The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Jesus, The Master Communicator (Part 2)

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

Is it challenging for you to start up a conversation with someone? It can take a lot of courage and practice to communicate with a person, especially for the first time. How did Jesus do this? What were some of his common practices when approaching someone for the first time? Jeff Cavins continues his two part series on communicating like Jesus and digs into Scripture to give us real examples of how Jesus communicated. Snippet from the Show “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20) 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 in living as activated disciples. This is show 392, Jesus, the Master Communicator, Part 2. Welcome back, my friend. Welcome. We're going to continue this week to talk about Jesus, the Master Communicator. communicator and hopefully pick up on more of the things that he did just naturally, that we might be able to learn from him and adopt these in our own life, how we share Christ with other people. You know, when I was putting this together, I was thinking principally of teachers, DREs, we have

sacramental prep, we got pastors and deacons, and we have all kinds of teachers, maybe at a Catholic school and the things that I'm sharing here can be used not just in a Catholic setting obviously but any setting public school doesn't matter but the idea here is that we want to be like the master as he communicated we want to communicate like him and use his methodology in our own life and right away you know that you might think of yourself as not being a great communicator is someone who doesn't really speak well or arrange your thoughts properly whatever it might be but we can always stand to learn from Jesus. And when it comes to passing the faith on to other people,

last week we looked at a number of things, that a number of things about Jesus and how he was available and how he was vulnerable as the master communicator. But then we were starting to look into those, what we could call attention-winning things that Jesus did. He did them naturally when he made contact with people.

how he made contact with people. And I think, honestly, that's one of the biggest problems that many of us face today is that we don't know how to start up a conversation. We don't know how to go about sharing because why? Well, one reason is we feel so inadequate that we're just not skilled in that area. And two, we don't feel like we know enough. But sharing Christ or gaining the attention of your audience isn't really a matter of knowing a whole lot, and it's not a matter of your own old skill set. It's something that you can learn

from Jesus. And last week we left off with, number one, he used his eyes to capture people's attention. He used his eyes. He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, and Jesus turned and beheld them following him. We know that he used his eyes, and we talked a little bit about that last week. We also talked about how he initiated conversations. which is a real gift. It's a real skill to know how to initiate a conversation. But I would say this at the same time. It's not that hard.

It's not that hard. If you left sharing the faith out of the equation, you could probably start up a conversation pretty easy. Where'd you get your car? Ladies, you might like someone's purse. Where did you get that purse? I love it. Or you might run into a guy and,

he's wearing a Vikings jersey and you're saying a big Vikings fan yeah okay you started up a conversation it's really not that difficult so let's move into the next ones that we wanted to get finished with this week number three these are attention winning ideas from Jesus number three he asked questions he asked questions now I'm going to I'm going to pause on that one just for a moment and then I'm going to come back to it because that is going to end up being really the, I think the biggest part of this week's show. So let's just go to number four real quick. He invited companionship. That's one of the ways that he secured the audience's attention. He invited companionship in Mark 117. And by the way, all these are in the notes,

in the show notes. Let me just break there, shall I? If you don't know what the show notes are, all of the notes and scriptures and the verses that I use every week. And I want to to give them to you free. So all you got to do is send my name, Jeff Kavens, one word, Jeff Kavins, and text it to the number 3377. That's 3377. And we'll get you on the list there. So I break into our program to give you that message. Now, he asked questions. We're going to look at that in a second. But he invited companionship. Now, this to me is very much related to the first point, which is he used his eyes because you can use your eyes in such a way where you are communicating to somebody, I don't want to talk. I don't want you asking me anything. I don't

want you to even say hi. I'm not here. There's ways we can do that. You know there are. We can do that with our eyes. We can turn away. We can look down and we can look busy or we're doing something else or searching in our purse, whatever it might be. But he used his eyes for the good. He used his eyes for the good. And he initiated the conversations, but he used his eyes and he also invited companionship, which like the eyes, is an area where we could find out ways where we're not going to invite companionship. I'm too busy. I can't be with you. I don't have time. Find somebody else. I think they do that at this ministry, whatever it might be. Jesus was inviting companionship.

