Sermon Summary: “The Cleansing of Naaman”

Sermon Summary:

In this sermon, Andy Armstrong uses the biblical story of Naaman, a Syrian commander who was healed of leprosy by the prophet Elisha, to illustrate the concept of spiritual blindness and the importance of humility. He compares Naaman’s physical illness to our spiritual ailments, highlighting how our outward struggles can often mirror deeper, internal issues.

Andy begins by discussing the concept of colorblindness, using it as an analogy for spiritual blindness. He explains that just as a colorblind person may be unaware of certain colors, we can also be blind to the depths and extent of our own sin. He then introduces Naaman, a powerful and respected man who was afflicted with leprosy. Naaman’s journey to Elisha for healing becomes a metaphor for our own spiritual journeys.

The sermon delves into Naaman’s inner brokenness, which is revealed to be pride. Despite his outward success and status, Naaman’s pride blinds him to his need for God’s help. Andy emphasizes that God often uses humbling experiences to challenge our pride and bring us closer to Him. He highlights how Naaman’s encounter with Elisha, who treats him with humility and disregard for his social status, serves as a powerful lesson in humility.

The sermon then explores the cure for Naaman’s leprosy and its parallels to our spiritual healing. Andy emphasizes that the cure is simple, free, and exclusive. Just as Naaman needed to wash in the Jordan River seven times, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. He highlights the importance of accepting God’s diagnosis and surrendering our pride to Him.

The sermon concludes by discussing Naaman’s response to his healing. Andy emphasizes that Naaman’s experience is a model for our own spiritual journeys. Just as Naaman was transformed by his encounter with God, we too can experience profound change when we humble ourselves and submit to His will.

Bible References:

2 Kings 5:1-17

Key Points:

• Spiritual blindness can prevent us from seeing the depths of our own sin.
• Pride is a common obstacle to spiritual growth.
• God often uses humbling experiences to challenge our pride.
• The cure for our spiritual ailments is simple, free, and exclusive.
• We must humble ourselves and submit to God’s will for our lives.

