Have you ever wished there were not so many limitations to your life? A few years back there was a movie called Limitless. The basic plot of the movie was that the main character gets a hold of a pill that unlocks the full potential of his brain.
Through being able to access 100% of his brain he is able to live life as if it is moving in slow motion, several step ahead of everyone else to the point where he has seemingly limitless power in society. If you are honest, you may admit that such a premise sounds attractive.
In recent years I have probably become more aware of limitations in my life than ever before. With three young children, limitations are self evident to begin with. I can only stay out so late in the evening, I can only get so much house or yard work done in a day when I am also seeing to the needs of family time.
Serving as a worker pastor has also brought to mind limits. The time commitment of a 40 hour work week can limit many other avenues of Ministry I would like to look into.
But what makes me aware of limits more than anything else are the limitless possibilities of how to approach outreach and evangelism. I have talked with many brothers and sisters in Christ of what opportunities are present for community outreach and evangelism in this congregation and in the Irvington Community.
So many good ideas, it is simply not possible to carry out all of the promising approaches that are observed in various churches in our synod. The more aware I am of opportunities for pastoral leadership, the more aware I am of the limits of our human nature.
Perhaps you can relate to the feeling of limitations. Maybe you feel your life has more limitations than others. One family you know has a vacation cabin on a lake, where your family is lucky if you even manage one weekend a year to travel somewhere different than your usual life activities.
Maybe you know some people who do so much through the course of a year that they seem to have energy to spare, where you feel you are lucky if you have enough energy to keep the house in reasonable condition and bills and deadlines caught up with.
The fact is that limitations are a characteristic of all of our lives. Our human nature presents us with limitations about how much sleep we need, and a list of countless things we need in place to be healthy. Our society presents many limitations in the form of how much money we are willing or able to spend.
The ultimate limitation of our lives is sin. Sin limits how healthy and rewarding our relationships are. Sin limits how big our hopes and dreams are. Sin limits every good impulse we might have.
If only we could take some magic pill to remove those limiting effects of sin! But the truth is that no movie fantasy can overcome the effects of the Fall into sin.
But there is one real life character who can overcome the effects of the Fall. Our Lord Jesus Christ has come to us to remove the limits from our lives. No not the limits that keep us from being wealthy beyond our wildest dreams- as some televangelists would have us believe.
Nor has Jesus come to remove the limitations of our bodies and daily schedules that humble us on a daily basis. Jesus has not come to give us an ultimate freedom to do whatever we desire or attain whatever we covet in life.
Instead Jesus has come to make us perfectly free to have a relationship with our living God! On the day of Pentecost Jesus sent His Spirit to His church so that his kingdom would come on the earth without limits.
Pentecost was the day in history where the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to the church a gift without limits. The day of Pentecost was seven weeks after the resurrection of Jesus- 50 days by the Jewish counting of days.
We hear in Acts chapter 2 that when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. How is it that the disciples and countless others knew to be together in one place? Pentecost was already a day in it’s own right, the feast of Weeks which marked 50 days after the Passover, the end of the Passover season- sort of like how today we think of Labor day as the end of the summer.
During the Feast of weeks or Pentecost, God’s people were to bring the first fruits of their harvest as an acknowledgement of God’s blessing to them. People might journey to Jerusalem for Passover and stay through Pentecost. It makes sense why God would chose this day to give the church the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Beginning with Pentecost the Holy Spirit sends the church out to proclaim the message of Christ crucified and glorified. Before the events of Christ’s passion the full story could not yet be told.
Now that Jesus has ascended into heaven, the Spirit strengthened the church to tell the whole story. The day of Pentecost, like the Old Testament counterpart of the feast of weeks was about the first fruits of harvest. The 3,000 who were united by the Holy Spirit in faith were the first of many fruits of the harvest of Christ’s Passion.
Jesus promised this gift, the Holy Spirit to be with us and lead us to the truth of Jesus’ love for us. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the helper, The word on Greek in is Paraclete, which literally means one who walks besides us. Other translations of the Bible use such varied terms as our advocate, our helper, our friend. All of these words help us to see that since the first Pentecost, God has been assisting and strengthening the church to His purposes.
These purposes of God are greater than what man can imagine. Following Pentecost God’s design prevailed regardless of the limitations of human cooperation or imagination. No limits to the Spirit’s work of proclaiming Christ crucified.
Prior to the time of Pentecost the church was largely confined to the immediate area around Jerusalem. Yet on the day of Pentecost travelers from all over the Mediterranean world where in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles. We hear the list of nations in verses 9 through 11 in our reading from Acts. The church would not be confined to one corner of the middle East, but spread throughout the world.
Part of our sin is that we put limits on the designs of our God. We limit the work of the Holy Spirit to the church in our own minds through unbelief or doubt. We may have doubt as to what power the Holy Spirit has in our and in the church.
We look at the church and see limits in terms of what the church is as an imperfect human institution. Many in our society might even resent the church for such limits- as if it is keeping us from God’s love.
One particular limit our society may put on the Holy Spirit is casting doubt on the clarity of the Holy Spirit to us. Does the Bible really say what the church claims it is saying about how God’s kingdom works? Or even the question of, does the Bible really say what God intended for it to say, or has it been changed by human intervention?
But the clarity of the message of Pentecost is undeniable: Jesus is our risen and ascended Lord. Jesus has taken on our sin on the cross, so that we might be reconciled back to God. And Jesus has sent the helper whom the Father has sent in His name to bring us to remembrance all that he has said.
The legacy of Pentecost to us is that even though are lives are full of limits in every aspect- there is through the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit in us, no limit to our ability to access the grace of God in our lives!
Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we now have a relationship with God that knows no limits. When we pray, the Father hears us. When we hear and receive God’s Word with joy, our faith grows- it’s a guarantee and promise of our Lord! With the Holy Spirit we pray: Alleluia. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love.
It’s a matter of First things First. Once we recognize that there are no limits to the love of God in our lives, then we can view the limitations of life differently. If we struggle with loving steadfastly family members when they try our patience- then the limitless love of Christ carries us through.
If we struggle with discouragement over the limits of which community outreach events we can carry forward, we do well to look to our Savior and see his limitless love. Then we are reminded that the goal is not to fill up our church calendar with as many events as possible, but to share the love of Christ in whatever ways we can during the times when we plan activities.
The day of Pentecost helps us to see what is possible for the church because of the unity and power the gift of the Holy Spirit has brought to the church. Where the Tower of Babel ended with the scattering of nations and dividing of tongues, the Day of Pentecost has united the church from people of all nations under a common language of the gospel. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved