Jesus is the only one qualified to save you

Is this person really qualified for the job I have called on them for? Each of us has asked ourselves that at some point. If you’ve dropped your car off at a new mechanic, you’ve no doubt wondered if this person has the capabilities to resolve your problem. If you’ve hired a contractor to fix up your home or if you’ve hired a lawyer to take your case, there’s always a moment when you ask yourself, can this person do what I’m hoping they can do. Even if everyone refers you to them as being the best in their trade, there’s still a moment of doubt when you’re about to go under their scalpel for surgery and you wonder, is this person really qualified for the job I have called on them for?

If you’ve been a part of the church for any length of time, you’ve no doubt been referred to Jesus Christ as the one who can save you, heal you, rebuild your life, and any other number of tasks he’s supposed to be capable of doing. But is he qualified? What makes him the right one?

Main Point – Jesus is the only one qualified to save you

I invite you to open your Bible to the book of Mark this morning. Mark chapter 1 verse 1. That’s page 785 in the Pew Bibles. We’re going to begin a rather long series through Mark’s gospel and today we’ll kick off with the first verses.

In verse 1 of his book, Mark tells us himself that he is relaying to us the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And by saying this is a “gospel” up front, he’s telling us about what’s going to happen. In the ancient world, gospel was always the proclamation of good news. Typically it would be about a victory in battle or the enthronement of a new king. So in his opening line, Mark is declaring, “I’m going to tell you a story about the king who wins the battle and his name is Jesus.” Let’s read.

Read Mark 1:1-13 ( Pew Bible page 785)

Pray

So we’ve stated that Jesus is qualified to save us, let’s look at how in the first part of our passage

Point #1 – Jesus is greater than the ministry of man (vs. 2-8)

In each of the four gospels, John the Baptist always shows up before Jesus. I think most of us are familiar with his ministry in some way. He was predicted by the Old Testament to come. He’s kind of a crazy looking dude. He baptizes people in the Jordan river. Sometimes he challenges the Pharisees and tells people the Kingdom of God is near. But why is all of this necessary? For some reason, his role in preceding Jesus is always presented as essential to Jesus’ ministry. But why? It seems as if Jesus could have just as well arrived on the scene without John the Baptist ever showing up and he could have ministered just the same. Well let’s look at what he’s doing and see if we can figure it out.

Look at verse 6, John the Baptist shows up on the scene and he’s wearing camel hair and a leather belt. That’s an oddly specific description right? But when the Bible gives details like this, there’s usually a good reason. If you go back and read about the life of Elijah in 1 and 2 Kings, you will see that he is specifically described as wearing a garment of hair and a leather belt. So John the Baptist is associated with Elijah. Now in the Old Testament, Elijah is prophesied to be the one who would come again just before the arrival of God himself. We see this in the quotes in verses 2-3, which come from Malachi and Isaiah. And his job would be to prepare the hearts and minds of the people for when the Lord arrived.

And this is exactly what John the Baptist is doing. He’s proclaiming to everyone you must repent. You need to have your sins forgiven. You’re going in the wrong direction and you must turn around. And people were really responding to him. You see in verse 5, it says that everyone in the land of Judea and in Jerusalem were going out to him. Now that word “all” is clearly hyperbole or exaggeration, but it means that many people were flocking to hear him and they were being baptized. John has a fascinatingly enormous ministry here. People are confessing their sins publicly. They’re repenting and crying out for forgiveness in droves. It would be easy to think that this is the ultimate goal of a successful ministry. What more could you want? But right at the height of a successful ministry, John tells everyone that someone better is coming.

READ vs. 7-8.

He says you need something more than I can give you! You need someone greater than me. So much greater that I’m not worthy to be his slave. And you need something greater than a baptism with water. You need to be washed by God’s own Spirit. And he says this to open the people’s eyes to their need for Jesus before Jesus even arrives.

