Jesus Calls the First Disciples

Title Ideas:Jesus called disciples to follow him.The first people who followed Jesus.

One day, John was baptizing people in the Jordan River, he saw Jesus standing among the people [waiting to be baptized]. John said to Jesus, “Sir [Lord], I need for you to baptize me!” Jesus replied, “God wants you to baptize me!”

Next day, as John was talking with two disciples, they saw Jesus walk by. John said, “Look! There goes [is] God’s [sacrifice] Lamb who takes away [pays for] people’s sins!”

Immediately, the two men [disciples] left John and began following Jesus. Jesus turned and asked them, “What do you want?” They replied, “Teacher, where do you live [stay / reside]?” He then said, “Come with me and see!”

So Jesus led them to where he was staying, and they stayed [visited] with him that afternoon.

One of those two men was named Andrew. [Immediately after visiting with Jesus] Andrew went to see his brother, whose name was Simon, and said to him, “The promised Messiah has come! [or We have found the Messiah!]”

Then Andrew led Simon to Jesus, who looked at Simon and said, “I shall call you Peter!”

Next day, Jesus left to go to another region [province] where he came to Andrews’s and Peter’s village. There he found a man named Philip, and said to him, “Follow me [Become my disciple]!”

Philip then ran to find his friend Nathanael and said to him, “The Messiah has come, the one about whom our ancient prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus [son of] Joseph from Nazareth [town]!”

Nathanael joked [exclaimed], “Nothing good could come from Nazareth!” So Philip replied, “Well, come and see [him] for yourself!”

When Jesus saw Nathanael, he said to the others, “Here comes an honest man! He is a genuine Israelite!”

Nathanael asked Jesus, “Sir, how do you know me?” Jesus replied, “Before Philip told you about me, I saw you seated in a fig tree’s shade!”

Then Nathanael exclaimed [said with excitement], “Teacher! You must be God’s Son [Messiah]! You are Israel’s promised King!”

Jesus replied, “You believe in me, because I said that I saw you seated in a fig tree’s shade! You will see much greater [wonderful] things than that!”

So these four men became Jesus’ first disciples: Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael.