The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - 7 Characteristics of the People of God

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

What are the characteristics of the people of God? Are they unique? Today, Jeff discusses the unique characteristics of the people of God and what they mean for how we ought to live our lives. Listen so you can know how these unique characteristics make the people of God distinct. Snippet from the Show “Yes, I do believe that the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth and I am willing to die for it.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 32, seven characteristics of the people of God. Here we are again together. Love it. Love coming together with you every single week. and what's a lot of fun about meeting you every single week is that sometimes when I'm out speaking around the country, people will come up and say, hey, and they'll mention a particular show. I was driving in the car, I was jogging. I was cleaning the garage or whatever. And it's just, it's really nice to know that I can be a part of your life and you're part of my life, brothers and sisters, sharing the good things of the Lord using the internet and the media. This isn't actually that, that, that in some ways. You know, we've been involved in radio for years and years and years and then television. Really, we got Morse code too. But in the last five years or so, all of this

has kind of gone to a whole new level, you know, so much so that you get these two guys from Minnesota, Father Mike Schmitz and myself reading and explaining scripture. And as far as podcasts go, it goes to number one in the country. We've never had tools like this before. So all I'm saying there is it's good to meet you, good to see you, good to hear from you, and we are family. I want to talk today about seven characteristics of the people of God. Now I have a reason for this. Somebody not too long ago was talking to me and they were trying to convince me that all religions of the world are basically the same. It's like going to a restaurant and you have a menu, but there's only a fixed number of items on the menu. It's just a matter of

how they're all stirring it up and frying it or broiling it or whatever. And I said, no, no, no, no, it's not really that. They're not all the same and just express it differently. There is some things about the people of God, the Christians around the world, that is really different. I mean, we really are different and I want to talk about seven of these and they're actually in the catechism these characteristics of the people of God we are different for sure we are different and there's nobody like us and then when you take the seven things that are unique and then you put those together case closed there is no one like us now that doesn't mean that we have to have this triumphalist attitude of we're so different you know and we're we're king of the

hill and all that. That is not the, well, number one, that's not the attitude of the people of God. It's humility. Humility is part of the way we share this. And yes, we celebrate who we are. We are proud of who we are. We hope our children will pick up on who we are and bring it to their children and their children, and that through time we'll have more and more of an influence in the world, not purely because of influence and politics and so forth, but because the love of God is shared through us and among us, and that's what the world is really seeking, is to be loved and to know that they've got a future. They know they have someone to trust. We are the carriers of the message, but if we don't understand it and then do it, well, our difference really didn't make

any difference, did it? But it should, and I think it does. And the very fact that you're listening right now means that you are interested, as I am. And I think that today we can talk about some of those. with seven points and then hopefully we'll live it you know hey by the way i do have uh notes here it's kind of an outline of my talk with you today and i'm going to put it in the show notes i'm just going to give you the whole tamale there and and all you got to do to get the notes is text my name jeff kavens that's one word jeff f f cav i n s and you can uh text my name to the number 33777. That's 3377. Let's think of the Trinity and think of the number seven for covenant. You got it. It's a biblical number. So, okay, well, let's do this. Let's talk about these characteristics.

I told you not too long ago that I was invited to a college panel. And the college panel was going to be discussing questions that were given by a moderator about our faith. And I was there on the this panel discussion facing a full room of college students. And I was the Christian. There was a Jew and there was a Muslim. And I won't go into all the details because I shared this with you a few weeks ago. But we ended up getting all of these questions. And each one of us would answer it in our own way. And then the king of the questions came at the end. The final question was, do you, each one of you, Christian, Jew, Muslim, do you think that your face, is the fullness of truth. Do you believe that your faith is the fullness of truth?

