Holy Spirit (Sermon)

On April 12, Rev. Jake Medcalf preached from Acts 1:8, emphasizing that believers receive Holy Spirit “dunamis” power to be witnesses locally and to the ends of the earth. He connected this call to the church’s partnerships around the world and described the Spirit’s power as strength, capability, and miraculous capacity available as a gift to all who believe, not only to the original disciples. He addressed the common gap between biblical promise and modern experience, drawing from Tyler Staton’s The Familiar Stranger, and identified three postures toward the Spirit: thirsty, uninformed, and suspicious. Urging the church to “say yes to both,” he taught that faithful discipleship required both biblical/theological grounding and lived experience of the Spirit’s work. The sermon ended with an invitation to prayer and communion.