2026 Good Friday Service: “By His Wounds, We Are Healed”

Well, good morning, church morning.

So good to be here this morning. It's it's quite an adventure to

get to Karawachi this morning, privilege to preach God's word

for us this morning and a day as a significant as this one.

Growing up in church, I never really stopped to think about

the name Good Friday. In Indonesia we call it Jumat

Agung, and when I grew up, I simply accepted that name

without much thought, just as I accepted Napal and Bhaskar and

all the other names. It wasn't until I first went to

the United States and I heard it called Good Friday that I begin

to wonder at its meaning. It's how simple that word good

means. I was like, why good?

What was so good about it? Because in my unconverted mind,

the crucifixion of Jesus Christ felt to me like the saddest part

of Christianity. It's not something good.

You know, when you watch every portrayal of the crucifixion,

every scene from movies about the crucifixion, they felt dark

and awful and sorrowful. Here we have Jesus, who seem

untouchable, who work mighty miracles, heal the sick, feed

the crowds, raise the dead, was now suffering brutal torture and

humiliation at the hands of his enemies, the disciples,

devastated Peter, supposed to be his guy, denied him.

And I used to think, you know, in the end it all worked out.

Three days later, he rose again triumphantly.

But, but perhaps the crucifixion itself, maybe it was just this

terrible interruption, A tragic detour that was not supposed to

happen, which Jesus, because he was God, then overcame in the

end. So why is it called good?

Well, as believers, I hope we all know the answer, even the

children who are here as you're doing your your papers.

If I asked you, I hope you know the answer.

Good Friday is called good, not because the day itself was

pleasant, but because what Christ accomplished on that day

was profoundly and unimaginably good.

On the cross, Jesus suffered to save sinners.

Through His death, He bore our sins, satisfied the justice of

God, and opened the way for our sins to be forgiven and for us

to be reconciled to God. And among all the books and the

chapters of the Bible, there is none, none as clear and as

powerful as Isaiah 53 when it comes to the person and the work

of Jesus Christ. This chapter has often been

called the 5th Gospel because no other place, few places in all

of Scripture, explain more clearly why Jesus have to come

into the world and why he had to die.

It is one of the fullest presentation of the gospel in

the entire Bible, not just in the Old Testament.

But first, let's set the stage for us.

Yeah, the book of Isaiah is. It's a big book.

In fact, it's coincidentally or not sure if it's coincidental,

66 chapters long. It's about the holiness of God,

the sin of man, the certainty of judgement, the hope of

salvation. Isaiah was preaching to

rebellious and idolatrous people who still had the outward

appearance of religion, but whose hearts were very much far

from the Lord. And because God is the Holy One

of Israel, he said, judgement must come.

And yet, and yet judgement is not the final word in Isaiah.

Because running through the entire book is this threat, this

promise, hope that God says, I am going to save you, I will

redeem you, I will establish my Kingdom, I will send the

promised king, and I will bring salvation not just to you,

Israel, but to the nations. And as the book goes on, Isaiah

began to focus our attention on one particular figure, the

servant of the Lord. Just fascinating.

He's saying the servant of the Lord.

These passages became collectively known as what we

call the Servant Songs. There are four of them in the

entire book and give a quick summary.

In Isaiah 42, the Servant is introduced as God's chosen

servant. The one that is upheld by God,

filled with the Spirit, will faithfully bring justice to the

nation's. Isaiah 49 The Servant is called

from the womb and is given a mission not only to restore

Israel, but to be a light to the Gentiles so that the salvation

of God would reach the ends of the earth.

In Isaiah 50, the Servant is shown to be the obedient one,

faithful one, the one who does not draw back even when he is

struck and shame and suffers. And then when we come to this

passage, Isaiah 53, we come to the climax of these servants

Psalms. So with that, let's read our

passage together. Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

Follow along with me if you have your Bible.

Isaiah 53, chapter One. Who has believed what he has

heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been

revealed? For he grew up before him like a

young plant, like a root out of a dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no

beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.

And we esteem him not surely as borne our griefs, and carry our

sorrows. And yet we steam him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was Spears for our

transgressions. He was crushed for our

iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement

that brought us peace. We are healed all.

We, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid

on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was

afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to

the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers his

silent, He opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment He

was taken away. And As for his generation, who

considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people, and they have made

his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence, and there was no

deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush

him. He was.

He has put him to grieve when his soul makes an offering for

guilt. He shall see his offspring, He

shall flow on his days. The will of the Lord shall

prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul.

