Jesus’ First Followers

 

As Jesus was walking by Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the lake because they were fishermen. Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” So Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him.

As Jesus continued walking by Lake Galilee, he saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus told them to come with him. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and they followed Jesus. (Matthew 4:18-22, New Century Version)

I tend to assume that if you are reading my Sunday blog posts, you already know the story of Jesus – His birth, His teachings, and His death and resurrection. But what if you don’t? What if you don’t know me well enough to know about my faith, or what if you don’t know me at all and just stumbled upon my blog? What if you only know about Jesus from what you’ve heard about Christmas or Easter and want to know more? 

This year, I’ve decided to write about a different Bible Story on my blog each Sunday. Since we just got through the Christmas season and the birth of Jesus, and last week I wrote about His baptism, I thought I’d begin with when He started calling His disciples.  

Throughout His ministry, Jesus had many followers, but eventually, He named twelve men to be His chosen few, His disciples – Simon Peter, Andrew (Simon’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (called the Zealot), Judas (son of James), and Judas Iscariot. If there is only one of these men whom you have heard of, it would be Judas Iscariot, right? We’ll get to him when we get close to Easter.

Instead, over the next eight weeks, I’ll tell you about other things Jesus did and said.