And the other two people said things like, well, I was born into this and I want to celebrate it and I have embraced it and I see life this way. Another one said, well, I think if we all added it together and brought them all together, we would have a full look at the truth at that point. And then the moderator looked at me and said, well, you as the Christian, do you believe that you, as a Catholic Christian, do you believe that you have the fullness of. of truth. And there was an eerie silence in the room and all these college students were looking at me. And I looked back at them and I said, yes, I do believe that the Catholic church has the fullness of truth and I'm willing to die for it. And a lady next to me, I think it was the Muslim, I think it's the Muslim, she says, wow, like, okay, that was nervy. That was nervy. And then they started.

of this clap, you know, this in the back of the room and then it started getting louder and these young kids were clapping. And the moderators leaned over and said they're not clapping because they agree with you. They're clapping because you had the nerve to say it. And not only do I have the nerve to say it, I will repeat it here today as well. And I'm proud of it. And I'm honored to be a part of this amazing church. And have I mastered all the parts of the sum? absolutely not. Have I got 10% of the truth? No. I don't know what it is, but it's south probably of 5% of everything that can be known about Jesus and the faith or even less than 1%. You can actually draw a circle on a white piece of paper. Make it as big as you want, you know, eight inches

across. And then with a pen, mark how much of the world's wisdom and knowledge you have. And all you can do is make a dot. That's all you can do. There's a lot of learning yet for us. Okay, so in the catechism, and this comes from the area of paragraph 782 of the catechism under the characteristics of the people of God, paragraph 782 says the people of God is marked by characteristics that clearly, clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history. That is a pretty awesome, gutsy statement to make in the Catechism, isn't it? Paragraph 782, the people of God.

That's you, that's me. The people of God is marked by characteristics. Characteristics are things you can distinguish by observation. It's marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it. Clearly, there's no blurred lines here. Clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, and cultural groups found in history. Now, I want to start off with this.

You've got to give it to me here. I have some license here. Just with that statement right there, it says the people of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it. If I put your name in there instead of the people of God, if I, for example, if I put my name in there, I would have to read it this way. Jeff Kavens is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish Jeff Kavins from all other religious, ethnic, political, and cultural groups found in history.

Oh, put your name in there, you know. Bob so-and-so is marked by, Julie, so-and-so is marked by characteristics. Martha, so-and-so, Gabe, so-and-so, Jonathan, so-and-so, Peggy so-and-so, is clearly marked by characteristics, distinguished from all other religious ethnic. I'll let you meditate on that. for the rest of the day. Grab paragraph 782 out of your brand new ascension catechism and you meditate on it.

Okay. So let's look at these seven characteristics. Number one, one of the characteristics of the people of God is that it is the people of God. God is not the property of any one person. But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. So the very first characteristic is that it is the people of God. God is not the property of any one person. We do not own God. We do not have a stake on God. We, you know, a claim on God. And that if you want to talk about God, you can only talk

with us. That is not our attitude. We are the people of God. We are a people. And it's not the property. God is not the property of anyone else. Now, I think that's an important point because sometimes you would get the idea that, well, God is our property. You can create things, quote-unquote, with God that you can make and you can sell and you can market and you can win arguments and debates and political packs and so forth. And we can, in fact, treat God as our property. like a stock or a bond or gold or silver or Bitcoin, we can own God and have him do our bidding for us. Now, without naming names, there are groups that do that.

Oh, yeah. God is like a vending machine to them. You put your faith in, you get out what you want. We as Catholics, we are a people of God. We do not own him. And anything that looks like that, we need to deal with that. I don't particularly like the retailing of God, to be honest with you. And I think that there is a place to create wonderful, good, healthy, holy things that

can honor God and build up God's people. And I think we've created some wonderful, some wonderful things. But we do have to be careful of God is not a business primarily. So we're the people of God. God is not the property of any one person, and we are the living organism. We're not an organization, a club, a social club, or anything like that. We are a living family. We're an organization, like, or not an organization.

