A Tribute to John MacArthur

Shortly after John MacArthur’s passing into glory I was asked by Cutting It Straight Magazine to write a tribute to John MacArthur. Since that periodical requires a paid subscription I thought I would post my tribute to John MacArthur on www.drivennails.com with some slight modifications.

I grew up the youngest of eight children in a non-practicing, Irish Roman Catholic family. During high school I lived in the mountains of Idaho, seven miles on a dirt road from a town of 81 people. I did a lot of hiking, hunting, fishing, and trapping. I didn’t know the Lord, but had a desire to learn the Bible. I told my mom about my desire to learn about the Bible. She told me that if I wanted to do that, I would have to become a priest. I didn’t want to become a priest but I was still curious about the Bible. In my Junior year of high school my brother gave me a copy of the NIV, which had just been published. I started reading it, and sometime during my Junior year of High School, came to know the Lord. I tried attending a Roman Catholic mass, but there was too much ritual and not enough Bible. I tried Seventh Day Adventism because of the influence of a carpenter I worked for, but had to drive an hour and a half to Boise to attend services on Saturday. I was busy my senior year of High School working, doing chores around the home, and pursuing my mountain man hobbies. I didn’t know any Christians and had no idea what church to attend. Options were few, but I kept reading my Bible trying to figure out the book of God. I had many questions and didn’t know where to find answers.

After graduating from High School in 1980, I worked as an initial attack fire fighter for the US Forest Service, which kept me busy planting trees in the Spring, running a chain saw in the forest during summer, and fighting fires in the fall. As winter approached I got a job as a commercial fisherman in Hawaii. I lived on a 65-foot whaleback schooner, which docked on pier 54 in Honolulu, Hawaii. When not fishing, I did boat maintenance, like scraping barnacles off the hull, fiberglass repair, painting, rebuilding hydraulic motors, etc. I was still reading my Bible, but had never attended a solid Bible teaching church. One day while working on the boat I was scanning radio stations and came across a preacher in the middle of a sermon. I didn’t know who it was, but I thought to myself, “Man, this guy can preach!” It was John MacArthur preaching his sermon series called “Spiritual Boot Camp.” I loved it! Every day I tuned in to hear expository preaching from John MacArthur.

One evening, I decided to I walk over to the Ala Moana shopping center for something to do. There, I found a Christian bookstore and purchased my first John MacArthur book, Kingdom Living Here and Now. I devoured it. I could not get enough biblical exposition from John MacArthur. After a few seasons fishing in Hawaii I made it back to Boise, Idaho where I started attending a Bible church that practiced expository preaching. Many in the church talked about and were blessed by the preaching of John MacArthur. John even came a few times to our church and preached. I was star struck.

It was at this time the Lord put a desire in my heart to preach God’s Word. I was attending Boise State University, involved in Campus Crusade for Christ, and always had a shoe box full of cassette tapes with John MacArthur sermons on the front seat of my 1959 Ford pickup. While in class one day, someone saw the box, thought it was music tapes, broke the window of my truck, and stole all my John MacArthur sermons. I prayed that they would listen to them and get saved.

I found an excellent wife while attending Boise State and my desire to become a preacher increased until I doggedly determined to attend seminary somewhere, get trained in the Word, and enter full time vocational ministry. I was investigating seminaries when I heard about a new seminary, The Master's Seminary. The Master's Seminary had a great faculty cobbled together from Grace Theological Seminary, Talbot Theological Seminary, and Dallas Theological Seminary. Grace, Talbot, and Dallas were all starting to train women to preach. Professors with strong biblical convictions were not going for it and were looking for a place to escape. These professors became the faculty of The Master's Seminary. Since John MacArthur was the president of The Master's Seminary, I knew I would be taught the Bible and trained to be a biblical expositor if I went there, I applied, was accepted, and started attending The Master's Seminary in 1988, graduating in 1991. During seminary I had John MacArthur as a professor at times, heard him regularly preach in chapel, at Shepherd’s conferences, on the radio, and still had a shoebox full of his sermons in the form of compact disks in the front seat of my much newer 1969 Ford pickup. In a large degree, I learned to preach from listening to and watching John MacArthur.

In between my second and third year of seminary I helped plant Grace Bible Church in Boise, Idaho. At graduation Dr. MacArthur handed me my diploma as I walked across the stage at Grace Community Church. After graduation I was called to pastor Grace Bible Church in Boise. I figured my interactions with John MacArthur had probably come to an end. He was big deal in the preaching world, lived several states away, pastored a huge church, and I was a nobody pastoring a small church in Idaho. Yet, John knew who I was and would walk up to me at shepherd’s conferences and ask how ministry was going in Boise. I was amazed he knew my name and the name of the church I pastored.

