Then, it was MacArthur’s turn to answer how he handled discouragement.
“I don’t have time to be discouraged,” explained MacArthur to the moderator. “I just go onto the next thing to be done.”
Piper considered the panel discussion a “wonderful learning moment for all the young pastors out there.” He continued, “I wanted to say, ‘Take heart! Not everybody’s like MacArthur!'”
“God uses melancholy pastors,” shared Piper.
John MacArthur’s Legacy Continues On
Throughout MacArthur’s ministry, he made his sermons available online. From the early days when an audio recording was the only available format to more recently, when video, audio, and transcripts have been posted—people around the world have accessed MacArthur’s sermon library.
“Even after I’m dead, Grace to You will still be pumping messages out all over the planet,” MacArthur said years ago.
MacArthur wasn’t concerned about the future of GCC, where he served as pastor-teacher for decades.
“Whatever happens to me, this church has so many great, gifted, dedicated, highly motivated, passionate preachers coming behind me,” said MacArthur. “There will be plenty of them to take my place.”
Pastors Phil Johnson and Mike Riccardi opened up about some of John MacArthur’s last words following MacArthur’s passing.
“It was reported to me by some of those who were with John in the hours that he was ready to go to heaven [that] one of the verses that [was] on his mind [that he used] as his last words was 1 Corinthians 15:55,” Riccardi said. “It was reported to me that in between gasps for air, he said, ‘I feel no sting. I feel no fear.’”