Now, you might say to yourself, well, I don't know that I'm that great of a companion, and I don't know that I'm that great at, you know, talking to someone. And this doesn't require you to be great. It just requires giving an open heart, you know, to invite companionship. After seeing Simon and Andrew, he said to them, follow me. now that's mark chapter 1 verse 17 let me give you an example of this okay years ago a few years ago and not years but a few years i guess i was at a huge box bookstore one of these big bookstores and i was going down the section of books that were quote-unquote religious okay and i have a few

of them there at this store it was barns and noble i guess there's nothing wrong i was saying that But I was going down that aisle, and I saw a man standing there with about eight or nine books in his arms he was going to buy. And one of them was mine. And I recognized several of the other authors. And I walked up to him, and I said, looks like you're interested in the Catholic faith there. He said, oh, yeah, yeah, I am. And I said, those are some really good books you picked out there. And then he wasn't really looking at me.

And then I mentioned my book. And I said, and I wrote that one. And he kind of laughed and I chuckled. And at that point, the conversation had begun. I was using eye contact. I initiated a conversation. And now it comes time to invite companionship. And so I said, I'm Jeff.

And he said, oh, so nice to meet you. This is unusual, isn't it? Yes, it is. And I said, I'd like to buy you a cup of coffee. And I'd love to talk to you. And we couldn't on that particular day. so I got his information and got back to him, and that's what we did. So invite companionship.

Is there a way for us to linger? Is there a way for us to spend some more time together? I'd love to have coffee with you next week. You know, I'd like to invite you over to our ladies' Bible study, whatever it might be. You can attain winning, attention getting things like Jesus if you invite companionship. Number five, he called people by name. Isn't there something about hearing your name? that is different than anything else.

I mean, I can stand in the middle of an auditorium and I can hear someone yell out, Peggy, John, Martha, Gary, Monica, Jeff. And you know what happens when I hear the Jeff. It's like, whoa, whoa, and I look around, who is that, who is that? That caught my attention when you use my name. I didn't respond when you said Peggy or Martha

or Gregory or Luke or whoever. I don't even notice it really I was just about my business but when you said my name wow that caught my attention and that's what Jesus did as a great leader and a great teacher he called people by name

which the scripture for that in the notes is John 142 Jesus looked at him and said you are Simon the son of John yeah that's I am Jesus that's my name that caught his attention no doubt so I would encourage you

if you're in this role of teaching and influencing people. If you're in a sacramental prep or a Bible study or something, try to remember to use people's names when you talk to them. It really does make a difference. It really does. And it tells someone right away that you took the time to remember their name. They're rememberable.

Rememorable. That's what they are. Rememorable. And they are not forgetful in the sense of, I'll never remember you again. Try to zone in. focus, look at them, get their name, and if you've got to come up with some funny mnemonic device to remember their name, then do it. But try. You know, my mentor, Bishop Paul

Dudley in the Twin Cities, passed away a few years ago. He's the one that brought me back into the Catholic Church. That guy could remember names of parishioners from 50 years ago. 50 years ago, they would meet him at a mall and you look at him, well, oh, Brad and Susan, and how are you? You talk about impressing someone. Wow. He called him by name. Number six, he called for attention with words such as listen, truly, behold.

And so there's so many of them, I'm not going to, I'll put them in the show notes for you, and you can look them up, but I'm not going to take the time right now to read all of them. But I know that we do this in the modern era too. There are certain words that we use to sort of clear the slate and, and bring up another topic. And one of them is, if you listen to or watch network news or not so much network news, cable news, CNN and Fox and some of the others, you'll notice that when somebody asks a question of somebody else, and it's a tough question, and they're not sure that they can really

answer it, they sort of erase everything by saying, look, okay, that word look. So someone says, well, tell me about this and this and that. And I'm not really prepared to do that. And say, you know, there's a lot I could say about that. But look. And now I'm changing dials. I'm changing stations on them. I'm bringing it somewhere else.

