The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Jesus, the Master Communicator (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

How did Jesus teach? What was his style? It is very important for us to understand what Jesus taught and what it means for our lives. However, as Jeff Cavins shares in this episode, it is also important for us to understand how Jesus taught. If we can understand his methods, we can do our best to share and teach the faith as he did. Jeff outlines some of the characteristics of Jesus’ teaching method in this episode. Snippet from the Show “I fell more in love with Jesus as I learned how he taught and communicated.” 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 https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show 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 391, Jesus, the Master Communicator. Welcome to the show this week. It's good to be with you and thinking about you and thinking about how Jesus, Jesus, how Jesus, Jesus impacts our life in so many different ways. And today we're going to take a look at Jesus, the Master Communicator. And there's going to be a lot of show notes. If you do want the show notes, all you've got to do is text my name, one complete name, Jeff Kavins, and text it to the number 33777. That's 3377.

And we'll get you all the notes. And you'll get the notes in the shows coming up next week, in the week after, and the month after, and the year after, hopefully. And we'll stay on the same page. So I do hope you're having a good week. We're in our second week now after Emily's surgery on her knee. She broke her for tibia playing pickleball. And it wasn't even for the state championship. It was just the second time she's played pickleball.

And it was an unfortunate fall. And she ended up with surgery. And so taking care of her and spending a lot of time with her, which is good. And yeah. And a lot of you mentioned you wrote me. me some notes, you know, emails and some posts that I saw where you were praying for, and I appreciate that very, very much. She's busy right now. She's just finishing her PhD in biblical history and archaeology. And an archaeologist has to get down there in the dirt a lot. And so

she needs those knees and I do appreciate your prayer. I really do. Okay, so let's take a look at this, shall we? Jesus, the master communicator. I still remember the day back in the 1980s when I just fell in love with Jesus the teacher. I still remember it. And it was a whole year of my life in 1984. Yes, yes, 1984 that I spent the good part of most of it, I guess, that year studying Jesus the teacher. And I was so blessed because I got to go to Israel a lot. I got to study with some of the greatest teachers at Hebrew University. Those that were experts in the first century. And they were experts in what's called the second temple period, which is the time of Jesus. And that we call it the second temple period because the first temple was Solomon. Then

Zerubba will build the second temple after they came back from Babylonian captivity. So I fell in love with Jesus the teacher. And I know that might sound funny because people say, well, I fell in love with Jesus God. And that's true. We do. But it wasn't really until I saw him teach and understood how he taught that I just fell in love with them all over again and just pinned the term genius on them and just an absolute genius of a teacher and if all of us as teachers, DREs or podcasters or pastors, if we could just get

1% of Jesus genius, we'd probably turn the world upside down. But, you know, when we think about Jesus, we obviously think that this is a wise man and people have kind of this vision in their mind of this rabbi, this sage, this wise man walking around the country and making up stories and so forth on the spur of the moment. And that's just not how that was. I mean, Jesus was a Jew. He taught in Jewish ways. He ate as a Jew, dressed as a Jew, prayed as a Jew. And his teaching style was that of a rabbi in the first century. And so some people say, well, I wanted him to be different. Well,

he was different. He was different, but he completely used the styles, the clothes, the food, the prayers of the day. And that's what's beautiful about it, is that he walked with the father. He was obedient to the father in the same world that you and I are living in. Now, it'd be different if he cheated somehow, right? He's God, but he was fully man as well. It's called the hypostatic union, fully God, fully man, one person, two natures, not two people, one person, two natures. And as I, as I saw him teach, I just fell in love with him as this amazing teacher. I do think that it's really important, actually, to remember that when you are talking about

Jesus as a faith teacher, religious teacher of the time, you have to consider more than the fact that he was just a dynamic personality, that he was a bigger than life personality as a religious figure, but we also have to take into consideration not just what he said, but how he taught, how he went about his role in teaching. That is incredibly important. And I feel so blessed that I was able for close to a decade really immerse myself into the backgrounds of Jesus teaching and how he taught. Now, he says in John 1313, and this will be in the show notes for you, he said, you call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. And I love that. Teacher and Lord. And as a teacher, Jesus had a particular skill among gazillions of skills, and that was that he