We're the family like the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are a family. They're a family. And the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. and we're called to live in that love, to live in that life of the, of the Trinity. So just Jesus is the head and we're the body of Christ. Jesus came into history and changed its course by living among us,

dying for us, and empowering us to be his people and carry on with his plans all the way to the end of time. So number one, we are the people. of God. We do not own him. Okay. So number two, before I go to number two, let me read this to you, because I think this also fits with number one, that we are the people of God. God is not the property of any one person. And I love this paragraph. Number one, it's number one in the catechism. It is my favorite paragraph in the catechism. It says, God infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.

For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men scattered and divided by sin into the unity of his family, the church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son as Redeemer and Savior in his son. And through him, he invites men to become in the Holy Spirit his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. That is so good. You know, and someone says, show me, show me your faith. Well, there you go. Paragraph one of the Catechism. Second characteristic. One becomes a member of this people, not by a physical birth. but by being born anew or born again, a birth of water and the spirit,

that is by faith in Christ and baptism. So how is this a characteristic? Well, this is a characteristic because so many organizations that you join, you join them by birth. You know, you are a part of that people simply because you were born. But even in Judaism, you are not part of a people just by being born. You are circumcised and you are brought up among the people and become sons and daughters of the commandments. And we as Christians, we become members of this people of God, building on the first characteristic.

We become members of this people of God, not by physical birth, but we became part of this family by being born. born anew by the water and spirit, that is by faith in Christ. So to unpack that just a little bit, there's several things there. One is that we came into this by being born again, born anew, a birth of water and the spirit. Now, all of the church fathers unanimously agree that this, which is in John chapter three, that this deals with baptism, water. And that is how we come into membership here.

We are born again. We are baptized, which means that we die with Christ. We rise with Christ. And the original sin is dealt with. And we receive the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. And we are then, as it says in the catechism, we are brought into the family of God. this way. That's what baptism does. It unites us with the family of God, the church. And now we live by faith. We live by faith. And faith is more than believism, as I've talked about so many times in the

past. Faith is twofold. One, acknowledging the truth. Two, entrusting ourselves to the truth, to Christ. So that's what makes us a member. And the process is transformative. Righteousness and sanctification are the work of Christ. It's not figurative, but we, in our essence, are changed. So what happens to us is not just between the ears. We become new people because of this baptism. There's nobody, no other group on earth that would tie their horse to that post right there. That is so unique, so different, and it's one of the characteristics. Okay, we've got several more. We're going to go through on the other side of this break.

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Am I saved? How do I develop a better prayer life? How do I trust in God? The Curious Catholic is a new series of by-size books from Ascension that answer these questions and more. The Curious Catholic features small books from various authors that provide busy Catholics ways to go deeper into spiritual questions.

The first three titles in the series are from Father Mike Schmitz, host of the Bible in a year podcast. Father Mike's books explore the topics of salvation, prayer, and trusting in God. To learn more about the Curious Catholic series, go to ascensionpress.com slash curious Catholic. That's ascensionpress.com slash curious Catholic. We're looking today, welcome back, by the way, looking today at the seven characteristics of the people of God. And the first one was that it is the people of God, where God is not our property. The second one, one becomes a member through being born again or born anew by baptism and we live by faith. The third characteristic is this people has for its head, Jesus Christ, the anointed,

the Messiah. Because of the same anointing, the Holy Spirit flows from the head into the body and this is messianic people. We are the messianic people. Now, that is very beautiful. That's wonderful. You should take delight in that, that the head here is not voted in. Oh, thank God for that.

The head is not voted in. There isn't a committee. There's not a committee. Now, there is leadership here on earth, certainly, and the Magisterium, the bishops and union with the Holy Father. That's a whole different thing. But the head of the church we're talking about is not elected, is not a part of a committee, doesn't come from one particular branch or people here on earth. The head of this whole thing, the whole people of God is Jesus Christ, second person to the Trinity, and that the Holy Spirit flows from the head into the body, and now we become the messianic body.

And that means that we're the messianic people. We're the ones that bring this message to the world and convey it. We share in his body and blood. That's part of becoming the messionic people. We share in his body and blood in the Mass, where he gives himself to us in a covenant celebration that brings us to that cross 2,000 years ago. It doesn't happen again, but through the sacrament we are brought to that event and we partake. and we are there at this covenant meal.

