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Today's reading is from the book of 2 Kings, chapter 5, verses 1 to 19.
Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram.
He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded,
because through the Lord had given mercy to Aram.
He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and taken captive a young girl from Israel,
and she served Naaman's wife.
She said to her mistress,
If only my master would send the prophet who is in Samaria,
he would care him of his leprosy.
Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.
By all means go, the king of Aram replied.
I will send a letter to the king of Israel.
So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver,
six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing.
The letter that he took to the king of Israel read,
With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you,
so that you may care of his leprosy.
As soon as the king of Israel read the letter,
he tore his robes and said,
Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life?
Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy?
See how he is trying to pick a coral with me.
When Elisha, the man of God, heard the king of Israel had torn his robes,
he sent him this message.
Why have you torn your robes?
Have the man come to me, and he will know there is a prophet in Israel.
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.
Elisha sent a messenger to say to him,
Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan,
and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.
But Naaman went away angry and said,
I thought that he would surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God,
wave his hand over the spot,
and cure me of my leprosy.
Are not Abana and Farpar,
the rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel?
Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?
So he turned and went off in a rage.
Naaman's servants went to him and said,
My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing,
won't you have done it?
How much more then, when he tells you,
wash and be cleansed?
So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times,
as the man of God had told him.
And his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God.
He stood before him and said,
Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.
So please accept the gift from your servant.
The prophet answered,
As surely as the Lord lives,
whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.
And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
If you will not, said Naaman,
please let me, your servant,
be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry.
For your servant will never again make burnt offerings
and sacrifices to any other God but the Lord.
But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing.
When my master enters the temple of Rimon to bow down,
and he is leaning on my arm,
and I have to bow there also.
When I bow down in the temple of Rimon,
may the Lord forgive your servant for this.
Go in peace, Elisha said.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Can I know God personally?
That is the seventh and the final question
in this Explore God series.
Can I know the author of the Bible,
the God of the Bible?
Can I know him personally?
And I want to engage that question
looking at this biography we just read,
looking at the life story of this one particular person
and his pathway, his process for exploring God.
Jesus preached about this guy in his first sermon
that he ever preached,
so I think we're on firm footing looking at Naaman.
Naaman was like many people in the Bay Area.
He was brilliant.
He was sophisticated, accomplished, successful,
had an incredibly impressive CV.
And he was a person that you would least expect
to be seeking the God of the Bible.
In fact, he's surrounded by many smart people
who think that the God of the Bible
is irrelevant and even ridiculous.
And so it's kind of astonishing
that he's exploring God
and by the end of the story,
converting to God and confessing his faith in God.
So who is this guy, Naaman?
Well, verse one says that he's the commander
of the army of the king of Aram,
the general of the Syrian army,
the mortal enemy of Israel.
And for him to go to Israel,
which, by the way, is losing the military conflict
that's currently going on,
and to think that the losing team's God
is going to help him,
that's sort of a crazy part of the story.
But it says, in addition, it says,
he was a great man in the sight of his master
and highly regarded,
because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram,
and he was a valiant soldier.
So this guy's great in the eyes of the king.
He's admired in the eyes of the people.
He's won victories.
He's a valiant soldier.
He has military prowess and skill in battle.
He's athletic.
He's like many of the people
that come to the Bay Area for school or for work,
you know, to get that degree, to get that job.
And he's just overflowing with physical,
social, intellectual, economic capital.
But in spite of having everything
that the world could give you,
in spite of having all that he could possibly need or want,
there's something missing.
There's something off.
There's something that's not the way it's supposed to be.
The description of Naaman ends with,
but he had leprosy.
Here's this remarkable man,
natural abilities, natural powers, special skills,
highly successful in his career and in his life.
And then this little word, but.
But he was a leper.
He has a great life,
but there's something spoiling his life.
And that's like many of us.
Here we are, we're living in
the most peaceful, prosperous era
in all of human history.
