Stewardship of the Gospel

Introduction

Good morning. If you will open up in your Old Testaments to 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5, while I try to remember our passwords. I had something funny about when I tried to preach this lesson Wednesday night in Lakeland. About 10 minutes in, the lesson was so powerful and captivating, all the power in the building went off the entire time. This morning I was only able to take out the computer, so I’m not quite sure what that says. Let’s see. I think we can try to get it up there. Let’s see. There it is. Ta da. In 2 Kings chapter 5, we read an interesting occurrence. It’s about a man named Naaman, and he’s an important man. In fact, he’s a man described in verse 1 of 2 Kings chapter 5 as commander of the army of the king of Syria.

He was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. Then this last phrase in verse 1 is so important. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Of course, this man, Naaman, had a problem with leprosy, which is not any small problem or consequence. This would be a disease that would slowly eat away at him, that would certainly kill him, and in the meantime, take away his service as commander of the army of the king of Syria. Which means, by the way, that the king of Syria is going to have a vested interest in making him better. The problem is there is no cure at this time for leprosy. It might be interesting to think about the story of Naaman in the context of evangelism.

But when we think about as Christians, that we were entrusted with a unique message and a unique opportunity to spread or talk about that message, it means that God has made us stewards of that good news. It’s in Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 that Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of God, for it is the power of him unto salvation for everyone who believes. What is that gospel, though? What is that power? The good news of salvation. If we think about the good news of salvation, the good news is we, like Naaman with his leprosy, have a problem, and that problem is sin. When we know God says do this, and we say, No, I want to do that, and we go on our own pathway instead of God’s, we are riddled with sin.

And similar to Naaman, but luckily not identically to him, there is only one solution for that sin. And that is the good news of the gospel message. If you look in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it’s interesting because the definition of the gospel is often thrown around. Many people talk about different things. The gospel might be what you need to do to be saved, the gospel might be the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But whatever it is, Paul tells us what’s most important in that gospel message. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, note that in verse 3, the three important elements that he says are of first importance in that gospel message. For I delivered to you as of first importance, he writes in verse 3, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all is the one untimely born, he appeared also to me. Now notice this in verse 1, this important message, these elements of first importance that Jesus was killed or died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he was resurrected, are all part of what message of Paul’s in verse 1. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received in which you stand, and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. Long story short, the gospel is centered around the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we can be forgiven of our sins.

And that’s great news. And as Paul tells the Corinthians in verse 2, as long as we as Christians, the Corinthian Christians, stand in that message, do what God says, salvation is there to be had. The cure for something worse than leprosy is there. But this morning the question isn’t about what the gospel message is. The question this morning is what is my role as a steward of the gospel? We’re going to see the story of Naaman and how Naaman is approached by one of the great prophets of God with a message for how to be cleansed. But we don’t have a quote, great prophet of God living in some foreign land that we can go visit and hope for a cure from. We have the scriptures inspired by God.

1. It Might Be That We Don’t Truly Believe

And we have friends, brothers and sisters, parents, and even children who can help us read and understand that message. You see, if this is such good news, if we know that this is important, why do we hesitate to share it with anybody? If I were to ask for a show of hands, and I won’t because we don’t want lying in the church building, we’d I would ask, who thinks that they do a perfect job at evangelism? Hopefully, no hands would go up, and if they did, you know what next week’s lesson? Pride. We all can improve in this area. And so the question is, what holds us back from this life-changing news? I think there’s a few reasons. One of them is very interesting. If you look at me in Mark chapter 16, it might be that we don’t truly believe.

Whether you say believe in Jesus, believe in the message of salvation. Notice the group in Mark chapter 16 that Jesus rebukes strongly. It’s pretty bad when Jesus is standing before you face to face, and he has condemned you to your face. You wouldn’t expect that it would be somebody close to him. You wouldn’t expect that Jesus would be rebuking his closest allies on earth. But in Mark chapter 16, after his death, burial, and resurrection, notice what group he finds himself condemning strongly. And Mark 16, beginning in verse 9. Now, when he arose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. Now she went and told those who had been with him as they mourned and wept, but when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After these things, he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Notice in verse 14, who is rebuked strongly?

The eleven disciples. The eleven that would be twelve if it wasn’t for Judas’ betrayal and suicide. These were the closest people Jesus had. They shared in the work of teaching the message of the kingdom coming, whether they fully understood and embraced it or not. They were there with Jesus, they saw perhaps more miracles than any person who ever lived on this earth. And they understood that Jesus was teaching a radical message. And yet, after Jesus had been crucified and in the tomb for three days, they find Mary, these two people you can read about in the Gospel of Luke, and they reject both of their messages that say Jesus has risen. Imagine Jesus standing before you. You are someone who knows who Jesus is, what he talks about, what his message is, you believe in Jesus, and he looks at you and says, I rebuke you for your unbelief, for your hardness of heart.

How is it possible that these disciples could be accused ever of not believing in Jesus? Well, again, it comes down to a proper understanding of belief. We’ve cheapened it so much in our world today that we make belief just some sort of acknowledgement that Jesus exists. Jesus is standing in the room with the disciples as he is condemning them for this unbelief. The truth of the matter is Jesus was on the record, as you read earlier in Mark chapter 16, as the angel appears to the two Marys in the tomb, he had said, I will be resurrected from the dead in three days. What was there not to believe? The disciples like us knew what we might call academically what Jesus said. But to believe it and embrace what it meant was a step too far until this point.

To their credit, when Jesus gives them this great commission as we reckon it in verse 15 and 16, to go into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature throughout all creation, that whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned. They were the leaders from this point forward. They stepped up. They believed. But at this first point, they didn’t. Maybe I don’t evangelize. Maybe I don’t teach or invite enough. Because I don’t fully believe that God will send people who obey him to heaven and people who ignore him to hell. Unless we believe that fact, why would we change ourselves? And unless we fully embrace that fact, why would we dare talk to others about it?

2. We Don’t Truly Care Enough

It might not be that we don’t truly believe it, it might be that we believe. We don’t truly care enough. You see, caring and caring enough are two different things. There are plenty of things that we care about, but caring enough about something says, I am willing to do this at a cost to me. If anyone’s ever taken a vacation, everyone knows that there is a cost attached to that vacation. But when you enjoy something, you’re willing to pay the price because you like what it offers more than what you have to give for it. What do we have to give up in speaking to someone about Jesus? Well, we risk a relationship. We might risk being uncomfortable. We might risk no longer having that friendly terms with that person that we work with, live next to, or who is a part of our family.

That would mean that we value a physical or even blood relationship more than we value the gospel message. If we truly believe and embrace this message, we will believe. If you look at Matthew chapter 25, it’s very important to see Jesus is clear on this message. There are those out there, one of the groups that often goes door to door, if you’ll ask them if they believe in heaven and hell, actually, the two most prominent groups that go door to door will give you fun answers on this. But one of the groups will say that there is no hell, that there only is the lack of existence from God’s mind. That there is a heaven for those who submit to God and God shows grace to, but that hell doesn’t exist.

That hell is an annihilation of soul and spirit, and you’re no longer remembered in the mind of God. But notice what Jesus says. No one really has a problem with heaven. We often have a problem with hell. Jesus links the two. In Matthew 25 and verse 31, note this picture of judgment. Now you have the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, that he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates people and sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Now here’s the good message in verse 34. The king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

But verse 41. And he will say to those on the left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Verse 46. And these will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous into eternal life. If eternal life is real and offered by God, eternal punishment is also real. And something that we need to avoid. It might be that we do truly believe it, but we don’t care enough to change ourselves, much less to change or try to talk to somebody else about making a change. Noted atheist Pin Gillette. You may know him from various magic shows. He’s half of the pen and teller group. He is a prominent atheist. But he’s known for an interesting viewpoint towards Christians and people of different religious worldviews.

He said, I don’t respect a Christian who will not try to evangelize. He said, To me, the idea of someone who believes in a heaven and hell, and that if I being an atheist reject God, that he will reject me and send me to hell. If somebody can sit next to me day after day, week after week, year after year, and not try to teach me about how to avoid this terrible place, what kind of friend are they? He said, No, I expect people to talk to me about their faith. Doesn’t mean I’ll believe it, but I expect them to talk about it. He has the right idea. If this is real, if we truly believe what Jesus said, that there is a separation coming into eternal punishment or into eternal life, this is life changing.