This is my body. This is my blood. You hear my word. I give you the covenant meal. And what we consume, we become. And what we consume, we live. The head has given us his word and his body and blood. Every mass celebrates this.

We do not have services. We have a mass. A liturgical covenant ceremony. celebration that places us right at the foot of the cross in the covenant meal. So we share in his life by partaking in his body and blood. The fourth characteristic, the status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. That is cool.

The status of this people is, this is what characteristic, is that of the dignity and the freedom of the sons of God. There is dignity, the sons and daughters of God, and there is freedom. And in the hearts of all of its members, the Holy Spirit, dwells, making us a living temple with living stones. All right. Well, that is unique. And it poses a problem, too, because, as you know, if you build with the regular stones, once you place that stone in its place, you know, just your job's done at that point. Go on and get a burger.

Get something to drink. It's there. It'll probably be there in a thousand years from now. Or 3,000 or 4,000 years from now, like the Salomonic stones around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Still there. No one messed with them. Some, they messed with, you know, the Romans messed with a lot of them, and they crashed them and burned them. But there still are stones there from Herod and the Salomonic stones, Solomon, that are still there, and you can just reach out and touch them. But if you're building with living stones, this temple, good luck.

Because living stones have a way of getting jealous, envious, angry, pouty, self-centered. And they walk away. I don't want to be a part of this temple anymore. I'm going to take my stones and go build something else. Can you imagine the work Jesus has to do with dealing with us? Now, stay positive, Jeff. Stay positive. You're talking about the seven characteristics.

But you know, in some of these characteristics, there are things to deal with. It's not all, you know, bright and sunny. as his people, guess what we do? Well, as his people, we witness his presence. We witness concerning his message and his invitation to become a part of God's family. We are sons and daughters, not slaves.

We're not mere matter that morphs into other forms of life after we die. We don't come back as someone in Romania. We don't come back as the president of Poland when we die. When we die, the church teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And if need be a process to deal with what needs to be dealt with before you go into the presence of the Lord, purgatory, so be it. But we are not slaves. We are sons. We are daughters of the most high.

We are created in the image of God. And you should be able to see something of God in me. You should be able to see something of God in your family. They should be able to see something of God in you, the way you live, the way you think, the way you act, the way you love. We are capable of reasoning, acting with our will, and loving. Pretty different. And number five, its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us.

This is the new law of the Holy Spirit. That is one of our characteristics. One of our characteristics is that we are commanded to love as Christ loved. Well, that's a tall drink right there because we normally love, you know, and there's different words in Greek that are used for it. We have eros, which is erotic and it is a passionate love. It could be for a man or a woman, a husband and a wife, or it could be collecting baseball cards. It's a passion, eros. and you have Storgay, which is the love between a mother and child,

Storge and Phileo, like the city of Philadelphia, brotherly love. There's that type of love. But then, and by the way, all of these other organizations and religions and so forth around the world can certainly have Eros and can have Storge and can have Phileo. But this group of us right here, I'm not saying other groups wouldn't say they have it. Don't get me wrong on that. But this group here, the people of God, we're called to walk in a new kind of love called Agape.

Agape love in Greek. It is God's love. It is a sacrificial love that will give your life for others for the greater good and for their end. That's pretty different. Yeah, that's really different. And that's one of our characteristics. Number, let's see here.

Oh, yeah, I'm still on this. Before I go to number six, I just wanted to remind you about this new law, this new law of the Holy Spirit. In the sermon on the Mount, which is Matthew 5, 6, and 7, like Moses going up to Mount Sinai and receiving Torah, Jesus went up on the mountain. What did he do? He gives us the new law, the new law. And at the heart of it is love, love. Love others who are in this family.

and love others who are not in this family with the love of God. That's sacrificial love. This is the work we have to do. Our unique characteristics have now turned around, stared us in the eyes and have said, I demand something of you. You walk this way. Number six, its mission is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This people is a most sure seed of unity.

