Ninety-eight years ago, on February 10, a trial was held in this very room. The building didn't look the same as it does today. There was no vestibule, no platform--but the area where you are seated was where the trial took place. Josephus Hopwood, long- time president of the college, stood accused…actually, he stood convicted. Three months prior, Hopwood had been asked by the Board of Trustees to resign the presidency of Milligan College. This meeting was called to make a final judgment on the decision. The building was packed; people even stood outside the windows to hear the charges and defense arguments. The hearing lasted all day and into the night.
Hopwood's crime? It wasn't embezzlement. There was no inappropriate behavior with another faculty member or student. Hopwood was not being run out as an overly harsh disciplinarian. He didn't sneak out for a cigarette or pipe--an offense that would help sink a later president. Hopwood was squeaky clean--he even ran for governor of Tennessee on the Prohibition ticket. Hopwood's crime? He prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I'm not making it up! Hopwood had been invited to a holiness revival in Salem, VA. There he was so struck with the message on being filled with the Spirit that he accepted the invitation to come forward at the end of the service, where he prayed: "Dear Lord, if I am not filled with the Holy Spirit, be thou my fullness. Work in me to will and to do thy good pleasure. Use me for thy service." Then Hopwood addressed the congregation, saying: I did not come forward because I am not a Christian. I love God, love our Lord Jesus Christ and love the Holy Spirit who abides in the children of God and I came to ask God that if I am not filled with the Spirit that He will be my fullness; also to acknowledge my faith in this power of the Spirit. (1)
Unfortunately for Mr. Hopwood, one of Milligan's trustees was also in Salem on that fateful evening, holding his own revival across town. He was so incensed at the thought of Milligan's president whooping it up with a group of Pentecostals that he incited the board to throw the heretic out. Reaction from Milligan's supporters and students on behalf of Hopwood was strong in Hopwood's favor, so a hearing was called at the Buffalo Creek Christian Church--this church, to determine Hopwood's fate.
Today is the first Sunday of Epiphany, the day when the church celebrates the baptism of Jesus, the inaugural event of Jesus' ministry, the day when the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. John the Baptist said of Jesus: "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
As a congregation, and as a movement, we place a lot of emphasis on baptism by water, baptism by immersion. But what really happens at our baptism? What ought to happen? When do we receive the gift of the Spirit? How does the Spirit come into our lives?
The example of Josephus Hopwood is a case in point that although the early history of our movement was strongly rooted in the Pentecostal worship styles of frontier revivalism, we've worked hard to "forget" that part of our heritage. Our churches have taken a pretty low view of what we deem to be excesses in ecstatic worship, and seeking after a "second blessing," or "baptism of the Holy Spirit." We have inherited a buttoned-down view of propriety in the church--we're not against the Holy Spirit, or his role in our lives, we just don't want the wildness that comes along with that so-called spirit-filled worship that might make us seem undignified or non-intellectual. We've come to identify the Holy Spirit with people who whoop and howl and hang from the chandeliers and we're pretty sure we don't want to go there.
But many of us have gnawing doubts. Does the Holy Spirit really dwell in you? Could it be that we have so downplayed the role of the Holy Spirit that we have quenched the presence and power of God that has been promised us? We call ourselves a restoration minded church, built on the principles of New Testament Christianity. When we read of the powerful way that the Spirit moved in the early church, and the changes in people's lives that accompanied the Spirit's reception, sometimes we ask ourselves the same question Paul asked the Ephesians: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? …Then what baptism did you receive?"
The Person and Role of the Holy Spirit. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our midst is foundational to our belief. It is the very gift of God with us today. We make a mistake when we downplay the Spirit's role because a few people jumping pews make us nervous. In fact, the presence of the Spirit in our lives is nothing more or less than the presence of God, or Jesus Christ with us. Jesus told his disciples that when he went away from them, they would not be left alone. The Holy Spirit would come among them to comfort them, to counsel them, to bring to mind everything he had said, to lead and guide them and be the very presence of Christ among them. "He will live with you and be in you," said Jesus.
Paul said that when we are baptized into Christ, we enter a new family. We are not left as orphans, but we become children of God. We are no longer slaves to the world, but we become sons and daughters of God. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, wrote Paul in Galatians 4, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba! Poppa! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir (Gal 4:6-7).
Any church that doesn't make welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit is on the road to dry rot. Any Christian who doesn't open up to presence of the Holy Spirit is sick and stunted and in danger of spiritual decay. We can't generate enough enthusiasm around here to take the place of the Holy Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit is taken seriously, we will see new life. Where the Holy Spirit is neglected, we'll see spiritual blindness, deafness, and a crippling hardening of the arteries.
The Holy Spirit is Christ in us. He is the life giving heartbeat of the Trinity in us. The Holy Spirit makes the truth and reality of God real in us. He gives life and breath to the Word of God in us. The Holy Spirit changes the Christian life from being a philosophy or a social change agent to a relationship with the eternal God. He speaks, he moves, he motivates, he castigates. He empowers for service, translates our prayers, teaches and comforts us.
