The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Activated Disciple Series Part 2: Imitating God

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

When you imagine what a disciple should look like, what do you see? In this second part of the Activated Disciple series, Jeff Cavins discusses the importance of imitating Christ in order to be a disciple. Snippet from the Show God does not ask us to change and then abandon us. He remains with us. 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 in living as activated disciples. This is episode 261, the activated disciple retreat, imitating God. Well, thanks again for joining me again this week. Hey, this is our retreat. We're doing a Lenton retreat together on the F-Kaven show. And what better topic during Lent than studying how to be a disciple, how to be an activated disciple, and bring your faith to a whole new level? You know, I ask people that question all the time. Could you spare a little elevation in your faith? Would you like to go to a new level in your faith? Learn to walk with Jesus, as the early disciples did, as what I call an activated disciple, not just someone who likes to read about the Bible and Christianity, but somebody who wants

to actually follow Jesus day in and day out. And I'm telling you, your life can change in a radical way. I'm telling you that you can talk to people, you never thought you had talked to, you can share with people things you thought you'd never share, and you can step out of the boat and walk on water in ways that you have never done before in your life. The retreat that we're doing here is really based on my new book, The Activated Disciple. Many of you have bought it. You got all the materials ready for this retreat, and you're ready to go. Last week was lesson number one, and that was chapter number one, fan or follower. This week we're going to be talking about the second chapter, which is all about imitating God. And we're learning about how to become

an activated disciple. If you have not received your book yet in order to be patient, will be coming, and it's never too late to get the book and the materials. All of that information will be in the show notes, but I can't tell you how honored I am just to have you go along with me on this retreat, a retreat that I need in my life, and who doesn't need a retreat once in a while, get their life right with God and learn to walk with God? Well, let's begin with prayer, and then we're going to dive into this whole issue of discipleship but from a biblical perspective, today we're going to go back into the Old Testament and really look at what the foundations of discipleship really are.

So we're going to be taking a look at that. So let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Jesus, oh, we love you. And we thank you for calling us to be your disciple and calling us to imitate you, calling us to pick up your mantle, your mission, your yoke. and to walk into the world equipped by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to take our minds off of our own agendas, our own kingdoms,

and to place our mind on yours and our efforts, our strength towards building up your kingdom. Lord, may we be faithful. May we be faithful as disciples we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. When I was a kid growing up, I was the best imitator of baseball superstars. That's what I did growing up. No kidding. I practiced swinging like a major league hitter.

I mean, the best swing possible. And I loved doing this. I was Harmon Killebrough. I'm a Minnesota Twins fan growing up here in the Twin Cities. And as a kid growing up, Harmon Killebrew, there was just nobody better. He was a home run king, such a nice guy. He had a very distinctive stance at the plate. And, well, I imitated him.

And if anybody saw me up to the plate, you know, as 11-year-old, 12-year-old, they knew that was Harmon Killebrew. They couldn't even hardly tell the difference other than when they looked close. They realized he was about 30. Okay. So I also know Joe Morgan's grip on the bat. and Rod Carew and all of these great guys. We had talked to each other about what number are you?

You know, we'd get on a new team, and I was number three. I had to have number three because that was Harmon Killebrew, and I'll fight over that. That's who I wanted to be. As a teenager, I could perfectly imitate Jimmy Hendricks and Joe Walsh and Carlos Santana on what? I had an heir, Les Paul, and that's a Gibson guitar. And in fact, that is in storage right now.

And I'm actually thinking of selling three of my air guitars that I have. And so if you are interested at all in purchasing them, consider it an NFT, non-fungible token. Look that up. But I don't play the guitar anymore, but I am seriously thinking about selling these guitars, these air guitars on eBay. It'll be a fundraiser, of course. And as a young pastor growing up, after I left the Catholic Church, I was a

young pastor and I had Billy Graham down. I could imitate Billy Graham and I wanted to be like Billy Graham. TVs do this as well, don't they? All the commercials on there, not the TV, but the commercial. Marketing wants you to be someone. Marketing has an idea of who you can become and we watch those commercials and we see ourselves in that car, you know, or those shoes or on that island vacationing. I can see myself there. I can see myself doing that. I want to be like Mike. Oh, I'll get the right shoes, Air Jordans. Even McDonald's knew and understood that I deserved a break today.

