Evangelism

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.

Image credit: X

It’s ironic but true: the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) is obsessed with religion.

The latest proof can be found in a full-page ad in Tuesday’s New York Times featuring an illustrated drawing of the Statue of Liberty holding high a cross with the word “THEOCRACY” in a wave crashing at its base.

“The State of Separation Between State and Church is Perilous,” the headline reads. “Help stem the Christian Nationalist Tidal Wave.”

Founded in 1976 by a mother and daughter upset their local Wisconsin legislators opened meetings in prayer, the FFRF has made it their mission for nearly fifty years to protest any public expression of faith.

To be sure, the group has gotten it very wrong from the beginning. Consider what they told the lawmakers back in 1976:

“It is not the business of governmental bodies to pray,” said Anne Gaylor. “When board members pray publicly, you inflict pressure, compulsion and embarrassment on those of your members and those of your audience who do not accept or share these private religious views.”

Public prayer does no such thing. The only pressure it seems to elicit stems from antagonists obsessed with eradicating it.

Even the Supreme Court has upheld legislative and other public prayers, and it’s a good thing. Its own marshal opens each session with a litany that ends with the phrase, “God save the United States and this Honorable Court!” Several friezes of Moses holding the Ten Commandments are also featured in and on the historic building.

The so-called “Christian Nationalist Tidal Wave” is a laughable farce, a concocted bogeyman that simply doesn’t exist.

Anytime someone dares mention their faith or acknowledge its impact on America’s founding, FFRF seizes on the reference. Perhaps unknowingly, the group regularly calls more attention to faith with their over-the-top campaigns protesting it than were they to remain silent.

In fact, this tried and tired tactic recalls Joseph’s words in Genesis:

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20).

For years, FFRF has put a cross in Lady Liberty’s right hand to mock Christianity and make a claim that facts fail to back up. Originally named “Liberté éclairant le monde” or “Liberty Enlightening the World,”and designed by Auguste Bartholdi, the grand statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

Mr. Bartholdi was said to choose a woman for the statue because of Europe’s long association of certain virtues (generosity, piety, good faith) with women. He wasn’t the first artist to correlate the idea of liberty with a female, but never had it been depicted on such a grand scale and stage.

The torch in Lady Liberty’s right hand is designed to symbolize enlightenment, along with a commitment to freedom and democracy.

Once more, maybe it’s fitting that FFRF has chosen to swap out the torch with the cross. As Christians, we recognize the empty cross as a symbol of triumph and salvation. It lights the way during dark times. It shows us that sin and sorrow are conquered thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on it. 

Critics of Christianity have a long and storied history of distorting not only God’s Word, but also the intents and beliefs of His followers. It’s heartbreaking that the folks at FFRF seem to believe so much that just isn’t true. But it’s also heartening that God takes ignorance and foolishness and uses it for good.  

Lots of prayers are being lifted up across college and university campuses today as part of the annual Collegiate Day of Prayer.

Beginning over two-hundred years ago, the last Thursday in February was set aside by every major school in America to pray not just for the students but also the institution itself.

After all, Harvard motto in 1650, “In Christi Gloriam” or “For the glory of Christ,” left no question about leadership’s spiritual convictions.

Writing about these campus prayer meetings and revivals, Henry C. Fish wrote:

In the year 1823, the last Thursday of February each year was agreed upon as the day for special supplication that God would pour from on high His Spirit upon our Colleges and Seminaries. And what have been some of the results? In the years 1824 and 1825, revivals were experienced in 5 different colleges; in 1826, in 6 colleges; in 1831 … In one of the colleges it is stated that a revival started on the very day of the concert of prayer. In 1835, not less than 18 revivals were reported by different colleges.

Prayer and spiritual awakenings have been reported at numerous college campuses over the past few years. Many will remember extended time of prayer at Kentucky’s Asbury University in 2023. Other mass prayer events have taken place at the University of Arkansas, Ohio State, Auburn, University of Georgia, and Texas A&M. Thousands of students have come to Christ and been baptized.

A group called “Unite Us” has helped to spearhead many of these prayer events on college campuses.

“Gen Z is hungry for the very things the empty, desiccated temples of secularism, consumerism, and global digital media cannot provide, but which Jesus can,” says Kyle Richter of Unite Us.

The organization has scheduled prayer time this spring at Purdue, University of Kentucky, Georgetown, West Virginia and Southern Methodist University.

All of this stands in stark contrast to the “party hardy” reputation some other colleges possess. Each year the Wall Street Journal comes out with a list. In September, Tulane and the University of Dayton were ranked at the top for party atmosphere.

According to organizers of this year’s outreach, 4,420 colleges have been adopted, meaning that prayer warriors are specifically lifting up teachers, students, and administrators at those particular institutions. The good and bad news is that there are still over 25,000 schools waiting for prayer.

Prayer is a powerful privilege for Christians, an opportunity to speak intimately with our Lord. Intercessory prayer for college students is desperately needed, especially as the evil and confusion cascade across campuses everywhere.

“Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition,” preached Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. “There is nothing that tells the truth about us, so much as our prayer life.”

Please join us in praying for America’s colleges and its students.

Image credit: College of the Ozarks.