This is another lesson in Mike’s series on Bible Characters.

In New Testament times, a zealot was known as a “dagger” man; someone who assassinated Roman soldiers in resistance to Roman rule. A zealot was a revolutionary, loyal only to God and the temple and other zealots.

Simon the Zealot was, for a number of reasons, an unlikely choice to be an apostle of Jesus.

Or was he?

Perhaps it was his zeal that made him the perfect choice. And once enlightened by Jesus, he became just as zealous for the church as he had been for the temple.

Do you think yourself to be an unlikely choice to spread the message of the gospel?

The message of the gospel is the ability of Jesus to transform anyone; to unify anyone.

For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (NIV)