Jesus has many disciples but a relatively small number of Apostles. Disciple means “disciplined one”, where an Apostle required a greater level of commitment, commission, and a mission to spread the good news to all nations, like a modern day missionary sent by Jesus). Initially there where twelve apostles, chosen by Jesus, and seventy disciples Jesus sent out (as written in the King James version of the Bible). So there were initially twelve Apostles, the number twelve being significant as there are twelve tribes of Israel (Benjamin, Naphtali, Judah, Levi, Dan, Asher, Reuben, Simeon, Zebulon, Gad, Issachar), including the sons of Abraham and the half-tribes Manasseh and Ephraim being the sons of Joseph, son of Jacob.
The initial twelve Apostles are as follows. Simon Peter (Peter means pebble, or rock) who was the the head of the Christian church and is widely seen as the first shepherd that took charge of Christ’s sheep (the Church) after Christ ascended into Heaven. Simon Peter displayed his faith in Christ well initially but had trouble enduring to completion during the early days, having initially jumped out of the boat to walk on water to Jesus who was walking on the water as well, then his faith wavered and he began to sink, as written in the Gospels. In the Gospels Peter stated he would die for Christ and never deny Christ, but had trouble during Jesus’ arrest and denied Christ when confronted (where the cock crowed twice as prophesied by Jesus in the Bible). Matthew the tax collector, John, James (brother of John who were called the Sons of Thunder), Bartholomew, Judas Iscariot (associated with the zealots and Jewish establishment), Thomas, Simon, Thaddaeus, James, Andrew and Phillip. These where the initial twelve Apostles, but further Apostles were later added, such as Paul. Later Deacons such as Stephen (the first Christian Martyr) also helped advance the Christian Church.