literally could capitalize on every opportunity that came his way. And so there could be an animal, there could be a rain, there could be a flower, there could be a lake, a sea, a mountain, there could be someone who needs healing. Any situation became a natural opportunity, then he found this almost spontaneous way of not only teaching, but gaining the attention of the people that he was teaching. So he had this natural way of catching the people's attention, and he had a natural way of catching their interest. sharing the truth with them. And so I cannot emphasize enough the style of Jesus

teaching. And for you, if you're a DRE, you're a religious educator of some type, you're a pastor of a flock, I would really encourage you to pay attention to Jesus, the teacher. Because on every occasion, he found some way to pass on the truth to people. And I've always been excited about that. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share with you a number of tips taken from Jesus' teaching that might help you. And one of them, before we get to a list that I'm going to go through, you know, the one, two, three, four, five. I do have to say this, and that is that Jesus was the master at taking abstract ideas and making them concrete. And one of the most difficult tasks we have as parents, as educators, as best friends who are sharing the gospel. with others is that we find it very difficult to go from abstract to concrete.

And we can say abstract things, you know, like transubstantiation, and we can talk about the transfiguration, we can talk about the resurrection, we can talk about all these things, and we can speak of them in abstract terms, but what does it mean in a concrete way? So, for example, I'll give you an example here, Mark Chapter 12. I'll put that in the notes for you. When the crowds ask Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? Well, he answered with a very well-known answer, Deuteronomy 6-4, called the Shmaa in Hebrew. And it would have sounded like this.

Shma, Israel, Adonai, Eloheny, Adonai, Echad. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So that is the answer. So when they asked him, what's the greatest commandment? He doesn't want to go into the abstract and stay there. He wants to show you how this is concrete and how you do it. So his answer was, yes, Shma, Israel, Adunai, Eloheno, Adunay, Ahad. And then he said the second was like it.

And that is to love your neighbor as yourself. So the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your body, to love the Lord. That's the greatest commandment. So, well, how do you do that? How do you make that concrete? And Jesus says this. He said, the first one is, you heard the first commandment.

The second is, like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. That added line slammed the abstract down into the concrete. And so I love that so much about it. How do you love God? He's so abstract. How do you do it? Well, you love your neighbor as yourself.

Oh, okay. So there's a relationship between my love for God and my love for you, my friend, you bet, there is. There really, really is. So as Jesus put it, our love for God is expressed not just in pews and pulpits and stained glass windows, but what? In relationships with people, in how you and I get along with him, this or her, or them, whoever they might be. Dynamic Christianity, my friend, is worked out in marriages, in friendships, and partnerships, neighborhoods, communities, property lines, and sales contracts to simplify if we love God, the first ones to know it will be our family, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues

at work. I could just go and find out if you love them, find out, well, if you love God or not. So I love the way he does it. I just wanted to mention that to you that he goes from the abstract to the concrete. Okay. And, you know, I can keep going with that, too. I mean, look at what 1st John 420 says, and I'll stick that in the notes for you too. John said, if anyone says, I love God,

yet hates his brother, he is a liar. Anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. Love it. Okay, go from the abstract to the concrete. We're going to take a break. When I come back, I'm going to give you this list, this marvelous list of,

of ways that Jesus taught personality characteristics, strategies. I want to go over a few of those. And I also want to talk to you a little bit about how he secured a pupil's attention, a student's attention, because he was a master at it. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, I'm Father Michael Joseph Paris, and I am one of the hosts of Season 3 of Catholic Classics, where we'll read and explain the story of a soul by St. Teresa of Liseu,

doctor of the church, an incredible saint who has inspired millions of Catholics with her life and teachings. To follow along, get the reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Catholic Classics. Welcome back. We're talking all about Jesus today, which we normally do in every show, and that's what we're all about. Jesus is the center of our life. I'm living the dream. I'm living the life of Christ every single day. Doesn't mean I'm perfect. just means I'm trying to live that life, just like you, you know. And sometimes you feel like it's two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes you feel like it's three steps forward and three steps back. And I like those days where it's three steps forward and zero back. I like that.

Okay, so let's take a look, shall we? In just, these are some things that the writers, theologians, myself have noticed over the years about Jesus and what makes him so unique. So let's start off, number one. As an influencer and as a teacher, Jesus was number one. Doesn't matter where he was, he was available, unless he went somewhere to pray. They found him then too, but he was available. And so if you are an influencer, if you are someone who's teaching, if you are a pastor who's giving homilies, whatever it might be, it is so important for us as leaders and as people who have set responsibility.

as parents and grandparents as CEOs, whatever it might be, is to be available. Available to who? Available to those that we're hoping are going to be transformed by the message. Not just available to, hey, what's going on, bud? But to be available as a teacher, to be available as someone who can teach or add to the teaching in some way. John 114 says, the word became flesh. I love that. The word became flesh and lived for a while among us. See, that's being available. God became available in the incarnation. And he became available in Jesus Christ. And when he spoke to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she was pregnant, he was speaking about the son of God who would be born and available on earth. Isn't that beautiful? He's available. The word became flesh and lived among us.

