Preaching on Naaman – Preaching Outline
Preaching on Naaman in 2 Kings 5:10 – Then Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will return to you, and you will be clean.
Development
NAAMAN’S SITUATION
Chief of the army of the king of Syria, valiant, respectable, but a leper. A captive girl was in the service of Naaman’s wife and told her mistress that if her master stood before the prophet in Samaria, he would be cured of leprosy.
Notifying him, the king of Syria sent a letter to the king of Israel asking him to cure him of leprosy.
The king of Israel was indignant and said that he had no healing to give, that he was not in God’s place to heal anyone.
When Elisha, the prophet of God, heard what had happened, he told the king of Israel to let him go, and Naaman and his entourage went and stopped at the door of the prophet’s house.
NAAMAN’S INDIGNATION
Elisha, knowing that Naaman had come to his house, did not appear to him, but only sent a messenger, saying (II Kings 5:10):
A…Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will come back to you and you will be clean….
Naaman was a man who followed the religion of his king, accustomed to the ceremonial acts used by his ministers, consisting of mechanical and visual actions dictated by formulas to impress the worshipper – what we call liturgy, and he became indignant, because in his desire and in his understanding he had to perform certain rituals and he left saying: “Behold, I said to myself:
A…Surely he will go out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and he will pass his hand over the place and restore the leper.
He then considered the insignificance of that nation and its people in the face of Syria’s supremacy over them, and thought that the waters of the Jordan were much less important than the rivers of Damascus and said:
A…Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? could I not wash in them and be clean? And he turned and went away in indignation.
THE LITURGY
Man, even if he is sincere and courageous, holds on to the traditions he received from his parents and his nation, especially when his country enjoys a high level of economic and cultural hegemony over others. Even if they have the fear of God and biblical knowledge, the very advanced resources available to them – where nothing earthly is lacking – drives them to a strong tendency to rely on the cultural structure in which they were raised, even when they are ill. This is ingrained in their minds.
Thus, in seeking the spiritual, he wants to see a materialized expression for his healing: the liturgical formula.
THE SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL: THE POWER OF GOD
That’s why it’s hard to believe that the Lord, the true God, doesn’t need any of this to carry out his work, that he uses the smallest when the largest is compromised, the simple to confuse the wise.
Then, in front of Naaman, his servants – but wise to God – said:
II Kings 5:13: A…My father, if the prophet had said a great thing to you, would you not have done it? How much more if he had said to you, “Wash, and you will be clean.
WASH SEVEN TIMES
Man, who doesn’t know God’s plan, accustomed to the liturgical worship he has inherited from his parents and tradition, has a complex of oppressions from which he needs to be freed, and when the Prophet tells him to wash seven times, he is talking about the total purification of his problems, so that he can be completely cured. It seems like a simple problem, but man is trapped inside a whole:
I. VAITY WILL OUT
II. PRIDE WILL STAND TALL
III. PRESUMPTION WILL INVOKE THE NAME
IV. RELIGION WILL PASS THE HAND (MATERIAL)
V. MERITS RESTORE …
VI. REASON SHAKES AND SPLINTERS
VII. REBELLION TURNED
I – VAITY
He will leave: Naaman had the mentality of a sovereign man, where God is represented by men who obey him, and he felt his vanity hurt because the Prophet didn’t go to see him and only sent a message. It was the first thing that needed to be washed (purified).
II- PRIDE
He will stand: Naaman understood that in the second place the Prophet should stand in his presence, as he was a great authority, a general, because in his land he would be revered in this way. It was the second plunge to purify his pride.
