WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.439 I'm going to read our passage for tonight from 2 Kings chapter 5 on page 311 in the 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:12.359 Bibles that we have here and it will be on the screens as well. 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:19.519 So from verse 1, naming commander of the army of the king of Syria was a great man with 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:25.359 his master and in high favor because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:29.879 He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:34.079 Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:37.759 Israel and she worked in the service of Namun's wife. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:43.079 She said to her mistress, would that my Lord were the prophet who is in Samaria, he would 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.320 cure him of his leprosy. 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:51.239 So Namun went in and told his Lord thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel. 00:00:51.239 --> 00:00:55.980 And the king of Syria said, go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. 00:00:55.979 --> 00:01:03.319 So he went taking with him 10 talons of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold and 10 changes of clothing. 00:01:03.319 --> 00:01:08.560 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel which read, when this letter reaches you, 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:14.679 know that I have sent you to Namun, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. 00:01:14.679 --> 00:01:19.879 And when the king of Israel read the letter, he told his clothes and said, I am I God to 00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:26.319 kill and to make a life that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:30.799 Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:35.119 But when Elisha of the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he 00:01:35.119 --> 00:01:39.399 sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes? 00:01:39.399 --> 00:01:43.319 Let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:48.959 So Namun came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:54.119 And Elisha sent a message to him saying, go and wash in the garden seven times and your 00:01:54.119 --> 00:01:57.799 flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:02.599 But Namun was angry and went away saying, behold, I thought that he would surely come 00:02:02.599 --> 00:02:07.839 out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over 00:02:07.839 --> 00:02:10.319 the place and cure the leper. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:17.000 Are not Abana and Pharper the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:19.319 Could I not wash in them and be clean? 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:22.199 So he turned and went away in a rage. 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:26.560 But his servants came near and said to him, my father, it is a great word that the prophet 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:27.560 has spoken to you. 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:29.400 Will you not do it? 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.560 Has he actually said to you wash and be clean? 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:36.840 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the garden according to the word of the 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:37.840 man of God. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:45.719 And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean. 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:50.879 We are continuing our series on the Gospel according to Elijah and Elisha. 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:57.800 We are in the Elisha narratives and it's a great story that we read. 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:05.319 It happens around 850 BC somewhere in that time and the book of Second Kings takes us 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:10.240 away from the land of Israel up north into a faraway land called Syria, also known as 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:17.480 Damascus and tells us about this guy named Naaman, General Naaman. 00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:24.159 He's a Syrian commander of a great army and he is looking for healing in this passage. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:28.240 And at the very end he goes into the water into the river Jordan. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.240 He's back down in Israel. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:31.640 He washes and he becomes clean. 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:35.840 And what we learn here is what it takes to become clean. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:40.680 This passage is about what it takes to become clean both inside and outside. 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:44.599 You got to be washed to become clean. 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:47.280 And we're going to see the problem that Naaman faces. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:49.199 It's the same problem we face. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:54.980 The wrong solutions that he searches for and then what it means to become clean. 00:03:54.980 --> 00:03:56.759 So let's do that. 00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.280 The problem, here's the problem. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:04.280 One day you are the general of the mightiest army in the world and the next day you have 00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:05.280 leprosy. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:07.159 That's the problem. 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:08.879 It's right there in verse one. 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:14.039 Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria was a very great man. 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:15.039 Yet he had leprosy. 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:19.959 So there's a really strong juxtaposition happening in that first verse. 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:26.240 And I think that a lot of people in our city can relate to this very closely. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.519 A place like Edinburgh, a city like Edinburgh, a place like St. C's. 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:35.159 There are a lot of people who move here to Edinburgh to seek an education. 00:04:35.159 --> 00:04:38.599 And there's a lot of people who move here to start a career, to advance a career. 