I say, look. Now, if I said as a teacher, if I said something for like two or three minutes and then I paused and said, look, this is what we need to do. The word look acted as that attention getting word, just like listen, truly. behold. If I walked up to you, you know, somewhere at a gas station or somewhere, and I said, hey, John, behold, let's have breakfast. Well, that catch your attention, wouldn't it? I don't typically do that. Truly, truly, I say to you, I want breakfast with you. So listen and truly and behold, these are words that really catch the attention of people. Another way of doing that

besides one word is a phrase like listen to me or can I tell you something or I have to inform you of something these are all ways that people catch other people's attention some of this as I said on the last week's show comes naturally for people it seemed to for Jesus and others they have to work at it and I'm kind of in the middle there I guess you know I need to learn and some of it does come naturally but he called for their attention. Okay, so we still have to get to this question of he used questions to get people's attention.

And to do that, we'll attack it. We'll go after it right after this. I'll be right back. 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 was inspired millions of Catholics with her life and teachings. To follow along, get the reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Catholic Classics. Thanks for coming back. It's so good to be with you. I think I said this before, and I truly mean it. There are so many times during the week that I think of you.

I do. It's like I imagine you driving in your car, jogging or whatever, and it's just that rare opportunity where we get, you know, a half an hour together every week, unless you're with me every morning on hallow. I do that reflection with Jonathan Rumi. But it gives me a half an hour every week just to share the good things of the Lord with you. I'm just a poor man sharing with other people, the good things of the Lord. And I so enjoy that. I really do. Okay, so let's look at this, okay, this idea of Jesus' use of questions. And let me tell you right now that this is a lengthy

list of 12 things. And so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on each one, but I am going to put it in the show notes for you. I'm going to give you all 12 of them. So make sure you do sign up for that Jeff Kavens at 33777. We'll get you in. Okay. So one thing for sure, Jesus didn't pressure people with tactics, you know, or to batter down the walls of people's hearts or bulldoze his way into their hearts. Instead, Jesus approaches each one carefully and creatively, and he uses questions to open encounters. So often, he uses questions, which I got to tell you, according to Second Temple period when Jesus was on earth, in that time period, the Jews were just masters at teaching with questions. They were masters. And I think any good teacher will utilize questions.

questions. So over the years, I have tried to, I guess, employ the use of questions more and more in my teaching. Maybe you've heard that in some of the teaching that I've asked many questions. Okay. So like, for example, Jesus said, will you give me a drink in John 4? In John 5, Jesus said, do you want to get well? In Matthew 21, John's baptism, where did it come from? So Jesus begins relationships and grants dignity to people and even opens up closed minds what with simple questions simple questions and we're so accustomed to telling rather than asking aren't we you know when we meet new people we're really we're really excited about downloading what we know but this art of finding out where people are at is sometimes lost and we're just accustomed to

telling rather than asking. And that's something for myself to pray about. Maybe you want to pray about that. But most people like to be asked before they are told, don't they? I do. And Jesus sees people as too valuable to simply get them told, you know, tell them. He wants a relationship. He wants the communication. He wants dialogue here. And so he asks simple questions and lets each person think a bit, a little bit about it. So I think we make too many assumptions. and, you know, of where people are at or what they're going through in their life right now. And sometimes we need to, we need to ask the proper questions. And so Jesus' questions were people-oriented.

They weren't as so often these days, agenda-oriented. They're not so much agenda-oriented as people, people-oriented. He wants to know you. He's not setting you up like some master debater. I'm going to set you up and make you look. you know, silly. He will ask questions that may make you feel silly because of your position or what you said or what you did. But know this. Jesus, as the master teacher, is always looking for ways of making you great in the kingdom of God and giving you that peace that your

heart desires through via your relationship with Jesus. So questions lay at the very heart of the teaching methods of Jesus. The four Gospels record more than, get this, 100 questions asked by Jesus. And Jesus' questions were not merely to obtain information. They served a variety of purposes. Number one, number one, some questions stimulated interest and formed a point of contact.

For example, and I'll give you examples on these, Matthew 1613, he asked the disciples, who do people say that the son of man is? It's a question. Now, he's stimulating interest here. It's a point of contact. Who do people say the son of man is? Matthew 1613.

Now, their answer to that ended up being, well, some say Jeremiah. One say John the Baptist, another Elijah, and another one of the prophets. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. But who do you say that I am? And Peter stands up and says, you are Christ, right? And you are the one who has the keys. You are the one who has everlasting life. You're everything.