And so marketing is very, very clever at bringing you into their world. And they know that this whole concept of imitating is very, very, very powerful. Now, let me ask you a question as we look into this next segment about imitating God. Let me ask you, in your mind, what do you see? in your mind, what do you see when you think of being a disciple of Jesus? I'm really asking you to go into your mind and your heart in the recesses, the quiet of the mind, and ask yourself, when I imagine myself being a disciple of Jesus, what does that look like? What does that feel like to be a disciple of Jesus? Where would I walk? What would I say? How many times would I get together?

with him. Do you have that, that picture in your mind of being a disciple of Jesus? I think that, to be honest with you, I think that this is one of the points in the modern Christians world that is lacking. And that is an incarnational spiritual imagination that can dream of what that must have been like to follow Jesus 2,000 years ago. But more importantly, what that must be like today to walk with Jesus in the modern setting. And I do think that one of the problems that we face, to be honest with you in this retreat together, I think that one of the problems that we face is that we do not have an inner vision of what it looks like to follow Jesus. Now, I'm not talking about going to the conference.

I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about going to a Bible study or anything. I like that. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about seeing you as a disciple. From morning to evening, your life as a disciple. I think we lack that imagination. I think we lack that inner understanding, that vision of the heart of what it means to be with him on a daily basis. And so I want to start with the big picture here when we talk about discipleship from a biblical perspective. And as you know, if you've gone through the Great Adventure Bible study, which is the study that Bible in a year with Father Mike and myself is based on, well, then you know that in the Bible, I start with the big picture. It's the great big Bible timeline. And I break

it down into the whole Bible into 12 periods. And then out of the 73 books chose the 14 books that are narrative approach, approach. In other words, they keep the story moving and then show you where the 59 other books fit within the context of the 12 periods and those 14 books. Well, when we get a big picture of discipleship, it leads you to somewhere. It leads you to the Old Testament. And the blueprint for discipleship is found in the Old Testament. And it's not only in the Old Testament, which many people don't read. You know, pause just for a second there. I get more people asking me, what is the key? What's the best way to get to know Jesus in the New Testament? What's the best way? And I tell every one of them the same thing. The best way

to know Jesus is to know the Old Testament because he came to fulfill all of it. And if you know it, then it becomes rather obvious when you come to his life. And so the blueprint for discipleship is found in the most overlooked part of the Bible, which is the Old Testament, and specifically in the Old Testament. Guess what? It is in the book that is most overlooked in the Old Testament. Take a guess. Well, if you said, if you said Leviticus, you're right. You're right. The blueprint for discipleship is found in Leviticus. Now, Leviticus, if you're not sure where that is, all you got to do is put your Bible on the side and look, and you'll see this strip of gold that used to be there. It's like all worn away from the side of your Bible. That's Leviticus. Just kidding. That's probably the

shiniest part. If you have gold gilding, if you have gilding, that's probably the shiniest part of your Bible. So if it is, you've come to the right retreat. All right. So we start to look at, we have the five books of Moses at the very beginning. We have Genesis and then we have Exodus. Genesis, of course, covers the creation of the world, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And then And then Exodus covers the great exodus from Egypt after 400 years of bondage. And it is in this Exodus, after 400 years of bondage, that God comes to his people through the leadership of Moses and he leads them out of Egyptian bondage. But this starting point in understanding the foundation of discipleship, it brings us to a place where Israel is, frankly, in a very terrible condition.

They have had 400 years of influence by the Egyptians. They are dressing like the Egyptians. They are eating like the Egyptians. They're worshipping like the Egyptians. And for those of you that are older than 35, yes, they walked like Egypt. Egyptians. But they had everything Egyptian going on, and they were thoroughly, thoroughly, they were in Egypt, but more importantly, Egypt was in them. And it was after 400 years that God came in on eagle's wings. He brought them out of bondage. Why? Well, they called on him. They said,

help us. And Moses was the instrument that God used to bring him out of bondage. Now, it took three months from the time that they left Egypt to go down to Mount Sinai, three months. And then they spent one year at Mount Sinai. Now, it was at this year in Mount Sinai when they were going through detox, Egyptian detox, we'll call that. It was during that year where they were at the base of Mount Sinai that God gave them the book of Leviticus. It was right, it's in Exodus 32. That's where that's where the book is given right there. It's after the children of Israel rebelled against Moses, and Aaron led them into creating a golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain.

He took just a little bit more time than they had time for. And so they ended up committing this idolatry, and the covenant was broken, and we have Leviticus. Now, Leviticus is divided up into two sections. One is for the priests. and the other part is for the common people, all right? Now, Leviticus says some important things. It's addressing a nation who has been quarantined for 400 years.

Does that ring a bell? They were being addressed as a nation that had been in quarantine for 400 years, and what is really needed in their life is transformation. That's really what's needed is transformation. Before coming out of bondage, before being used by God, they would have to be transformed. And my friend, if you want to be an activated disciple of Jesus, you must go through a period of transformation in your life.