00:04:38.599 --> 00:04:43.039 There's a lot of people who move here to be great in the industry that God has put them 00:04:43.039 --> 00:04:44.039 in. 00:04:44.039 --> 00:04:47.919 And there are lots of people in this room tonight that have a lot of marketable skills. 00:04:47.919 --> 00:04:49.519 You can get a job. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:54.240 And Edinburgh is full of impressive people. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:56.319 Most of the central cities are. 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:01.199 And that means that there's a lot of people in our city that are Naaman's, that are like 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:02.279 Naaman. 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:06.159 And you see that verse one, we get Naaman's CV. 00:05:06.159 --> 00:05:10.439 He is the commander of the army of the king of Syria, the greatest power in the world 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:11.439 at the time. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:15.879 He's the number two, only to the king of Syria. 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:20.839 And it says to us that he was a great man, which probably means he was a warrior. 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:24.560 He was a mighty man, really strong, really powerful. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:28.240 And he had high favor with his master, the king. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:30.319 So his boss loved him. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:31.319 He was very strong. 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:33.319 He was very fit. 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:34.360 He was very accomplished. 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.800 He was the number two guy, really in all the world, in a sense. 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:39.240 He had a really good CV. 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:40.680 He was a success story. 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:44.840 They would have made a movie about him, The Rise of General Naaman, you know. 00:05:44.840 --> 00:05:50.759 And I think if he was alive today, he would be the kind of person that we would enter. 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:51.959 He'd have a YouTube channel. 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:55.439 We would say, tell us how did you become a CEO or a CFO? 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:00.039 And he would say, you know, I wake up at 5 a.m. every day and I drink AG1. 00:06:00.039 --> 00:06:05.399 I eat all my minerals, all my vitamins, all wrapped up in one drink and my protein. 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:06.399 I go to the gym. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:09.439 I'm at my desk by 7 a.m. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:12.799 I accomplish more in the morning than anybody else does. 00:06:12.799 --> 00:06:19.079 He would have been the number two at BP, the number two at Shell, the number two at Blackrock. 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:23.759 That's the kind of person we're talking about here in the ancient Near East. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.359 But he had leprosy. 00:06:26.359 --> 00:06:29.519 That's what the end-averse one tells us. 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:35.399 What we learn here is that no matter how much your CV is padded, no matter how much your 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:39.680 CV is truly great, no matter how much you are seeking success and achieving success 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:47.639 in your life, and no matter how much you become a person of accomplishment, driven by accomplishment, 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:51.360 you can't escape suffering. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:59.039 You can't get out from under the plight of disease and disaster and death that is coming 00:06:59.039 --> 00:07:01.399 for everybody. 00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:06.199 That's the only relationship we have to it, is that either we have it or it's coming. 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:08.319 And it doesn't matter how accomplished of a person we are. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:15.199 This is the second most powerful man in the world, but he's got leprosy. 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:19.279 The meaning of name and leprosy is not Hanson's disease. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:20.759 That's what we call leprosy. 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.639 That's leprosy today is technically Hanson's disease. 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.279 And instead in the Bible in the ancient Near East, leprosy is really a word that covers 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:29.719 a whole range of skin diseases. 00:07:29.719 --> 00:07:34.319 So the real mark of being a leper in the ancient Near East is that you have a visible skin 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:40.240 condition that probably covers most of your body, probably uncurable. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.199 And so when people had leprosy in the ancient world, they literally walked around looking 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:45.199 like death. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:50.959 Their skin was very white and they had sores or whatever it may be all around them, all 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:52.039 over them. 00:07:52.039 --> 00:07:57.719 And so Naaman, such a great man in every way, so accomplished, walking around the palace 00:07:57.719 --> 00:07:59.639 in Syria. 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:04.120 And yet he's the kind of man that everybody bows down for when he walks through the hallway, 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:05.680 when he's in the room. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.639 But he looks like death. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:12.800 He's wearing it on his outside, on his skin. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:17.079 And you could see his pain, you could see his misery all the time. 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:21.480 Now, it's been pointed out by many others in a passage like this, something very, very 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:22.480 important. 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:27.160 And the depths of this passage, you really get into it when you realize that in the ancient 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:33.960 world, leprosy in Israel, leprosy outside of Israel stood for something more than just 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:35.720 a skin disease. 