If you open your Bibles to Mark
chapter 15, we're looking mostly today at one man and one verse
in verse 21. But let's put this into some
context. So in verse 13 we have this crowd
that cries out, crucify him. Then Pilate said to them, Why,
what evil has he done? But they cried out all the more,
Crucify him! So Pilate, wanting to gratify
the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and he delivered Jesus
after he had scourged him to be crucified. Then the soldiers
led him away into the hall called the Praetorium. And they called
together the whole garrison. And they clothed him with purple.
And they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and began
to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews. Then they struck him
on the head with the reed, and spat on him. And bowing the knee,
they worshipped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took the purple off him. put his own clothes on him and
led him out to crucify him. Then they compelled a certain
man, Simon the Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus,
as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear his cross. And they brought him to the place
Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. Then they gave
him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it. And when they crucified him,
they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what
every man should take. Now it was the third hour, and
they crucified him. And the inscription of his accusation
was written above, The King of the Jews With him they also crucified
two robbers, one on his right and the other on his left. So
the scripture was fulfilled, which says, And he was numbered
with the transgressors. And those who passed by blasphemed
him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha! You who destroy
the temple and build it in three days, save yourself and come
down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests also,
mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, He saved others. Himself he cannot save. What a wonderful description
of our Saviour from the lips of His enemies. Yet again, let's
pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You that salvation is all
of Your work, that our redemption from the fall of our father Adam,
from the sins that we commit, like water running out of a tap,
with so much ease, Heavenly Father, are washed away by the blood
of the Lord Jesus. Heavenly Father, we pray that
You again this morning would cause us to see Him as our Sovereign
and our Saviour, as our Husband and as our Friend, and one who
walked this earth and suffered the things that we suffer. Heavenly
Father, we praise you for the wonders of redeeming love that
you have revealed to us in the gospel of your dear Son, our
Lord Jesus. Bless us with your truth and
your Spirit's work in our lives this morning. We pray in Jesus'
name. Amen. Last week we saw that the plasticine
Jesus of the religious world is the Jesus that they can robe
and disrobe. at their pleasure. And today
we see the Lord Jesus begin this long walk outside of Jerusalem,
outside of the camp, a long way outside of the camp. to a place
of disgrace, to a place of shame, to the place where the Jews left people to rot and then gathered
later their bones together. We have so many sanitised pictures
of the cross and the surrounds of it. It is a horrible place,
a place of shame. But also we have followed this
trail of the Lord's blood, a trail that started in Gethsemane and
he was bound and taken to Annas and taken again bound to Caiaphas,
taken to Pilate, taken to Herod, taken back to Pilate and now
he was left in the hands of the soldiers. And it says they led
him out to crucify him. This man who is God was led by
wicked men, led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was led outside
the camp. He was led outside the camp to
bear the curse that we deserve. And he was led outside the camp
to bear the curse away. And on his journey, we have this
scene that's before us, this remarkable scene of the Lord
Jesus being caused to carry the cross member of that cross through
the streets of Jerusalem. And if the accounts in the gospels
are right, the Lord Jesus was scourged twice, it seems. Once by pilot, to say, I have
flogged this man within an inch of his life for his indiscretions
in upsetting you. Will you now let him go? And the second time, the second
time at the hands of these soldiers, as it was the normal practice
to scourge someone who was about to be crucified, so that they
would go to the cross in shame and in ignominy and in as much
pain as man could possibly devise to bring upon them. All of which we know is for the salvation of God's
people. But on this way, in these crowded
streets of Jerusalem that morning, this remarkable meeting occurs,
which we have before us in verse 21. Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian,
the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country
and passing by to bear his cross. This bearing of the cross by
Simon was not in any sense an act of kindness toward the Lord
Jesus. Those who know the geography
of Jerusalem say that that night he had walked something like
12 kilometers. He'd been abused and beaten by
the high priests, by Herod, by Pilate, by the soldiers. But this angry and murderous
mob now finally had their prey where they wanted him. They were
desperate to get him to the cross. They wanted him to die that shameful,
bloody death that the Romans had just introduced, where the
victims, instead of being tied to the cross, were nailed to
