On Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection, a large crowd in Jerusalem heard Peter preach the gospel of Christ. Many were “cut to the heart,” and no one in the history of human inquiry has ever asked a better question than they did: What shall we do?

What is the meaning of the titles associated with the name of Jesus in the New Testament? At least sixty times He is referred to as the “Lord Jesus Christ”? To see fully who Jesus is in the gospel message, we need to understand all three of these designations.

God is at the center of both our problem and its solution. The gospel is not primarily about our broken social relationships. These are but symptoms of the real problem: our broken relationship with God. That is what the gospel wants to fix.

We were created for a perfect, eternal joy with God, a joy not subject to change and decay. By our sin, the human race broke that perfection, but we still yearn for it. And in Christ, that is what is offered to us: restoration of the eternal, unfading life we were designed for.

Light is wonderful, but if we don’t respond to the light of truth obediently, the light will condemn us. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).

As was true in Jesus’ day, people today still “come to Jesus” for a confusing range of reasons. So let’s ask this: in the New Testament, who were those who came to Jesus and were received by Him? If we expect Jesus’ welcome, how (and why) should we come?

Since it takes time for the real consequences of our actions to show up, the emptiness of work that disregards God is not always apparent right now. But eventually the failure of godless activity will become clear. The wise are willing to be warned about this.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23,24). Such honesty before God is painful, but without it, there is no growth toward God.

Nothing short of divine love can equip us to love others as we should, for it is our security in God’s perfect love that makes it safe to love those who are not perfect. Without the God who ordained them, the laws of love would be difficult and dangerous indeed.

To seek God, in truth rather than in pride and self-sufficiency, is to seek Him in reverence. It is God’s prerogative, not ours, to set the terms of our relationship with Him, and that relationship will not be what we long for it to be until we let God be God.

By faith, we seek to please God because we love Him. It is faith that gives wings to love’s natural desire. Showing us not only that God can be pleased but how we may do so, faith gives true substance to love’s highest wish: the pleasure of our beloved God.

God holds every true treasure that our hearts yearn for, and He “can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human soul” (Oswald Chambers). His will is for us to seek Him sincerely and make our supplication to Him concerning every empty place within us.

What will we do with this ordinary day when nothing unusual will happen, no one will be looking, and there’ll be no particular reason to do our best except a desire to keep on serving our King? It’s days like today that are the true test of our love for God.

“No man is so insignificant as to be sure his example can do no harm,” wrote Edward Hyde. It’s hard enough already for those around us to keep moving ahead. If we make it even harder for them by our example, we should expect God’s displeasure.

It doesn’t do much good to simply say, “I know I need to be a better person.” Instead, we need to take an honest inventory of our personal traits on a regular basis and then make definite commitments to change our character, God being our Helper.

There comes a time when we have to ask what kind of people we are. We may have to admit that passion for God is just not a part of our character right now — we’ve let ourselves get to where we don’t really care about any great cause, even one as great as God.

We find the strength to say “No” only when we have a more powerful “Yes” burning within us. Like Jesus, who “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,” we must endure our own crosses as they come to us. The “joy set before us” is the key.

Will our basic outlook in life be backward or will it be forward? As great as the gift of memory can be, the past should not be the main focus of our minds. Since life moves only in one direction, forward, it is wise to make that the primary direction of our character.