Isaiah 53:5
The Rescue That Cost Everything
Isaiah 53:5 says the servant “was pierced for our transgressions” and “by his wounds we are healed.” Our rescue cost Jesus everything and costs us nothing. He paid the price because only he could, he took our place, and our right response is to receive his healing and answer with a fully surrendered life.
Message notes
On Good Friday, Pastor Pat focuses on one verse, Isaiah 53:5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah wrote it about 700 years before Jesus, almost like an eyewitness.
The question is how much the rescue cost. Pat describes watching helicopter rescues of hikers off Koko Head. He learned the helicopter alone runs about $2,700 an hour, and a rescue can cost $5,000 to $10,000, while the hiker pays next to nothing. Some people think hikers should pay, but rescuers worry people would not call for help. That is how the accuser talks to us: you deserve what you get. Pat says “the rescue at the cross cost us nothing because Jesus paid for everything.”
First, Jesus paid the price. A king was supposed to do the piercing and crushing, but Isaiah describes the one bringing the answer being crushed by its price. Even the disciples didn’t fully understand it until years later.
Second, he took our place. The punishment that brought us peace, shalom, was on him. Pat calls this the answer for the most anxious generation in history, not grinding harder or getting comfortable. Only Jesus was qualified, the way not just anyone can fly a rescue helicopter. Pat then tells how, in 1987, his older brother John broke the antenna on the family TV and talked six-year-old Pat into taking the blame. At the first swat, Pat yelled, “It was John!” He could not pay the price for someone else. Only Jesus could.
Isaiah doesn’t say we might be healed. He says we are healed. Pat gives three responses. Remember the cost, because distance from our rescue can make us think we didn’t need to be “that saved.” Receive the healing for anxiety, shame and broken thinking, because the answer is not to try harder but to “trust more.” Respond with commitment: every part of your life, including career and future, surrendered to Jesus.
He leads a prayer of surrender and then the church takes communion together.
From the message
The rescue at the cross cost us nothing because Jesus paid for everything.
The answer to an anxious generation that’s just trying harder is not try harder. It’s trust more.
You are not qualified for that helicopter. So get out of the cockpit.
I don’t want to spend my life paying for something that Jesus already paid for.
Life Group discussion guide
The Rescue That Cost Everything, Isaiah 53:5. April 3, 2026.
Start here
As a kid, did you ever take the blame for something a brother, sister or friend did? How did it turn out?
Read Isaiah 53:5
Open your Bibles and read it out loud together before you start.
What does it say?
In Isaiah 53:5, what happened to the servant, and what happened to us as a result?
Whose transgressions and iniquities does the verse name, and who carries them?
Isaiah wrote “by his wounds we are healed,” not “might be healed.” What does that wording tell us?
What does it mean?
Pastor Pat said a king was supposed to do the piercing and crushing, not receive it. Why would Isaiah’s picture of a crushed servant have confused readers?
The peace in this verse is shalom, wholeness in every part of life. How is that different from simply feeling less bad about our mistakes?
Romans 5:20 says where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Why do we need to remember how bad our condition was in order to see how good God’s grace is?
What do we do with it?
Where are you still trying to pay for something Jesus already paid for, through performance, guilt or trying harder?
What anxiety, shame or regret did you bring with you this week, at work, at home or about money, that you need to bring to Jesus?
Surrender means every part of your life is no longer yours. Which area, like your career, your future or your finances, are you still holding back?
Pray
Thank Jesus for paying the price and taking your place. Ask him for the healing he won on the cross for your mind, heart and story, and offer him the area of your life you have been holding back.
New Hope Hawaii Kai. Watch the message and read the notes at newhopehk.org/sermons/good-friday-2026-the-price-of-rescue/