Jesus had people crowding around him all the time. But being popular with crowds is not the same as having committed followers. Some people are curious about Jesus. Some people like to get things from Jesus. Other people really want to follow Jesus.

A follower of Jesus is called a disciple. There are millions of them today. Jesus started with twelve.

One day, early in his ministry, Jesus went up on a mountain and called twelve men to follow him. It wasn’t their idea to start a Jesus club. It was Jesus’s idea to start a group of disciples. He would be their leader, their teacher, their Savior, and their friend.

Twelve may seem like a funny number. Why not three disciples? Or ten? Or a hundred? Why twelve? So they could share a dozen donuts? Or so they could each have one slice from an extra-large pizza? Jesus chose twelve disciples because he was forming a new people with himself at the center. There were twelve tribes in Israel, and there would be twelve disciples of Jesus. From now on, to be a part of God’s family meant being a follower of Jesus.

The twelve disciples were all men, and they were all Jews. They spoke the same language and grew up with many of the same things. But they were also very different. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. Peter was bold but made a lot of mistakes. James and John could be hotheads. Andrew liked bringing people to Jesus.

Matthew was a tax collector. Simon was a revolutionary. That means Matthew worked for the government, and Simon didn’t like the government.

Bartholomew (also called Nathanael) could be very blunt. Thomas, who was a twin, would become famous for his doubts.

Then there was Philip, who helped Nathanael see Jesus. There were also Thaddaeus and another James. Finally, there was Judas, who ended up betraying Jesus. That’s twelve men who probably wondered at times if they had anything in common except that they were following Jesus.

Jesus named his disciples apostles because they would eventually be sent out to the nations to make new disciples. But for now Jesus gave them three things to do. They would preach, they would cast out demons, and they would be with Jesus. You might say they announced the coming of the Snake Crusher, they showed the power of the Snake Crusher, and they spent time with the Snake Crusher. Not a bad job—with or without pizza.