The Original Disciples Series

Disciples of Jesus

According to Matthew Chapter 4, Jesus after leaving Nazareth went to Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah about the land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. There, and from that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

John, Chapter 1 tells us that the next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?" "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

Jesus, after trekking up a mountainside, summoned a select group of men to become His Disciples. There, He appointed the Twelve to be with him and send them out to preach (Mark 3:13-14) In this era of the Roman world, there were various religious, and political leaders with committed groups of followers. From those who followed Him, Jesus of Nazareth formed a special rabbi-student relationship. Although the Jews were used to having rabbis teaching only the brightest pupils. they hadn’t encountered the approach that Jesus used in gathering and instructing His group of disciples. The norm was for a person to approach a rabbi and ask to be taught, but Jesus did the reverse by choosing the men He wanted and calling them to follow Him. The group He chose was a diverse bunch—they weren’t from the hierarchical Jewish religion. Rather, the twelve men He chose came from various walks of life.

Our Messiah could not have picked a more diverse group of men to accomplish His divine purpose. Jesus wanted men who could understand the struggles of the brokenhearted, the poor, and the afflicted. With the exception that seven of them were fishermen, the Twelve had very little in common with one another. One was a tentmaker, others were a political zealot, a detested tax collector, a pessimistic skeptic, a thief, and two “Sons of Thunder.”

The "Twelve Apostles" refers to the men (and Matthias in place of Judas Iscariot) following Jesus during and after His life on earth. Not of the original Twelve, Saul of Tarsus, later called Paul, was initially a zealous persecutor of those who believed Christ was the Messiah (Acts 9). While traveling to Damascus in 33 AD, three years after Jesus was resurrected, he was miraculously confronted by the Lord. During his years of exile, he was personally taught by Jesus (Galatians 1:11-12). After Paul was baptized he began to preach powerfully Christ was the Son of God (Acts 9:20 - 22). Death threats from Jews living in Damascus, who rejected his message, drove him to flee to Arabia. At this point in his life, he fulfilled the same basic criteria the original disciples did in regard to being considered an apostle. Many of his epistles begin as Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

The original twelve disciples were sent out to the Jews, whereas Paul alone had the unique task of being the apostle to the gentiles after Christ's resurrection and ascent.

Jesus gathered His first disciples at the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which had provided fishermen livelihoods for generations. Several of the disciples were hard-working fishermen, who often worked long into the night, using two types of nets. The larger dragging nets, sometimes over the size of a football field and 8 feet wide, were slung out in deep water. The circular cast net, about 15 feet round with a tight mesh, was thrown off the boat where the water was shallow to drop over a school of fish, bringing in everything trapped. The disciples would be “casting their nets” in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria The results of their work would encircle the earth.