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:39.799 Leprosy in the ancient world, we see this very clearly in Genesis to Deuteronomy. 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:45.559 Leprosy was a sign and a symbol of what was wrong with human beings. 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:49.719 So in Israel, if you had leprosy, you had to stay outside the camp of Israel. 00:08:49.719 --> 00:08:50.719 Why? 00:08:50.719 --> 00:08:53.759 Not because you had committed a particular sin or anything like that, no. 00:08:53.759 --> 00:09:00.639 Because leprosy was a sign of not just external, an external lack of cleanliness or something, 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:03.559 being unclean as the Bible puts it, but something much deeper. 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:09.039 Leprosy was a symbol, a sign, that pointed to a disease of the heart. 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:10.839 That's the way ancient Near Eastern people understood it. 00:09:10.839 --> 00:09:12.559 That's the way the Bible talks about it. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:17.360 And so everybody that looked at Naaman in the ancient world, when an Israelite looked 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:23.719 at Naaman, they would say, this stands for something greater than just a skin disease. 00:09:23.719 --> 00:09:28.799 This reminds me that there's something broken, there's something diseased about my inside, 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:30.719 not just my outside. 00:09:30.719 --> 00:09:34.439 That's what everybody would have saw when they saw Naaman. 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:39.420 Because he looks like death on the outside, but that visibility describes a condition 00:09:39.420 --> 00:09:43.280 on the inside for all of us, for everybody. 00:09:43.280 --> 00:09:45.680 It reminded everybody, there's something wrong with my heart, there's something wrong with 00:09:45.680 --> 00:09:49.640 the world, there's something wrong with human beings and the world we live in. 00:09:49.640 --> 00:09:53.360 It's diseased, it's full of death, it's full of disaster. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:54.880 It reminds us of sin. 00:09:54.880 --> 00:09:59.040 That's what leprosy did in the ancient mine and in the Israelite mine in this day. 00:09:59.040 --> 00:10:02.400 And that just, the point is simple, I've already made it. 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:09.720 For us, you can take life by the horns, you can cross every barrier, you can pick yourself 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.279 up by your bootstraps, you can really make something of yourself and make a great name 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:14.799 for yourself. 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:21.519 And the Bible comes with an unpopular message, but a message that's true empirically for 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:26.240 all of us, that we all still face the hard things. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:29.879 We all still face disease and death. 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:34.360 And that external condition exists because of an internal condition. 00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:38.039 And that's the disease of the human heart, the sinful heart, the heart that's been pulled 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:40.840 away from the living God, the real God. 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:46.000 I think Edinburgh is probably full of namens, full of very successful people that have lots 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:52.159 of marketable skills, but are covering something, the true problem, which is deep down. 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:55.840 And probably wrestle with that truth, deep down is this you that, deep down in your heart, 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:00.560 you know, as good as life may have gone for you so far, maybe. 00:11:00.560 --> 00:11:04.759 You know, I know that my circumstances are going to change at some point. 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:07.519 I know that I'm going to face something. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:12.759 And what the story of Naaman really tells us is that we're no match for it. 00:11:12.759 --> 00:11:14.240 We're no match for the great problems. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:18.399 We're no match for disease, death and disaster, and we're no match for the sin problem that 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:21.040 that describes within us. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:26.599 The very difficult truth we have to face is that no matter how much we've built a fashionable 00:11:26.599 --> 00:11:31.199 and secure lifestyle, suffering is coming, suffering is coming. 00:11:31.199 --> 00:11:38.519 Now secondly, Naaman goes after the wrong solutions to the problem of being unclean, both internally 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:40.039 and externally here. 00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:43.279 And Naaman, you know, he chases healing. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.120 He chases healing in this passage. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.759 And you can see so far that, you know, so far we've made it through one point and we've 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:50.519 covered one verse. 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:53.679 So we've got 13 more verses. 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:54.679 So just get ready. 00:11:54.679 --> 00:11:58.519 No, we'll cover the rest right here. 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:02.840 Verse 2 and 3 is also a very stark juxtaposition. 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:06.199 Verse 1, Naaman has a great CV, but he's got leprosy. 00:12:06.199 --> 00:12:12.720 Verse 2 and 3, then this funny moment almost, the Syrians in one of their raids have carried 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:16.439 off a young girl from the land of Israel. 00:12:16.439 --> 00:12:20.240 And now she's a slave in Naaman's household. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:27.440 And the second most powerful man in all the world is desperate to be healed. 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:33.840 And so this young slave girl that he carried away on a raid is the one who comes and tells 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:37.560 him the great solution he needs. 00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:41.600 And even more, she says, you need to go back to the little land of Israel that you conquered 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:43.879 that you probably don't even think about anymore. 