III- PRESUMPTION
He will invoke the name of his God: In the liturgical system he knew, he needed to hear the prophet invoke the name of his God: He commanded and the prophet obeyed, the prophet invoked and his god obeyed (that was his system). In Israel, it wasn’t like that with the true God; this presumption needed to be washed away in the waters of the Holy Spirit (3rd dive);
IV- RELIGION
He would pass his hand over the spot. It was about his concepts of living with the material, he would have to pass his hand and feel the material touch, because his religion was all about the material. This concept needed to be purified on the 4th dive;
V- MERIT
He will restore the leper. He didn’t understand that the cleansing of God’s people was an operation of the Lord, his understanding was that material acts would bring the solution, since he had the merits for it: he was a good person, a good general, a good servant by the standards of his land. He had to understand that man has no merit in purifying the 5th plunge;
VI- REASON
Naaman said that the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Farpar, were better than the insignificant Jordan of Israel. Here there is one river, there in Damascus we have two much better ones: the notion of more than one savior, of more than one God. Damascus is far more advanced in culture, science and other things than Israel, in religion too. These human reasons would be purified in the 6th plunge;
VII- REBELLION
He turned around indignantly. Everything he thought was contradicted. He couldn’t accept God’s guidance. His system of vanity, pride and religious concepts made him angry and he was on his way back to Syria with his leprosy when his servants said to him: “If you asked for something big, wouldn’t you do it? Naaman surrendered and went down the Jordan.
When he goes down into the Jordan, with each plunge he receives a release: first from vanity, then from pride, then from presumption, then from religion, then from merit, then from reason and finally from rebellion, and he is completely restored.
6. THE CURE – THE CONVERTED MAN
II Kings 5:14: Then he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh returned like the flesh of a child, and he was cleansed.
So Naaman, cleansed of his leprosy, converted, with a new understanding, now trusting not in the religious and material system he had learned from his peers, but knowing the eternal God, returns to Elisha and says:
II Kings 5:15 A…Behold, I have known that in all the earth there is no God but in Israel…
7. TRUE WORSHIP
He understands true worship, that his liturgical acts in the religion of his king do not lead to man’s inner need, he understands that God’s work is by faith and carried out by the power of His Word (not in the material):
II Kings 5:17-18: “And Naaman said, ‘So be it, but let this servant of yours be given a load of earth from a yoke of mules: for this servant of yours shall no more offer a burnt offering or a sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord. In this thing may the LORD forgive your servant: When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I also have to bow down in the house of Rimmon….
8. THE TRINITY
THE GIRL: Figure of the Church – Jesus, who points the way to the leper’s salvation (healing). There was never any healing of lepers in Israel, but she has the prophecy;
THE KING: (in the generic sense):The figure of the father who won’t accept requests except from his son;
THE PROPHET: The Holy Spirit, who guides what man should do. It is the invisible revelation, which is not touched but believed (Elisha didn’t appear, he sent a message).
9. THE TRUE LEPER (FALSE WORSHIPPER)
Elisha doesn’t accept Naaman’s reward, but Gehazi runs after him and receives goods from him: 2 talents of silver and 2 changes of clothes, returns home, and comes to the prophet as if nothing had happened.
Elisha asked him, “Where are you from, Gehazi?
And Gehazi responded with dissimulating, evasive words (he didn’t say anything) that denounced him, typical of those who are compromised, bad believers: Your servant didn’t go either way.
Elisha then declares his situation: the prophet’s servant, but not a prophet; he speaks of the way, but does not walk in the way; his mind is wrapped up in the material. He took 2 talents of silver and 2 changes of clothing, but Elisha – a prophet, reveals what was in his heart:
II Kings 5:26 A…Was this a time for you to take silver, and to take garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? A …Then a leper came out from before him, white as snow.
He was the real leper; his worship was not sincere; in his heart there was only: material, material, material; a professional mind – a leper, who uses everything to gain, even the things of God.
Conclusion of 2 Kings 5:10
The worship of God consists of a living experience with him. The liturgy is a material formula that does not achieve the work, no matter how intelligent the man or how advanced his nation.
The Lord doesn’t need gifted men to do his work, but he uses those who are willing to obey him and seek an experience with him.
There are many men in the liturgy, in partisanship, sectarianism, individualism, parochialism, handed down to them by tradition, who will come to the waters of the Holy Spirit for an experience with God.
There are also some who will have their share with Gehazi, settling for the present century.
Preaching on Naaman in 2 Kings 5:10 – Then Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will return to you, and you will be clean.
More Preaching Outlines
- Create in me, O God… – Psalm 51:10
- Discovering the joy of ministry
- Prophet Jonah – Matthew 16:17
- Your work has a reward – II Chronicles 15:07