After pastoring Grace Bible Church in Boise for 10 years, I got a call from a man who lived in Burbank, CA, who said that John MacArthur had given him my name. At times, people leaving Grace Community Church moved to Boise, Idaho and would be given the name of the church I pastored since I was on the alumni of The Master's Seminary. I thought this was one of those calls. However, the man started going into great lengths to tell me about his church, Calvary Bible Church in Burbank. He told me it was started by Jack MacArthur, John MacArthur’s dad, and that it was where John MacArthur attended church growing up. I was trying to be patient and was thinking to myself, “Yes, yes, feel free to come visit Grace Bible Church when you move to Boise. I need to get back sermon prep.” Thankfully, I held my tongue. Then the man told me that Calvary Bible Church had been looking for a pastor for two years. He said he and the pastoral search committee had recently met with Pastor John who said, “I know of someone who is just enough of a maverick to minister in the shadow of Grace Community Church.” John then handed the head of the search committee a piece of paper with a single name on it—Jack Hughes! It was a bit of a jaw dropping, lightning bolt out of the clear blue-sky moment for me. I didn’t really know what to say. I wasn’t looking to leave Boise. I thought I would die pastoring Grace Bible Church.

I told the man I would pray about it and get back to him. I talked to my elders about what happened. They all loved and respected John MacArthur and said, “Maybe you should investigate and see if this is from God or not.” Grace Bible Church had grown to about seven hundred, we had just hired three new pastors, and so I figured I would investigate. I didn’t cherish the idea of moving to California. Long story short, the Lord moved us to Burbank, CA to pastor Calvary Bible Church in 2000. I was just finishing up my doctorate at Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido. The first couple years at Calvary Bible Church were rough, but also an amazing blessing. Many people came to know the Lord. I rewrote the constitution and by-laws, set a biblical vision, relentlessly preached the gospel and sound doctrine. God blessed Calvary Bible Church.

It was then, because of the influence of John MacArthur, that I was asked if I would be an adjunct faculty member at The Master's Seminary. Thus from 2003 to 2011 I had the privilege of teaching classes on the pastor’s home, preaching lab, effective sermon delivery, and candidating after graduation. I also got to preach in chapel with John MacArthur sitting in the front row at times. No pressure. Periodically I would guest lecture at The Master’s University and continued to hear John preach at Shepherd’s Conferences. I still listened to John via digital downloads in my newer 2001 Chevy pickup. No more shoe box!

It was while pastoring in Burbank that I came to know John MacArthur personally through faculty meetings, lunches, Shepherd’s Conferences, and periodic conversations. I was able to preach at Grace Community a few times. John even encouraged members at Grace Community Church one Sunday who lived in the Burbank area to consider attending Calvary Bible Church. I had never heard of this happening before and was very humbled by John’s kindness. Several times when visiting people in my congregation who were in the hospital they would say, “John MacArthur came and visited me. He told me to tell you hi.” Pastor John had his hands full shepherding his own flock, yet took the time to visit my sheep in the hospital!

After twelve years in Burbank the Lord moved us to Kentucky to pastor Anchor Bible Church. One day, out of the blue, I got a call from—you guessed it, John MacArthur. He asked how ministry was going in Kentucky. We talked about preaching, theology, and the need for faithful expository preachers. He was kind, encouraging, gracious, and before hanging up said, “Jack, you have my personal cell phone number, feel free to call me any time I can serve you.” Again, I was humbled by his kindness. Several times after that he saw me at a distance at Shepherd’s conference and sought me out.

The last time we chatted was at the Truth Matter’s Conference in 2022 held at The Ark Encounter here in Kentucky. John was older, tired, had been preaching relentlessly, and yet I was taken backstage by a friend to see him. He was resting in a chair, obviously worn out, but stood up to greet me, shook my hand, and again asked how my ministry was going in Louisville, KY. My friend jokingly said to John, “How come you didn’t stand up when I greeted you, but you stood up for Jack?” John’s reply? “Because Jack is a preacher of the Word of God.” It brought tears to my eyes. Moments later, though late at night, Pastor John preached an amazing and powerful sermon from the Word of God that lasted over an hour. Like George Whitefield, the Holy Spirit strengthened John.

Faithful expository preaching and shepherding is the legacy of John MacArthur. He has influenced me more than any other preacher. Though now in glory, John still speaks to me through his faithful example, sermons, books, blogs, journal, and magazine articles. I hope that by the grace of God I can finish my race as well as John and hear those coveted words I am sure John heard when he first stood before the Lord of glory, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Dr. Jack Hughes

Pastor-Teacher, Anchor Bible Church, Louisville, KY