He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge.

Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be

accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities?

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he

shall divide the spoil with the strong.

Because He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with

the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and makes

intercession for the transgressors.

This is God's word. Now, trying to do this entire

passage justice in A1 sermon is probably impossible.

But let's trust the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and our

thoughts this morning. And we'll look at this passage

in three simple parts. 3 simple parts if you're taking notes #1

is the servant that we rejected #2 is a substitute who bore our

sin. Verse 4 to 9, point number one

is verse one to three, and #3 the Saviour got vindicated.

Verse 10 to 12, the Saviour got vindicated one, the servant we

rejected. So when we talk about the

servant songs in this one, particularly the last one, it

really began. It really ought to begin 3

verses prior. You got to remember that the

Bible was not written with chapters and verses, but the

introduction of this servant in this last song collectively,

they actually begin in verse 13 of the previous chapter, whereas

the God just announced again the servant, right?

But in 53, after calling the world to behold a servant,

Isaiah 53 opens with two questions.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And second one, he says to whom has the arm of the Lord been

revealed? Isaiah is telling us from

beginning here, this good news about a Servant will not be

believed by most who hear it. That's the hard thing to accept.

Why is it so hard? Well, Isaiah begins to answer

that in verse 2. He says, for he grew up before

him like a young plant, like a root out of a dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, no beauty

that we should desire Him. This servant comes up like a

young plant. How many of you here are experts

in in gardening or planting things?

A young plant is the opposite image of strength and power.

It's fragile, it's meek, it's ordinary.

Sometimes you mistake it for a weed.

Even more, he's like a root out of dry ground.

A paradox because dry ground shouldn't allow things to grow

out of. It's a place of barren and

hopelessness where nothing should grow.

So he does not arrive in the way people expect.

He's not outwardly impressive. There is no visible splendor, no

no obvious majesty, nothing about his appearance that make

kids these days would look at him and say hey you, him, That

was not how he was. In fact, I would argue that

every depiction of Jesus Christ in every modern movies have been

far too good looking. He's probably as ordinary as it

gets. And that is part of why man

rejected him. Because fallen human hearts, we

are drawn to what things that looks awesome, powerful,

beautiful. Remember when Israel first

rebelled and says we want a king?

We want a king? The man they chose, Saul.

The scripture spent quite a bit of time describing his physical

appearance. It was handsome, taller than any

other man, striking no one more handsome than than him.

That is how we normally as humans think.

How greatness would come, clothed and visible glory as the

world defines it. But the servant here comes in

lowliness, and in Good Friday at the cross, his lowliness goes

even deeper. Crown of thorns, thorn, flesh

beaten up, mocked blood, shame, death of a criminal.

If you judge just by sight and you walk upon the cross, you

would never say there it is the savior of the world.

Instead you would say that's a defeated man, cursed by God,

abandoned by men and and church. Brother, sister, that is still

our problem today. We judge superficially.

We still ask what looks strong, what looks attractive.

We look for a different kind of Christ than the one that is

promised here in Isaiah 53. And because Jesus come to us in

humility, weakness, crucified, many today still turn away.

But Isaiah goes even further than that.

He says not only is his servant unimpressive, but he's also

despised and rejected. And we esteem him.

Now. It's one thing to ignore

someone, it's another thing to despise that person.

It's not just misunderstood, but rejected.

And that is the natural posture of the human heart toward

Christ, apart from grace. And notice again who Isaiah

includes in that rejection. He says, woo, who's rejecting

we? He's talking to his readers, we

Israelites and us on our own. We do not naturally treasure

Christ, honor Christ, submit to Christ, we reject him.

And Good Friday reveals this with horrifying clarity because

what does mankind do when Son of God stands before them?

They strike him, they mock him, they nail him to the cross.

And that's again why first one says, who has belief?

Who has belief? Who has to whom has the arm of

the Lord been revealed? The arm of the Lord?

We could go so deep into this is speaks of God's saving power.

Isaiah is showing us that it's it is the act of God for

somebody to even believe. To whom has the arm of the Lord

been revealed? Belief must be revealed and

given by God himself. The fundamental problem of the

human heart, the fundamental problem, just get this.

The fundamental problem of the human heart is not that we don't

have information, It is that we don't have faith.

The message has been proclaimed clearly, yet our hearts do not

receive it. The truth's been announced, yet

we don't bow down. God reveals his saving power,

yet blind dead hearts don't see. So this is not an intellectual

problem, it's a spiritual moral problem.

