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.
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
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.