the cross. but you can almost hear them
rejoicing as they have him handed over to be crucified. Because Deuteronomy 21.23 says
that he who is hanged on a tree is accursed of God. As if they could say, all of
you crowds here, we can now prove to you that this man is not the
Messiah, because we'll have him cursed of God. And on this way, we have a remarkable
picture of what the Lord Jesus was doing that day. There in
the midst of this crowd was a certain man, a particular man. God's activities are always for
certain ones, for particular ones. And in the providence of
God, there was this man who just happened to be passing by at
the time the Lord Jesus just happened to show that the weight
of bearing that cross may not have allowed them to get him
to Calvary. It seems that he was a man who
was passing by as if he had no involvement and maybe no interest
in these momentous events. So he was just passing by. And his name for us, Simon a
Cyrenian. Cyrene is a province that's where
Tripoli is now, west of Egypt. Simon's name means hearkening
and obedient. And Simon is mentioned here in
Mark. as the father of Alexander and
Rufus. These men were prominent men
in the early church. And this was a certain man, Simon. And he was coming out of the
country, or coming out of the field. the field which the Lord
Jesus, in his parable of the sower, talks about being the
world. And Simon was a man who God the
Holy Spirit said was passing by these remarkable events. It's an amazing description of
humanity. Isn't it? We live down at Terrera
where the funeral cars go by regularly. They pass by us all
the time. It's a reminder, isn't it? Our
own history is a reminder that we are people who are passing
through this world And in no time at all, we'll be remembered
as much as we remember our ancestors, just passing through, passing
by. As much as we try to make meaning
out of the things that we do when we are here, We are, as
God says, just a vapour. We are just like the flower of
the grass. It's here today, gone tomorrow,
and in a sense just disappears. And it's part of our pain, isn't
it, that we pass by and others pass by us. I'll never forget
a cousin of mine had a son who had two small children, he was
just a very up-and-coming young guy, attended church and was
zealous, and in his late 20s he contracted cancer. And one
of the things that my cousin said that was most painful is
that as they went from his hospital bed, as he was fading into death,
they would go out onto the street And life just went on as normal. People just passed by as if the
pain that they were suffering and suffering so intently was
nothing to them as life just carried on. And so it is for
lots of us, isn't it really, that the world seems to just
pass us by, doesn't take note of the pain and the agony that
we're in. Such is life outside of the garden. Such is life for Adam's children. And we are a people who pass
by God. We pass by God's witness to Himself,
His remarkable witness to Himself in creation, His remarkable witness
to Himself in the providences of life. Is there anyone you
ever meet that has not had some remarkable circumstances happen
to them? Maybe little things, but often
big things and momentous things in their lives. And they see
that there's a hand behind these events. And for a little while they might
be convicted. But they pass by, eventually
as if it means nothing. The people of this world pass
by God's children. and treat them as if they are
nothing. The people of this world, and all of us too, pass by the
warnings of our consciences and we live in a society that is
in the business of callousing the consciences of people. The
things that a little while ago people would have been deeply
ashamed of are now publicly paraded. We pass by the warnings of the
reality of history and believe that we have proudly built something
for ourselves. People pass by, God's watchmen,
who warn them. They pass by His Word, which
so many of them know bits about, and it's treated as something
to be passed by and left. They pass by His Church, as if
it's a minor thing in their lives, something about which they can
be indifferent if they wish to. And sadly, people pass by the
gospel. It's remarkable isn't it how
many passed by the Lord Jesus in those three years of the most
remarkable witness this world has ever seen to the glory of
God. They saw things that they acknowledged
God alone could do and they passed by. As we see in Mark 15 29 in the passage we read, that
so calloused are the hearts of these men, that even when the
Lord Jesus is in the place where they want Him, they want Him
in a place of cursedness, they want Him in a place of death
and shame and humiliation, and there they pass by Him and they
blaspheme Him. after all that they have seen.
Such is the state of man in this world. When the Lord first saved
me a number of years ago, there was one question that sort of
rang so strongly in my conscience and it over and over again shouted
at me. as I realised what God had saved
me from. And the question was, what about
my son? God the Father shouts at this
world and says, what about my son? What about my son? Let's turn to Lamentations chapter
12. For there is in this passing
by that Mark refers to, a reference, I believe, to a question. It is the question of the suffering
of the Lord Jesus. It's in Lamentations, verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all you
who pass by? Lamentations is written by Jeremiah
after the fulfilment of God's warnings
and the promises of God being fulfilled against Jerusalem.