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:47.799 And that's the only place that you're going to find a man that can deal with your problem. 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:49.840 It's a great juxtaposition. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.560 It's unexpected for him. 00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:58.800 And he realizes he's being asked, we're being asked in this moment to realize that the path 00:12:58.800 --> 00:13:05.160 to being clean begins with humility by listening to the young girl. 00:13:05.160 --> 00:13:08.120 The person he never expected would be the one that would bring the solution, is the 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:09.800 one that brings the solution. 00:13:09.800 --> 00:13:12.759 And he's being asked, will you humble yourself? 00:13:12.759 --> 00:13:16.160 You know, it's subtle, it's a foreshadow, will you humble yourself? 00:13:16.160 --> 00:13:18.600 And so you jump all the way down to verse 10 and 11. 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.080 It's a big jump down to verse 10 and 11. 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:28.200 When Daimon gets to the prophet's house, Elisha, Elisha will not come out and see Naaman. 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:33.440 The second most powerful man in all the world has come and Elisha will not even come out 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:34.440 of his house. 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:38.040 And Naaman is so mad. 00:13:38.040 --> 00:13:42.399 Elisha sends a messenger out and just says, just go talk to him for me. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.680 And he says, go tell him, I'm not going to see him, but go down and wash in the river 00:13:45.680 --> 00:13:48.200 and he'll be okay. 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:53.600 And it says literally Naaman was outraged, he was enraged, he was raging. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:55.520 Do you not know who I am? 00:13:55.520 --> 00:14:00.920 You know, he hadn't got the message yet about the path, the path being humility. 00:14:00.920 --> 00:14:05.520 And he's so angry and I think there's two big reasons, two big reasons and we'll move 00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:07.520 on to the final thing. 00:14:07.520 --> 00:14:11.600 This has been pointed out to me by others, by the way, as I've read about Naaman. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:17.720 The first reason I think Naaman is so mad when Elisha says, all you need to do is go 00:14:17.720 --> 00:14:20.040 down to the river and wash. 00:14:20.040 --> 00:14:27.480 The reason he's so mad is because human beings, I think all of us, we want to earn. 00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:29.600 We want to earn things. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:34.440 You know, we want to, if we're going to get something great like Naaman's being offered, 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:38.879 we want to walk away from it feeling like I deserved that. 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:46.200 And I think people who are especially successful people, people who are chasing accomplishment, 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:52.440 people who chase accomplishment especially really do not want to receive gifts, not truly. 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:57.160 Even when we get gifts, we want it to be because we deserve to be loved. 00:14:57.160 --> 00:14:58.160 We deserve it. 00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:00.680 And Naaman, you know, when he's told, all you got to do is go down to the river and 00:15:00.680 --> 00:15:05.520 wash, he wants to be told, I want you to go to the mountain and defeat smog. 00:15:05.520 --> 00:15:06.960 You know, bring smog's head back to me. 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.320 I want you to go finally find Nessie. 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:10.600 Is he in there? 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:13.240 And if you can prove it, then you can be healed. 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:14.600 He wants an accomplishment. 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:17.360 He wants to prove himself. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:25.480 He wants to earn the favor of the God, of the prophet of Elisha by working for it. 00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:27.960 He wants to be a success story. 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.159 He wants the movie made about him ultimately. 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:35.200 And you know, you can see this in what he does in verses five and six. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:40.720 In order to prepare for this encounter with the prophet, he gets a letter of recommendation 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.759 from his king, from the CEO of the land. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:46.960 You know, he says, I'm about to go see the prophet. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:50.519 Will you give me a letter of recommendation from the greatest man in all the world, the 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:51.679 most powerful man? 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:54.159 So he brings that, you know, I've got a letter of recommendation. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:55.519 I deserve to be healed. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:59.240 But if that doesn't work, then we're told right after that, that he brings 10 talents 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:05.360 of silver, 6,000 shekels, and 10 changes of clothing, which is a big deal in the ancient 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:06.860 Near East. 00:16:06.860 --> 00:16:11.919 So based on what the commentators say about how much that amount of cash would buy a person 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:17.399 in that time, I think this is about 2 million pounds equivalent in our time about what it 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:19.439 would buy you, something like that. 00:16:19.439 --> 00:16:21.240 He brings about 2 million pounds. 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:23.240 So he has a letter of recommendation from the king. 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:25.759 He's got 2 million pounds cash. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:32.199 And then right after that, it also says that he came to the prophet's door with horses 00:16:32.199 --> 00:16:36.839 and chariots, with an army, you know, with pomp and circumstance. 00:16:36.839 --> 00:16:41.399 And he says, you know, if my letter of recommendation from the king and my 2 million pounds don't 00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:44.199 do it, then I'm going to impress this guy to death. 