Not The Typical Life

“He is Risen!”

Mark 16:1-8

Robert Warren

April 20th, 2003

Read Mark 16:1-8

I. Being a Christian can be pretty typical.

A. If you are a regular church-goer, most Sundays are pretty typical.

1. You get up on Sunday, get dressed in some nice clothes.

2. You head down to your favorite house of worship where you greet those that you choose to worship with.

B. The worship service that you’ve grown accustomed to is pretty typical.

1. You sing some songs, pray some prayers, read some scripture, hear a sermon, and do it all again the next week.

C. We’ve got our faith down to a typical routine:

1. Sunday morning worship

2. Mid-week bible study

3. Daily devotions

4. Daily prayer time

D. And if you’ve been a Christian for a while, your faith is pretty typical.

1. You can pretty much recite the Apostle’s Creed, if not word for word, then at least more or less you can get the gist of it.

a. God is the Creator

b. He sent His Son Jesus

c. Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead, and lives in heaven today.

d. The Holy Spirit lives within us.

e. Jesus is coming back again to judge the living and the dead, granting some eternal life and others eternal punishment.

E. And if you believe these things, then your Christian life is probably pretty typical

1. You know that you owe God some time throughout the week for worship, especially on Sunday morning.

2. You know that you are supposed to love others, and you do you best to be kind and loving.

3. You know that there are things that you are supposed to do that you don’t neccesarily want to, and some things that you might want to do that you don’t.

4. You know that you should read your bible, give to God’s work, pray daily, do good deeds, and worship God.

F. Pretty much, that fact that you are a Christian means that you are a lot like other typical Christian.

II. But today, on Resurrection Sunday, we are reminded of something on this day that is anything but typical.

A. Easter Sunday is not the typical Sunday.

1. This Sunday is a special holy day, a high day of worship, the highest and most sacred of all the days of the church year.

2. We can see this even in the way that this Sunday invades our typical routine.

a. People who might not go to any other worship feel obligated to come to church on Easter.

b. Traditionally people would get dressed up to appear at their best on this special day.

c. A lot of families get up for a sunrise service, go to church together, and then meet afterwards for a big dinner today.

d. Most churches do something special on this day: an Easter cantata, special Passion plays, fellowship suppers, Easter lilies in the sanctuary, special arrangements on the altar.

e. All of this is point out the fact that Easter is not a typical Sunday, it is the day that we remember something that ought to shake us out of our familiar, typical, run-of-the-mill routine.

III. You see, we need to be reminded on this day of all days that our faith is not routine.

A. The things that we believe in are not typical.

B. The God that we serve is not a God who can be put into a nice tidy box.

C. The Savior that God sent us is not just another religious figure.

D. The Holy Spirit that lives within us is not just a good feeling that we have in our gut.

E. The life that we are called to live is not a normal life.

F. The power that we have as Christians is not your typical force.

G. The hope that we have for the future is not the same as that of the rest of the world.

H. Simply put, Easter tells us that there is nothing normal or typical or routine about serving a risen Savior!

IV. The message that you hear on Resurrection Sunday is not a typical message; there is nothing normal about it.

A. Stop for a minute and think about what we are proclaiming here, and ask yourself if there is anything typical or routine about it:

1. We are not here on accident, we are here because a loving, caring, powerful God breathed life into a hunk of dirt and gave it a thinking, feeling, conscious spirit.

2. We are not on this earth alone or by scientific chance: we are here because the most powerful being in the universe loves us and wants to have a relationship with us: think harder about that: God wants to have a relationship with us.