3. We Fear Rejection and Failure

And instead, you know what we find ourselves talking about new restaurants. Fun things to do. A new television series. What’s more important? Do I care enough to pay any cost in my life or in my relationships? It’s difficult. It’s easy to say, theoretically, that we should be able to pay any cost. It’s difficult to be the one paying that price. The truth of the matter is we fear rejection and failure. We know in 1 Peter chapter 3, the idea of verse 15 that we should always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us. And we know that that’s true and that’s there, but the question isn’t, do we know we should be ready or that we should get ready? But will we actually be ready?

If we’re honest, we do truly believe as Christians. That’s why we study the will of God so thoroughly. That’s why we’re here worshiping him on a Sunday morning. We do believe that there is a cost involved and are willing to sacrifice. Again, one example would be seeing the brothers and sisters here. But maybe we just fear the rejection and failure. If you’re not prepared to talk to somebody about the powerful, life-changing news of Jesus, of his death, burial, and resurrection, of eternal life versus eternal punishment. Then we need to get ready. And we need to not fear rejection and failure. We need to fear being separated from God for eternity. That’s worth being fearful of. So as we think about this, the one overwhelming element is that maybe we feel unprepared.

4. God Does the Healing, Not Me

And so we need to see there’s something to this. God has prominent but also reasonable expectations for his servants. And now we find ourselves in 2 Kings chapter 5. If we find our role, in 2 Kings chapter 5, there are different parts that we can play because God has made us differently. It’s Paul again in 1 Corinthians who makes the idea of we are the body of Christ. Not everybody’s an ear, not everybody’s an eye. Some people are toes. I call not it on that one. But we need everybody. And 2 Kings chapter 5, you’ll see it’s not just one person, it’s not just the great prophet Elisha. And by the way, it’s not just God working through Elisha who takes care of Naaman. No. He is helped by a number of different people in a number of different ways.

See if you can find some of them with me. In verse 2, as Naaman is reacting to this leper problem, this problem of leprosy in verse 2, the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. Now she said to her mistress, Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria? He would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman went in and told his Lord, thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel, and the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. Skipping down to verse 8. But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes?

Let him come now to me that he may know there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house, and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, Behold, I thought that he would surely come out and stand and call upon the name of the Lord as God, wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and far far the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

Can we be honest and say that Naaman’s reaction is what we fear in spreading the good news of Jesus? That we tell somebody, here are the facts. Here’s what Jesus has said, here’s what Jesus has done. Now it’s up to you to take it or leave it. This is what Naaman did. He has traveled the country. This little girl from Israel who has been taken captive into Syria says, I know somebody who can heal him. With the blessing of the king of Syria, Naaman goes. He searches all this way to get this solution to his life altering and demeaning problem of leprosy. He finds the prophet’s house. Elisha sends a messenger to him and says, Here’s the good news. You can be saved. And what does he do?

He gets angry and he utters the most dangerous words in our response to God possible. Notice what he says. Behold I thought. Anger and I don’t agree. Does any more have to be said to say we might hear some of those thoughts occasionally in response to righteousness in our society today? Anger and behold, I thought. What did he think? What was he upset about? Well, first of all, he’s upset because Elisha’s not the one who speaks to him. Elisha sends a messenger, he said, I thought the prophet of the Lord would come out. And he wouldn’t just come out, he’s going to make a show. What was he going to do? He’s going to wave his hand around, call on the name of the Lord, and he’s going to heal me.

But Naaman, being the wise person that he is, he said, That’s not the only way I can be healed. If nothing else, if I’m going to have to dip in some water, not the Jordan, that’s gross. By the way, I relate to somebody who doesn’t want to be in gross water. But when the prophet of God says, Here’s how you be cleansed, that’s what you do. He says, No, there’s other waters that are cleaner. If we’re going to do this dipping thing to cure of my leprosy, let me just go there. Would that have worked for Naaman, by the way? No. Where did the power of the healing come in? We know he is going to do the right thing. He’s going to submit to the message and get healed.