00:16:44.199 --> 00:16:46.799 You know, he's going to have to heal me when he sees me. 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:48.120 I've got an army. 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:49.120 I've got horses. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:51.639 I've got chariots. 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:54.799 And Elisha says exactly what Naaman does not want to hear. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.519 He says, just go to the river and wash. 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:00.079 And it's too easy. 00:17:00.079 --> 00:17:02.199 He wants to earn it. 00:17:02.199 --> 00:17:03.720 He doesn't want to be told. 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:05.440 Just receive. 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:06.440 Just receive. 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:08.759 He wants to chase it. 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:09.759 What do we learn? 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:14.599 We learn here very, something very simple, and that's that your accomplishments cannot 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:18.079 save you before the living God. 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:26.119 When it comes to the living God, the real God, a God that Naaman had never encountered before, 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:28.200 your performance is not going to cut it. 00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:31.039 Your performance is not going to get you there. 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:35.879 And sometimes that is not easy for us to hear. 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:42.880 The message that you can be saved by grace, through faith, and not by your works is too, 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.800 it's so easy that it's almost impossible. 00:17:45.800 --> 00:17:49.040 It's so easy that we almost say, I don't want to hear that. 00:17:49.040 --> 00:17:50.040 I want to earn it. 00:17:50.040 --> 00:17:51.640 I want to deserve it. 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:54.280 You know, I want to be a success story. 00:17:54.280 --> 00:17:58.960 And Naaman's having to be confronted with the hard fact that you will never earn the 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:02.280 favor of the real God. 00:18:02.280 --> 00:18:05.840 He wants to heal you as a gift, not because you deserve it. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:11.959 Now the second reason I think that Naaman is so angry here is because he is thinking 00:18:11.959 --> 00:18:17.799 of Elisha's God, Israelite religion, the biblical religion, the true God in the same 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:21.759 way as he understands his own religion, paganism. 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:25.159 And so this is a little more subtle in the passage, but it's there. 00:18:25.159 --> 00:18:27.439 And I'll just show it to you. 00:18:27.439 --> 00:18:32.480 In verse six, he comes to the king of Israel, first King Joram. 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:34.759 Joram was not a great king, not at all. 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:40.279 But the reason he does that is because even though the young girl told him, go to the 00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:41.279 prophet. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:43.799 No, he goes to the king. 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:44.960 Why? 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:50.440 Because in his mind, the king in any land is like a demi-God. 00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:54.160 The king is the closest one to the divine. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:58.960 And it's the king that both can get God to do what he wants, but also get the prophet. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:01.000 So he thinks the king is in control of God. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:03.720 He thinks the king is in control of the prophet. 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:05.200 And I love what Joram says. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:09.680 Joram was not a very good man and was not a very good king, but it's very clear that 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:17.759 Joram does understand the God of the Bible because Joram says, who do you think I am? 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:19.120 You think I'm God? 00:19:19.120 --> 00:19:22.440 You come to me and say, hey, well, you could get God and your prophet, your God and your 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:23.440 prophet to heal me. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:25.559 He says, I can't do that. 00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:26.559 There's no chance. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:28.120 I can't control them. 00:19:28.120 --> 00:19:30.640 He, Joram, this king, he knows. 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:34.840 He knows that God is unlike the gods of the pagans. 00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:40.800 God is unlike the gods of the ancient Near East, that he's good, but he's not safe. 00:19:40.800 --> 00:19:41.880 He can't be controlled. 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:43.120 He can't be tamed. 00:19:43.120 --> 00:19:44.120 He can't be tricked. 00:19:44.120 --> 00:19:46.160 He can't be negotiated with. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:47.520 And so he's realizing that. 00:19:47.520 --> 00:19:51.840 And then he comes after that in verse 11 to the prophet. 00:19:51.840 --> 00:19:56.160 And he says, he's so angry because he says, I thought that the prophet would come out 00:19:56.160 --> 00:20:01.640 to me because I'm a great man and I thought he would call upon his God and I thought he 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:06.880 would wave his hand, he says, and I thought he would, you know, sprinkle the potion and 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:10.400 say the magic words and I would be healed. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.880 And again, he's thinking according to the religions of the ancient Near East, he thinks 00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:19.600 that the God of the Bible, the true God, the God of Elisha can be manipulated by magic. 