This is why John the Baptist’s ministry is necessary. If you don’t recognize your need for Jesus, you won’t look for him when he arrives. Again, John the Baptist has the greatest ministry Israel has ever seen in hundreds of years. He’s the fulfillment of prophecy. Everyone is responding. He’s persuading people of their need for confession and repentance and yet this is not enough! They need something greater than the ministry of a man. They need Jesus.

This is so important to recognize as a church. Because it is so easy to look at other churches and ministries and wish we had what they have here. We can see what big churches are doing and say, “I wish we could do that thing”. Or we look at an incredibly gifted communicator and we say, “I wish we could have that person come speak here”. Or perhaps we look at a mercy ministry happening somewhere else that’s reaching hundreds of people and think, “I wish we could reach as many people as they are.” Honestly, it would be pretty nice to have the ministry of John the Baptist. If we could get everyone in Ashdown and in Little River County to come confess their sins and be baptized it would appear that we’d have it made.

But here’s where John’s words are so shocking. He says the greatest ministry accomplished by man on earth is at best a preparation for the ministry of Jesus. The baptism that John offered was an outward expression of repentance and forgiveness. But the baptism that Jesus offers is God’s Spirit as an inward accomplishment of repentance and forgiveness. Jesus can actually effect these changes in us. I’ve been at churches where literally dozens of people come forward and are baptized in one day and we think “Hurray. We’re doing it! This is the dream of ministry” but many of those people vanished from the church and we never saw again. Outward expressions, large ministries, and far reaching services do not always correlate to the working of God’s Holy Spirit.

At best they can all be signs of a need for someone greater to arrive. Someone who can effect genuine change in your heart. If the whole town arrived to be saved, it doesn’t mean we’re great. It means we’re going to need a lot of work from Jesus transforming people’s hearts.

Mark starts his gospel by showing us our need for someone greater than he immediately shows us who God has chosen for that role.

Point #2 – Jesus is chosen by God (vs. 9-11)

Now I don’t think it was a surprise to Israel that they needed someone to come and save them. This is the message that they had been consistently hearing for thousands of years all the way back to the garden of Eden. They had been shown in the Books of Moses that they need a sacrifice who could be a substitute for them. Just like God demonstrated to Abraham on the mount he climbed to sacrifice Isaac, God himself would have to provide a sacrifice. They had been shown throughout the history of their kings that they needed a better king who could rule them with justice and who could represent them in righteousness, someone who was kind of like David but even better. Israel had been told all throughout the prophets, that God would one day send someone of his own choosing, a servant who would be perfectly righteous yet give that righteousness to others. Israel knew that God would be sending someone to save them. This wasn’t a surprise.

Without creating any intrigue or suspense and without building up any sort of mystery, Mark just tells us. “It’s Jesus of Nazareth. He’s the guy.” Look at what God declares at his baptism in verse 11. “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” Now if you’re not familiar with the Old Testament, it’s easy to read this as if God is just being a proud father saying, “Hey everyone! That’s my boy. I love that kid!” And I suppose that would have been a nice gesture. But these words are chosen carefully. This is where having a nice Bible with cross references can be extremely helpful for you. In a good Bible the editors will often include references to other passages of scripture in the margin or on the bottom of the page. These are called cross references and they direct you to other places in the Bible where these exact words are used or a similar theme is addressed.

The first thing we see here is that the Father says to Jesus - “You are my son”. The language here is identical to language found in Psalm 2 and Mark wants us to think of that. Here’s what Psalm 2 says.

7 I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”...

12 Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. -Psalm 2:8-9, 12

Mark tells us, “Do you remember how Israel has been looking for a king who could defeat the wicked nations and rule with perfect justice? That king is here. Jesus is the chosen king.”

How about the next phrase? He says that Jesus is specifically “his beloved son” or to translate a bit more literally it says, “My son, my beloved one”. This is a reference back to Genesis 22:2. That story where Abraham is instructed to take his Son Isaac up to a mountain and sacrifice him. Here’s what it says:

And he said, ‘Take your son, the beloved one, whom you have loved—Isaac—and go into the high land, and offer him there as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you.’” -Genesis 22:2 LXX

Again God’s words are calling us to remember how Isaac was going to be sacrificed but then he was replaced by the sacrifice God provided. He’s telling us in these brief words that Jesus would be that sacrifice who would replace another on the altar. He’s the sacrifice chosen by God.

