James Bond Evangelism
Let me begin with a classic James Bond scene. It’s from Goldfinger. You might know it. Bond is strapped to a table, with a laser pointed between his legs that is slowly moving higher and higher. Bond says, “Do you expect me to talk?!” And Goldfinger responds with a maniacal chuckle, “No Mr Bond, I expect you to die.”
Well, as we’ve been working our way through Colossians, it struck me that, in a way, we’re saying the same thing to people whenever we share the gospel with them.
In Luke’s gospel for instance, just before Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, we read,
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:23-24 ESV)
I love this passage because it answers three questions so simply: Who is Jesus? In v.20 Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ of God. Why did he come? In vv.21-22 Jesus explains that he came to die and rise again. And what does it mean to follow him? It means dying now to save our lives.
So this is basic discipleship. It is a fundamental, necessary part of all discipleship. Notice that Jesus said this “to all” and about “anyone”, he was not just teaching the twelve apostles about “radical discipleship”. No, if you want to follow Jesus, he expects you to die.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian during the 1930’s and 40’s. He was hanged by the Nazis just before the end of the war for a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. So, he wasn’t an armchair theologian.
Last week I mentioned a quote from a book he wrote called “The Cost of Discipleship”. Now let me give it to you in a little more context.
“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ, in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an
otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.
When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.”1
So friends, this is what we’re doing when we evangelise. Whenever we share the simple gospel message with someone – that Jesus is Lord – we are calling them to come and die. To die to themselves as Lord. To die to their old identity. To die to everything about themselves and their old life that they used to hold dear. That’s what we want for them. We want them to die. That’s what we realised, when we became Christians, that we wanted for ourselves - we wanted to die. That’s what Jesus demands of all his disciples.
Of course, what we’re saying to people is that you can either die now or die later. This is the choice we all face – a choice between two ways to die. Because that’s what God says sinful people deserve. Death. If you die now, you can rise again. You can come back to life as a new person. Not another person of course, still ourselves, but new. A completely renewed, reborn, resurrected, renovated person. But you must die first. If, however, you refuse to die now, then, when you die, you will never rise again. At least, not to eternal life.
All this is why the gospel is so intrinsically offensive. I mean, you can be as gentle as you like, but as long as that message comes through, it’s going to offend people, isn’t it? And you are liable to come off as a maniacal villain. In fact, there aren’t too many things you could say that would be more offensive, are there? And you can try and explain that it’s what’s best for them and that you’re trying to save them etc. but in the end, to the natural man, it will always be offensive.
That’s why accepting the message of the gospel is fundamentally a matter of humility. It’s a difficult pill to swallow because it’s a poison pill. Our friends, neighbours and colleagues don’t want to die, don’t think they deserve to die. Perhaps they need to make a few changes here and there but death is much too drastic a solution. Which is why, of course, we must depend on the Holy Spirit to drive this life-giving message into their dead hearts.
1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “The Cost of Discipleship”. 44. Italics Added.