And I think that it's really, it's safe to say that Jesus' incarnation was so important. It was so important that God would show us how to live that he became one of us. He became a person. And not only did he become a person, listen, he wasn't a rock star that had to be separated and only brought out for certain things, you know. He was available. He was available. He pitched his tent right smack in the middle of your workplace. right in the middle of your home and your neighborhood, and he rented a house on your block

and walked down my street. So he was available. I also like what it says in John 129. We're looking at John here. John 114, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. But I like verse 29 too. John saw Jesus coming toward him, and that's street level availability. He saw Jesus coming toward him. Jesus was available. He's physically accessible. not only was he physically available he was emotionally available also have you ever run into a situation like that where somebody was physically available but not emotionally available they were burned out tired they were they had they played their cards close and they really weren't available to you i remember this one teacher years and years ago it was in a secular college and the teacher was just so

brilliant, absolutely brilliant to the point where you wanted to have a cup of coffee with the teacher to talk about it more. But lo and behold, the teacher had, this was in college, had visiting schedule and it was like a half an hour a week. It was just no availability. You'd always go there and said, all these names written in or full or day changed. It just was frustrating because he wasn't available. So you want to be a teacher like Jesus, become available. Number two, sensitive. Jesus was sensitive. He was tuned in. He was sensitive. He picked up on subtle people signals. You know, you know what I'm talking about there, right? You know, that what do we talk about with women? We talk about women's tuition. They're just this, and I don't know because I'm not a woman,

but I trust that it's there. We talk about it a lot. Women's intuition and that they pick up on things that maybe men don't pick up on. I don't know, maybe men pick up on things women don't pick up on. But Jesus seemed to have this sensitivity about it. He was just so tuned in and he picked up on really subtle people signals. Now, I know a little bit about that, not that I have achieved it, but I know a little bit about it and the importance of it, especially at speaking engagements. Now, when I speak around the world in the United States primarily, but when I speak around the United States and I'm in a city, let's say I'm in Cincinnati. I'm in Kansas city. And I'm talking to some people either prior to the talk or, you know, meet and greet or

afterwards at a book table. And I know that when I'm talking to person X with a red shirt, I know person Y is standing to my right with a blue shirt and they are waiting. I don't need to look. I know they're there. And I can tell in my peripheral vision that they're waiting. for just a moment to have a word with me. That's being tuned in. And Jesus did this in spades. He really, really did. He knew. Well, let me say this. In John 1, continuing on there, verse 38, he seemed to know someone was following him, pulling on him, sensitive. And he knew that all the time. So what do we do when we sense that someone is following? us. Now I'm not talking about in a creepy way because the answer to that is call 911, but you know

there's someone following you. You know there's someone pulling on your heart. You know they are drawing you in. You can't even cogently describe this other than you know it's there. It's intuition. What do we do? We either run or we turn and confront them in a good way. Hi, how are you doing? And Jesus turns and lovingly faces the curious followers. And when Jesus asks them, what do you want? They were doubtless feeling a bit awkward. And they answered, where do you live? Notice this answer.

Come and see. And get this, within seconds of meeting them, Jesus invites them to where he lives. Now, the question is, are we this sensitive? Are we this sensitive? Now, there needs to be some caution there. you don't just drag home anybody that you happen to see and surprise your family with these people. So you've got to use some common sense here. I'm not saying you're just every single person you invite in.

But Jesus did invite people in, and that's something that we should at least be open to. So did Jesus want to show them his interior decorating job? No. He wanted to show them the perspective on life from his place. on how to live their life and how to pray and what to do in the various areas of their life. So that is very, very important. So there's two big things there. One is available.

