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PREACHING MIRACLE STORIES OF THE GOSPELS IN CHINESE-INDONESIAN CONTEXT A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY ANDRI KOSASIH MAY 2012 Copyright ©2012 by Andri Kosasih. All Rights Reserved. To Fonny (my wife) and Agaretha (our only daughter), who through them, God presents miracles in my life. CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ABSTRACT vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 2. THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 3. LITERATURE REVIEW 50 4. PROJECT DESIGN 98 5. OUTCOMES 222 Appendix 1. INTERVIEW WITH LOCAL PASTORS 228 2. QUESTIONNAIRE 247 BIBLIOGRAPHY 249 VITA 256 ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 1. The big idea and sermon purpose 152 2. The formula of christological sermon purpose 155 3. The deductive pattern 157 4. The inductive pattern 159 5. The circles of illustration 170 6. Simple communication process 182 7. Movement on the stage 188 Tables 1. Characteristics of the four Gospels 125 2. The categories of illustration 167 ABSTRACT This thesis-project addresses how to prepare and preach the miracle stories of the Gospels. The end product of this project is a manual that can be used by Seminary students, by pastors wishing to enhance their preaching proficiency, and by teachers of homiletics who want to teach the skills needed to prepare relevant miracle stories sermon, especially in Chinese-Indonesian context. The second section of this thesis- project addresses the theological framework of miracle stories of the Gospels. The third section addresses the literature reviews. The fourth section of the thesis-project is the manual itself, which addresses the practical concerns of how to prepare and deliver miracle stories of the Gospels sermon. The manual found in section four is based on the principles of expository preaching developebdy Haddon W. Robinson in his book, Biblical Preaching. His work is combined with other works in biblical and homiletical studies. Although slightly different in the steps of making the sermon, Biblical Preaching is the soul of this manual. This manual is the result of these combination and integration. vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A type of Gospel narrative that deserves special attention is the miracle story. Jesus’ miracles are prominent in the Gospels. Hillyer Hawthorne Straton stresses that “miracles stories occupy such a large place in the gospel narratives that to omit them in preaching is to leave out an essential part of the gospel message and to overlook a rich source of sermonic material”.* Due to their importance, every preacher should have serious concerns about them. Miracle stories should be exegeted and understood in the right ways to get their proper meaning. The struggle to understand the real meaning of the miracle stories has taken place in many places, including in Indonesia.?, When reading miracle stories, many Christians think, “What is the meaning of the story for me? Will the Lord do the same for me?” Christians, including pastors, writers, and composers have been trying to connect miracle stories to their contemporary lives. They seek to find the theology of the miracles in their respective fields. * Hillyer Hawthorne Straton, Preaching the Miracles of Jesus (New York: Abingdon-Cokebury, 1950), 7. 7 It’s good to put attention to Bedjo’s comment in his article Miracle in Science Age: An Theological & Philosophical Perspective (Seminar held in Petra Christian University in Surabaya: March 26, 2009}, 1: The recent case of Ponari, a boy healer from Jombang, has opened our eyes to the fact that in Indonesia, many people still believe in” miracles” or supernatural things such as believing that a stone could bring healing. Among the Indonesian Christians, instead of being skeptical, miracles have become themes consistently brought up in songs that, according to the writer, are theologically erroneous. On the other hand, the development of scientific knowledge has also driven some groups (both Christians and non-Christians) to reject anything that cannot be scientifically explained. ... In the Christian community, the word “miracle” has been frequently understood in ways that are unbiblical and illogical. However, many Christians do not give serious attention to properly understanding the meaning of miracle stories. In Indonesia, improper meaning of miracles has developed in this decade. Jonathan Prawira has these lyrics in the song he created, The Miracle is Real: “When | trust, the miracle becomes real; It is not caused by my power, but by Your power, o Lord. When | pray, the miracle becomes real.”* Also in the song created by Isaac Arief, He Understands, “.. . for believers, the miracle is real... However, He asks for one thing: that we believe until the miracle becomes real.”