In this week’s lesson by Ray Vander Laan, we look at Biblical discipleship.

We know exactly one reason Jesus went to Galilee—it was prophesied. "The people living in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:1–2; quoted in Matthew 4:15–16). This wasn’t random. The Bible foretold that He would teach in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, and that's exactly where He went. It was the biblical center of 1st-century Israel.

Galilee was home to some of the most biblically literate people in the region. One of Jesus’ disciples, John, referred to discipleship as “walking as Jesus walked” (1 John 2:6). That begins by looking at both Jesus' humanity and His divinity. Not only was He was fully God, but that He lived in a real place, in a specific culture, at a specific time.

In 1st-century Jewish life, the foundation of discipleship was built in community. The community was more important than the individual. As Westerners, we’re deeply shaped by individualism, but in Judaism, you always acted as part of a people. When someone encountered Jesus, their whole household often converted (see Acts 16:31–34). Why? Because in the Middle East, joining a faith was never just a personal decision, it was communal. That’s part of what makes evangelizing in Islamic cultures difficult. Even if someone is drawn to Jesus, converting alone is almost unheard of. The beth ab, or the father’s household, stays together.

In those villages, people lived in extended families. Not just mom, dad, and a few kids, but grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc. There were multiple generations under one roof. That’s where discipleship works best, not in isolation. Yet we tend to want to follow Jesus on our own.

Ray once shared a story: a parent asked if their child could attend a secular university, given that their faith seemed strong. Ray said, “That's a multi-faceted question. But I wish you’d asked me this instead: If my child went to campus and found a group of strong, Jesus-following friends, could they keep their faith intact?” That’s the real issue. Going alone is hard. Peer pressure can be incredibly powerful for better or worse depending on who your peers are.

God sent Jesus to small, communal households—beth abs—which reflect what the early church later became: house churches. If we were in the same beth ab, we could encourage one another and hold each other accountable.

In a cluster of beth abs, there would be shared courtyards where the family engaged with the public. If they made pottery, they sold it in the courtyard. Imagine a wedding feast happening in one of these spaces (John 2), or think of the four friends who lowered a paralyzed man through the roof (Mark 2:1–12). That roof would’ve been made of large beams, layered with smaller branches, packed with mud and dried hard by the sun, almost like concrete. When that story is told, picture six inches of clay being dug through, dirt falling everywhere, the homeowner shocked, and Jesus standing calmly below.

He was teaching in a packed room. The courtyard was full. The friends couldn’t reach Jesus, so they tore open the roof. Did Jesus stop teaching? Did He smile? Either way, they lowered their friend down, and Scripture says Jesus healed him because of their faith—not just the paralyzed man's, but his friends’ (Mark 2:5). That’s what community looks like—shared faith, shared risk, shared blessing.

The beth ab loved together, held each other accountable, created space for others in the courtyard. That’s what a faith community ought to look like.

Jesus lived in Capernaum for about three to four years. When you walk on those ancient pavements or touch the walls there, you're walking where He likely walked. Matthew calls the house in Capernaum “His home” (Matthew 4:13; Mark 2:1), implying Jesus chose it and returned to it often. Another clue is found in Matthew 8:14. It’s called Peter’s house, and Peter’s mother-in-law was there.

In that culture, when a man married, his wife joined his family’s home, not the other way around. So why was Peter living in his wife's family home? It was common for families to open their homes to rabbis. Maybe Jesus said, “We need to stay here,” and Peter offered his home. We can’t know for sure.

Jesus didn’t gather a group of individuals who met occasionally. He formed a team, a unit, with shared goals and rhythms. Jewish life was not only communal, but rooted in the Scriptures. In Judaism, they simply referred to their Scripture as The Text. They were a people of The Text. Everything Jesus said or did would be measured against it.

Why did Jesus choose 12 disciples? Why not 10 or 77? It’s not a random number. Some rabbis had five disciples; others had hundreds. Only one had twelve. That number was symbolic. When God chose a people, He chose 12 tribes (Genesis 49). If someone wanted to continue God’s covenantal plan, associating with the number twelve made a strong statement. Moses led the original 12 tribes. Anything that made Jesus look like Moses pointed in the right direction.

Moses was the first rabbi. In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you—you must listen to him.” That coming prophet was understood to be the Messiah, the “Second Moses,” so when Jesus began looking “Moses-like,” people noticed.

In John 1:21, the religious leaders ask John the Baptist, “Are you the Prophet?” Not just a prophet, but the Prophet. Again in John 6:14, after Jesus feeds the 5,000, people begin to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” John 7:40–49 echoes the same idea.

They weren’t wondering if He was a generic prophet; they were asking if He was the one Moses had spoken about. In Luke 7:16, the people say, “A great prophet has appeared among us” or literally, “has been raised up among us.” That phrase is straight out of Deuteronomy 18.

So what does that tell us about Jesus’ audience? They were biblically literate. They knew the Scriptures. If someone had said to us today, “A great prophet has been raised up among us,” would we instantly connect it to Deuteronomy 18? Probably not. Ray said didn’t at first, but the Jews around him did and he said it would make them wonder about his knowledge of the text.

The quality of discipleship is directly tied to the depth of knowledge of Scripture. One of the biggest takeaways is that discipleship works best in community, built on a shared commitment to the text.

One of the primary occupations around the Sea of Galilee was fishing. Out of the 12 disciples, at least five were fishermen. Some traditions suggest as many as eight. That’s interesting because fishing wasn’t the most common trade, so why did Jesus choose so many fishermen?

He was going to use the metaphor of being “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19) but He could’ve used that image for any profession. So when you come across something unusual in Scripture, ask “why?” What does this mean?

When Jesus turned water into wine at Cana, some people immediately thought of a prophecy. On the Day of the Lord—the day the Messiah comes—there will be an abundance of wine (Amos 9:13; Joel 3:18). That’s what they were looking for.

Also, in Jeremiah 16:16, God says, “I will send for many fishermen, and they will catch them.” So now imagine you're there: Jesus shows up, performs a miracle, chooses 12 disciples—five of them fishermen. Some would have started to whisper, “You don’t think He’s the Prophet, do you? The one Moses talked about?” Others might say, “Wait... didn’t Jeremiah say God would send fishermen? And now here they are.”

Jesus was speaking in layers. His audience needed to be fluent in Scripture to catch the deeper meanings—and so do we. Discipleship today means not just believing in Jesus, but wrestling with the text, together to encourage, correct and strengthen one another in community.

Students who head off to university and find strong communities of Jesus-followers often come back more grounded in their faith. Not because they were isolated, but because they walked with others. That’s what discipleship looks like.