A son in Jerusalem, a father in Antioch, a son and a mother in Rome, and through one man and his immediate family members, the message of the cross was spread from Jerusalem to Rome, in marvellous fulfilment of the Lord’s words in Matthew 24, “the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world”, and this one family did all this just by themselves. 27 A large crowd of people followed Him, including women who were mourning and lamenting Him. In Gen 9, there was an interesting prophecy given by Noah at the time of his death.And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. We shall find out perhaps as the events unfold why Simon was selected that day.The record says that having found him (v32) him they “compelled”, and that word is the same word in Matthew 5:41, that says, “If a man was compelled to go one mile, they should go twain”, and the reference is to the power of the Romans who were authorised to order any Jew to perform some activity in the service of Caesar, and the Roman centurion on this occasion would have had that authority vested in him to compel any local citizen to a service in the activity of the Caesar of Rome, in fact the Latin word comes from the Persian and the literal meaning of the Persian word is to be “pressed into the service of a king” – and so he was! Simon was clearly at the forefront of the activity going on and the ecclesia at Antioch, but notice what it says there in Rom 16.
Secretaire general at chez may back music. There were a number of good-hearted hospitable sisters who would look after the apostle in his time of need, and I think that when he says in Rom 16:13 “Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine,” says the apostle that he could remember many a happy time when that mother showed motherly care even for the apostle in his need, and fed them and housed them and gave them a bed to sleep in. In v26, the fact that God was the God of Shem indicates that Shem was already in a covenant relationship God and blessed by that association and in v27, the destiny of Japheth was to enlarge his seed and territory but yet a spiritual hope could only come by association with the tabernacle of Shem where a lone access to the deity could be found. Which gives us clues.
His experience of meeting the Lord would utterly change his life to walk in the opposite direction, following in the footsteps of Christ himself.And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. Can you imagine the shame of having to walk behind a condemned man, bearing the burden of the condemned man, while all the taunts of the jeering multitude rained down, not just upon Christ, but upon Simon himself, obliged to carry the cross and we’re told the Romans made the journey as long as possible winding through as many streets and places as they could so all might see and fear the power of the Roman authority.Something providential happened in Simon’s life that day!Now come to Luke 23. Mark of course writes for Romans and we will see the significance of that.Now come to Acts 11, notice that a very unusual comment in this chapter and one often wonders why it is there, except perhaps now we know. Simon was coming in and the Lord was going out, and what were being told in Mark 15 was that Simon who was walking into the city, suddenly found himself turned around at the instructions of the centurion and finds his life walking in exactly the opposite direction and for Simon, meeting the crucified Christ was to turn his life completely around. (Act 13:1)So firstly the prophets, Barnabas, Simeon and Lucius and then the Greek suggests the latter ones are teachers which were Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. The redemption for the man of Japheth lay in his readiness to accept that access to God lay in that man of Shem. (Luk 23:33-34)You see I think Simon would have heard that prayer of v33-34. What Simon had not realised, not yet, is that the king into whose service he had been pressed this day was not the king of Rome, but the king of Israel. See Photos.
Ensemble, construisons la fraternité.
Here he is now in the very ecclesia of Rome. Why of all men why did the centurion choose Simon? (Luk 23:25-26)So Luke tells us that the entire cross beam was taken completely off the back of Jesus and laid upon Simon who bore it after him, and that word where it says he might bear it after Jesus, means literally behind, he walked behind the Lord bearing the cross of Christ. If Niger was simply the country he was from, the scriptures generally will say, such and such is “of … said country” Niger in our case. Simon Decyrène. Alexander was in Jerusalem.So now stop and think about the significance of this, now we’ve got a son in the truth we believe who was in Jerusalem, because he died there, and he was therefore presumably a member of the Jerusalem ecclesia so when Mark writes his gospel and refers to Alexander they would all know that he was a member of the Jerusalem ecclesia who died there eventually. It may be in deciding that you’ll speak to someone about the gospel even though you feel naturally shy. Lyly Borsato. De Maré, Eric Samuel. John says it was not so, but it was the Lord himself who bore the cross.I think the reason why John omits reference to Simon of Cyrene is because his purpose is to draw attention to a different aspect of the Lord. It’s interesting because if you come to Acts 13, I think we have reason to believe that Simon’s hand was involved in that advance of the gospel, because in v1:Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.