He looks back on that city and its history, its recent history,
the people that he loved, the people that he spoke the Word
of God to over and over again. the people he warned, the people
he pleaded with. See, there is a limit to man's
passing by. It seems as if man can pass by
and it means nothing to them. There will be a time when God
will put a limit to the passing by. Just look at some of these verses
here. He calls out to God in verse
9, O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy is exalted. You see, Jerusalem had sinned
gravely. Jerusalem, in verse 8, had become
vile. She didn't consider her destiny,
verse 9. Therefore, her collapse was awesome. All her people sigh, verse 11. They seek bread. They have given
their valuables for food to restore life. See, O Lord, and consider,
for I am scorned. And the word scorned there means
vile. As we saw last week in Deuteronomy
25, there was a limit set to how much you could beat someone
under the law, unless the brother that you had beaten had become
vile to you, humiliated and vile. If you cannot read these verses,
without seeing in Jeremiah's affliction something of the afflictions
of the real prophet, the final prophet of God, the prophet who
Jeremiah was a type of. Is it nothing? Is it nothing
to you or you who pass by? Behold and see, is there any
sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me? Jeremiah, like the Lord Jesus,
acknowledged this had come in justice from the hand of God,
which the Lord has inflicted In verse 14, he says, the yoke
of my transgressions was bound. They were woven together by his
hand and thrust upon my neck. that the Lord Jesus was made
sin for us. He bore our own sins in His own
body, bore our sins in His own body on the tree. It is absolutely
essential for our salvation that the Lord Jesus became and took
our sins as His own and upon Himself. Just let me read some
of the scriptures where the Lord Jesus talks about them being
His, as He does in verse 14 of Lamentations, chapter 1. In Psalm
40, verse 12, He calls them My iniquities. Psalm 69, verse 5,
O God, You know My foolishness, and My sins are not hidden from
You. Verse 9, the reproaches of them
that reproached you have fallen on me. Verse 19, you have known
my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. He talks about his anguish. Reproach
has broken my heart. See, all you who pass by, Is
it nothing? This suffering servant calls
on his God, in verse 11, to consider. Consider who this is. Consider
it is your son, O my Father. It is your servant. Consider why he has come. He's come to do the will of God. He's come to magnify, to honour,
to fulfil the law. And he's done it for those who
are vile by their own sins. But he was made vile for them. God calls them, our Saviour calls
them, your people. My people, your people, given
to the Lord Jesus as His bride, given to the Lord Jesus as the
glory of His inheritance. The whole question about the
sufferings of the Lord Jesus is, brothers and sisters, how
much does it reveal His love for us? that he did this as a
willing substitute. He did it as a volunteer. He did it for the joy set before
him. He did it for his love, for his
bride. He has sorrows that are indescribable. As we saw a couple of weeks ago,
the sufferings of the Lord's people are considered His, and
His sufferings and sorrows were on our behalf. But there was
no sorrow like His sorrow. Holiness, perfect holiness made
sin. innocence made guilty, the Lamb
of God, the spotless Lamb of God made vile, the obedient son,
forsaken at the time of his greatest need, at the time of the greatest
display of his faithfulness. I said the Lord Jesus, as we've
been following Him, was stripped of all the comforts of men, of
angels, and of God. And He was left as a man with
nothing in this world but shame and spitting and torture. But
He was left naked. without any of those things except
faith. He calls out to his God. He does all this as our mediator,
reconciling us to God. He loved us and gave himself
for us. It's a tough question, isn't
it? This world can turn that question
into a statement. And maybe the scriptures can
be read that way. The question is, is it nothing
to you? The answer of the world is, it
is nothing to me. It is nothing. But for those
who are gods, it is not nothing. It is absolutely everything.
It is everything that heaven sings about right now. It is everything that hell would
want to have changed. It won't be nothing for very
long for anyone. And all of us will pass by All
of us will pass by like Simon, we'll come in this world and
pass by unless, unless God forces you, compels you to be saved. We're told that God's like a
gentleman, that he won't interpose himself on man's extraordinarily
wonderful free will. If God leaves you to your free
will, you will pass by, and in passing by, you'll say, it's
nothing to me. God has to force himself upon
sinners to save them. He has to force us to believe,
force us to follow. No one will ever be saved unless
God, with omnipotent power, overcomes a man who is passing by and raises
him to new life, gives him new sight. The grace of God that
Simon's been talking about is a powerful grace and it forces
redeemed sinners to be saved by grace. Your people shall be
willing in the day of your power. Let's just see some of these
things in our friend Simon. Simon's passing by was interrupted. Here's a picture of redemption
by the Lord Jesus. A man chosen before time, chosen
in time, and compelled all by seeming random events. In that
great crowd, the Romans elected someone. Thousands of people
might have been there. A milling mess of humanity. Some women weeping. and distressed about what they
saw, a vast multitude rejoicing that they'd finally got their
way. And out of this crowd, there
is a man who comes out of the country and is passing by as
if all of these events were not part of his world. And he's chosen. He's elected. If he'd walked
by 10 minutes earlier, he would have missed the scene. If he'd
walked by 10 minutes later, he would have missed the scene.