And the last phrase, “with you I am well pleased”. This is a good one because we’ve actually seen this one before ourselves. This comes from our very first servant song from a month ago. Do you remember? Isaiah was predicting a servant of the Lord who would come humbly and obediently and suffer as he accomplished God’s mission. Here’s Isaiah 42:1:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my Spirit upon him;

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Do you see? God puts his Spirit on the one whom he delights in. And at Jesus’ baptism, he puts his Spirit on the one whom he is pleased with. God tells us that Jesus is the servant he has chosen. In these few simple words, spoken by God at Jesus’ baptism, Mark tells us Jesus is the chosen king. Jesus is the chosen sacrifice. Jesus is the chosen servant. He’s the one. He has been chosen by God.

Now why is this significant?

A moment ago John the Baptist told us that we needed someone who was greater than any earthly ministry or human prophet. Now he’s telling us that Jesus is that one chosen by God. Jesus is greater than any human ministry, prophet, or institution because he is the one chosen by God.

Silvi and I just recently sold our house in Phoenix this past month. Whoo hoo. We’re very excited about that. And there was a person we entrusted with the keys to our house because we’re obviously not there. This person is our realtor. She is a delightful lady; her name is Shawnee. And if you wanted to get into our house, you had to go through Shawnee because she’s the person we picked to represent us and she’s the only one who had the keys. It didn’t matter how desperate you were to open the front door. It didn’t matter if you brought your own key or if you were given a key on great recommendation by someone else. You would be a fool to bring a whole ring of keys that you found somewhere and try them on our front door. The only way to have access to our house was through our realtor whom we chose.

And I think too often we seem like the fool who brings an abundance of keys. We’re searching for purpose. We’re searching for forgiveness. We want to be free from fear and worry. We want to conquer a sin. We want to be rid of shame and guilt. We want to feel loved by someone. And we fumble around with all the keys we can find, not realizing that Jesus Christ is the only one chosen by God. There is salvation in no one else. We are saved through faith alone in Christ alone, because he alone has been chosen to accomplish it.

Put down the key ring. Put down all of your clever ideas about what you think you need to move forward. And pray that God would save you through Jesus Christ. Repent of your pride in pursuing anything else and pray. And keep praying. The moment you stop praying that Jesus alone would save you is the moment you start looking somewhere else. But there is no one else chosen by God.

If Jesus is so clearly chosen by God as the king, as the sacrifice, and as the servant. What does he do next?

Point #3 – Jesus goes to battle for us (vs. 12-13)

I’m going to read verses 12 and 13 again in a minute, but I think it’s important to take a brief aside to talk about the trinity. In our passage today, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have each been clearly evident in different ways. Obviously we see Jesus here described as the Christ and more than once as the Son. And if he is the Son that means there is also a Father, God the Father is mentioned in verse 1 and it is his voice that came from heaven in verse 11. And simultaneously, we see the Spirit at work. John says Jesus will baptize others with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit then descends at Jesus’ baptism, and now we’ll see that the Spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness. So there we have all three members of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The way the Bible presents the Trinity is pretty clear. There is one God. God eternally exists in three persons. Each person is fully God yet distinct from one another. This is the way God is described in the scriptures. The church has spent much time and spilled a lot of ink attempting to work out how each of these things can be true at the same time and I’m sure you’re somewhere on that journey of understanding it yourself, but let me at least show you one truth that is present here.

At Jesus’ baptism, all three members of the Trinity are present simultaneously. There is a voice from heaven, there is a Spirit descending, and there is Jesus in the water. This reminds us that God is always three persons. He’s not sometimes one and then sometimes another. Maybe someone taught you at one point that God is kind of like H2O. He’s ice. He’s liquid. He’s vapor. But he’s always still water. That’s a compelling image, but unfortunately it’s also a heresy called modalism. It teaches that God manifests as one person or “mode” at a time, but then he shifts to a different one. However in the trinity, God exists always as Father, always as Son, and always as Spirit, unlike water which must be one at a time. And we see God doing that here at Jesus’ baptism.

