Jay Flowers was comfortable with his profession of Christian faith until he heard John MacArthur preach in chapel at Master’s College (now Master’s University) in 1987.“What did Jesus mean when He said, ‘Follow Me?’” MacArthur asked the students. “What does that look like?”
MacArthur’s frank emphasis on obedience cut through the familiar “altar-call salvation” environment in which Flowers grew up.
“He simply opened the Bible and taught, and that’s what I needed,” Flowers said. “I just remember sitting in the chapel and just realizing that there is so much more to this book, to Scripture.”
Flowers now shares MacArthur’s verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture around the world as the Chief Operating Officer of Grace to You, the media ministry of John MacArthur. Grace to You provides recordings of every sermon MacArthur preached at Grace Community Church from his first sermon in Feb. 1969 until his final sermon in Nov. 2024. The ministry also works to disperse MacArthur’s devotionals, books, and other resources to Christians around the globe.
“John’s biggest contribution to Grace to You was not … seeing himself as a radio guy and wanting to somehow build a media empire,” Flowers said. “His real legacy was that he was in his chair in his study during the week studying God’s Word.”
MacArthur’s media ministry, Grace to You, was born on accident.
Grace Community Church (GCC) began recording reel-to-reel tapes of sermons for disabled and elderly congregation members. By the time cassette tapes came into frequent use in the mid-1970s, however, MacArthur’s sermons were making their way to people outside GCC.
“Hey, you ought to hear our pastor,” a congregant would say to a friend. “He just taught out of Matthew 4.” The tape would be passed from one person to the next until one day in 1977, GCC received word that some of MacArthur’s sermons had been aired on a radio station in Baltimore, Md., over 2,000 miles from his pulpit.
“That kind of planted the seed,” Flowers said. “Then other people started getting involved.”
John and Jay in studio, 1995. Image courtesy of Jay Flowers, GTY.
Al Sanders, founder of Ambassador Advertising, developed a radio model for distributing MacArthur’s sermons. The tape and radio ministry grew rapidly, soon gaining its own budget, staff, and support. Around this time, MacArthur began publishing books. By the early 1980s, the elders of GCC decided to make Grace to You an independent ministry.
In its infancy, Grace to You was developing and producing cassette tapes the old-fashioned way — empty shells, razor blades, and wax pencils.
“It took 11 years to produce our first one million cassette tapes,” Flowers said.
As the process improved, the ministry was able to distribute one million tapes annually. Now, with the development of digital technology, over one million sermons are downloaded from Grace to You every month.
Grace to You tapes. Image courtesy of Jay Flowers, GTY.
Testimonies of God’s work through MacArthur began pouring in from across the country, first through hand-written letters and then through email.
“It’s not uncommon to hear from people who have come to Christ after hearing the Gospel,” Flowers said. People from all walks of life reached out to Grace to You to share their stories — including prisoners and unsuspecting commuters who happened upon a sermon.
That’s one of the gifts of radio, Flowers says. “You don’t have to look for radio to find it.”
In 2014, Grace to You learned that another ministry was distributing Vietnamese translations of MacArthur’s sermons to communities in Vietnam. Grace to You now makes MacArthur’s sermons available in seven languages and counting through their Grace Reaches Out initiative.
The widespread relevance of sermons dating back decades is only possible because of MacArthur’s focus on the text of the Bible.
“John never tethered his pulpit ministry to pop culture; he didn’t tie it to today’s headlines,” Flowers said. “It’s Scripture, and Scripture transcends any decade, any era, and any culture. It transcends all that because it’s God’s truth.”
John MacArthur and Phil Johnson in studio, 2017. Image courtesy of Jay Flowers, GTY.
With approximately 3,600 recorded sermons, Grace to You shares a depth of teaching with a world hungry for biblical exposition.
However, Grace to You intends for its resources to supplement, and never replace, a believer’s commitment to a local church.
When Flowers came on staff with Grace to You during his final month of college, he saw himself as “a model of what happens when God’s Word is simply taught.” After 37 years with the organization, he continues to believe in the power of God’s Word to save.
“I know the importance of it because it ministered to me,” Flowers said, “and so to be able to be a part of that and bringing it to other people’s lives is just a huge honor and thrill.”
Grace to You has been an NRB member since 1993. For more information, visit gty.org. Jay Flowers currently serves as a member of the NRB Board of Directors and the NRB President’s Council.