Don’t Let Your Love Grow Cold
Jesus spent Tuesday and Wednesday of Passion week in the temple teaching and answering the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ “gotcha questions”. Finally, Jesus had a question of His own.
"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, "'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"'? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. - Matthew 22:42-46
Upon silencing their kangaroo court, Jesus had His own thoughts on the exclusive religious system they had built. The Scribes and Pharisees had taken the Law and used it to weigh people down with undue burdens and reinforce their positions of power and influence. They weaponized the Law to keep the poor, weak, and downtrodden from coming to God, heaping up rules and regulations that no one could keep and that they saw themselves as exceptions to.
Jesus had something to say about this.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, ... They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. - Matthew 23:1-2, 4-7
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. - Matthew 23:13
A day before, Jesus had turned over the tables in the temple; now He was turning over the entire system from the top down. Their obsession with the interpretation of small details of the Law had caused them to miss the whole point.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. - Matthew 23:23
Jesus finished His last public sermon with a strong rebuke to the religious leaders of Israel announcing that they had missed their hour of visitation. He then prophesied something astounding. That they, the leadership of Israel, would not “see Him again” until they sang Psalm 118 about Him and invited Him back into the city to rule as King. Almost unthinkably, Jesus hung the promise of His return (and thereby the restoration of the earth) on the freewill acceptance of the Jewish leadership of their Messiah and their cry to Him for salvation.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" - Matthew 23:37-39
The disciples came to Him privately afterward asking, “Lord, where are you going? When are you coming back? And How will we know?
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" - Matthew 24:3
Jesus answered them as they sat on the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem. Matthew chapters 24 and 25 are called the “Olivet Discourse”. These two chapters are Jesus’ answer to the disciples' question. These two chapters are also leadership lessons for the generation that will see all these things (v33) and experience the fullness of what Jesus is speaking about. He began to describe to them, in detail, the conditions, contexts, signs, nature, leadership lessons, and outcome surrounding His return to Jerusalem. It was critical to Jesus that His leadership team understood not only the significance of His return but also the events and context surrounding it.
Jesus began by unpacking negative trends that would impact the globe and culminate in the generation of His return. He described these crises in the nations as birth pains. Like labor pains, these negative trends would increase in intensity and frequency until the time of transition. This is an important concept to understand; these issues have always been on the earth, but they will come to full maturation in the generation when He returns to Jerusalem. Jesus spoke about this back in Matthew 13 in the parable of the “wheat and tares”. All three of these trends will dynamically affect the church, the missions movement, and your assignment. Jesus’ warnings are followed by His exhortation, “Don’t worry, this is not how it ends.”
The first warning Jesus gave was of deception. Great deception concerning who He is and what His mission is would cloud the hearts and minds of many as the next coming. It would even include a false prophetic movement. The number one most contested issue in this generation concerns the Person of Jesus Christ. All of hell and the demonic realm are working overtime to lead the church away from Jesus as revealed in the Scriptures and from the missiology of the New Testament.
“See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and they will lead many astray… and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray…” - Matthew 24:4; 11
Jesus follows with a second warning of crisis and conflict on a global scale.
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation [ethnos] will rise against nation [ethnos], and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. - Matthew 24:6-8
The wars he is speaking of here, in the broadest sense, are describing conflict. The generation of the Lord’s return will experience global conflict on a scope and scale that no other generation has. The conflict is between races and people groups and it will be between kingdoms and governments. There will be ethnic violence, genocide, and geo-political conflict. This will all be compounded by natural disasters and famine. Crisis will be a central component to finishing the task of global missions in this generation. Crisis in the nations will open a wide and effectual door for the gospel. In this generation, the missions movement will be full of crisis responders.
Jesus then spoke of conflict coming to His church during this time frame. He told the disciples that the global church will enter the most difficult season of persecution.