We do not naturally welcome the suffering servant because we

don't naturally want to be saved in this way.

We want strength without repentance.

We want the glory without the cross.

We want help without surrender. And when you come to Good Friday

and look at the scene on Golgotha, it's the same thing

everywhere. The crowds, the chief priests

pilot, none of them believe. The soldiers, the disciples, the

scatter. So how about us Church?

It's one thing to understand what it's all about Good Friday

in here, but it's that understanding change what's in

here. Do we believe this message, or

do we reject A servant just the same way?

We live out our lives. Do we deny him like Peter?

Did you know we often say here at church at the end of our

sermons, if you truly believe this message, how would your

life be different? That question is ever more true

today when it comes to who Jesus is and what he did.

So first we see the servant that we rejected.

Second, let's see the substitute who bore our sin.

The substitute who bore our sin. If there were ever any doubt

that this passage was pointing to the cross, the next verses

removed it completely because Isaiah says in verse 5 he was

pierced for our transgressions. Here's the very heart of Good

Friday, because these verses tell us not only what happened

visibly as a cross, how Jesus was pierced his hands and his

feet, but he also is telling us what was happening beneath what

we can see. Because Jesus, He didn't just

suffer to suffer, but He was suffering as our substitute.

Listen to the language Isaiah used here.

Pay attention. He bore our griefs.

He carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our

transgressions. He was crushed for our

iniquities upon Him. Was it just chastisement that

brought us peace? By His wounds we are healed.

If you get nothing else this morning, get this.

This is the meaning of the cross, the heart of the Gospel.

He did not suffer just to suffer.

He bare the punishment that you and I deserve.

This is what we call in church circles, the penal

substitutionary atonement. And yet, after all that, notice

the contrast. We what do we do?

We esteem him stricken, smitten by God, afflicted.

We see the cross and we says that guy is punished by God.

We thought one thing while God was doing entirely a different

thing. Men look at Jesus and says

that's what you got for blaspheming God.

Isaiah says no, his suffering was not for his sins, it was

ours. He took up what belonged to us.

He bore the consequences of our rebellion.

He stood in place of ruin, sinners and and these words,

grief, sorrows. It's not don't reduce those

words to something that's trivial because Isaiah explains

what he means transgressions, iniquities, chastisement,

wounds, guilt. These are miseries brought about

by our sins against a holy God at the cross.

You know, some of the progressive Christian believes

that creeps up these days says at the cross what Jesus did he

just empathize? He empathize with sinners like

us. That's what people say.

No, he didn't. He did not brothers and sisters,

He did not empathize. He he substitutes for us and

this chastisement punishment brought us peace.

Shalom. It's not just what you get when

you go on vacation. That first day you get into your

hotel room, you lay down and you're like, no, that's not the

peace we're talking about. It's reconciliation with God,

the end of enmity, removal of guilt, restoration of

fellowship, the healing of what sin had stolen and broken by his

wounds. We are healed.

The next question then why do we even need substitution?

Because sin must be atoned for. A Sinner can have peace with a

holy God only if the punishment due to that Sinner is borne by

another. Verse 6 tells us two things.

Number one, we're all sinners. All we, like sheep, have gone

astray. Some of you kids probably have

seen the meme of the ship that keeps running into the same

ditch over and over and over. That's just how they do.

None of us are like that. We keep running over and over

and over into the same ditch. None of us are righteous.

All of us have turned away from the path of God.

And so secondly, because God is holy, sin must be judged.

The penalty of sin is death. And Isaiah says all of our

iniquity, all get this church, all of our iniquity was laid on

him. The Lord has laid on him the

iniquity of us all. Now that does not mean Christ

becomes sinful in his character, but it means our guilt was this

is another word imputed on him means what it counted on him

like when you go to Saddam Malam right and then you eat those

really delicious Nashi Uduk and as you live as you as you leave

the really generous church member in front of you says put

it on my bill. Count it on my bill, imputed,

placed upon him as our representative substitute.

He stood where we should have stood, bore what we should have,

what we should have borne, received what we deserved.

That's why when Jesus cried, my God, my God, why have you

forsaken me? That's what was happening when

he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

That's what's happening. The Lord has laid on him to

iniquity of us all, and we see in the next verse how he did it.

He submitted willingly, He was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet

he opened up his mouth like a lamb that has led to the

slaughter. He went silently.

