2026.04.03 (GOOD FRIDAY) SERMON: Good Friday: The Lamb, The Door, and The Cross

Westside Family Church

Good Friday  

Good Friday: The Lamb, The Door, and The Cross

INTRODUCTION: The Doorframe 

I. THE PASSOVER: BLOOD ON THE DOOR

Exodus 12:3–7, 12–13 (ESV)
"Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household... Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old... Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it... For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

First: The lamb had to be without blemish. Perfect. Spotless. This wasn't just any lamb—it had to be the best.

Second: The blood had to be applied. It wasn't enough to kill the lamb inside the house. The blood had to be visible—on the doorposts and the lintel. It was a sign of ownership, of obedience, of faith.
Third: The blood was a shield. God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Death had already visited that house—in the substitute. The lamb died so the firstborn could live.

Leviticus 17:11 (ESV)
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

The blood wasn't decoration. It was a declaration: "Death has already come here. Judgment has already fallen—on the lamb."

Notes:

II. THE LAMB OF GOD: JESUS OUR PASSOVER 

John 1:29 (ESV)
"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Not a lamb. The Lamb. The one every Passover lamb had been pointing to.

1 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)
"For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

And at that exact moment, on a hill outside Jerusalem, Jesus—the true Passover Lamb—cried out:
John 19:30 (ESV)
'It is finished,' and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Hebrews 10:12, 14 (ESV)
when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God... For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Notes:

III. THE SILENCE AND THE SUBSTITUTION:

Isaiah 53:4–7 (ESV)
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—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 is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

R.C. Sproul said it this way: "The cross was the place where the holiness of God and the justice of God met the love of God and the mercy of God."

Jesus took the judgment we deserved. He stood in the place we should have stood. He became our substitute—our Passover Lamb.

Notes:

IV. DEATH PASSES OVER: THE MEANING OF THE BLOOD

Exodus 12:13 (ESV)
"The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

A.W. Tozer wrote: "The cross is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men. It is the symbol of death, but it is the source of life.”

Hebrews 9:14, 22 (ESV)
"how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God... Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Death passes over us—not because we're good enough, but because Jesus already died in our place. He willingly took the death we deserved.

Notes: