John’s Gospel 1:35-51 records Andrew, Simon (Cephas/Peter), an unnamed disciple, Philip and Nathanael (Bartholomew). Jesus has already been baptised, (Mt 3:1-17), and has been through a 40 day fast, and has been strengthened by angels (Jn 1:19-28), and now John sees Jesus at Bethany (Bethabara) the other side of the Jordan river (Jn 1:29-34). While John is preaching, he points Andrew, & the unnamed disciple toward Jesus, later on near the Sea of Gallilee, we see them being called again. He makes more disciples later & much later gives 12 of them a commission. For now, he starts with five, we suppose that the unnamed disciple is John the writer of the Gospel, elsewhere referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved, 13:22-25. In Luke 5, is recorded the calling of Peter’s fishing partners, James & John the sons of Zebedee, and soon afterwards Matthew is called with the other 5 disciples listed as apostles in Luke 6:12-16.
Three miracles are recorded which help convince the new disciples to leave their past and follow Him. Firstly the ‘water into wine”, Jn. 2:1-12, secondly the ‘catch of fish’, Lk 5:1-11 and thirdly the ‘personal insight from a distance’ of Nathaniel, Jn. 1:43-50. Since not every miracle of Jesus is recorded, we can safely assume his miraculous ‘insight’ Jesus expressed, must have affected other disciples. The reason Jesus calls them, is not because they accepted the miracles as genuine but because they have accepted His titles as genuine. Spiritually this should happen to everyone who becomes a Christian, because we are not Christians which are truly disciples unless we can accept and believe in the first titles appended to the character of Jesus.
THE LAMB OF GOD, v29,36. God’s Sacrifice for sins. Ex 12:1 13, Isa 53:7, Ac. 8:32, IPt 3:17 19.
THE MESSIAH or CHRIST, (The anointed), implied divine healing & triumphant restoration, Mat. 11:1-3, Lk 2:8- 11, 26. Acts 9:22.
THE SON OF GOD, v34, 49. Promised & fulfilled in the resurrection. Psa 89:24 28, Jn 6:68 69, 11:25 27, 20:27 31.
THE KING OF ISRAEL, v49. Royal Leader of sinners. Jn 12:12 15, Zeph 3:13 17.
THE SON OF MAN, v51. Dan. 7:13-14, Ac 7:56, Rev. 1:13. (His favorite name for himself, he used over 80 times) synonym for Divine & Royal Spiritual King.
Who Is A Disciple?
People who believe Jesus proved the titles appended to Him, v36-37.
People who believe Jesus can show them the whole truth, v38.
People who try to introduce Jesus to other people, v41.
People who respond to critics with an invitation to investigate Jesus, v46.
People who claim to have only one Teacher, being the Spirit & Word, v49. (Mat 28:8)
People who believe Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, Heb. 13:8
People who accept baptism as from God and not the church, Jn.1:25.
Epaggelia 
February 21, 2007 at 9:04 am
Thanks for sharing your blog with the public. And your insights on what a true disciple is.
It is so wonderful how you keep the focus on Jesus and who He is.
John Marcus – Kyoto Japan
http://www.johnmarcus.wordpress.com
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JOHNMARCUS7
February 21, 2007 at 11:23 am
Thanks John, your welcome, May our Lord Jesus Christ receive all the glory and praise for anything I can share. Yours truly,
Jeff
PS I noticed your from S.Africa. Do you remember trying those nice ‘melk tarts’ as a child? I did mission work overseas (Europe) too and have fond memories of the recipe.
February 21, 2007 at 12:23 pm
“People who try to introduce Jesus to other people,”
We need to do that one a WHOLE LOT more.
-J. Kaiser