Transcript

Wow. Is my mic on? Are we good? Can you hear me okay? Great stuff. Such a privilege to
be here, guys. I’m dumbfounded by your worship. I just really, really enjoyed that. Really
enjoyed that. I thought it was never going to end, which I was glad about. It’s just
brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. So we’re going to be delving into the Word today. Hope
you’ve got your Bibles with you. Don’t worry if not because I’ve produced a PowerPoint.
It’s great. Okay. I’m going to time myself so I don’t overrun, which is a good thing.
Okay. So the first slide, if you could put that up. Now many of you or some of you might
be colorblind. I’m not so sure. So the way you know is you look at a particular image
and you can see whether you can see numbers in those images. So it might be up there.
Don’t worry if it’s not. Okay. But if you’re colorblind, you cannot appreciate a child’s
crayon drawing. Or maybe you don’t really appreciate a sunset. But you never know that
there is an issue because you don’t really know what a sunset looks like. And you may
be completely unaware of this. So have a look at those. See if you can pick out the numbers
in there. So it’s more serious, isn’t it? It’s more serious if you can’t distinguish
a red stop light when you’re driving. Or a green for that. Okay. So maybe some of you
get in revelation that you’re colorblind today. I was testing myself while I was producing
this. See, colorblindness is a great analogy for spiritual blindness. And we might say,
well, I’m born again. I’m not spiritually blind. But actually, we can all still have
blind areas in our spiritual walk. So someone who suffers with colorblindness can get on
fine in life and you don’t actually miss those colors that you’ve never seen. But you’re
missing vital parts of obvious things around you. And sin is the same. We can be blind
to the depths and extent of our internal sin. Yet others can see it. And that’s a beautiful
thing about being married. My wife sees my sin better than I do. I’m blind to it in many
respects. And we’re all blind in different extents, aren’t we? I want to talk about a
man in just that condition. Okay. In the Bible. Now this man, you might think, is this a man
who would be chosen by God? So this guy was a soldier. He was a violent man. He committed
murder and he kidnapped people. Is he a prime candidate for salvation? Possibly not. Let’s
listen about it. Let’s read about him. Okay. This is 2 Kings 5 verses 1 to 17. Now Naaman
was a commander of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and
highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory 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, which is really
nice of her when you think about it, if only my master would see the prophet who is in
Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman went to his master and told him
what the girl from Israel had said. And the king said, by all means go. I will send a
letter to the king of Israel. So Naaman left, taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000
jackals of gold, 10 sets of clothing. Can you imagine what that was, getting the size
right and everything? The letter that he took to the king of Israel read, with this letter
I’m sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy. As soon as
the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes. He was upset. Am I God, he says?
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’s trying to pick a quarrel with me. 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. I love this boldness. 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 message to say to him, go, wash 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, isn’t this hilarious, I thought he would 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 Abaama and Parfa, the rivers of Damascus, better than all of
these 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. Remember it’s the servants who have the wisdom
in this story. My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you
have not done it? How much more then when he tells you, wash and be cleansed? So he
went 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
there is no God in all the world except in Israel, so please accept a 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.
Isn’t that an amazing story? I just love Elisha’s ministry and what he gets up to. He just says
it like it is and does things which are incredible. So, what are the points we are going to bring
out from this? So we are going to look at what Elisha’s sickness was. We are going to
look at what is the cure for his sickness and we are going to look at what was his response.
What was Naaman’s response? What was Naaman’s sickness? What was his cure? And what was
his response? I think we can learn a lot today. Have we got our ears open? Great stuff. Okay,
so what is his sickness? I find this fascinating because it is obvious what his sickness is,
isn’t it? He has got leprosy. He has got a major skin disorder which is obvious for everybody
to see. But if you know your Gospels well, you know when Jesus walked around in Israel,
he would speak to blind people and others and they would say to him, Lord, heal me.
And Jesus would come up to them and say, what can I do for you? Isn’t that interesting?
Isn’t it obvious? I want to see. But Jesus doesn’t see things the way we see our things,
isn’t he? He sees internally why we might see externally. And sin is the real paralysis of
the heart. All of our brokenness is due to sin. Sin we have committed. Sin committed against us
and being part of a sinful world. Now, in this story, the outer brokenness of Naaman,
his leprosy, becomes the occasion to deal with his inner brokenness. So, what is Naaman’s
inner brokenness that is destroying his life? He looks strong, doesn’t he? He looks rich.
He is successful. He is very good at what he does. Look at the story. But time and time again,
in this amazing story, through Elisha, Naaman is ignored and humbled. Have you noticed,
he goes to Elisha’s house. How rude is this? This amazing, famous man goes to Elisha’s house
and Elisha won’t even come to the door. But he sends a servant to him with a message.
He’s treated completely the opposite of how he should have been treated.