00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:24.320 And when you put it all together, what you realize is that Naaman, Naaman is encountering 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:30.279 the true God, biblical religion, Christianity, as we might say now, and he's learning that 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:38.759 to become clean, to be forgiven, to have salvation cannot be brought about by performance or 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:47.159 by magic, by ritual, by religion, by incantation, by any of the things that most of the peoples 00:20:47.159 --> 00:20:51.319 in all the world throughout all world history have thought they could use to get the gods 00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:54.559 to obey them, to do what they wanted to do. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:00.159 And you know that in our city, there are a lot of people who are, a lot of us, and maybe 00:21:00.159 --> 00:21:05.399 this is you tonight, you don't know exactly what to think about God, you would say you're 00:21:05.399 --> 00:21:08.599 spiritual in general. 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:15.399 And usually what that ends up cashing out as is that you hope beyond hope that by your 00:21:15.399 --> 00:21:20.240 own performance, by your success story, by doing something great, by being a good person, 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:26.039 you'll earn divine favor on the one hand, or you turn to ritual, to religion, to spiritual 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:29.039 ism, to magic. 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:33.559 There's lots of people in our city that have gone both ways, and this is exactly what happens 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:35.359 in Naaman, he goes both ways. 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:40.640 I can get it by performance or I'll get it by magic, by ancient Near Eastern religious 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:42.440 practices, one of the two. 00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:49.559 And he gets confronted with the command, just go down to the river and wash, and you'll 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:52.039 be clean. 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:58.839 And when he hears that, he says, wash in the river. 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:02.639 I come from Damascus, have you seen our rivers? 00:22:02.639 --> 00:22:05.799 He names them here, those names. 00:22:05.799 --> 00:22:10.000 The rivers in Damascus, the far part, and the obana, they're way better. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:12.279 The rivers in Damascus, I could have washed there. 00:22:12.279 --> 00:22:16.359 Our rivers in Damascus don't have microplastics. 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:17.960 They don't have any metals in them. 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.799 They were much better. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.519 But instead, I've come to Israel to be told, just wash in the river. 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:32.880 Sometimes we can't believe, we can't dive first into the grace of God that's been offered 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:37.680 to us precisely because it's free. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:39.960 We struggle with that. 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:42.519 We want to earn our own way. 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:48.359 We're being confronted here and told that God wants to heal you, he wants to forgive 00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:51.680 you, he wants to clean you, and all he wants you to do is wash in the river. 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:58.000 I came across an article from a while ago, 2015, by Michael Bloomberg. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:02.759 Michael Bloomberg was a former mayor of New York City, and he gave a speech around this 00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:07.480 time reflecting on his legacy in New York as the mayor. 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:08.879 And he was 72 years old. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.720 He spoke about all the initiatives that he had spearheaded and all the things he had 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:14.760 accomplished in New York. 00:23:14.760 --> 00:23:20.920 He said that he had reduced obesity, he had eliminated smoking from public places, he 00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:25.800 had neutered gun violence across the city, taken the guns off the streets in many places. 00:23:25.800 --> 00:23:30.960 And this is what he said, I'm telling you, if there is a God when I get to heaven, I'm 00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:33.520 not stopping to be interviewed. 00:23:33.520 --> 00:23:35.600 I'm heading straight through the doors. 00:23:35.600 --> 00:23:38.080 I've earned my place in heaven. 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:39.720 It's not even close. 00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:42.359 And that's the name and mentality. 00:23:42.359 --> 00:23:49.439 I've earned my place, God has to give me my rights, I've defeated smog, you know. 00:23:49.439 --> 00:23:51.679 I deserve it. 00:23:51.679 --> 00:23:55.960 And the God of the Bible says, you don't deserve it, and that's not how you can be clean. 00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:58.279 So how can you become clean? 00:23:58.279 --> 00:24:00.480 How can name and become clean, finally? 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:07.720 At the very end of the passage, Naaman's own slaves say to him, will you not just go 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:09.160 and wash in the river? 00:24:09.160 --> 00:24:10.839 Will you not just go and try? 00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:11.839 Just go and do it. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:14.120 And so he goes and he does it. 00:24:14.120 --> 00:24:17.839 And it says he went down, he dipped himself seven times into the Jordan, and according 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:22.960 to the word of the man of God, his flesh was restored like that of a little child, and 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.640 he became clean. 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:28.759 And so he goes down to the water seven times, he comes back up, his flesh is like the skin 00:24:28.759 --> 00:24:32.400 of a chubby little baby, brand new. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:36.720 And immediately when you're reading this passage in the light of the whole Bible, you realize 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:41.559 there is something more here than just the physical. 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:45.120 That this man, if we were to keep reading, he rises up from the water and proclaims, 00:24:45.120 --> 00:24:47.200 the God of Israel is the true God. 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:51.160 You see, he's been healed not just on the outside, but also on the inside. 