The catechism says unity, hope, and salvation for the whole human race. Say that again. Its mission is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, salt and light. This people is a most sure seed of unity. Oh, are we? Oh, wow. I got to go back and check to see if that's right. Because I don't see that as much as I think we should see that. Maybe there's a typo. Look here now. Nope, nope, no typo there. Got it. Right. The people is a most sure seed of unity. hope and salvation for the whole human race. Whoa. I'm not sure I like these characteristics. There's a lot of responsibility here. Kidding. But that is really serious, isn't it?

That is really serious. So we have the responsibility to handle what is called the charygma. The chrygma is the proclamation of the gospel. It is what salt and light do in the world. We tell people, we tell people the truth. We live the truth. And what is that basic proclamation? It's called the corigma.

I have a book that you can get, and it's called The Activated Disciple through Ascension. And I have a whole chapter on the corigma. What we proclaim to people. Number one, God loves you. It has an amazing plan for your life. Part of the plan is these characteristics. And number two, sin has wrecked the plan.

Number three, Jesus loves you so much. He died for your life. sin. Number four, he wants us to respond to that love that he has demonstrated in the sacrifice that he has made. And how do we, how do we respond? Well, we repent. That is, we completely radically reorient our life to Jesus. And then number five is that we become baptized and receive the Holy Spirit in confirmation. And number six, we joined this amazing family with seven characteristics. unique characteristics. And number seven, we go out into the world ourselves. That is the mission to be salt and light in the world. And number seven, drum roll, please. I don't have a drum

roll. Its destiny finally is the kingdom of God, which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection by him at the end of time. So basically what we're saying there is that our destiny is the kingdom of God. Our destiny is heaven. Our destiny is what we would call the beatific vision to be with God face to face. We're seeing them face to face. Right now it's through like a mirror. It's like a fog dimly seeing what, you know, the reality of all this.

But there's going to be a day where we will be face to face. to face with God and everything will be totally clear, we'll see ourselves for who we really completely are. And that's our destiny. And that's a unique characteristic of the people of God is heaven and eternal life. You see, Jeff, I thought other people believed in heaven as well. Yes, they do. But we're talking about a unique destiny of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, the beatific vision to see him for who he is face to face and to live on in eternity because we are eternal beings. So there it is, folks. There it is, my friend, seven unique characteristics of the people of God. Now, as I close here, I would go back to what I brought up at the very

beginning. And that is the very, very reading of paragraph 782, which said the people of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religions, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history. And I would bring it all the way back around and then ask that question again, are you marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish you at work in your neighborhood, your family, bridge club, whatever? are you are you living those unique characteristics you might want to go through these seven again I'll put them in the notes for you here but if you just want to jump to it yourself you can go to

paragraph 782 and following it's pretty obvious when you go there these seven characteristics and I've added another one in I put in the catechism the first paragraph I'll put that in the show notes for you just going over this yep I think this is just a Yeah, it is. It's Command A and paste. I think that's what we've got here. So, well, that was fun. I enjoyed sharing that with you. And it's kind of fun to stare at our navels just for a little bit to find out who we are. But we can't do that all day. We've got to go and live this faith now. So let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we love you so much. And we thank you for the call on our life to be your people, sons and daughters, unique people. and you have empowered us with your message, and you brought us into a family. You have an end for us, which is heaven, and in between, Lord, you have given us so much. You have given us a tremendous status as sons and daughters brought in by being born anew. And you have called us, Lord, you've called us to follow you, the head.

You are the head. You are the focus of our lives. and we have dignity and freedom in you. We thank you for the new law of the Holy Spirit, the law of love that you have given us, and the mission that you have sent us on as salt and light. Finally, Lord, we just thank you now for eternal life. We thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Again, if you want the notes, it's Jeff Kaven's text. That name, Jeff Kavins, one word. 23777. Look forward to seeing all of you unique people with unique characteristics next week. God bless.