Paul picks their brains like fish bones

When Simon was compelled to carry Jesus Christ's cross, he was just passing by, a pilgrim from 800 miles away that had traveled to Jerusalem to worship in the Passover.

“Imagine the only person in the crowd to help Jesus is some stranger from an outlying area that they had to conscript,” says Jordan. “There was NO ONE to volunteer to help Jesus in all of Jerusalem, among all of His followers!

“The dude’s name is Simon. Do you know another Simon? That’s sort of a subtle rebuke. Where was the other Simon who just earlier that evening had said, ‘Though everyone forsake you, I won’t’? He wasn’t there.

“Now Simon the Cyrenian follows Christ to Calvary and went all the way, seeing them nail the Lord Jesus to the Cross and stand Him upright.

“You remember how a Centurion stood by the Cross, and after watching what was going on, said, ‘Surely this is the Son of God.’ It was at the Cross that Simon had what I would call a ‘Barabbas experience.’

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“Mark 15:21 says, ‘And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.’

“Mark’s readers know who Simon is. He’s the father of Alexander and Rufus. That little addition wouldn’t have made any sense if nobody knew who Alexander and Rufus were. You see that?

“Mark is writing to the ‘little flock’ in Israel, and they understand who this character is. Something lasting happened to Simon when he followed Jesus to that Cross.

“Simon is from Cyrene and Acts 6:9 says, ‘Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.’ Notice they’re there; these guys were a part of the ‘little flock’!

“Acts 11 says, [19] Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
[20] And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.

“You see how the message got back home with Simon’s return and that it took root and bore fruit in that ‘little flock’?

“Acts 13:1 says, ‘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.’

“Look at that! The message didn’t just take root; it took root with such fervency that there were people in Cyrene who stayed up with the program and on into the ADVANCE in the program.

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“Obviously Rufus and his family were some of those who were known to Paul, appreciated by Paul.

“Listen, I believe that the Apostle Paul wanted to know every detail of the life and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He and Luke, one of the biographers of the Savior, were the best of friends. At the very end of his life, Luke’s with him.

“You know Paul would have picked their brains like you pick fish bones! It’s Paul in Acts 20:35 that tells you something not recorded anywhere else in Scripture. He writes, ‘And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

“How did Paul know that? He was inquisitive about the life of His Savior and about the PERSON of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“It’s Paul who says ‘though we have known Christ after the flesh.’ When did Paul ever know Jesus after the flesh?! Paul had an interest.

"Rufus and his mom and family would have been people Paul wanted to know. And Rufus and his mother were obviously open to the advance in the program that came.”