Did Elisha heal him? In part. God did the healing. This is a crucial element of the story. That God is the one who provides the healing. And that means God is the power behind everything. Did Elisha have power? Yes. Only as God allowed. Did others make an impact on him? Yes. Only within the confines of God’s power, allowing him to be cleansed in the first place. And so we need to first and foremost recognize God does the healing, not me. Naaman didn’t reject Elisha. He rejected God’s healing plan. And by the way, who stood to lose from Naaman’s rejection? Naaman. You can get angry, you can stop your feet, you can say, Behold, I fought. It doesn’t change God’s will. One iota. So what do we do then, knowing someone might get angry and that we’re not the ones responsible for the healing?

5. The Little Girl, the Messenger, and the Persuader

Well, maybe we need to be like the little girl. If you notice in verse 2, here’s this little girl who has been taken captive. And in verse 3, she knows that Naaman has this problem. And she says, if you can get him to this prophet in my homeland, he can be healed. Without this little girl’s impact on the story, at least as it is written, Naaman doesn’t find Elisha. He doesn’t petition the king, who doesn’t petition the king of Israel, who doesn’t get bailed out by Elisha, who doesn’t send his messenger, who doesn’t get Naaman eventually to the waters of Jordan. It all started with this little girl who told this one little fact. You see, one of the fears of rejection is we don’t want to be rejected personally.

That’s off the table. God does the healing. I can’t heal anybody. And you can’t either, but God can. The rejection isn’t of us but of God. Secondly, we fear we’re not qualified to teach. We won’t do it right or we’ll get rejected in our teaching. This little girl didn’t teach. She pointed. Can I point to Jesus? Yes. As a Christian, someone who has taken advantage of that good news of salvation, we all can do this. And we can do this today, right now. If I can’t even invite someone or point to Jesus, can I say I truly believe? I’m willing to sacrifice? Or would it be said that I’m allowing my fear of rejection to overpower my fear of answering to God? This little girl made a huge impact.

If she can do it, I can’t. But if you notice that wasn’t it, there was also the messenger impact. In verse 8, if you look at it again, as Elisha is bailing out the king of Israel, and he’s saying, send Naaman to me. Everybody in the story probably thinks Elisha’s going to come out and do the healing. The little girl says, You need to find this prophet, that’s Elisha. The king of Syria says, Let Naaman find the prophet. That’s Elisha. The king of Israel is told by Elisha, send him to me. And then in verse 9, Naaman came with his horses and chariots, standing at the door of Elisha’s house, and what does Elisha do in verse 10? Sends a messenger to him. Whose message was it?

Elisha’s message. Where did Elisha get that power from? God. This messenger, we don’t even know their name, age. Perhaps this is their occupation. This messenger is life-changing for Naaman. This verse one, mighty man, second essentially to the king, at least in terms of control of the army. He is going to be bailed out by a little girl if you’re keeping track so far, and some random messenger in 2 Kings 5. Whether you consider yourself an Elisha grade teacher or the messenger, can we do that? Can we hear the message of God and show it to somebody? Not making it up. Not changing it, sharing it. You see, there’s a big difference in creating the message and sharing the message. And the good news is God has taken this part off of our plate.

We just have to share the message. Do you remember in Exodus chapter 3 as the people of Israel are in Egyptian bondage? And if you know the idea, it’s right before Moses is going to keep going up to Pharaoh saying, let my people go. Pharaoh says, No, Moses does it again, and we have the ten plagues. Before that, Moses, the great leader, has a standoff with God. Any guesses onto how that ends up? Moses is approached by God, or Moses approaches God essentially. And God wants him to be his leader, the voice of and standing up in front of the people of Israel. And Moses’ response is pass. You have the wrong guy. I’m not qualified. God doesn’t say, hey, Moses, you’re the brightest, smartest, most wonderful person I’ve ever made.

You can do this. No. He says, I will be with you. I will help you. Moses goes, Ah, but I also have this other character flaw. God says, I can take care of that too. He says, But I’m not a good speaker. I can provide Aaron for you. You see, God doesn’t allow excuses to work through us because he doesn’t need us. He needs his will to be spread. Now, he needs somebody to be willing, but does anyone think that if Moses were to go down on his sword and refuse to serve, that God’s people Israel will be stuck there forever? Not a chance. God can use you. Not because you’re great or because I’m great, but because God is great and his message is good news.