Ongoing transformation. It never ends. Catechism talks about this, how this transformation is in every period of our life, right? So before coming out of bondage, before being used by God, they would have to go through this transformation. and after God is done with them, how will they live then? When God has brought them out of Egypt to form them into his people, the first born

among all the nations, the question is, after they are brought out and God begins to work on their life, then how will they live? How will they treat each other? How will they worship? What about their neighbors? What about their children? finances. Well, God gave Israel the key and the goal of his transformation blueprint by repeating the key point over and over and over in the book of Leviticus. And you know what the key point was

that God was going to give Israel after 400 years of Egyptian bondage? After he set them free and was ready to transform them into his son that would have. have an influence on the whole world, what was the key? Here it is, six times, six times. I'll tell you what, I'll put these in the show notes for you, okay? And if you don't get the show notes, all you've got to do is type the number 3-3-7-77. That's the number you're going to text, and you're going to write my name, Jeff Kaven's, one word, and then we'll get you the show notes.

They'll be right back at you. six times God told Israel that they should do this. This is the key. Be holy as I am holy. Very simple, huh? Be holy as I'm holy. Six times. Chapter 11, verse 44, verse 45.

Chapter 19, verse 2. Chapter 20, verse 7. Chapter 20, verse 26. Chapter 21, verse 6. You can slow that down and write them down or just look at the show notes. Six times God told Israel that they should be holy as I am holy. Now think about that for a moment.

God is saying to his nation, who's been in bondage, okay, I set you free, be holy as I am holy. Now that word holy is the Hebrew word kadoosh, kadoosh, kadoosh, kadoosh, kadoosh, holy, holy, holy. To be holy is to be utterly distinct. It is to be set apart. It's to be different. And God's goal in transforming his firstborn among the nations, Israel, is to make them different.

You see, being a disciple of Jesus is about being different. It really is. It's not about blending with society. In fact, sometimes I even hear people using that as a tool to evangelize. is just blend in. Seriously? We are called to blend into the world? No, we're not called to blend into the world.

We're not called to be weird, but we're not called to blend in. We're called to be holy. Now, if holy is what everybody else is, then yay. But if everybody else is not holy, I don't want to blend in. I want to be holy as God is holy. I want to be like him. Now, when you look at the Bible, you see, God watches out for the widow. God watches out for the orphans, doesn't he? He visits the

infirmed and those who are fearful. God visits the sick. He visits the elderly as well as being concerned about justice and mercy in relationships. The list can go on and on. But the point is that God is providing Israel with concrete examples of how to think, how to speak, and how to act. Now, I'm going to build on this in just a moment. We're going to look at a couple more points that God is going to stress with Israel coming out of bondage. And then we're going to take a quick look at Jesus and Paul as well.

And we're going to lay down what is the foundation of discipleship. And trust me, it is something you can do. You really can. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Do you find it difficult to enter into the mysteries of the rosary? What about personally applying them to your life? Drawing from the writings of the saints, the Bible, and Catholic tradition, Matt Frat has produced Pocket Guide to the Rosary,

a masterful work that teaches Catholics how to truly meditate on the mysteries of the rosary, how to pray the rosary like the saints, and so much more. If you're looking to deepen your prayer life and improve the way you pray what St. Padre Pio called the weapon of our times, we invite you to check out Pocket Guide to the Rosary by Matt Frad. To order, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. Thanks for returning. We are in the midst of talking today about the foundation for discipleship, and we've all already established that God said to Israel when he brought them out of bondage that they are to

be holy as I am holy. That's what God says six times. Be holy as I am holy. And then God expands on his command to be holy as I am holy when he says in Leviticus chapter 10. I'll put this in the show notes for you as well. In Leviticus chapter 10 verses 10 and 11, God says, you are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. You are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. So God says, be holy as I am holy. But then he builds on that, and he says that, listen, if you're going to be my people, the first born among the nations, then you are to distinguish between the holy and the common

and between the unclean and the clean. I can just see God looking at them, right? Looking and saying, guys, look, look at me. Look at me a second. Give me your ears. Just a moment. I want you guys to be able to distinguish between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean.

You talk about a goal for your family and raising kids. Wow. Anything you see on TV, you hear it in the news, you see it on YouTube, whatever it is. You can take anything and use it as a little bit of a class period. to talk to your kids about what is holy and what's common. What's holy and what's common? You know, you would think we would talk about what's holy and what's unholy. But the Bible says what's holy and what's common because we're not called to be common.

We're called to be holy. We're not called to be like just every other person. Like Delilah, she wanted to know how Samson would become just like any other guy. And it was his holiness. It was his covenant relationship with God. We can go into that some other time, but I just found that interesting. I just thinking of that. The second thing that God said at Sinai there, he said, be holy as I'm holy.

He says, you need to learn to distinguish between the holy and the common. That's at home. That's at work. That's on the way home from work. That's at night. That's on your business trip, everything. Then Leviticus 18, God says, and the Lord said to Moses, say to the people, Israel, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt,

and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances by doing which a man shall live. I am the Lord. Isn't that beautiful? That is so beautiful. Now, I want to bring up one point connected to this, which we're going to see in the New Testament too, but it is critically important. We've established so far that God has spoken to this broken nation, these people who have been addicted to Egyptian idolatry and ways of life.