Did you realize that?
Life expectancy and wealth has never been higher.
Thanks to the Industrial Revolution,
modern medicine,
various breakthroughs in science and technology,
we are less poor and sick,
and we are more healthy and wealthy
than we've ever been.
And yet I've never met anybody who says,
well, everything's all right.
That fatal word, but, always comes in, doesn't it?
The world's never been so wonderful, but.
We've never had so many amenities, but.
All people are being lifted up in an unprecedented way,
but something's wrong.
Something spoils it all.
But he had leprosy.
But he was a leper.
And so I just want to take a deeper look
at Naaman as kind of a picture of us.
A picture of who we are.
And I want to look at these three questions.
What causes us to seek God?
How do we find God?
And what is required to meet God?
What causes us to seek God?
How do we find God?
And what is required to meet God?
First of all, what causes us to seek God?
Again, Naaman has it all,
but in spite of having everything the world could possibly give,
he has leprosy.
He's got this terrible, wasting disease.
He's literally falling apart.
And no human being can cure him.
And this tells us that, you know,
no matter how well we design our lives,
there's always going to be something
to come in and ruin it,
to come in and spoil it.
No amount of success,
no amount of power or achievement
can keep these things from happening to you.
People you love are going to die.
Devastating illness is going to come in.
Relational betrayal, financial reversal,
divorce, addiction.
We know this.
If you just ask around.
We in this room know that
these things are going to happen to us
no matter how self-sufficient we think we are.
One day we're going to wake up
and realize that self-sufficiency was an illusion.
And that all along,
even though we thought we were in control,
we weren't in control.
We actually were vulnerable
and we were fragile.
But it was not always like this.
Right?
According to the Bible,
none of this happened in the Garden of Eden.
Human beings were made
in a perfect relationship with God
and they enjoyed life with God
and there was nothing lacking.
There was no disappointment,
no unhappiness,
nothing ever went wrong.
And in many ways,
Naaman's leprosy is a sign
that we are living in a sin-sick world.
I want to be careful here
because the Bible does not directly
and specifically connect this sin
with that suffering.
Right?
In John chapter 9,
the disciples come to Jesus and say,
Jesus, was this man born blind?
Is he suffering because of some specific sin
that he did or his parents did?
And Jesus says emphatically,
no.
But it is true to say
that when sin entered into the world,
the wholeness of life was broken.
And disease entered into the body.
Trouble entered into the mind.
Heartbreak entered into the family
and into our friendships.
Difficulty entered into our work.
And alienation entered into our relationship with God.
And so Naaman's leprosy on the outside
is in many ways a picture of our sin on the inside.
Right?
We're struggling not just from these problems
up on the surface that are right here at our skin.
We're struggling with problems down in the depths,
down in the heart.
All of us have something that's really wrong
and really bad
that we kind of know about
but that we're also sort of masters at minimizing
and denying.
But you see it come out of Naaman.
He goes to the prophet Elisha
and he's expecting a certain outcome.
And then he doesn't get what he wants.
And then how does he respond?
Right?
If you ever want to see
what exactly is in your heart,
just pay attention to how you respond
when you don't get what you want.
Right?
Why is he so angry?
He arrives with his entourage.
He thinks,
I ought to get special treatment.
And Elisha doesn't even come out to talk to him.
He just sends an intermediary.
He gives him a message he doesn't want to hear.
It feels insulting to him.
It feels beneath him.
And what happens in that moment
is Elisha's touching on a raw nerve.
Right?
He's touching on the raw nerve of his pride
and his self-centeredness
and his sense of superiority.
And really all of us have that kind of stuff
down in the depths
that's far worse than we think it is
and it's ruining our lives.
But of course at this point,
Naaman just thinks that his problem is skin deep.
All he knows is that his condition
is detracting from all that's good in his life.
It's just making him more and more miserable.
And so he's exhausting all of the options
to get better.