Think about that. The voice that calmed the storm,

raised Lazarus from the death, spoke with absolute authority

his entire life now remained silent before Pilate and Herod,

much to their frustration. One more detail, verse 9 talk

about his burial, because now it says even though he was treated

as guilty, he was with a rich man in his death, anticipating

the actions of one of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man who

provided a grave for the Savior. And by this verse, that's the

end of Good Friday sermon could end here.

Servant who came in humility, who despised and rejected, who

was unjustly condemned and killed as a substitute.

Here is the cross in all this horror.

Here is the gospel in all of its glory.

But church. There are three more verses.

There's three more verses. And that's brings us to our

final point, the Savior vindicated by God.

Savior Vindicated by God 1st 10 Read with me.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grieve when his soul makes an offering for

guilt. We He shall see his offspring.

He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall

prosper in his hand. Now stop and consider that for a

moment. How can someone who died as a

guilt offering all of a sudden then say that we can see his

offspring and prolong his days? How can the crushed servant

prosper? How can the slain one see the

fruit of his work? There's only one answer.

Because Sunday is coming. Because he will live again.

Isaiah 53, It does not end on Good Friday.

It reaches beyond the cross, the tomb, and it grows stretch

forward toward Easter Sunday. The suffering servant is also

the risen servant. He is crushed.

Yes, he's made an offering for guilt.

Another thing that we could spend so much time talking

about. The whole idea of guilt

offering, Yes, he he truly dies, but death could not hold him.

He he lives, he sees, he prospers, he is satisfied, he

says 1st 11 out of the anguish of his soul.

Again, hearkening back to that, imagine having to bear the sin

of the entire world, even for the Son of God.

It says you're the anguish of his soul.

Eat out of the anguish of his soul.

He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge.

Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be

accounted righteous, and ye shall bear their iniquities

satisfied. Why?

What satisfy that redemption has been accomplished?

That His suffering was not in vain, That the ransom has been

paid? That sinners are not justified

and free? And that's the glory of the

gospel church. Because He bore our iniquities,

we are counted righteous. Our sin was laid on Him.

His righteousness is given to us.

The chapter ends with the triumph of the servant that

says, Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many.

He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured

out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressor,

Yet he bore the sin of many and make intercession.

Yeah, looking ahead to the role of the Holy Spirit, how He makes

intercession for us, for the transgressors.

God exalts his servant, not because he conquered worldly

power, but because he had poured out his soul to death and bore

the sins of many. He's exalted through sacrifice.

He his crown because he suffered.

And the beauty of it is this. We see this because to those,

those whom he has saved, the many, what does it say?

Now we belong to him. God is a sign.

Those whom He saved to him we are his.

The crucified servant is now the risen and exalted Lord, and we

bow before him and call him my Saviour and my God.

If you remember, one of the most familiar passage we we read

here, Philippians 2 says Therefore God has highly exalted

him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven

and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the

glory of God the Father. So Isaiah 53 does not leave us

at the cross alone. It leads us through the cross

beyond the grave, and into the triumph of the risen Christ, the

suffering Servant. Yes, he suffered, He died, but

he rose and He reigns. As we close here, I have just

two questions for all of us, as by way of applications. 1st When

was the last time you truly felt that what Christ did he did for

you? Not that you know what he did,

not that not just know it in here, but like feels it in your

heart, because it was your sins that put him there, your

transgression, your iniquities. He was wounded so that you might

be healed. One of the great dangers of

being a lifelong Christian, which I was, is that the things

of God can become so familiar that it stops becoming precious.

RC Sprole, one of my favorite preachers of all time, give this

wonderful, wonderful story I won't repeat because it's so

long, about how when he was a professor, he had this one class

in which he said he'd give three term papers.

And on the 1st paper it's 250 students or something like that,

and 1st, and he says this paper's due On this date.

It's like at the end of the month of the next three months

or whatever, and on the 1st, 125 students did not have their

paper. And they all came shaking and

crying and so holy hell. And he says, OK, you got three

more days to work on your paper. And everybody rejoice.

And there's like a running joke about how they call them the

whatever. And then and the second month

comes and now 50 people did not have their papers ready on time.

And he says well you guys didn't have your papers.

And then and then they all beg and ask and to give him another

three day extension and that was it.

And then by the 3rd paper more than half the class did not have

their papers ready and they came in expecting him to give him the

extension like he always did and was mad when he didn't.

And he said something I will never forget when I watch that

video. I think we so easily mistake

justice with grace and mercy. We expect to be forgiven the

longer we walk this road as a Christian.

