After Jesus returned from being tempted by Satan in the desert, He was ready to begin His ministry. He began by finding people who would learn from Him.

Jesus went to Galilee, where John the Baptist was preaching. Two of his followers were with him. When John saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look! He is the Lamb of God!” John’s two followers knew exactly what to do when they heard him say that. They left John and started following Jesus. Because John had only been preparing them for Him.

One of John’s followers was named Andrew. After following Jesus home and learning more from Him, he ran to get his brother, Simon.

“Brother!” he called out. “You won’t guess what happened! We have found the Messiah; the rescuer all Israel has been waiting for.”

Simon dropped what he was doing and followed his brother Andrew. From the time they were little, they had heard the leaders in the synagogue talk about how amazing it would be when God finally sent His rescuer, the Messiah.

When Jesus saw Simon, He told him, “From now on, you will be called Peter.”

Peter and Andrew were learning from Jesus every day now, but they continued working as fishermen in their hometown for a while before beginning to travel with Him.

One day Jesus got into the boat that belonged to Simon Peter and asked him to row it out into the water a bit. He stood up in the boat and began to teach the crowd that had gathered on the shore. When He finished, He told Simon Peter to row out into deeper waters and let down his net to catch fish.

Simon Peter shook His head. “Master, we have been fishing all night, when the fish like to come to the surface. If we didn’t catch anything then, surely we won’t catch anything now when the fish have gone back down to the cooler waters. But I will do whatever you say.

Simon Peter’s fishing partners, James and John, helped him lower the nets. As they pulled them up, to their surprise, the nets were so full of fish that they could not pull them up alone. The boats nearby had to come and help them, and all the fish filled up two full boats.

Simon Peter was so shocked at this miracle, that he became afraid to be in Jesus’ presence.

“I’m a sinful man!” he cried out. “I can’t be near someone as holy as You!”

But Jesus simply smiled and told him, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be bringing in people’s hearts, not fish.”

So, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John pulled their boats into shore and left them there to follow Jesus.

Jesus returned to Galilee where He called Philip, a man from Andrew and Peter’s hometown, Bethsaida, to come and follow Him. Philip grabbed his friend Nathanael and cried out, “We have found Him! The One Moses and all the prophets promised us would come one day!”

“Who?” Nathanael asked.

“Jesus of Nazareth,” Philip replied.

“Nazareth?” Nathanael scoffed, getting puffed up as he thought about how ‘everyone knew’ people from Nazareth were no good.

But Philip insisted Nathanael come and meet Jesus, so he agreed.

As Nathanael walked toward Jesus, Jesus looked at him and declared, “Now you are a true Israelite, through-and-through. You are an honest man.”

Nathanael stared at Him, confused, and asked Jesus how He knew him.

“I observed you when you were standing under the fig tree,” Jesus explained, “before Philip had even gone to talk to you.”

Nathanael realized that before knowing he was the man Philip wanted to bring to Jesus, Jesus had noticed him. He had looked into his heart and knew what he was like on the inside. Forgetting his bias against people from the unimportant region of Nazareth, Nathanael realized that God the Father hadn’t sent Israel the rich, impressive, powerful king they expected, but that the poor, average-looking, humble carpenter in front of him was exactly who God had promised.

“Rabbi,” he responded, “You are truly the Son of God and the King of Israel!”

Jesus smiled at him. “All I said was that I saw you under the fig tree, and from that you believe in Me now? Just wait! Soon, you will see things far more amazing—heaven opening and God’s angels going up and down above Me.”

Jesus began performing more miracles and continued to collect more followers.

He saw a man named Matthew who worked for the Romans. His job was to collect money from the Israelites to send to Rome. Like bullies, the Romans insisted that the Israelites pay them for not hurting them, so every year the Israelites became poorer while the Romans became richer.

Roman tax-collectors were considered traitors by their fellow Israelites—greedy men who had traded their values to get rich. But after years of choosing money over God and His people, Jesus simply walked up to Matthew, said, “Come with me,” and Matthew immediately walked away from all he had worked so hard to earn for himself.

Around this time Jesus went off to a mountain to spend the whole night praying to His Father in heaven. The next morning, He called all of His followers together. From among them, He chose twelve to be His special disciples. They would be His helpers and would travel with Him all the time.

These men were Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathanael (also called Bartholomew), Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon, Jude, and Judas Iscariot.

These twelve men followed Jesus and were with Him more than anyone else. But Jesus had many, many followers. Men and women who stayed where they were to care for their businesses and families, but who travelled with Jesus sometimes, or learned from Him whenever He was in their town. They provided Jesus and His disciples with places to stay, served them meals and gave them money for their journeys. Some of these people were Mary Magdalene, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Salome, Joanna, Justus, Mathias, Susanna, and a few more Marys (it was a popular name back then).