Ok, now back to our text. Jesus goes to battle for us.

Read Vs. 12-13

Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness and it would be easy for us as we read this to start filling in the blanks that Mark left out. We remember “Oh Jesus was fasting in the wilderness. And then Satan arrived and there were 3 temptations. And Jesus quoted Scripture each time, and…” Yes. Yes. All of that takes place in the account of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew and in Luke. But I want to stick to Mark’s account which as is typical of Mark is the briefest of any. A few interesting things to note that are unique here. First, we’re told the Spirit “drove” Jesus out. This is strong language. The same word is used of Jesus driving out or casting out demons from people. We see here that the Spirit is now in control of Jesus’ life and it’s time for his mission to begin. He must go out into the wilderness. And who will he encounter in this wilderness? He will battle with Satan and he will encounter wild animals. The idea here is that his mission is taking him into dangerous territory. But at the same time that he is fighting the enemy, God is supporting him with his angels. He is not alone. Another detail unique to Mark is that we see during the entire 40 days in the wilderness, Satan is tempting him. In reading the other accounts, we often imagine it was just the three temptations at the end. But here we see 40 days of constant temptation. And why forty days? I think Mark is conjuring up the image of Israel wandering in the wilderness for forty years. This was a time when they were tested and they failed. Would Jesus pass the test? Jesus is the chosen one and his mission takes him into a dangerous battle, will he succeed? And this is perhaps the most remarkable part of Mark’s account. There is no resolution. Mark leaves you to wonder. Did he win? He leaves us with a cliff hanger because in the next verses he just moves on. And it seems that his intention is for the rest of the book to play out Jesus’ dangerous battle against Satan and his forces.

But we’ve read the first verse of Mark. We know that if this book is “gospel” or “good news” that it means Jesus has in fact won the battle. He goes to battle for us and is ultimately victorious in quite an unexpected way.

And realizing that Jesus goes to battle for us and has won the victory for us is crucial as we step out each morning into the dangerous battlefield of our mission. Because just as Jesus received the Holy Spirit and is guided into a dangerous mission, each Christian has the same experience. You’ve been baptized and sent on a dangerous mission. And the easy application might be to say, I’m going to be tempted by Satan and I should follow Jesus’ example and fight in the same way. But Mark never makes that suggestion to us. He doesn’t give us Jesus’ words or strategy as an example to follow. He simply states, Jesus went on a dangerous mission that man failed at. Ultimately, he succeeds and we hear the gospel of his victory. That’s it.

Listen to this description of how Jesus’ wins the battle for us in Hebrews 2:14-15

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

Each of us fears the power of death. We fear the dangerous wilderness. We fear Satan, the wild beasts, and temptation. When our unruly child acts out again, with fear we say, “Oh no. How is this battle going to end?” When the car breaks down again and our bank account is already empty, we think, “I’m walking into pretty dangerous territory right now. Where will this lead?” Or when you’ve already failed in sin repeatedly and Satan keeps the temptations coming afresh and you wonder, “Will I just keep losing forever?” It’s in this moment that we recognize Jesus has already won the victory and for those who have placed faith in him we can say that whatever happens to me in these next moments will have no impact on the war. My salvation has already been secured. My perfect righteousness and identity in Christ is already established. My eternal life and my forgiveness have already been won. Satan has already been defeated. What is there left that he can do to me? There’s nothing, because Jesus has already gone to battle on your behalf and he has won.

If it’s true that Jesus is greater than any ministry man can conjure up, if it’s true that Jesus is the one chosen by God, and if it’s true that Jesus has gone to battle for us, then he is most certainly the only one qualified to save you. Repent of your arrogance that claims, “I can do this”. Humbly admit that you can’t. You’re not the right person for the job. But praise God, he sent Jesus Christ who is.

Prayer