We expect that God would just forgive us when that is the

whole opposite of what graces unmerited favor.

Perhaps you have become so consumed with the pressures and

distraction of this world, money issues, your relationship

struggles, the kids and the things they need to do in their

and your ambitions, your goals, your hobbies, your possessions

that grown so large in your eyes that this eternal reality is so

distant in your heart. Perhaps it's so easy to go to

church week after week and sit under the preaching of God's

Word and it just is mechanical. It's a routine.

The habits are there, but the heart is far.

And when you hear again this morning that Isaiah foretold

these things 700 years amazing before the crucifixion, that

Christ fulfill each of those with astonishing precision, that

the whole sacrificial system, the the guilt offering, the

entire idea of sin bearing substitute, all of that finds

its fulfillment in Christ. Does that do something in your

heart or it merely fills your head with more information?

Do you simply shrug so you can sit here, read Isaiah 53, hear

again of Christ crucified, and walk out completely unchanged?

Your mind goes back to the temporary things that whatever

it is that bothers you or drags you or consumes you or brings

out most fun in you, while the most important reality of your

life is forgotten. That you and I, all of us, need

to be reconciled with God, to know Him and to enjoy Him

forever. And church, if that is you this

morning, run to the cross, run to the Savior, run to the

suffering servant who was promised long, who was promised

long ago and is given for your transgression, Turn back to him,

repent, renew your devotion to him.

Pray and ask God. Renew the right spirit within

me. It's never too late.

That's question number one. Question #2 Do you preach the

truth of Good Friday to yourself?

Do you preach the truth of Good Friday to yourself?

Do you remind yourself day after day that your salvation is by

grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone?

Because if we do not keep preaching the cross to

ourselves, very quickly, oh church, very quickly, you will

drift back into thinking that your salvation rest on other

things, on faith plus works. You begin to act as if Christ is

not enough, as though you must somehow add to your own goodness

and effort and worthiness to what he has done.

You ever met somebody who heard the gospel or the life pretty

much and still hesitates to become a Christian because they

tell you, I'm just not good enough yet.

I'm just not good enough yet. Isn't that exactly the point?

We will never be good enough. We do not come to Christ because

we are worthy. We come to Christ because He

already He saves the unworthy. That's why we must keep

reminding ourselves every day, returning to the cross, I guess

the same as the first point, that our only hope before God is

not our performance, but the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Alistair Begg gives a sermon illustration that many of us

have probably heard before. It's a bit long, so I will

paraphrase, shorten it down, but I encourage you to look it up

after this if you have not heard the full thing, and I will end

with this. He says this If you were to die

tonight and you were getting entry into heaven, what would

you say if you if you answer that in the first person, we've

immediately gone wrong. If you say because I because

because I believe, because I have faith, because I'm this,

because I'm continuing. He said loved ones.

The only proper answer is in the third person because he, because

he then he says, think of the thief on the cross.

What a remarkable turn around for that guy.

He was never baptized, never attended a Bible study, didn't

know a thing about church membership, and yet he made it.

And when he entered heaven and he just, I'm assuming the Angel

stops him and asked him, what are you doing here?

He says, I don't know. And it's like, what do you mean

you don't know? What are you doing here?

And he says, I, I don't know. And the angel's confused.

And he calls the other supervisor Angel and says, and

then the supervisor Angel asks him the questions like, excuse

me, Sir, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by

faith? And he's like, I've never heard

about that. And finally after so many of

these questions, finally get frustrated and asked me, Sir,

just tell me on what basis are you here?

He says, well that's easy. The man in the middle cross said

I can come Church. That's the only answer.

That is the only answer because the sinless Saviour died.

My sinful soul is counted free for the God the just.

For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

And that is why we call Good Friday good.

Amen. As we remain seated, let's take

a moment to personally reflect upon the truth of God that was

preached to us. Consider what you learn about

yourself as a Sinner in need of forgiveness and at what cost

that forgiveness has come to you.

As we consider that, let's also consider for ourselves.

Consider who God is and what He has done as we heard from Isaiah

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

chapter 53. And as you consider those

truths, if you truly believed in the Word of God and the truths

of God, how would your life be different today?

Would you finally believe and put your faith in Jesus Christ

as Lord and Savior? Would you repent of those sins

that you have justified? Would you cherish more deeply

the cross of Christ which you presumed and overlooked all this

time? Consider these truths as you

personally reflect before we go to the table of the Lord's

Supper.