Maybe that’s you today. Maybe you, in some context, are being treated the opposite of
where you think you should be treated and you’re insulted. I want us to look a bit deeper today.
It’s so insulting for Naaman and he was insulted. And at that time, Naaman would have been one of
the most important people in the world, arriving with hundreds, literally hundreds of thousands
of pounds worth of gifts and he’s treated shoddily. But God arranges this treatment.
Isn’t that interesting? God arranges for Naaman to be insulted.
Because God, I don’t know whether, I’m sure you know God so well, but he is so infinitely
wise, he knows how to get you to have a glimpse of yourself. You know that? See, Naaman’s inner
brokenness is pride. He’s proud, he’s self-sufficient, he believes he can buy anything
and his status is good enough to get anything. So, like many of us in the West, that’s what we
believe. I can get anything, I can do anything. It’s kind of inbuilt in us, isn’t it, as we’re
young. And God knows this man and how to deal with this man. His outer leprosy was an opportunity for
his inner leprosy to be dealt with. He was colorblind to his pride, but this was his time
and he didn’t know it. His outer condition was far less dangerous than his inner condition.
Leprosy was a terrible disease and still is, but especially in these days, there was no cure
and it was awful. And Naaman knew his days were numbered, but he didn’t recognize what was going
on on the inside, which was far more serious. His inner leprosy is pride and the treatment for pride
is humility. So, again and again, Naaman is humiliated. Now, what do you do when you get
humiliated? I don’t like humiliation, I’m sure you don’t like it. And what happens to me is I get hot.
I start to get hot from the bottom up and I get angry, just like Naaman gets angry.
But would we start to learn to look for God’s teaching in each and every situation?
We all grow up, don’t we, saying or being taught, I know what’s best, I can handle life,
I know the right way. But when we start to learn about God, if you belong to God, what you’ll have
noticed is he starts to bring things from the outside to come and expose our blindness for
our good and his glory. Each one of us from our youngest years have to protect that image that we
think we are in control, don’t we? It’s hidden insecurity due to our sin and God wants to
challenge it for our good and it’s a good thing even though it heats us up and it feels awful.
So, what is the cure? What is this illness? Pride. What is the cure? So, God brings an insult
to us all. Tim Keller, one of my heroes, says these words, that we are far more,
I’m sure you’ve heard this, that we are far more sinful than we ever imagined. That is over all
of humanity and many people in my wider family are insulted by that. That we are far more sinful
than we ever imagined but, and it’s that but which turns it on its head, but also that we are far
more loved than we can ever dream of. Isn’t that great? One, an amazing insult to the human race,
but it’s true. The other one, an incredible blessing of pure grace and this can be a lifelong
revelation. I’ve been saved now for possibly 30 years and I’m just starting to get revelation
of just how sinful I am, what goes on in my inner man, yet how incredibly loved I am by God.
Are you receiving that? Are you learning that from God? But like Naaman, can we agree with
God’s diagnosis over us? We have to agree with him, he’s always right. Or pride will rise up
in anger and we’ll walk away. Naaman nearly walked away from his healing and yet he was
going to be healed of something far greater. See, the message of the Gospel works on all of
our inner leprosy. It works in three ways. See, let’s have a look at the story again. The cure
is simple. What is the cure for Naaman? Just wash. Don’t do anything magnificent, just be obedient
and wash in this particular river. It’s not sensational or elaborate, it’s just like the
Gospel. What is the Gospel today? Repent and believe. It’s just the same, cure is simple,
just wash and now the Gospel is repent and believe. And yet for us humans, we love to get
busy, don’t we? We love to perform, we love to receive wages because I’ve earned them.
Free gifts are viewed with a bit of suspicion, aren’t they? And many of us struggle to receive
a gift at Christmas, especially a big one, because we think, oh, have you spent that much on me?
I suppose I better up my gift giving next year and spend the same on you. Because we like to
pay our way. So that at the end, why do we like to pay our way so that at the end we say,
I’m not in any debt to anybody, I’m in control. But God has to show us we are in deep debt
to Him. The cure not only is simple, the cure is free. This is not what Naaman expected to go
when he came to Israel. He’d come with a whole load of money and some fine clothes because he
was willing to pay his way. So he brought huge amounts of money. He didn’t want, he didn’t need
charity. He brought a royal letter. God would have to heal him. He was placing God in his debt.
Just wash is insulting. You know who I am? He was saying. And we believe we have to do some
great thing for God to be saved sometimes, don’t we? But Elisha was directing Naaman to do something
any person could do. Just wash. It was as if Elisha didn’t know who this great man was. He
wouldn’t even get out of his chair in his front room while he was watching the television.
All of it as exploits. All of this man’s reputation made no difference. He was playing it
perfectly for Naaman to be rescued. He was treating him like any old person. Anyone could do this.
Nothing about Naaman mattered. And that’s the same with us today. Nothing about any of our past
matters when it comes to the Gospel. We can come to him and have that free salvation of his and
be obedient to him and say, Lord I want you. Thank you for your salvation. We agree with his diagnosis
over us. Romans 3 says all have sinned and fallen short of the Gospel of God. All have sinned. All
have sinned. Amazing isn’t it? That’s the diagnosis over the human race. But the cure is simple.
Repent of your sin and believe the good news of Jesus Christ that he has paid your sin, paid for
your sin upon himself. He became sin for you that you might be rescued. But Naaman was angry.
