2 Kings 5:1-3

The situation:

• Naaman had made a good life for himself, but despite that he knew that eventually he would be excluded from society and quarantined forever because he had leprosy.
• He is a picture of the human condition, we’re broken and messed up and whatever successes we have there is always a but… e.g. I have lots of followers on social media but my life has no meaning, I have lots of friends and family but there’s no purpose in my life.
• We all have a ‘but…’ in our lives and that need can only be filled by God.

2 Kings 5:4-12

The struggle:

• Naaman thinks he can bargain with God, that his healing will come because of who he knows. But it’s not about who you know on this earth, no earthly personality can dictate to God.
• Naaman tries to bribe God, but God cannot be bought. God treats the billionaire and the beggar the same way. We have nothing to bargain with, with God, only to accept his gift of salvation.
• Naaman was enraged with Elisha, he didn’t like the message, the man or the methods. He thought there were better rivers in his country, but only God’s remedies will heal.
• People in the world today struggle with the fact that God is the only way and that think it’s too simple, but salvation is found in no one else but the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Acts 4:12

2 Kings 5:13-14

The surrender:

• Another unlikely sources comes to Naaman with logic and reasoning, pointing out that if Elisha had asked him to do something difficult he would have done it, so why not do the easier thing he’s asked.
• The good news of Jesus Christ is beautifully simple, like ABC. Admit that we are wrong and have sinned. Believe in Jesus Christ. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
• Verse 14 is a wonderful picture of a life that is made clean with it surrenders to Jesus. He’s made whole, his skin is like a child’s – he’s born again. This is what happens when we surrender to God, we begin a new life in Christ.

What does a surrendered life to God look like:

2 Kings 5:15-19

• In verse 15 Naaman declares his allegiance to God, he’d gone public with his beliefs.
• In verses 16-17 he’s willing to lay his resources down to be used for the Lord’s disposal. He understood that he owed everything to Jesus and though we can never fully repay him we can give Jesus our time, treasures and talents.
• In verse 18 Naaman wants to make sure he stands out for God and doesn’t pay adherence to the gods in his country. But he knew that he would be the only believer in the God of Israel and that he would have to go through the motions in some instances of his culture, but Elisha told him to go in peace because he knew Naaman’s heart had been changed.

Naaman is a foreshadowing of the gospel, the leprosy of sin has been dealt with once and for all on the cross, because of Jesus we can be made whole and our sins can be washed away.

The world we live in today and the situations we see around us, tells us we need God, the world struggles with the gospel by trying to bargain its way to God or takes offensive at its simplicity. But the only way to eternal life and to fulfilment in this life is surrender to God.

Look at the other characters in the story, the servant girl, Elisha and the servant of Naaman, they each had a part to play in the salvation of Naaman. So this week let’s be the one who tells someone about Jesus, those friends and families who don’t know him yet, don’t give up, keep praying, keep asking them to watch an online service and keep talking about Jesus. Be bold and don’t hold anything back.