Right?
He goes to the king of Syria.
He goes to the best and brightest in the land.
All the doctors that have all the ability
and all the ingenuity
and they're baffled.
They can't deal with his problem.
They can do nothing for Naaman
and his suffering and his disease.
It's just getting worse and worse and worse
until finally he gets so desperate
he hears that there's help in Israel.
And so where does he go?
He goes from this king to that king.
Right?
He goes to another person at the top.
And how does he go?
He goes with a letter from his king.
He goes with more money
than all the money that currently exists in Israel.
He goes with all these fine clothes.
And he thinks I'll leverage all my connections.
I'll leverage all my wealth.
I'll leverage all my power
that the world has given me.
And yet that doesn't work either.
See most people will not seek the God of the Bible
until something goes wrong in our lives.
And we wake up to this illusion
of our own self-sufficiency
and we realize
that we actually can't handle life on our own.
And so we turn to the world for help
like Naaman turns to these two kings
and other people in power.
And then you realize like Naaman
that the world is actually completely failing you
and totally inadequate
to help you with your deepest problems.
And it's until we see
what the world cannot give us
that we'll never really be a seeker after God.
Unless we learn
that the world cannot help us.
And until we stop looking to the world
and all of its power centers and power brokers
to give us what only God can give us
will not really make any spiritual progress.
Does that make sense?
Amen.
Yeah, thank you.
What causes us to seek God?
It's problems that are way beyond us.
Problems that other people can't fix.
Well, how do we find God?
How do we find God?
Well, Naaman will not find God
until he stops trusting in himself.
He won't find God
until he stops trusting in his way
that he thinks he should be cured.
Right?
There's a definite remedy for him.
There's an absolute solution.
There's a certain cure,
but neither Naaman
nor the greatest people in all of Syria
know what it is.
They're brilliant,
but they're unaware
and they're ignorant
of the one crucial thing.
Right?
And the reason that they can't,
the reason for that
is because the signpost to the solution
and the solution itself
is utterly different
than what anyone imagines
that it ought to be.
This cure comes to Naaman
in a way that just doesn't fit
his plausibility structures
and really subverts
the dominant paradigm of his people.
Everybody thinks that
the cure is going to come from kings.
It's going to come from power.
But who's the signpost
that points to the solution?
Right?
The only reason Naaman
goes to Israel for help
is because this God
whom he does not know
has given him victories in the past
and it just so happens
that in one of those victories
this little nameless Hebrew servant girl
was captured in a skirmish
with Israel.
And that's one of the great ironies
of this story
is that here's this girl
who's in the eyes of everybody else
is an unimportant nobody.
Who absolutely does not matter
and counts for nothing
in the world's eyes.
She's the signpost
to the solution.
What Naaman most needs
is not up here in the palace
where he thinks it is.
What he most needs
is down here in the kitchen.
Right?
What he needs
is down here in the lowest place
and in the humblest place.
And that's the story
of the Bible
from beginning to end
that God's salvation
comes where we least expect it.
Right?
We think it's going to come
from the great empires
of the world
and all the great dynasties.
Egypt
and Assyria
and Babylon
and the Greeks
and the Romans.
But the scriptures tell us
that the key
to the history
of the world
is in this little
insignificant people
of Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob.
These people
that were enslaved
and these people
that were exiled
just like this little girl.
And God says,
the solution,
my solution
is over here.
It's over here.
The world thinks
that a savior
and a lord
is going to come
and when he comes
he's going to come
from Rome.
But when he actually comes
he comes
in the least important town
of Bethlehem.
He comes as this little
helpless baby
in a manger.
Right?
The salvation of God
comes in the place
where absolutely
no one
is looking for it.
And Naaman gets
this signpost
of this servant girl
but he completely
misreads
the signpost.
Right?
It says in
verse 3
she says
to her mistress
if only my master
would see the prophet
he would cure him
of his leprosy.