So the cure was simple. The cure was free. And the cure was exclusive. This is something for our
culture isn’t it? The cure was exclusive. You see Naaman was offended. And we can be offended.
Especially if you go into the center of Sheffield today. I’m sure if you said that Jesus is the
only way, people would be offended. How can he be the only way? There’s many ways to God.
But Naaman was offended. Hey there’s many rivers, there’s nice rivers here in my country. There are
better rivers than that dirty one there. Just like today there are many gods, many ways to God.
Don’t tell me this one way is right. Yet our Gospel is exclusive because it’s simple and free.
And because it’s simpler and free, it’s exclusive. If people say good and generous, loving people get
to heaven, then that isn’t inclusive. Because I’m not good and simple and free. I’m not a good
person. So I won’t get to heaven if you’re just excluding good people. What about me or the person
who has wrecked their life or who’s morally disabled? Can they not get to heaven because
they’re not good? But rather our Gospel is free and available to all. So far from being exclusive,
it’s incredibly inclusive. We all know that some great thing has to be done to win us back to God.
And we know that God is holy and great because he has to be. But so often we believe we are the ones
who can achieve for God. We don’t realize we’re so sinful to the core, full of pride.
We’re colorblind spiritually. It takes God to come to us like Naaman and show us. But then
how do we respond? I do hope you’ve responded to God over this. The initial response is to say,
Lord, please come and save me. Rescue me for myself. But then as we go on as Christians
through the decades, sin rises up again. We see ourselves. We can walk in the flesh. We can make
wrong decisions. How do we respond then? Do we respond like Naaman and say, oh no, I want to be
in control. What do we say, Lord, you are the Lord of all. I surrender to you. I agree with
your diagnosis over my life. Suddenly we see that someone has done that great thing for us on our
behalf. Through Jesus our inner leprosy was placed upon him. Isn’t that good news? But what is our
response as a last point? What was his response? What was Naaman’s response as an example?
Instead of achieving, of which he wanted to do, he decided he was just going to receive.
And what happened? He did exactly what Elisha told him to do. God directed him to go and bathe
in that river, to do exactly that in that particular river, specific guidelines, and he did.
What happened? His skin was made new like a child’s skin. Can you imagine how much joy that man had?
And then suddenly his inner man understood he was born again. It’s just like when we
receive the gospel, isn’t it? His pride was being dealt with at that moment and would have been
continually being dealt with. His thinking had changed. His worldview had changed. Wow,
amazing. Can you remember the day that happened? Some of you do. Some come slowly into the kingdom.
But some of us come fast into the kingdom, don’t we? Where there is massive change immediately.
His worldview changed, and this is becoming a Christian. We are at the beginning of a total
inner transformation. Suddenly he sees, and as we continue to follow the Lord, we continue
to discover more perfect sight. Our color blindness is healed. And so he says the words,
your servant suddenly. God is now his master, just like that. He’s not after a God who’s a partner or
a butler. And we can do that, can’t we, as Christians? We can say that God, yeah, God is my Lord,
but we treat him as if he’s my partner. He will help me out when times are bad. He will do
certain things for me. I’m sure he’ll give me that promotion. But what if he doesn’t? Are you going
to walk away from him? And Victoria got bouts of cancer when her granddaughter had a major
heart issue and had to go in for surgery at such a young age. God came to me kind of and came to
Victoria and it was as if he was saying, okay, what are you going to do now? Are you going to walk
away or are you going to stay with me and let me take you through this? But what a privilege to go
through dark times with our God. Then we get to know whether we follow him as a butler or whether
we follow him as our master. I’m sure you’ve had those times too. It’s where the rubber hits the
road, isn’t it? God can ask us for anything and we should say yes. It depends who we think he is.
Is God your master today or is he your housekeeper? He also says when he’s going back to his city,
he’s going to take the gospel, this is his name, I’m going to take the gospel back to his fellow men
because God is now his real God. God is now his Lord. So he goes back with loads of earth. It
sounds strange, doesn’t it? It goes like loads of earth that he’s going to pray on in his home city.
Basically he was going back as adding yeast to the bread. He was going to transform that place.
I’d love to know the rest of the story of what happened to Naaman. What happened in that city
when he went back? This man of influence and there are men and women of influence in this place here
who are also going to get saved and they’re going to go back into those blocks over there
and those houses and they’re going to change their areas because of what you say to them and how you
love them. See the gospel, if allowed, will affect our entire life. Is it affecting your entire
life today? I’m sure you’re allowing it to happen. If not, please do. There’s nothing like the gospel
of Christ. His Holy Spirit in you can change everything. Can you hear me today? He can change
every area of your life. If you allow him to. You see he’s a gentleman. The Holy Spirit is a
gentleman and he will only do what you allow him to do. He will knock on your door but you have to
let him in to every area. Okay? So as believers we can refuse to accept the diagnosis. Is there
something in your life today that you long to be free of? Like Naaman. Maybe it’s a physical
condition. It was for the apostle Paul. He had a thorn in the flesh. Didn’t he join his ministry?
There was troubles. He longed to be free of it but God kept it in his life to give him humility.
What is it for you today that God might be keeping in your life to bring humility? Maybe it’s a