* in the website of Abbalove ministries on miracles, it is written: The word ‘miracle’ should be a word that we understand very well in our lives as believers. Why? Because the God we worship is a miracle-working God. In the midst of global crises, we long for miraculous things that God could do in our personal lives, work, ministries, etc. in the example of Elijah who was taken cared of during a critical time (1 Kings 17: 1-24), we can learn three important things .. .° We may find these concepts and understanding in the realm of biblical text interpretation. For example, Mark 16:17-18° was interpreted like this: Jesus gave the power to us, believers who believe in him to do the same miracles, even more than Jesus did.... Whatis a miracle? 1. A miracle is our right as believers. 2. A miracle is the evidence of the gracious love of God.... As * Lagu Penyembahan blog, http://lagupenyembahan. blogspot.com/2009/11/mujizat-itu-nyata-jonathan- prawira_13.html (Accessed May 7, 2010). * indonesia Top Hits Song blog, http://indo-tophits.blogspot.com/2008/12/dia-mengerti.html (Accessed May 7, 2010). ° Abbalove Ministries. Mukjizat di Tengah Masa Krisis. http://www.abbalove.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=546&ltemid=23 (Accessed May 19, 2010). ° There may be some textual questions in this text: First, does it mean literally that we will not be hurt if we pick up snakes with our hands or when we drink deadly poison, and the sick people whom we place our hands on wiil get well? Second, does it apply to all situations or to some specific situation? believers, the power has been given to us by the Lord Jesus; so that we are able to experience the marvelous miracles of our Lord.’ Reading the above texts carefully, we may summarize the theology of miracle in several points: first, God is the subject of miracles and man is the object of miracles. God is the miracle worker and we are the miracle getter. Second, the purpose of the miracle is to help us through our problems. Third, the realization of miracles is not dependent on God alone, but on us. God is able to make a miracle but we also have to pray and believe that He wants to do the miracle for us. In other words, by praying and believing, we create the condition for God to do the miracles. What Jesus did in the past, can be done today as well. People like these messages. They help people face their problems and meet their difficulties. It becomes a tonic for the listeners who struggle in their daily lives. They like sermons that have these messages because they talk about them and their lives. These messages are on their side. For them, these messages are right because they are in the Bible. These kinds of sermons are right because it preaches the content of the bible. Preaching does not just deal with preaching from the Bible, but also deals with how to preach the Bible accurately. The ultimate goal of preaching will be accomplished when preachers proclaim the scripture in their sermons. Bryan Chapell says, “Preaching accomplishes its spiritual purpose not because of the skills or the wisdom of a preacher 7 Youth DNA Puri blog, Bagaimana Menerima Mujizat? http://youth- dna.blogspot.com/2009/09/bagaimana-menerima-mujizat.html (Accessed May 19, 2010). but because of the power of the Scripture proclaimed.”® Preachers have authority in the Scripture they preach and they have to stand “in submission to the text of Scripture. The issue of authority is inescapable. Either the preacher or the text will be the operant authority.”” The preacher of God always struggles with this question in his preparation time: “Do you, as a preacher, endeavor to bend your thoughts to the Scriptures, or do you use the Scriptures to support your thoughts?”*° In order to preach biblically, he lets the texts, not his thoughts, to govern the sermon. Preaching must be shaped by the message of Scripture. Of course, it’s not easy to discern the original meaning of the text. Every book and part of the Scripture was written in various genres and forms. Preachers should work hard to understand it. They have to pay attention to the characteristics and uniqueness of the text they will be preaching. They come to the text with the commitment to bend their thoughts to the text and preach what the biblical writers would like to say through the texts. Preachers also have to show their total commitment as they preach the miracle texts. Like preaching other genres or forms of the Bible, they also have to get what the biblical writers want to tell their audience. This is not an easy work. When preaching the miracle texts, preachers should ask: can the slogan “Be Like Jesus” be applied to the passage? We may preach that Jesus forgives people who hate him and apply to our 5 Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 2" ed, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005}, 26. ° R. Albert Mohler, Jr, “A Theology of Preaching,” in Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, ed. Michael Duduit (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 15. *° Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, 2™ ed, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 22.