She doesn't say
if only he'd see the king
but she says
if only he'd see the prophet
who could tell him
the word of God.
But he doesn't listen.
He goes to the king instead.
In verse 7
as the king of Israel
read the letter
from his other king
he tore his robes
and said
am I God?
Can I kill
and bring back to life?
Why does this fellow
send someone to me
to be cured
of his leprosy?
He says
you've come to the wrong place.
Only God can give life.
Only God can make whole.
But this king
like so many of the kings
in Israel
he's spiritually lost.
And so he tears
his robe
in complete despair
that this guy
is going to get
what he needs.
But
verse 8 says
that when Elisha
the man of God
heard that the king
of Israel
had torn his robes
he sent him
this message
why have you
torn your robes?
Have the man
come to me
and he will know
that there is a prophet
in Israel.
You see what Naaman
needs the most
is this unknown
unexpected little
Hebrew servant girl
to bear witness
to him
that there is
a man of God.
and he needs
to know
that this man
of God
is a prophet
with a word
from God.
A prophet
who has the truth
the divine truth
of God
a prophet
who can reveal
to him
the solution
to his problem.
And so he goes
to the door
of the prophet
and is the problem
solved?
Does the story
end?
No
it's just kind of
heating up
in verse 9
it says
Naaman went
with his horses
and chariots
and stopped
at the door
of Elisha's house.
Elisha sent a messenger
to say to him
go wash yourself
seven times
in the Jordan
and your flesh
will be restored
and you will be
cleansed.
But Naaman
went away angry
and said
I thought
he would surely
come out
to me.
You see
he expects
special treatment
and attention
but Elisha
the prophet
intentionally
does not
go out
to him
and give him
that.
He intentionally
does not
bow down
and express
pleasure
at seeing
this very
important person.
He sends
an intermediary
with a message
and treats
him like
ordinary
common
human
clay.
And I think
the prophet
is deliberately
hurting
his pride
and humbling
him
and this is
in fact
a key step
in finding
God
is to realize
that no matter
who you are
no matter
what your
status is
in the eyes
of the world
no matter
what you have
accomplished
before the
eyes
of God
you are
a helpless
and hopeless
sufferer
and sinner
like everybody
else.
And Naaman
is super
annoyed at that.
He is super
irritated
right?
He gives
this outburst
that kind
of betrays
where his
thoughts
truly lie
and he gives
us his view
of how he
thinks
he ought
to be cured.
In verse 11
he says
I thought
surely he
come out
to me
and stand
and call
the name
of the Lord
his God
and wave
his hand
over the
spot
abracadabra
and sort
of cure
me of
my leprosy.
And you see
he's suffering
not only
from a leprosy
of the skin
he's suffering
from a leprosy
of the soul
and it nearly
robs him
of the cure
and causes
him to miss
the salvation
of God.
The problem
that's ruining
Naaman's life
is his
self-centeredness
maybe
I mean I relate
to this
I don't know
if you can
relate to this
the self-centeredness
where he thinks
that other people
and that God
should revolve
around his
way of doing
things
and his
ideas
of how God
should bring
the cure.
But of course
Elisha does not
do it
Naaman's way
because he doesn't
want Naaman
or anybody else
to think
that the cure
comes from
human power.
No he says
you're going to
have to go out
into the desert
man.
You're going
to have to
go out there
where nobody
is and you'll
experience the
power of God
directly for
yourself.
Well
Naaman
he's still
ticked
and he says
in verse 12
are not Abana
and Farpar
the rivers
of Damascus
better than
all the waters
of Israel
couldn't I
wash in them
and be
cleansed?
And so he
turned
and went
off
in a rage.
You see
Naaman still
trusts
in himself.
He still
trusts in
his thoughts
about what
the cure
should be.
And that's
absolutely crazy
isn't it?
Because the
most powerful
people in the
world have
told him
we cannot
cure you.