Number two is sensitive to become sensitive. Now, real quickly here, what I want to do, now I want to go into just a little bit on securing the pupil's attention. I say pupil, but disciple, the student. I'm not sure exactly what name I should put on that, whether it's a child or whether it's a student or a disciple or a pupil. How do you secure someone's attention? How do you do that? Well, securing the student's attention actually is a very top priority. It is very much a top priority for anybody that wants to pass on faith, truth,

the perfect. You want to make sure that you do have their attention. Okay. So what were those attention-winning things that Jesus did? What were they? In other words, how did Jesus make contact with his pupils? Well, here we go. Number one, he used his eyes. He used his eyes. It says in John 138, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew. Jesus turned and beheld them following him. And so he used his eyes. He looked, he saw, he turned, he beheld them following him. I cannot over-emphasize this enough, that if we want to gain the attention of somebody that we are talking to,

and this would work for kids certainly, and I think this is why parents say, look at, me. I said, look at me. He looked me in the eyes. That's very, very powerful. But I have noticed, you know, over the years, many people who are speaking, teaching, preaching, whatever it might be, both Catholic and Protestant, and they don't use their eyes as a tool to gain the attention of the people they're talking to. They just look down at their notes. They look at their side. They look beyond the people, they look up, they close their eyes, their eyes dance around, but they can't seem to look at anybody. I got to tell you, as a person who has sat in the crowd before, when a teacher looks right at me or points at me, or I can tell that they pause briefly in

looking at me, that they saw me, they care, they got my attention, and they might look at me in another minute or two. But if your eyes are dancing all around the place and you're looking beyond people they're going to come to the instant conclusion of what i'm boring i'm not interesting you're looking beyond me you've got something else on your mind use your eyes use your eyes you've heard that saying before the eyes are you know that that that portal to the to the soul to the heart and i think in many ways they are and sometimes it's hard to look at somebody because it is intimate to a degree in a positive platonic way when you look at somebody there's an engagement there and you have to watch that for good and for bad if you want to be a good teacher

number two he initiated conversations he said to the woman at the well in john four seven through nine i'll put all these in the show notes for you he initiated the conversation the woman at the well how many times do we go somewhere and we are standing next to somebody and they are desperately in need of Christ's peace, and we lack the skill of initiating a conversation. I also get a lot of people writing and saying, how come all these meetings with people and your stories that you tell, on airplanes or a bus or at the mall or whatever, how come they only happen to you? Well, they don't only happen to me, but I think one area that I've worked on for 40 years is initiating a conversation. And now I mean this when I say it. I think I could

initiate a conversation with anybody, anywhere, anytime. And that's what I say in our activated disciple book and the activated disciple teachings is that that's a skill that you can develop. How do you initiate a conversation? You're standing there. Where is the person, where are they at? The person you're looking at, they're standing next to a car. They have groceries. They have two kids with them. There's always a way to start a conversation. It could be anywhere. And so he said in John 4, 7 through 9, give me a drink. That's John 4, 7 through 9.

Give me a drink. Do you mind if you open the door? Could you open the door for me? Thank you. Oh, that was nice of you. There's all kinds of ways of initiating a conversation. And so I think it would be a good exercise to spend a little bit of time doing that, you know. And I think that that's going to make it easier to open up a conversation.

where you have the opportunity to share Christ with other people. Well, you know what I'm going to do here? I'm not going to have an hour show today for your sake. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pause right there. And then next week, when we come back, I'm going to pick up on points 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Let's see, yes, 7 different ways that Jesus secure. cured the student's attention. So far we've looked at, he used his eyes.

And number two, he initiated conversation. Now, the third one that we're going to get into next week, he asked questions. And we're going to look at a whole boatload of questions that he had and what he was trying to get across in the questions. He was a master. Do you know he used questions in over 10 different ways? we'll go over that next week. I think it's going to be a good show. Hey, by the way, before we go, please know that I am praying for you, and I would ask you to pray for me every week. I do appreciate it. And by that, I mean, bring me before the Lord

and ask the Lord to help me to be a holy, upright teacher that is faithful to God's word and that God would give me the energy to do it. I would really appreciate that, you know, for me. And if you have a special prayer intention, you can certainly send that into me. My email for the show is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And let me know how I can pray for you as well. And I will certainly do that. Let's pray. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Jesus, we love you so much. And we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity that we have to walk as your disciples, to be you in the world. And Lord, may we learn. from the things that were very natural for you but for some of us very difficult help us to

break down those barriers and to have courage to be the person that you called us to be the person we never thought we would be i thank you for this jesus with all of my heart in your name we pray amen father son and the holy spirit amen i love you looking forward to next week Thank you.