We have to be willing to share that message to play our part. Maybe you’re the little girl who points to Elisha. Maybe you know somebody who’s a qualified teacher. Show them to that teacher. Maybe you’re someone like the messenger. You know enough of the message to put it in front of somebody. Remember, they’re not rejecting you or me. They’re answering to God. The same way I’m responsible to God and answering for my actions. We all have a part to play, whether it’s the teacher, the messenger, the initiator, or even the persuader. As Naaman is throwing his hissy fit here, as he’s angry, basically stomping as feet as the picture I have. This great military captain is so frustrated that things didn’t go the way he thought with the disease that is otherwise incurable.

Notice in verse 13 what changes his mind. In verse 13 of 2 Kings 5, but his servants came near and said to him, My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Maybe I can be an initiator. I think we all can do that. Maybe there’s some part of being a messenger we can sign up for, even today. But maybe there’s a special role for somebody who’s a persuader. Notice, they didn’t create the message.

They didn’t do the healing. They weren’t even Elisha, basically the in-between of God and the healing process. But they persuaded Naaman to get over yourself. Have you not heard this news? You can be cleansed. What are you pouting for? If somebody says, go jump off a cliff and you can be cleansed of your leprosy, do it. There’s no good going home. There’s no good stomping your feet. Just do it. Are we willing to be that persuader? This one’s a little bit more similar to the messenger and to the teaching that we fear rejection of, though. Naaman could have said no. But we’re responsible as stewards of that good news, as stewards of the gospel, to tell God when we answer to him in judgment, which we all will as individuals, I did the best that I could do.

6. To Fulfill My Role

I tried. You see, we have to stop thinking that we can be the superhero. That we can be the person that bends somebody’s will. If God’s not going to take our way away our free will, what makes me think I can do that to somebody else? But I can still try to be persuasive. To say, is this worth your soul? Is this worth your life? And so, to fulfill my role, just three quick and simple points. We need to remember God is the one doing the healing. If we think about this fact that God is the healer, it changes everything. It means I am an instrument in his service. And I can do that. That as an instrument in his service, he can provide me the right way to live, work, and be.

And I can do that. Also, I can pray. And then I can pray again. In Colossians chapter 4, it’s very clear that we are to pray and to walk in wisdom towards outsiders. We’re to pray so that we know how to speak to one another, that our speech be seasoned with salt and graciousness. But it’s interesting, in Matthew chapter 10, in that commonly known idea of Jesus, when he’s quoted as telling the disciples, pray that God sends laborers into the vineyard. Remember, he said the harvest is splentable, but the laborers are few. He’s telling the disciples, some of the best teachers of all time, you pray that God will send laborers into the vineyard, into the harvest. If they need to pray for help in the harvest, I can do that too.

I need to pray for myself. I need to pray for God’s kingdom. I need to pray for other people. Do I truly believe in the power of prayer? Because if so, I would do something about it. If I don’t, I’ll let it go. There’s only two examples. If I don’t pray for something, I either don’t believe in the power of prayer and the power of God behind it, or I don’t care about that which I refuse to pray about. It can only be one of those two things, and both of them create a problem for us. Our souls on our heart or not. To fulfill my role, I need to remember the gospel message. I need to remember that as I speak to one another, I’m not better than them.

Conclusion

Not because I don’t have power, not because I can’t make up the words of salvation, but because Jesus died for me too. And when I speak to someone, I am speaking as an equal, not as someone who is better, but an equal. I needed the blood of Christ because I am a sinner until cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Jesus is said in 1 John 2 and verse 1 and 2 to have died for the sins of the whole world. That includes me. And so when we teach, we teach with love, empathy, and gentleness because that’s what we want from God. Am I playing my part? Am I serving my role? I can pray today. I can initiate today. Can I be a messenger and a persuader?

Yes. If I trust God to work in me and through me. We go to our great God in prayer. Our dear God, we’re humbled by your greatness. We thank you for showing your power and allowing us grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Thank you for your love. We pray that you forgive us of the sins that we’ve committed against you, of our cowardice and weakness and refusal to stand up for what’s right and to do more as stewards of yours. Thank you for each and every day we may take it captive, may we take every word and thought captive in your service to please you. Thank you for your blessings. Thank you for your love. It’s in your son’s name we pray. Amen.