00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:54.039 He's experiencing that. 00:24:54.039 --> 00:25:00.839 In the ancient Near East, when a person was a leper, remember, it symbolizes a problem, 00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:03.200 not just on the outside, but for all of us. 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:07.799 It shows us something's wrong deep on the inside, and so becoming clean, this language 00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:12.799 of cleanliness throughout the whole Old Testament was always about the restoration, not just 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.519 of physicality, but of the whole person. 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:21.080 This is about the restoration of the spirit, not just the body. 00:25:21.080 --> 00:25:22.519 And that's what happens with name. 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:31.000 And now listen, 880 years later, it's a long time, 880 years later in the Gospel in Luke 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.519 chapter 4, Jesus Christ actually tells this story. 00:25:36.519 --> 00:25:42.839 He recounts this exact event, the healing of Naaman, and he was in Nazareth, his hometown 00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:49.920 in Luke chapter 4, and just before he talks about Naaman, he says that John the Baptist 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:53.400 is the new Elijah, the Elijah that has now come. 00:25:53.400 --> 00:25:57.480 He says, John the Baptist, do you see that he's like Elijah from the Old Testament? 00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:02.680 And then he turns and he's in Nazareth in his hometown, and he says in verse 18 of Luke 00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:05.680 4, the spirit of the Lord has fallen upon me. 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:11.839 Now, you'll remember back a couple weeks ago that when Elijah retired, the spirit of the 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:15.200 Lord fell down upon Elisha, a double portion. 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:21.880 So in Luke 4, Jesus says, John the Baptist is the new Elijah, and now the spirit of the 00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:24.240 Lord has fallen upon me. 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:26.279 That's what Jesus says. 00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:28.039 And what do the people say in verse 22? 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:33.639 They say, is this not just the carpenter's son, Joseph? 00:26:33.639 --> 00:26:38.519 You see, they say, is he truly great? 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:44.680 Naaman came to Elisha's house and said, this is the guy that I'm supposed to come see. 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:45.680 He won't even come out to me. 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:50.039 I'm supposed to go to Little Old Israel, to this little old prophet in this poor town, 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:51.599 and this is where I'm going to be healed. 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:56.079 And Jesus says, John the Baptist is Elijah, and now the spirit of the Lord has fallen 00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:58.000 upon me. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:04.319 And when he says that, everybody just says, this is just Joseph, his Joseph's son. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.599 This is just the carpenter. 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:08.839 And Jesus takes it even further in verse 27. 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:13.519 He says, every prophet is always rejected in his hometown, and there were many lepers 00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:17.240 in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:20.000 None of them was cleansed, but only name in the Syrian. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:22.240 Now, what is Jesus saying? 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:27.200 The elders that heard that in that moment were so outraged that they tried to throw Jesus 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.519 off of a cliff. 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:31.200 Why? 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:35.039 And it's because they knew exactly what he was saying. 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:41.200 He was saying, I am the new and better Elisha. 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:43.839 I am the one who's filled with the double portion of the spirit. 00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:51.839 I am the one who has come to cleanse and wash Jews and Gentiles alike. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:56.799 Remember Elisha, he told a Gentile commander, a Gentile general, go down to the river and 00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:58.559 you too can be cleaned? 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:00.720 And Jesus is saying, and that's me. 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:05.480 I'm the one who has come now, and I will wash you. 00:28:05.480 --> 00:28:08.519 And if you want to be cleaned, if you want to be forgiven, you've got to come to me. 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:09.519 You know what he was saying? 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:14.599 Jesus Christ was saying, I am the new Elisha and I am the river. 00:28:14.599 --> 00:28:15.599 And they knew that. 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:16.599 They understood that. 00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:17.599 That's what he meant. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:21.160 And so, the elders, the scribes, the Pharisees, they literally tried to throw him off a cliff 00:28:21.160 --> 00:28:22.160 for it. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:23.639 It's like what we saw this morning. 00:28:23.639 --> 00:28:25.319 They said, he has committed blasphemy. 00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:28.680 They knew that he, they thought that he had. 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:37.400 And that means that if you come tonight, you come tonight, the main point, maybe you say, 00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.400 you know, I'm a person of accomplishment. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:41.720 I'm a person of success. 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:46.560 And Jesus comes as the new Elisha and says, look, if you want to be forgiven, if you want 00:28:46.560 --> 00:28:50.840 to be washed, if you want to be cleaned, you've got to come to the true river. 