When does a person receive the Holy Spirit? It's always a dangerous thing to try to corner God and say, "This is how he works--always and in all people!" The Spirit blows where he wills, and works as he wishes. Still, from reading the Bible carefully, and looking at the life of our Lord Christ and the early church, we can lay out some pretty basic principles. The normative way a person becomes a Christian is this:
1. First of all, a person comes to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
2. Next, a person must see his or her own sinfulness and repent of their pride, their waywardness and turn to him.
3. A person is then baptized into Christ's death so that the old body of sin might be destroyed.
4. At that time the Holy Spirit comes into their life with power, bringing light, life, forgiveness and love. The Holy Spirit comes in to stay, to live, to lead. In almost every case of New Testament conversion, those are the big steps: belief, repentance, baptism, and new life.
Well maybe you're saying to me: I've pretty much followed those steps. So Why don't I sense a greater presence of God's Spirit in my life? Your ability to sense and live in the power of the Spirit has a lot to do with the level of intimacy in your relationship with God.
Some people don't experience the fullness of the Spirit because frankly, they don't believe in his presence. Christianity, for them, has a lot more to do with a lifestyle of trying to follow some set of moral standards and doing good to others. The image that we can be invaded, indwelt, inhabited by God's mighty spirit is just too far out there.
So what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? How are we filled with Holy Spirit? To begin with, every person who truly believes, repents, and is baptized receives the gift of God's Spirit. This is the filling that takes place at conversion. It makes you a child of God. It seals you for life in the Kingdom of God.
Many Pentecostals would point out the need for a "second blessing," which is often referred to as "the baptism of the Holy Spirit." We don't find that term "used in scripture to refer to a second experience sometime after conversion that transports one to a higher level of spirituality and a deeper experience of the Spirit of God." (2) What we do find is a metaphor used by Paul in I Corinthians 12:13. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
This is a great example for us--we need to depend day by day, hour by hour on the sustenance of the Spirit, much as we depend on water for life. We need to drink our fill of the Spirit to stay healthy and growing. Paul tells us to be continually "filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18).
How does that happen?
1. It happens when you ask. Ask daily for God to fill you with his Spirit. Jesus said in Luke 11: Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" We're not begging daily for the Spirit because we don't believe we received him when we believed. We don't beg because we're afraid he will be taken away. We ask because we want to grow in the Spirit. We're asking God to open us up to receive more of the blessing he's promised.
2. We are filled with the Spirit when we Repent of our sins--He's not called "the Holy Spirit" for nothing. We've got to want to be holy. Are you allowing the Spirit to clean out those rooms of your heart, one by one? Are you submitting each area of your life to him? Breakthroughs come when you say "No" to the world, and "Yes" to God. Put away the junk in your life, resolve to keep the promises you've made, be generous in giving to the Lord, quit being so selfish and immature, forgive, love, rejoice.
3. How are we filled with the Sprit? It happens when we Follow the spirit--Do what he says to do. It happens when you yield to his leading. If he tells you to make peace with a co-worker or family member, do it, no matter how hard it is. If he leads you to get vocal or tearful or praiseful in your worship--do it and don't be embarrassed. If he leads you to tell someone you love them, don't be ashamed--just follow. Don't hold back when he leads you to give…do it joyfully. Minister in church as he leads. I Thess. 5:19--don't put out the spirit's fire. Don't look at bottom line first; don't search for reasons to say no to him. When your decision is mixed with his power, a transformation occurs.
Finally, How do you know you have received Spirit? You know it through a mysterious inner testimony that tells you that you are a loved child of God. We know he has come among us when he becomes a part of our vocabulary. When we pray to the Father, in the name of Christ, by the power of the Spirit. We know it when we include the Spirit in our lives, invite the Spirit into our worship, allow HS to translate our prayers to God, respond to Holy Spirit in everyday actions.
Others know it when the Spirit produces fruit that ministers to the body of Christ. Patience. Love. Joy. Kindness. That's what happened in the trial of Josephus Hopwood, right here in this room. Letter after letter spoke of Hopwood's spirit filled life. Students, faculty, friends of the college stood up and told all the ways Hopwood had ministered to them. A group of men from Virginia told the trustees: "Brethren, if you folks of Tennessee don't want the Hopwoods, we need them in Virginia and will take them any day."
T.T.G. Linkhous, a student at the time, described what happened next: "…(Hopwood) finished his explanation and prayed for God's guidance for all present, as well as praying for his enemies, (and) humbly sat down. It was so very quiet you could hear a pin drop, until at last someone rose and made a motion that we vote to exonerate Dr. Hopwood. It was seconded by probably several dozen…Then the question was called for and a vote taken. It was almost unanimous that he be entirely exonerated and that his resignation which he had offered, not be accepted…Paul said "All things work together for good to them who love the Lord." If anyone ever loved the Lord and his work sincerely, I think it was Prof. Hopwood." (3)
Do you want to be filled with the Spirit? Ask, Repent, Follow, Receive. Close your eyes and let me pray for you. Closing prayer--Ps 143:6,8,10
"I spread out my hands to you, my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your Good Spirit lead me onto level ground.
"Rushing wind blow through this temple--blowing out the dust within.
Come and breathe your breath upon me--I've been born again.
Holy Spirit I surrender--take me where you want to go
Plant me by your living waters--plant me deep so I can grow."
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1 Cindy Cornwell, Beside the Waters of the Buffalo (Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1989) 26-27.
2 Clinton E. Arnold, "What is Baptism in the Holy Spirit?" Discipleship Journal 91, 1996, 53.
3 Ibid.,29.