And yet he's
fool enough
to look at
the one
remedy
the one
solution
the one
cure
that's been
given to
him
and criticize
it
and object
to it
and protest
against it.
And you know
what?
This is how
it always
is.
This is
what people
were doing
in Jesus'
day as
well.
They said
you know
God's salvation
should come
in this
way.
He should
send a
conquering
Messiah
and gather
up this
massive
army of
soldiers
and whip
up on
the Romans
and drive
the pagans
out of the
holy land
and set up
this kingdom
to dominate
all the
nations.
But that's
not how
God operates
at all.
Instead
God comes
how?
He comes
incognito.
He comes
in the
flesh
in Jesus
Christ
small
and weak.
He comes
born in a
manger.
He comes
and he
spends his
time
outside of
the halls
of power
in Galilee
preaching to
ordinary
common
everyday
poor
broken
people
like us.
And he
shows them
what it
means to
live a
life in
the world
without
this
self-centeredness
on the
inside.
And yet
at the
climax of
his life
the people
see him
nailed to
a tree
and die
in utter
agony
and weakness
and they
see his
body taken
down and
buried in
a grave
and they
say this
is not
the way
that the
salvation of
God should
come into
the world.
This is
ridiculous.
This is
insulting.
The signposts
of God's
salvation should
not come from
a servant
girl and a
humble prophet.
God's
salvation should
not come from
Bethlehem's
manger or
Golgotha's
cross.
Are you
crazy?
No, I
know the
way that
salvation
ought to
come.
But friends,
if you
insist on
your own
way and
you keep
trusting in
yourself like
Naaman trusted
himself, you're
never going to
find God.
The world is
looking in
every direction
except the
one direction
that has
the cure.
And like
this little
insignificant
servant girl,
all I can do
today is just
point you to
this humble
prophet in
Israel and
say that Jesus
has the cure
for your
disease.
He can
cleanse you and
he can restore
you.
Like Elisha,
all I can do
today is just
tell you that
salvation comes
in a way that's
different than
you think it
should be and
it comes not
in power but
in the weakness
of the cross.
It comes not
in victory but
in the sacrifice
of self-giving
love.
And you have
but one thing
to do in the
depth of your
disease and in
the agony of
your need and
that is just to
go to Jesus,
the Son of God
and you'll be
cured.
He can heal
you.
He can remove
whatever curse
is on your
life.
He can restore
you and he
can give you
new life and
he can give
you new power.
Your one
need is to
go to him
and he can
rid you of
the leprosy
of your soul
that's been
spoiling life
for you and
he can give
you life
abundant.
You say but
surely there's
another cure but
no, the
apostle Peter
says this in
Acts 4, he
says salvation
is found in
no one else
than Jesus
Christ for
there is no
other name under
heaven given to
mankind by
which we
must be
saved.
You'll never
find God if
you insist on
your own way.
What causes us
to seek God?
How do we find
God?
And let me just
finish by saying
what is required
to meet God?
What's required
to meet God?
Verse 13 is
beautiful.
It says Naaman's
servants went to
him and said my
father if the
prophet had told
you to do some
great thing would
you not have
done it.
How much more
than when he
tells you wash
and be cleansed.
Thank God for
these servants
right because
otherwise Naaman
would have gone
home diseased and
without the cure.
But in love they
question his pride
with common sense
and they say to
him look Naaman you
came here expecting
to pay a whole lot
of money.
You came here
expecting for the
prophet to tell you
some to do some
great deed and you
would go out and
perform it and you
would earn your
cure and you would
merit a new life
for yourself.
But this prophet has
actually given you a
much simpler way to
be cured.
You don't have to go
do some great thing
to earn your cure.
You can get cured
for free.
I mean yeah Naaman
yes compared to the
cold rushing rivers
in Syria that we all
love and are so
beautiful.
These rivers of the
Jordan are kind of
tepid and lethargic
and a little less
impressive than you
would hope.