The providence of God in your life. are extraordinary. I love what Spurgeon said. The
hinges of history are microscopic. If you look back on the things
that God has done to save you, we need to be awed by the little
things as well as the big things. The little words that mean so
much. The little circumstances that
have changed our lives. The path of our lives. This man, without knowing it,
was coming out of the world. He didn't know what he was doing
in that particular part of town that day, probably going to where
he was lodging. But Simon was a certain man and
he was arrested from passing by. And Simon was a certain man
who was compelled by force. He was compelled by a force he
was unable to withstand. He was co-opted into service,
a service that he wouldn't have chosen in a million years. Extraordinarily, he was co-opted
and forced into a royal service. He was now a servant of Rome,
but a servant of our Saviour as well. And he was a certain
man compelled to carry a cross. Luke said it was laid on him. He was a man who was compelled
by a force bigger than himself to follow Jesus. So they marched Jesus up the
road, and behind him, carrying that bloody cross beam, was Simon
and the two other thieves. I don't want to dwell on it much,
but it's a picture of substitution, isn't it? in all of God's dealings
with us. Simon, by nature, was a man who,
under the justice of God, deserved what the Lord Jesus was suffering
in his stead. And he was a man who was compelled by this remarkable force to follow
Jesus outside the camp, outside of this religious camp, outside of these people who claimed
as they did these things that day, to be honouring God, serving
His people and caring for the souls of people in their care. And now this man, like the Lord
Jesus, has got his face set on Calvary's hill, and his face
set upon his Lord who walks before him. and set to go to Calvary. He
was compelled into service which involves ignominy and shame. No one would volunteer to do
what he did. What happens if in some fit of
anger he suffers what these others suffered? And now this man going
outside of the camp, following his Saviour to Calvary's hill,
is a man who wears the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. about our activities. Whoever
desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his
cross and follow me." Simon is a wonderful picture of that,
isn't he? He had, prior to the Lord's
intervention, no desire to be following him. Prior to a compelling
force, he had no desire to take up his cross, and he had no desire
to follow the Lord Jesus. To the place of human shame,
but to the place of God's glory. Has God stopped you in your passing
by? Has God arrested you when you
say it is nothing? Has God stopped us passing by? If He has, then what is shame
and ignominy in this world will be an honour for God's children. We bear His reproach. The Lord
said, Come to me, all you who labour and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
find rest, a rest for your souls, for or because my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. If you turn in your Bibles to
Acts chapter 13, we have what I believe and what the historians
claim is another description of our friend and brother Simon. Acts 13 verse 1, Now in the church
at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas,
Simeon, who was called Niger, Simon, who was called Dark. He may have been dark-skinned.
He may have been a black man. Lucius of Cyrene, Menaion, who
had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. As they
ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Holy Spirit
spoke to Simon, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the
work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed
and laid hands on them, they sent them away. Simeon or Simon
didn't find the Lord's work. a burden at all. And remarkably
he had the pleasure and the wonder of seeing both his wife and his
two sons saved. Rufus is mentioned by Paul in
Romans 16 verse 13. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord,
a chosen son of a chosen father. and His mother and mine. These people were dear to Paul. We are called upon by our God as He comes and lays unexpected
crosses upon us. that we will one day see that
they are blessed crosses. We will one day see that the
shame and the humiliation before men that cause us so much disquiet. One day we'll see them, as no
doubt Simon did, as badges of honour that we have been counted
worthy to suffer for the Lord and for His people. Let's just
finish with some wonderful verses out of Hebrews 13. Therefore Jesus, verse 12, that
he might sanctify the people, that he might make holy the people
with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let
us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach, for
Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by him, by him doing
it, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. May God remind us of the blood
of our Lord Jesus and that broken body as we now celebrate and
remember the Lord's Supper together. May we plead with Him that He
will be compelling us to go outside the camp, the camp of this world,
the camp of this religious world. May we plead for God not to let
us just pass by. and not to let us say that it
is nothing.