person. In the church would you believe? Maybe it’s a boss. You can be so frustrating. I love
being self-employed because I can only answer to myself. But then God comes along and speaks to me
through Victoria and I suddenly wake up to myself. But if you’ve got a boss, if you work with other
people, man it must be difficult. But God will use that. He will use that to mature you, to make
you more like him. He can, you know, God just doesn’t dwell in this room, you know. You know
this. He is where he’s, sometimes he’s more where you work than where we worship because he wants,
he longs to impact your work colleagues so much. Maybe your school teachers. He longs to impact
your school and the frustrations that are in that school. He longs to do powerful things amongst you
in the five days of the week. So if you belong to God he may very well be leaving you in this
very thing in your life for your good and his glory. Is that good? Well it’s not good is it?
But it is good ultimately because he is so, he is so good. He is so good and he wants to
illuminate the real issue, our hidden blindness to our own sin. He is so glorious he’s able to do
this by his Holy Spirit. If we let him, can we agree on something today
that we allow him to have access to all of the rooms of our heart, all the parts of our life?
Can we just close our eyes and just imagine our lives? You know what you do on a day-to-day basis.
You know as you drive to work, you know maybe the thoughts that come across your mind.
I want you to invite him into those thoughts. I want you to invite him into your struggles at
the moment. Maybe you’re struggling with debt. Maybe you’re struggling in your marriage. Maybe
you’re lonely. I want you to right now invite him in just even say this the simple words of
Lord come into my pain. He wants to make that difference. He wants to transform that thing
that has seemingly been there for so, so, so many years. It all tracks back to our humility just
like it was for Naaman, just like it was for him. I’m going to read to you one last verse,
one of the greatest verses I think in the Bible if I can find it. Keep your eyes closed and then
you won’t be exposed to my losing my notes. There we go. Ephesians 1 verses 17 to 19. What a powerful
verse this is. Let me pray this over you. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. That’s what he gave Naaman
so that you may know him better. Does anybody want to know God better in this room?
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the
hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and
his incomparably great power for us who believe. Let’s just, I don’t know whether the band wants
to come up, but let’s just keep our eyes closed for a minute. Last night I couldn’t sleep.
Basically, I did mention it yesterday, but our neighbors can be quite troublesome and
sometimes the guy who lives next door has his girlfriend over and she’s got a son who’s got
severe autism and incredibly enough they go up to the top room and put music on really loud
and then their son goes in the room downstairs and he gets a bit distressed by that music so
starts kicking the wall. So, one o’clock in the morning the wall feels like it’s coming down last
night and I wake up. Obviously, I’m a light sleeper and I’m so frustrated and I pray for
that boy, but obviously it doesn’t stop. But then I think, okay, let’s turn this into prayer. Lord,
what do you want to pray about? And then this preach comes up and I think, oh Lord, have I got
the right preach for this church today? And I sense the Holy Spirit say yes and he says why?
And I start, okay, talk to me, Lord. This is beautiful. You’re taking a terrible situation
and make it into a good one. This is good. Basically, I think what the God wants to say
to you as a body of people is he’s so pleased with what you’re doing that you’re open-hearted,
that you’re doing such wonderful work in the community that you are breaking ground on this
place in Jordan thought. What an incredible thing. What incredible worship this morning.
So, so, so beautiful. But he wants you to be aware that as you go out, as you start that
other building, as you do other things, as you find the money coming in, as you break forward,
what’s going to happen is, as what happens so, and we’ve seen it in our church, so happens with
churches, is that this unity starts to come out. People yearning for their voice to be heard.
People grabbing and pushing. People arguing and saying, I want a piece of this. I should be heard.
I should this. I should that. This is why God brought this word to you today. It’s because
it’s about humility. I want to pray over this church that you stay in a unified heart.
Can you agree with me today? I know it’s a tough thing, but in the years ahead, as God does amazing
things, and he’s going to do amazing things with this church, I’m so impressed. My goodness, I’m
so impressed. But please be careful. I want you to respect your leaders. Please respect your leaders.
They’re here for your good and your blessing. Please respect them. They want your good.
You might disagree with them sometimes, and that’s fine, but pray for them.
And you leaders, it’s a tough job. Have patience with the congregation, with those you lead. Have
patience with you. Pray for your congregation so that the Holy Spirit might have incredible
freedom in this place. He wants to do so much, but the one thing that will block the blessing
flow of the Holy Spirit is disunity. We know that. We’ve seen it time again in the church
throughout history. Disunity breaks the power of the Holy Spirit. So that’s right. Amen.
Father God, we pray that those of us in here who maybe have
a heart that complains, pray, God, would you just touch them right now?
Father, would you touch them right now, Lord, that it may be again a little bit like the story
of Mary and Martha. One was always doing. One was receiving. Let us be people who receive
and then do. Not do, do, do, and then get frustrated with everybody else. I’ve seen it in my church
years ago, and I was one of the culprits. Don’t do it, please, guys. Let’s stay in the flow of the
Spirit. God’s going to do great things. Okay. God’s going to speak more, I think, through Victoria,
but let’s worship, shall we?