Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve–designating them apostles–that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Mark 3:13-19
I’ve been a Star Wars fan for many years and was excited to see the new movie. One of the aspects of Star Wars is the concept of master and apprentice. The Jedi don’t simply go to school to learn how to be Jedi. Instead, they train with a master, following him around and learning the ways of the Force. Eventually, they become a master and train a student, too.
This is similar to the New Testament. Jesus, like other sages of his day, called disciples. The intent was that they would follow him around, learn from him, memorize his teachings, and imitate his actions. Discipleship is not an hour a week on a Sunday morning. It’s intensively living your life to be like your master. I think it was Dallas Willard who said that being a disciple of Jesus is to be like Jesus if Jesus was you.
Jesus called twelve disciples to be with him all the time. And you know what? Amazingly, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they became like him. The mission was then passed on to them: make disciples who would be like Jesus. And you know what? They did! The world has never been the same since.