Oh, dear John MacArthur !

What a man. What a legacy. What global influence. And what faithfulness to preaching the Word of God. I want to join the many others who admired him by sharing how he personally influenced me.

It was Allan Ashabahebwa who first mentioned him to me during a game night session. We were standing next to the exit door in my dining room when Allan casually recommended him—not too seriously, but for some reason, I looked up John MacArthur that very evening before bed.

The next Sunday, we had just begun studying the book of Ephesians at my local church, Ebenezer Chapel. I had many theological questions—one of them being predestination. At the time, I believed man chooses God. You know how many people “testify” that on such-and-such a day, they decided and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior? And many hold that belief deeply in their hearts—that in all things, they choose. While there is a sense in which human choice is real, it overlooks God's sovereignty: He chooses, He predestines, He regenerates, He saves, and He sustains us.

I remember feeling unsettled after Manzi Kagina’s sermon where he had touched on God’s sovereignty in predestining and regenerating believers. When I approached him to clarify his stand, he was still greeting the brethren, so he pointed me to Mark Ssesanga. As we stood near the pulpit, Mark and I went back and forth looking at Scriptures that support God’s sovereignty. Mark summed it up by saying, “God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are twin truths found in Scripture,” and encouraged me to look them up. The day before, I had already spent time listening to my new discovery—John MacArthur. So, I rushed home and listened to two of his back-to-back sermons from John 3—one on God’s sovereignty, the other on man’s responsibility . He showed how we must hold both truths in tension without ignoring either.

You know how, before proposing to a lady, you might admire her from afar—then one day see her feeding the homeless with no cameras watching, and that act makes you love her all the more? That’s how I felt listening to that sermon on twin truths - for it helped me appreciate both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. 

It’s my first lasting memory of John MacArthur.

Later, I learned that John MacArthur had preached through the entire New Testament verse by verse—27 books, 260 chapters, 7,957 verses. That amazed me. Whenever I felt stuck on a text, I would look up his teaching on it, and time and again, his insights came just when I needed them.

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Three of the many reasons Why I Fell in Love with John MacArthur’s Ministry:

1. John MacArthur Exalted Christ in Every Sermon 

Whether you listen to a sermon from 1960, 1980, 2000, or even 2025 (apparently over 3,000 sermons, many available at gty.org, you’ll always walk away with one clear conclusion: Jesus Christ is Lord, and He alone is to be glorified—not man.

I discovered him at a time when I was changing churches and starting to notice serious theological gaps in my beliefs. Where I had been, we were often indoctrinated to think of ourselves as the center of the story. We even had a line: “We are disease-free zones”—yet many of us, including our pastor, wore glasses or battled illnesses. We sang songs that praised us more than God—like: "I know who I am, I’m walking in power, I’m walking in miracles, I live a life of favor...". Listening to John MacArthur explain that the gospel isn’t about meeting all our earthly desires but about every sinner coming to Christ and glorifying Him—whether in lack or sickness, in pain or in plenty—helped me see Jesus as the true focus.

 2. He Stayed in the Text 

Among many things, John MacArthur is best known as an expository preacher. His goal—and really the goal of any faithful preacher—is to clearly explain and apply the meaning of a specific passage of Scripture: to expose what the text actually says, rather than jumping between verses to push personal agendas. That’s what expository preaching is all about, and it’s what he tirelessly but lovingly did—year in, year out.

You could open any of his one-hour sermons, and in all of them, he would stay rooted in the text—showing its true meaning while applying it faithfully. That stood in sharp contrast to many preachers I had been used to, who would often use Scripture as a springboard for their own narratives, drifting far from the context.

It made me appreciate the sufficiency and authority of Scripture in all of life. If there’s anything I can look back on now and say has been a turning point in my life, it’s this: I now esteem the Word of God above everything else.

 3. His Q\&A Responses and Way of Life 

There’s a whole library on YouTube and the Grace to You website of question-and-answer sessions where he covers 10–20 wide-ranging questions each hour from random church members—including things I had wrestled with for years without finding answers. John would always respond with clarity, showing the biblical position. I highly recommend those Q\&As in this link, as they also helped me get grounded and firm in my faith.

I was also humbled to learn about his personal life: married to Patricia for over 60 years, all his children committed to the Lord, having baptized all his grandchildren, and having served at one church for 56 years.

That is a legacy—faithfulness to the pulpit, rewards in the family, and fruit in both family and church.

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Of course, I never got to meet John MacArthur in person. But I don’t think I have listened to anyone with as much impact in recent years as I have listened to him. His is the voice I sleep to most nights.

I will definitely miss knowing he is alive, though I am truly comforted that he is home—where all who have come to true faith are headed. And I will continue to be shaped by the content he made available online—and most importantly, I will keep striving to obey and walk with the Savior John MacArthur so faithfully preached.