Easter 2024: The Greatest Mistake Ever Made

The Greatest Mistake Ever Made

Scripture: Luke 16:19-23; First Peter 3:18-20; 4:5-6; Matthew 28:1-2

Happy Easter Strangers Rest! How many of you have ever heard of or seen the movie the “Greatest Story Ever Told”? Well, if you haven’t, it’s the story about the life of Christ and this morning I will share how this story came to be because of the greatest mistake that was ever made. The title of my message this morning is “The Greatest Mistake Ever Made” and it is not your traditional Easter message.

I am going to start by reading a Scriptures from two versions of the Bible that might seem disconnected from the Easter story. But I promise to connect the dots throughout this message. Hopefully you all received a copy of the Scriptures I will reference this morning. I never want to quote something from the Bible and people question whether or not it’s really in there. For those of you watching via live stream, we will begin with Second Corinthians 4:3-4. I will be reading first from the New King James version. It says, “(3) But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, (4) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

Now I want to read it from the Amplified Bible. It says, “(3) But even if our gospel is [in some sense] hidden [behind a veil], it is hidden [only] to those who are perishing; (4) among them the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving to prevent them from seeing the illuminating light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (Second Corinthians 4:3-4, Amp)

All of us have heard many Easter sermons during our life time. Most of the sermons focused on Christ’s death and resurrection which is what Easter is all about. If you are a child of God, the only reason you are a child of God is because you heard and believed the story of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection, and then accepted Him as your Lord and Savior. You are sitting here today as a child of God because you know this story. But, do you realize that the reason we have been afforded the opportunity to become children of God is because of the greatest mistake that was ever made? What I want to accomplish in this message this morning is to share with you what the mistake was and then explain to you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, why it was the greatest mistake ever made.

So let me give you the cliff notes version of the back story that led up to this mistake. Ezekiel 28:11-19 describes the story of Satan’s fall from heaven (in the text he’s called the king of Tyre). When you read the story, you find that Satan was, and remains to this day, a physically beautiful, handsome specimen of an angel. I mean if you were to see him, he would make you look twice. All those images of a red tailed devil with horns and a pitchfork that we typically associate with him are not based on Scripture. The Bible does not record anywhere that Satan’s image was changed when God banished him from heaven. He was the head angel and because of his beauty and position he came to believe he could rule heaven as well as the Creator Himself. So, the first mistake that Satan made, which was a very bad one, was to think he could overthrow the One who created him. And what made matters worse was that he convinced a third of God’s angels to join him. Strangers Rest, these were angels who knew God. These were angels who had bowed before Him in worship and adoration. This should tell you a lot about the depth of Satan’s ability to deceive us. I believe that many in the Church just don’t truly understand that no one is better at deception than he is. Jesus was present for all of this and said in Luke 10:18, “…..I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Satan makes the decision to try and take over heaven and rebels against God. He was defeated and kicked out of heaven which created within him a vendetta against God. So what does he do? When God creates man, Satan sees how much God loves man so he decides to destroy that relationship. Satan knew that God had told man not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and Satan knew, on a personal level, what happens when someone deliberately disobeys God. So he hatched a plan to get God’s creation, Whom He loved dearly, to rebel against Him and it worked. When man fell in the Garden, he unknowingly transferred the authority that God had given to him to Satan. Satan could now interact with this world in a way that he couldn’t before man chose to sin. When God pronounced judgment against Satan, He made the following statement in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15) God told Satan that his time was limited and that the woman’s Seed, His Son, would restore order. Why does this verse say, “the woman’s seed”? We know that a woman does not produce seed. The seed comes from the man. God tells Satan “I will put the Seed, My Son, in the woman and He is going to wreck your world!” Now you need to hear this: Satan heard what God said, but based on his actions He did not fully believe what God said or understand what God meant.