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Kalamazoo SDA Church

Jermaine Gayle

Behold, the Man

Father, once more we come before you as empty vessels, asking dear Lord that you fill us.

I ask this morning that you preach, that you share your word and lift us up.

There are times when prayers come in, the answer to prayer comes in an unexpected package.

Anybody ever experienced something like that?

The answer to your prayer comes in an unexpected package.

Before I share the story, I'm going to give you a caveat.

I know the last time I shared with you that I got pulled over by the cops, and I'm going to share another story with you about me getting pulled over by the cops.

But this time, I remember there were probably about a year I had gone through this period where I felt a burden to reach people of influence in my city, in East Lansing.

I remember praying constantly, saying, Lord, give me an opportunity to reach people of influence.

And it was Friday, and I was leaving my apartment, I was heading to a Bible study, I was studying with a businessman and we were getting together Friday mornings for that Bible study and on my way to the Bible study, I was driving faster than I should.

So I'm driving and I pulled up to a stop sign And as I pulled up to the stop sign, I acknowledged the thing and rolled by.

You acknowledge the stop sign, but you don't really stop.

And right as I did that, there was a police officer not so far away and he saw me and he pulled me over.

Now would you know friends that he pulled me over not so far from the church.

In fact, you could see the church in the distance.

And he asked, may I have your driver's license and registration please?

I gave it to him and then he had the audacity to ask me, where are you headed sir?

And we started talking some more, and he introduced himself, and, you know, he was so funny, he's like, yeah, don't worry, this is not going to take long.

And I remember feeling so nervous as we were having this conversation.

And he brought my stuff back and went into his car.

And he sat down for a bit, checked my records.

Then he came back and gave me my documents back.

And he said, OK, all right, sir, you're free to go.

Would you be interested in doing a ride along with the police department?

A ride along simply is this, you sit in the car with the police officer and you get to talk to them, you get to minister to them, and you get to minister to the community, and there are moments when you get to do other things as well, I'll share more as time goes on.

In fact, my first ride along with this officer, he grilled me about every single thing I believed as a Seventh-day Adventist.

Everything from the Sabbath, the great controversy.

A stop sign to sitting in an officer's car, talking to him about what my beliefs were.

Sometimes answered prayers come in unexpected packages.

Not long after that, the city asked me to serve as their chaplain.

And I did chaplaincy work with the police department for about 5 years.

And then I was asked to serve as chaplain for the fire department.

And the other day, not so long ago, they were so kind, so amazing, they found out that I was working on my house and then I needed a lot, there was a lot of things that I needed to finish and they found it about it, they organized a crew and they all came over to help me finish the house.

Sometimes answered prayers come in, come in what everybody?

I don't know what you're praying for, but I know there are times when I pray for stuff and I'm learning now to keep my eyes open so I can see what the answer is because there are times when the answer shows up and you don't recognize it because the package doesn't match.

I would imagine that if there were news broadcast channels and perhaps news articles that were published at the time, there would have been quite the commotion as people recognized that on the front cover was this man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth who was now crucified.

Can you imagine what the Jerusalem Times and or the Jerusalem Post or the Jerusalem News Network, my version of CNN back then, would have said?

On the front cover, a famed healer of Nazareth was tried and crucified.

Jesus of Nazareth, a popular prophet, the writer might go on, was said by some to be John the Baptist brought back to life or possibly Elijah who had come to reform the church and if photographers were in the crowd that day when Jesus was presented to the multitude by Pilate they would have snapped the perfect photo Jesus right behind Pilate dressed in his purple tunic.

The sinner spread would be Jesus condemned to death right there, Pilate's pavement, as thousands gathered to see the spectacle.

The Bible tells us in John chapter 19 and verse 14, if you'll turn there with me, around what time we're looking at the story of the crucifixion.

And by the way, if I cry, it's because usually I can't get through talking about Jesus dying for my sins without weeping.

The Bible tells us, and it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour, and he said unto the Jews, behold your King, what time are we talking about?

The Bible tells us it was about the time of the preparation of the Passover, and our Sabbath school lesson deals with the Passover this morning, amen?

There are times when the Holy Spirit matches everything and you're just mind blown by that.

This was what would have been classified in Jerusalem as a high Sabbath.

Turn with me now to the Bible, John 19, verse 31.

The Bible explicitly tells us that this was a high day.

Therefore, in John 19 and verse 31, because it was the preparation day that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was what everybody?

A high day, depending on your translation.

Because the Sabbath was a high Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Imagine the Jews requesting that the legs of Jesus be broken so that they could keep a high Sabbath.

So on this high Sabbath around the time of the Passover, not only did people come to the temple to worship, but many had made their long pilgrimage to Jerusalem to experience the Passover.

And it was common for families to travel to Jerusalem, whether rich or poor, for this special occasion.

Luke tells us that even Mary and Joseph would make the yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship around the time of the Passover.

If you haven't picked that up yet, you will know very soon that I love studying scripture.

There the Bible tells us, now his parents went to Jerusalem, what everybody?

Every year at the feast of the what everybody?

Yearly pilgrimages made to Jerusalem for the time of the Passover and it was indeed a high Sabbath.

This would be like going to your home church around Christmas time or Thanksgiving.

And I don't know about you, but the church seems to grow around Christmas time and around Thanksgiving time.

Behold, the Man

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