soon after, the minister’s messages were distributed far and wide.

Grace Community received a letter one day from an individual in Baltimore, Maryland thanking Dr. MacArthur for his “radio ministry.” The young pastor was perplexed.

“We don’t have a radio ministry,” he insisted. Only they did. Unbeknownst to MacArthur or the church elders, somebody was sending the cassette tapes of his sermons to a small Christian radio station back east.

“Grace to You” was born.

Today, Dr. MacArthur’s messages are broadcast on over 2,500 radio stations in the United States and in 27 countries around the world.

Like so many effective preachers and teachers, the Lord has compounded his efforts.

“Win somebody else, who in turn will win somebody else,” says Dr. MacArthur. “Now that’s evangelism. Where you lead someone to Christ and then to such an extent are they strengthened that they can lead others to Christ and you in turn reap the benefits – that’s evangelism.”

Octogenarians who are in touch with reality know the curtain can fall on their earthly life at any time.

But quadragenarians (40-49), quinquagenarians (50-59), sexagenarian (60-69) and septuagenarians (70-79) should recognize that nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring,” wrote Solomon (Proverbs 27:1).

Of course, not everyone is afforded the luxury of realizing the “lap” they’re running is the final one. That’s why we shouldn’t slow up or let up until the Lord calls us up. Or, to quote John Madigan, a favorite college professor of mine, “Carry on, until they carry you out!”

Dr. MacArthur told those gathered at the conference last week that the Lord had placed a message on his heart.

“I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to give it to you, so we printed it up in a booklet,” MacArthur told the Shepherds Conference. He then added, “The good news is you don’t have to listen to me. You don’t have to take notes, because you’re going to get the sermon in a booklet form.”

The title?

“On Finishing Well.”

Dr. MacArthur once observed, “God uses those who have the right passion for the right priority with the right personnel taking the right precaution to make the right presentation, and they submissively keep following until they get to the right place.”

John MacArthur has been the right man at the right place at the right time.

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