4/18/25 - Good Friday Tenebrae Service

This sermon was delivered by Pastor Akers at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection on April 18, 2025.

Christ is our Passover Lamb. Just prior to the Exodus from Egypt, the Lord instructed the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless Passover Lamb: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year” (Exodus 12:5). So it is that our spotless, sinless Lamb was led to be sacrificed for us: “Jesus, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Pace of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him” (John 19:17-18). Christ gave Himself into death that we may be granted life. Because He has died to atone for our sins, we are granted to eat of His Body (Exodus 12:8) and drink of the life-giving Blood which flowed from His side (John 19:34). Therefore, we who receive these benefits of the final Passover Lamb are given the hope of eternal life: “On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight” (Hosea 6:2).