00:28:50.840 --> 00:28:53.000 And it's Jesus Christ himself. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:59.400 Look, some of the commentators, let's take this one step further as we close. 00:28:59.400 --> 00:29:02.160 The commentators, I've read this from a couple people. 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:03.360 I'm not sure about it. 00:29:03.360 --> 00:29:04.680 It's hypothetical. 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:11.200 But they suggest that the reason that Elisha didn't come out to see Naaman is because according 00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:16.160 to the law of the Bible, the Old Testament, if he would have, if he would have encountered 00:29:16.160 --> 00:29:20.640 Naaman, he would have become ritually unclean himself. 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:21.640 That's what the Torah says. 00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:27.920 It says that you can't touch, you can't confront a leper, lest you become unclean and you have 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:31.560 to undergo ritual impurity law. 00:29:31.560 --> 00:29:33.120 And maybe that is why. 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:35.319 And I'm not totally sure. 00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:37.359 Elisha had no power in himself. 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:41.279 I think what he was saying is, I have no power in myself to heal you. 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:45.119 So go down to the river and God will take care of it. 00:29:45.119 --> 00:29:49.799 And in the very next chapter in Luke's gospel, Luke chapter four, Jesus says, I'm the new 00:29:49.799 --> 00:29:57.719 Elisha, Luke chapter five, the very next chapter, a leper comes to Jesus Christ and a leper 00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:05.519 falls on his face and says, I know you can heal me and you can make me clean. 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:09.279 And I first heard my old minister, Ligand Duncan, point this out. 00:30:09.279 --> 00:30:10.759 Everybody, there was a big crowd. 00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:15.680 Everybody's standing there had to have all been thinking the same thing. 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:18.440 Don't touch that man, Jesus. 00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:19.440 Don't touch him. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:22.680 If you touch him, you'll become unclean. 00:30:22.680 --> 00:30:25.200 You can't touch a leper. 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:30.000 And Jesus looks at the leper and says, I will heal you. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:32.120 I will touch you. 00:30:32.120 --> 00:30:33.120 Be clean. 00:30:33.120 --> 00:30:36.120 And Jesus touches the leper and the leper becomes clean. 00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:40.039 You see, Elisha was great, but he did not have the power to heal Naaman. 00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:43.759 Elisha was great, but he did not have the power to forgive sins. 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:46.960 Elisha was great, but he cannot cleanse you. 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:51.400 But the new and better Elisha comes and he touches lepers and he doesn't become unclean. 00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:53.680 They become clean. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:58.759 The new Elisha comes and he touches sinners and he doesn't become unclean. 00:30:58.759 --> 00:31:00.720 They become clean. 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.900 The new Elisha comes and he eats your sin. 00:31:03.900 --> 00:31:05.400 He swallows it. 00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:06.600 He takes it into himself. 00:31:06.600 --> 00:31:11.320 It takes him all the way to the cross, but it can't keep him down. 00:31:11.320 --> 00:31:16.360 He can't stay down because he takes sin, but he does not become unclean. 00:31:16.360 --> 00:31:17.880 You become clean. 00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:21.320 Tonight, friends, just come to the river and wash. 00:31:21.320 --> 00:31:23.440 Let me give you a challenge this week. 00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:31.279 Make every day marked by waking up with prayers of confession and repentance and gratitude 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:36.320 for the cleansing that you can have now and forever in Jesus Christ. 00:31:36.320 --> 00:31:39.360 What this gives you the power to do is to say a couple things. 00:31:39.360 --> 00:31:43.759 One, when I go out into the world, I know that no matter what happens to me, no matter 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:48.840 how bad it gets, no matter how great my success story was, and it completely gets flipped 00:31:48.840 --> 00:31:49.840 on its head. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:54.799 No matter how the world caves in beneath my feet, I know that I'm okay because I've 00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:57.799 been washed by the river himself. 00:31:57.799 --> 00:31:58.799 Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter. 00:31:58.799 --> 00:31:59.799 I'm okay. 00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:00.799 You can say that. 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:01.799 You can face anything. 00:32:01.799 --> 00:32:04.959 You can suffer if you have that. 00:32:04.959 --> 00:32:07.959 You can go out into the world with courage to say, I know what God thinks about me, no 00:32:07.959 --> 00:32:12.199 matter what my boss does, no matter what anybody else does at my workplace, no matter how bad 00:32:12.199 --> 00:32:15.359 of a job I might be doing in life. 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:18.919 You say, I'm okay because I've been washed. 00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:22.560 You can go out into the world and you can say, I know that no matter what, God is not 00:32:22.560 --> 00:32:29.759 judging me today by my performance, that I've been received by the one who can make me 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:30.759 clean. 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:31.759 Let's pray. 00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:37.480 Lord, we thank you for the story of Elisha and Naaman, for the gospel that's in it, and 00:32:37.480 --> 00:32:43.240 we ask, Father, that you would draw our hearts to the only river that can truly wash us, 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:48.720 Jesus Christ, as we close tonight and prepare us, Lord, for this week in the light of this 00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:49.720 great gospel. 00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:50.720 And we pray that in Jesus' name. 00:32:50.720 --> 00:33:18.720 Amen.