You are Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus at that point gives the keys to the kingdom to Peter. But it started with a question. And it wasn't even a question about what they believed. It was a question of, what do you all hear out there? Who did they say the son of man is? Which is one of the titles of Jesus that's used more than any of the others combined. And so he uses it to stimulate interest. Get that number two,

some questions helped his students clarify their thinking. For example, in Mark chapter 10 in verse three, Jesus asks the question, what did Moses command you? Okay. What did Moses command you? Now, when Jesus asks a question like that, he's trying to get his students, his disciples, his listeners, to clarify their thinking. They might not be clear about even what they're asking. So Jesus will ask the question, well, what did Moses command you? What was it that Moses commanded you? And that will help them clarify the topic, I think, a little bit better.

Number three, some questions expressed an emotion such as disgust or amazement. for example in Matthew 1234 again this will be in the notes for you he responded to the Pharisees how can you being evil speak what is good so he's expressing an emotion he's expressing a sense of sort of disgust over what's happening with the Pharisees so he says how can you being evil speak what is good okay so that's number three number four some questions introduced an illustration. So, for example, in Luke chapter 11, in Luke chapter 11, Jesus says, suppose one of you shall have a friend, okay? And then he moves on from there, and he asks a question to introduce an illustration, okay, an illustration. And you might want to look that up in

Luke 11, Luke 11 and verses 5 through 6, or 5, 5 and 6. The next one I really enjoy, number 5, some questions were used to emphasize a truth, to emphasize a truth, like in Matthew 1626, for what will a man be profited, Jesus says, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul. soul. So he's speaking about, you know, the rich. And what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world, all the riches and the accumulation yet forfeits his soul? So he's asking a question. And this question is used to emphasize a truth, a truth, that in that truth being that you can't gain all the riches of this world forfeit your soul and call that a winning strategy at all.

Number six, some questions help pupils and students apply the truth. For instance, which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers? That's the Good Samaritan story, Luke chapter 10. Which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands? I love that. And so he's helping them with a question apply the truth.

which one of these proved to be the good neighbor, the neighbor. And, of course, they would have to answer at that point. But the answer comes on the heels of his question. His question was to help them apply the truth. Number seven, some questions were to provide information for himself. So it provides information for himself. So, for example, in Matthew 15, when he is going to feed the multitude, and they're hungry and the disciples have ideas about sending them off to Wendy's.

He asks the question once he says, if you feed them, you give them something to eat. He asks the questions, how many loaves do you have? How many loaves do you have? And that question was to provide information and continue with the dialogue with one another. Now,

I like that one a lot. like that. How many loaves do you have? Well, we only have, and that word only is usually interjected, I only have. And his response is, that's enough. That's enough. That's all I wanted to know. Number eight, some questions helped establish a relationship between the teacher and the pupil. As in Luke chapter eight in verse 45, somebody had moved through the crowd and they touched him and he felt virtue leave him at that point. And so he turns around and I am imagining he's looking through his eyes or his eye engagement here too. He turns around and he says, who touched me? Who touched me? Now that is beautiful and that establishes a relationship. Who touched me? Who

touched me? Who does this belong to? Who was it that I was speaking to over? To gain the attention and establish a relationship can sometimes come on the heels of a simple question who touched me. Number nine, some questions were asked to rebuke or silence his opposers. Oh yeah. Jesus was good at this. He could ask a question that silenced his opposers. So, for example, They were having a difficult time with Jesus in Matthew 21. Well, it'll be in the notes for you. And they were starting to really come against him. And Jesus asks a question to stop his opposers, to silence his opposers right in their tracks.

He says to them, the baptism of John was from what source, God or man? so he asks a question and they're not going to be able to answer it because they're going to incriminate themselves or they're going to be on the side of cheering Jesus on. They're stuck. They can't answer the question. Opposers, silence. It's really a great thing that Jesus does there. It's brilliant.

So that is number nine. Number 10, some questions were rhetorical. They needed no answer. where Jesus said in Matthew 625, is not life more than food and the body than clothing? It doesn't need an answer, does it? It's a rhetorical question. And sometimes you can employ rhetorical questions to get across the point that you want to get across and at the same time put it in their lap and ask them to think about this for a moment,

to see your point. So that's a wonderful, wonderful way to ask a rhetorical question. And that's a wonderful way if you want to bring out the truth, but it's in more of a conversational way. So that is number 10, number 11. Some questions were asked to bring conviction. For example, conviction, have you never read? This is a great one.

