{"id":9297,"date":"2025-08-17T14:55:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T18:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=9297"},"modified":"2025-08-17T14:55:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T18:55:27","slug":"the-time-to-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=9297","title":{"rendered":"THE TIME TO ACT"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE TIME TO ACT<\/u><\/b><\/h1>\n

Luke 3: 1-20<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0by Rev. Richard Jones<\/b><\/h2>\n

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 <\/p>\n

The Rulers of Pride<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Luke 3: 1-2<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

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The Courier of the King<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Luke 3: 3-6<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, \u201cThe voice of one crying in the wilderness: \u2018Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Teachers of Fraud<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Luke 3: 7-9<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, \u201cYou brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, \u2018We have Abraham as our father.\u2019 For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew 3: 7-8<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, \u201cYou brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Seekers Who Questioned<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Luke 3: 10-14<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

10 And the crowds asked him, \u201cWhat then shall we do?\u201d 11 And he answered them, \u201cWhoever has two tunic is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.\u201d 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, \u201cTeacher, what shall we do?\u201d 13 And he said to them, \u201cCollect no more than you are authorized to do.\u201d 14 Soldiers also asked him, \u201cAnd we, what shall we do?\u201d And he said to them, \u201cDo not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ephesians 6: 5-7<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Farmer Who Sifts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Luke 3: 15-20<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, \u201cI baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.\u201d 18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 12: 12-13<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body\u2014Jews or Greeks, slaves or free\u2014and all were made to drink of one Spirit.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 40: 1-2<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE TIME TO ACT Luke 3: 1-20 \u00a0by Rev. Richard Jones     The Rulers of Pride Luke 3: 1-2 1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,24,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-messages","category-sermon-series","category-sermons-by-rev-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9297"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9299,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9297\/revisions\/9299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}