Luke 6:13-19 :

When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor. He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed. All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

After spending that night in prayer, Jesus named the 12 disciples who would be called “apostles.” It was, clearly, not by human wisdom that Jesus chose the disciples. He chose fishermen like Peter, as well as those who were probably well educated like John. He chose both Matthew who we heard about before was a tax collector who had been busy taxing Israel for the Romans as well as Simon the Zealot, who, evidently was willing to fight the Romans to free Israel. Jesus even chose the one who would betray Him to His enemies, but He knew exactly what He was doing.

Being chosen as Jesus’ apostles wasn’t very well understood by these 12 men yet. This choice was to lead to all of them being persecuted, most of them killed. Of course, they were also to become leaders and be richly rewarded in Heaven for all eternity. Being a disciple of Jesus marks us as those who oppose the system of this world; the one that Satan is ruling over. Being Christian is usually not easy as a result.

Jesus was wildly opposing this world system everywhere He went by forgiving sins and healing every single person that came to Him. Jesus continues to oppose the word’s system today through His Spirit in the church. The Church also has been given the power to heal in Jesus name and like Jesus, this goes against the world. Jesus is not the one who makes us sick or sad. These things were caused by our own sin, by this world’s system, and by Satan. It is very good to know that Jesus can still heal us today from these things when we come to Him.