MacArthur Mania in Murfreesboro

On April 8th I left work two and a half hours early and my mother and I drove the near 200 mile drive to Murfreesboro, TN with Belle Aire Baptist church as our destination. My brother Jason and his wife Ruthie met us there and my good friend and fellow blog mate Josh Hayes, his wife and mother-in-law accompanied him also. The place was bustling with a vast crowd of people and before long, the large sanctuary of Belle Aire would be packed to the gills in great expectation.

But what was it that could bring people out in droves to pack out a sanctuary on a Tuesday night? What could spark such a flurry of anticipation and excitement? The answer is Dr. John MacArthur. He is president of the Master's college and seminary, he has published well over 100 books, he has a near 40 year tenure at Grace Community church in California, he has his own TV and radio show and all of this and more makes John MacArthur arguably the greatest Bible teacher that our generation has ever seen.

Dr. MacArthur was in Murfreesboro to promote his new book A Tale of Two Sons (this story is often known as "The Prodigal Son"). He preached for about an hour and 15 minutes and he gave us an abbreviated version of his book. He told us that he has been preaching through the entire New Testament for almost 40 years and that out of all of the things he has preached on, he has seen the most response to this story and after hearing his message I can understand why. When he finished preaching I looked at Haze with a stunned look on my face and he knew exactly what I was thinking. "WOW!!!" I believe his thoughts were very close to mine.

The Tale of Two Sons is a parable spoken by our Lord in Luke 15. It is the story that revolves around the love that a father has for his rebellious son who cashes in his inheritance and takes it to a far away land and spends it on prostitutes and other sinful living. After this, the money ran out and a famine hit the land. In his humility and desperation the son was left to eat slop with the pigs. The son then comes to himself and realizes that his father is a generous man and even makes sure that his servants have more than enough food. Having decided to ask his father to make him a hired servant, the son begin the journey back and when he is still beyond the city the father spots him far off and runs to him and kisses him and embraces him. He puts a robe on his back and a ring on his hand. They kill the fatted calf and celebrate the return of this prodigal son.

However, this is not a story about the prodigal son or about two sons. It is a story about the father. It is a story of how gracious and forgiving he was. This is a picture of the heavenly Father's compassion toward repentant sinners and it is a picture of how filthy and worthless we as sinners are before our Father takes us in and forgives us.

Though I have not had a chance to read Dr. MacArthurs book, I reccommend it based on the sermon that I heard. He said that it took him 5 different 1 hour sermons to preach through this story and I wondered how in the world he could possibly pull any more information out of this story. It was truly a blessing having been there to hear him preach on this tremendous story. There were many times I was so excited that everything inside of me screamed "YES!"

Go buy this book and read it. It will be time well spent, and you will not lament having done so, I assure you. It will give you a new understanding of the love our Father in heaven has for us and it will also help you to see how wretched and disgusting sinners we are. It appears that Dr. MacArthur has once again produced another classic.