Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno

cross.
They didn't "mince words," or say it daintily: "You murdered the Prince
of life, the Son of God!" They laid the guilt of the ages upon the souls of
those Jews and Gentiles. There was no political making friends and
influencing people, no attempt to make the message palatable, to "win" the
top leaders by psychology. It was the most direct super-confrontation that
has ever been between lowly people and religious society leadership (read it
in Acts 2:23, 36; 4:10; 5:30, etc.).
When, at Pentecost, Peter said, "God hath made that same Jesus whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36), immediately came the
heart-broken cry, "What shall we do?" (vs. 37). Then when Peter and John
healed the paralytic, Peter again said, "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just,
... and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead" (3:14,
15). You couldn't yawn and sit on the fence when you heard a charge like
that! Then Peter and John told the rulers and leaders of the nation, "Ye
crucified Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom God raised from the dead" (4:10).
Ordinary people like the apostles could never have galvanized
themselves to tell it like they did had it not been for the 10 days of
repentance they spent beforehand. They had knelt very low in selfhumiliation;
what fools they had been! The Holy Spirit had eleven men in
whom self had been "crucified with Christ." This made it possible for the
Son of God to be exalted in them.
What happened on the day of Pentecost was a repentance deeper than
has ever been known. The murder of the Son of God is the greatest sin ever
committed; repentance for that sin is the greatest a human heart can ever
know.
A repentance like that of Pentecost is what Christ calls for today. It will
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