Mark chapter 2, the Pharisees are complete. complaining about, they're complaining about the disciples of the Lord rubbing together the heads of wheat on the Sabbath. And Jesus, you really, you really have to know the Old Testament in order to appreciate the power and the wit of his teaching here. He is, Jesus is in the New Testament. I'm stumbling there because it's almost like, okay, we didn't need a whole show on this. This is so good. and I think I've talked about it before. But Jesus is in the New Testament.

He is the new David. He is the king. And the disciples are going to become the new priests of this new kingdom. Okay? So when the Pharisees ask the question of Jesus, when they ask this question and they want to incite him, he at that point asks him the simple question, have you never read? And then he points to Samuel in the Old Testament, a point in scripture

where King David was being spied on by one of Saul's men, Doag, and found him. And there was a terrible, terrible result in all of this. And this story, Jesus is going to, he's going to bring up in their thinking and in the story now that he's alluding to, he is casting himself as the king and his disciples as the new priests in this new kingdom. Now, if that's way over your head at that point, that's okay because what my point in there is the point that Jesus used to question to bring conviction. Have you not read? It would be similar to the this, okay? If I was on the news last night, interviewed, and I stated my views about the abortion issue on the local news last night. And everybody was talking about it today. And you came up today

and you had a question about my integrity or what I was saying. And I would say, have you not, did you not see the broadcast last night? Well, that brings up that whole broadcast. And I'm putting it back in their lap at that point. Okay, so now we have number 12. Some questions were examinations. They were examinations, like that great one in John 21. You remember John 21 when Peter, he kind of left with a handful of disciples and said, I'm going to back fishing up to Galilee.

this is after he denied the Lord three times and it's after the crucifixion he's basically saying I'm going back to my old job and so he goes up there with some of the other disciples and then Jesus shows up on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee and he meets the disciples and then he says to Simon Simon son of John do you love me so that's the kind of question where you just let it hang out there. Do you love me? And some questions like this are for the purpose of examination, whether you're helping someone else to see the light here, or you're examining them as far as where they stand, or questions for ourselves. When we do this, we find out what is hidden in the heart many, many times. So what I'm going to do is, because we run out of

time. I'm going to put all of these in the notes for you. And if I hear from you, maybe you'd like a whole show of going deeper into these. And I can go into the actual text themselves and show you in a deeper way how he utilized these questions. I'd be happy to do that. That would be a lot of fun. But it started as only one point last week. And I realized, uh-oh, I'm in trouble because the Jesus' use of questions in gaining someone's attention is going to take a little bit of time because there's different examples from this teaching there. Well, I do hope that last week and this week are a little bit more helpful in understanding how to teach and how to have a relationship with students where you gain their attention. And then you can also use questions as a way of teaching and talking and

discussing with someone. Of course, if you're using questions like Jesus used them, you kind of have to know what you want to get to and where you're going but that all comes in time we grow more and more we learn more and more and the questions that we ask are on the same level of where we're at in our learning and that's that's beautiful that's wonderful by the way as we're closing out i would put out a prayer request for catholics in america and that is pray for ccd teachers pray for teachers in the local parish pray that the people who are excited and go into conferences and buying books and listening to DVDs and music and and wearing t-shirts saying Jesus first and everything else pray that those people they're so on fire would become teachers in our parishes

because we need you we need you in the OCIA formerly our CIA we need you we really do and so please pray about that has God called you to be a teacher aka Catholic influencers the Catholic influencers in the Catholic Church today are not so much people on YouTube. They are people at your parish who come in quietly and teach and leave. They're influencers. And these two shows were all about just becoming a better influencer for Jesus because he's the master communicator. Let's pray.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we love you so much and thank you. We thank you, Lord, that you have set us free. And you are such a master teacher. we sit at your feet and ask you to teach us. May we learn from you. May we see the details of your teaching and bring them into our own relationships. Lord, in terms of all of us teaching, speak to our hearts. How are we to fulfill this? How are we to be someone who can share with others and really hone our skill in conversation? Help us, we ask you, O Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Look forward to talking to you next week.