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. - Matthew 24:9-12
When that happens, hatred and betrayal will begin to permeate the Body of Christ. People who call themselves believers will take up arms against other believers. Leaders will fall into sin and many will feel betrayed. False prophetic movements are going to increase, and many will leave the Apostolic faith and wander after myths and conspiracies. In the context of persecution, conflict, and pressures, there will be false teachers and fractious movements that cause a falling away from the faith in the generation of the Lord’s return. This is one of the most repeated prophecies in the New Testament, with almost all the Apostles explicitly warning about it.
Finally, Jesus pinpoints the root of it all: Lawlessness. Lawlessness is the lack of restraint. Restraint on our words, restraint with our bodies, restraint with our desires, restraint with our anger. When lawlessness increases, self-gratifying, narcissistic pursuit of personal gain will mature as restraint is thrown off. It is the attitude of, “I want what I want - no one can tell me no” and “I have a right to say whatever I want to say”. You can encapsulate it in one phrase: lovers of self.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. - 2 Timothy 3:1-5
That, Jesus said, is where love begins to grow cold. Love towards God and love towards people. When love grows cold, it is not alive and active. It is dead.
Jesus told us that all of this is not the end, but all of this is merely context for what is going to happen at the end. It is what we will have to walk through and navigate as the prophetic church in this generation before the end. Amidst deception, conflict, and war on the earth and hatred, betrayal, and lawlessness in the church, something amazing is going to take place.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. - Matthew 24:13-14
Jesus will raise up a people who are given to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
Amidst all of the wars that are being waged, what war are we supposed to fight? It is the war to keep our hearts alive in love towards God and towards people. There will be another trend happening amidst all of this crisis: laborers of love will be thrust out into every nation! Jesus prophesies that the end will not come until there is a witness of the gospel of the kingdom in every nation.
While racism, nationalism, conflict, and betrayal are causing love to grow cold, there will be another kind of people on the earth. While deception is distracting the eyes of many off the Jesus of the Scriptures, they are setting their gaze on the beauty of Jesus. They are taking their eyes off themselves, getting delivered from offense, and refusing anger and bitterness. They have allowed the gospel to deliver them and heal them from their own pride and ethnocentricity. They have reoriented their identities, passions, and resources to the values of their heavenly citizenship. They are anchored to an unshakable kingdom. They have detached their expectations of economic comfort, their social preferences, and their country’s politics from the mission of the church. They have laid down the pursuit of their own name, popularity, and ambition to magnify His Name in the nations. They have consecrated themselves and are leaning into the power of grace to train them in godliness in self-control. They have learned to navigate the prophetic ministry in a way that upholds the gospel and declares the testimony of Jesus to the world. They have refused to let a root of bitterness spring up. They love and pray for their enemies because they have determined to live Sermon on the Mount lifestyles.
This is how they have endured to the end. Endured in what? They have endured in keeping love alive.
When love grows white hot in our hearts for Him and for others, even our enemies, that love will compel us to lay down our lives for peoples and places, neighborhoods, and nations. We begin to see through love’s lens people that we never would have considered except that we have been touched by the heart and compassion of Jesus. These ones who have endured will carry the prayer on their lips, “Lord whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, I just want to be with you where you are.” That heart and that prayer are going to take them to the most broken in their city and to the ends of the earth. This remains the mandate of the church through the seasons, times, conflict, prosperity, oppressive regimes and free societies, war and peace,
Twice in these first fourteen verses of Matthew 24, Jesus said, “The end is not yet” and “This is only the beginning of birth pains…”. Now He tells us how human history will culminate! He will return to a church alive in love, and every nation will see and sing of His worth!
So beloved reader, this passion week, don’t let your love grow cold. Amidst the political and prophetic chaos; amidst war escalating on the earth’ and amidst hatred and betrayal growing like a cancer within the Body, fight to keep your heart tender and unoffended! Don’t get drawn into the wars being fought across borders and boundaries or across social media platforms. Instead, fix your eyes on Jesus and keep your love alive to the end.