But man it's free.
I mean yes the
prophet is asking you
to submit yourself to
a ritual bath of
cleansing that just
might humiliate you.
And yes the prophet
is inviting you to
take a step of faith
that might cause you
to feel foolish or to
look ridiculous in the
eyes of other people.
But Naaman what do
you have to lose?
What do you have to
lose?
It's so easy.
And in the same way
the gospel of Jesus
Christ can be so
insulting to us and so
humiliating because it
tells us that we cannot
pay money and we cannot
go out and perform some
great deed and live a
good life and follow the
example of Jesus Christ
or practice his teachings
or make some great
sacrifices and then we'll
be cured.
No the gospel is so much
simpler and yet so much
deeper than that it just
says look to the cross.
Look at Christ and him
crucified.
That's God's way of
salvation by free grace.
grace and it doesn't cost
you a penny.
Friends we don't have to
go out and do some great
thing because the great
thing has been done for
us.
Just look at Jesus dying on
the cross for you,
bearing your sins in his
body, receiving the just
judgment that your sins
deserve.
Look at God laying on him
your pride and your self
sinerness and your self
righteousness and dealing
with all of it there.
Just believe that he did
that for you and you'll be
cleansed.
You'll be cured.
Right?
We sang it earlier.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of
Jesus.
What can make me whole?
Again, nothing but the
blood of Jesus.
And you might say well
that's ridiculous and that
is insulting.
But friends, Naaman tried
everything else and it led
to nothing.
All the attempted cures
failed him.
And the same will be true
for you.
You can keep trying all the
other religions and all the
other philosophies but you're
never going to find peace.
You're never going to find
rest because here and here
alone is the cure and there's
no other alternative.
If Naaman turns away, he'll go
back home a leper and leprosy
will spread all over his body
until it kills him.
And if any of us turn away from
the one cure, the one remedy that
God has provided in his son Jesus
Christ, we too will remain spiritual
and moral lepers for all eternity
without God and without hope.
And so as I close, just allow me
to plead with you to take the
position of Naaman's servants and
just plead with you not to turn
away from the cure when it's right
here for you.
Try it.
Just try it.
And you'll find that it works.
You just confess your sins.
You just say, I'm unable to cure
myself.
And you just receive the free gift
of God to be cleansed and to be
healed and to be whole and to have
a new life and to be a child of
God and have the Holy Spirit
enter into your soul.
Verse 14 says that, so he went
down.
He went down and he dipped himself
in the Jordan seven times as the
man of God had told him and his
flesh was restored and became
clean like that of a young boy.
Then Naaman and all his
attendants went back to the man of
God.
He stood before him and said, now I
know.
Now I know that there is no God in
all the world except in Israel.
He doesn't say, now I know that your
God is more powerful than my God.
He goes through this massive worldview
change.
His map of spiritual reality has been
fundamentally altered and he says,
there is no God in all the world
but this one God.
And you see, that's the
transformation because he starts by
thinking that his most fundamental
need and his most fundamental
problem was that he was a sufferer
with a disease but then he realizes
in the end, no, the need beneath the
need, the problem beneath the problem
is that I never knew the one true
and living God.
And so the question, can I know God
personally?
Can I have a relationship with this
one God of the Bible?
Well, if you ask Naaman, he would say, no.
He would say, no, you can't.
Not if you think the world's gonna cure
you.
Not if you think you know how it's
supposed to happen.
Not if you're unwilling to pay attention
to God's unexpected signposts
in his servant people
and his prophetic word.
Not if you're unwilling to submit
to God's unlikely solution
in the cross of his son, Jesus Christ.
But Naaman would say to you,
if you lay down your pride
and if you humble yourself
and if by faith you receive this cure
as a free gift from God,
then yes, you can know God personally.
Yes, you can know personally
that there is no God in all the world
but this one God of the Bible
made flesh in Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, amen.