II Kings 5:1-14 *
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
I am going to say a name, and when I do I want you to remember the first thought that pops into your head. You don’t have to say it out loud. Just remember it. Are you ready? Okay, here is it is: Ponce de Leon.
Perhaps you remembered that Ponce de Leon was a Spanish
conquistador. Or maybe you recalled that
Ponce de Leon was the first governor of
All of these statements are true, but they are not all that
well known. I am guessing that most of
you connected Ponce de Leon with something else, something that is more
mythical than historical. As the story
goes, Ponce de Leon launched an expedition into what is now
Even though Ponce de Leon never found what he was looking for, the search for the fountain of youth continues to this day. People are obsessed with looking and feeling younger. Cosmetics and cosmetic surgery are billion dollar industries, and they are showing no signs of slowing down. More and more men and women are getting lifts and tucks and Botox injections, all with the goal of recapturing their youth.
What if I told you that you could turn back the clock without spending a dime? What if I told you that you don’t have to exercise more or eat less, and you can still go back in time? If you are skeptical, if you don’t want to get your hopes up, if you don’t want to be disappointed, all I ask you to do today is listen. Listen to one man’s miraculous story and draw your own conclusions. Look at what the Lord did for him, and listen when God looks at you and says…
YOU CAN BE YOUNG AGAIN!
I. What a young girl said about
a valiant soldier
II. What
a loving God says about every sinner
Meet Naaman, the commander of the armies of the king of
Naaman had a reputation that was larger than life, but somehow he had contracted a disease that threatened to take his life. He could defend himself from spears and arrows, but there was nothing he could do to get rid of the leprosy that covered his body.
The Bible doesn’t tell us what Naaman did to try to find a cure for his leprosy. We don’t know how many doctors he saw or how many magic potions he drank or how many healing salves he applied to his sores. But this account does reveal two things about Naaman. He was sick, and he was desperate.
How desperate was he?
When a lowly slave girl told Naaman’s wife that she knew of a prophet in
And the prophet Elisha was embarrassed. He was embarrassed by his own king’s lack of
faith. He wanted Naaman to understand
that he and his king had nothing in common.
And so he said: “Have the man
come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in
But when Naaman and his entourage arrived, Elisha didn’t
come out and call upon his God to heal him.
Elisha didn’t come out of his house at all. Instead he dispatched a messenger with
instructions for Naaman to wash seven times in the
“He wants me to do what?” Naaman roared. “He wants me to wash in the muddy waters of
the
Once again the Lord worked through servants to accomplish
his purposes. Earlier it had been a
Jewish slave girl. Now it was Naaman’s
personal attendants. They reasoned with
him: “My father, if the prophet had told
you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘
What the servants said made sense to Naaman. It didn’t matter how he was healed, as long
as he was healed. And so Naaman followed
Elisha’s instructions. He dipped himself
in the
Naaman’s military career had undoubtedly taken a toll on his body. The bitter cold and scorching heat, the wind and the rain, not to mention the many scars he had earned on the field of battle, all of these things contributed to his rough and tough exterior. Add to that the leprous sores, and he must have looked just terrible.
But then Naaman took a bath, a special cleansing bath that
the Lord himself had drawn for him in the
This is a great story, but it’s more than a story. This is an account about the miraculous transformation of a man, but it also has much to teach us about our God, a God who comes to sinners like you and me and says: You too can be young again.
Naaman’s story teaches us that our God loves the
unlovable. Can you imagine a more
unlikely candidate to be the object of God’s grace than Naaman? He was a sworn enemy of
And if God could love a man like Naaman, there is no doubt
that God loves you too. No matter how
checkered your past may be, no matter how many skeletons are hanging in your
closet, God still loves you. God loves
you so much that he sent his Son to take away your sins. Every unkind word. Every impure thought. “The
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin” (I John 1:7).
The account of Naaman’s healing also reminds us that our God is a God of second chances. When Elisha told Naaman what he needed to do to cure his leprosy, he didn’t run for the river and dive right in. He didn’t get down on his hands and knees and thank God. Instead he became angry. He became angry with God because he thought he knew better than God.
Sound familiar? “God, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? God, why is there so much pain and suffering in my life? God, why are you allowing all these things to happen and why aren’t you doing anything about it?” We want to accept God on our terms, not his. We want God to do things our way, not his. And when God doesn’t give us what we want when we want it, we get angry.
God used Naaman’s servants to bring him to his senses, and he eventually acknowledged that God’s way was the best way. Perhaps it was a friend who brought you here today. Perhaps your friend wanted to introduce or reintroduce you to your Savior.
Jesus wants you to know that the past has been forgotten. Jesus wants you to know that your sins have been forgiven. You don’t have to bathe in any river. You don’t have to do anything because he has done everything for you.
Finally, the story of Naaman assures us that our God can do
anything. Sure, he cured Naaman of an
incurable disease, but that was only the second greatest miracle God performed in
his life. When Naaman saw what the Lord
had done, when Naaman saw that his sores were gone, he responded with this
beautiful confession of faith: “Now I
know that there is no God in all the world except in
The man who had no choice but to trust in the word of a young slave girl had come to possess the same child-like faith. The Lord had given Naaman a second chance at life, and even better than that, much more important than that, he had given him the hope of eternal life.
This isn’t the kind of church where people come up to the
altar and the pastor lays his hand on them and heals them, but this is a church
that believes in miracles. We believe
that Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin in
The Fountain of Youth isn’t somewhere in