And God has them in the detox center down at the base of Sinai, and he has told them, I want you to be holy as I'm holy, I want you to discern, and I don't want you to obey the Egyptian rules and laws or the Canaanites, but mine, but mine. Then God does something really, really powerful here that is important when it comes to us understanding our lives as disciples with Jesus today, and that is this. When God said he wanted change in our lives, he didn't leave us alone. He didn't abandon us.

He didn't render us orphans. He said, I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be with you. That idea is tabernacle. I'm going to tabernacle among you. I'll be with you. And so there at Sinai, they received three big things. they received the word of God, the Torah, they received a new priesthood with the Levites, and they received

the tabernacle. This is important because when God says, I want change in your life, I want to transform you. He's also saying, I'm going to dwell in your midst. God tabernacled among his people in the tent of meeting, in the tent where the, where the Ark of the Covenant was, the Holy, Holy of Holy and the holy and the outer court. Oh, just beautiful, beautiful. Oh, God, thank you. Thank you that you've told us what you want to happen. And now, on top of it, you're not going to leave us.

You're going to be in our midst. So God is in their midst, and that is critical to discipleship. In the New Testament, of course, Jesus will choose 12 men and pour his life into them, and Jesus will tabernacle among us. I love that. So, that's the foundation. What is the foundation in the Old Testament there in Leviticus? Imitation.

Imitation is the foundation of discipleship. Now, let me ask you a real simple question, and I ask myself the question as well. Can you imitate? Can you imitate? That we can do, can't we? If we see Jesus doing something, we can imitate it. if we hear him teaching in a certain way or about a topic, I can imitate that. If he tells us to love our wives like Christ's love the church, I can imitate that, right?

So we come to the New Testament and then we now meet Jesus, who is God among us. See, God is not going to be just an intent. He's going to become one of us. Whoa, that is powerful. That is powerful. You talk about giving us everything we need to become disciples. He's going to become one of us and show. us how to do it. And so Jesus tells us what he says, listen to this, this is so beautiful.

He says, Jesus tells us that what he says and what he does is what he hears his father saying and what he sees his father doing. He says that in John 5. And so what we see is that Jesus, who is the one that we want to follow and become like, Jesus' private time with the father and what he said and what he did throughout the day were related. The catechism says in paragraph 2602, and I'm going to put that in the notes for you. That's paragraph 2602, Jesus' private time with the Father, and what he said and did throughout the day, his words and his works are the visible manifestation of his prayer and secret.

That means that what Jesus talked to the Father about in secret in prayer was manifested in his words and his works throughout the day. and so what we what we see is that when we come to jesus he's saying what he's saying look guys i don't do anything or say anything other than what i see my father doing and and hear my father's saying again imitation right so after that then we come to paul and paul continues this imitation paradigm what does he say husbands love your wives as christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. I can do that. He doesn't just say, husbands, love your wives in a godly way, figure it out. He doesn't say that. He says, as Christ loved the church. He told the Romans,

he said, welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. And then he says to the Ephesians, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. And to the Philippians, he said, in regard to selfishness, conceit and humiliation. And to the Philippians, he said, in regard to humility, walk with the mind of Christ. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ. Jesus is so good. So Paul eventually says, follow me as I follow Christ. You see, my friend, this second chapter really deals with imitation. And the beautiful thing about this is that everybody can do it. You don't have to have a degree in theology. You don't have to know all about the counsels or you don't have to be able to drive a nail through the catechism and spot on every page

where that nail went through by memory. No, you are born to imitate. Remember how they started off as a boy growing up? I remember sitting next to my dad in the bathroom and I had like an eraser or something. I pretended to shave myself. If you've seen me lately, you probably think I forgot, but I was imitating my father. We are imitating. A little baby. A little baby. that are just born, you know, their mother can make facial expressions and they will make those expressions back. It's beautiful. So this is the foundation. And finally, I would say in Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 1, therefore Paul says, be imitators of God as beloved children. Be imitators of God. Now, let me wind this up this week. Let me ask you a question. Do you think you could take just a

couple of things this week, whether it's being a husband, a wife, a friend, a son, daughter, employer, employee, a priest, a deacon, just a couple of things this week that you could focus on where you're going to say, I am going to imitate Jesus. I'm going to imitate Jesus. I'm going to imitate the Lord. That would be your assignment this week. And I do have some information in the show notes. I have three questions for you in the show notes that will accompany you throughout this week in light of this lesson. My friend, I love you. I pray for you and I ask God to bless you this week in Jesus' name. I pray and I pray that you will become more like the Lord this week. God bless you. We'll talk to you next week.