Worshipping the Gift Instead of the Giver

Acts 10:9-43 January 17, 2021 Pastor Chris Oswald

Audio coming soon

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Thesis Sin is essentially the worship of God's gifts rather than God Himself — the exchange of Creator for creation — yet Jesus offers to take our sin and give us His righteousness in return.

Series

Acts

Type

Expository

Tone

didacticpastoralevangelistic

Method

grammatical-historicalcanonicalredemptive-historical

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

19 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #4

"Oswald applies the Peter passage to contemporary struggles with indwelling sin, arguing that many believers worship the future better version of themselves rather than Christ. He warns against this sneaky self-righteousness and supports the point with Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, showing that self-exaltation leads to condemnation while humility leads to justification."

Doctrinal loci· 6 surfaced

Christology · 6 Sanctification · 3 Doxology / Worship · 1 Ethics / Moral Theology · 1 Providence / Sovereignty · 1 Spiritual Warfare · 1

Bible citations· 11

Illustrations· 2

The Red Thread analogy · unit #9 — Oswald illustrates the exchange of giver and gift with an extended metaphor of a young man finding a red thread in the snow. The selfish man cuts the thread and takes it; the wise man follows it to discover the beautiful woman who left it. Sin is cutting the thread — seizing God's good gifts (sex, marriage, wealth) rather than following them to their Creator. The illustration makes vivid the foolishness of exchanging giver for gift.
The Rejected Son hypothetical · unit #14 — Oswald illustrates the exchange of giver and gift with two hypothetical scenarios: a parent who loves the idea of babies but not their child, and a parent who loves football but not their son. These are disgusting tragedies, yet this is how we treat God — loving His gifts but not Him. The twist: the rejected son lays down his life in love for the parent who rejected him. This is the gospel — Jesus pursues the very ones who turned their backs on Him.

Theological claims· 8

Self-righteousness is the last idol rooted out of the heart and remains the primary spiritual battle throughout the Christian life until death. unit #5
Both sins in Acts 10 involve worshiping a gift of God rather than God Himself — Peter worships the law, and Cornelius worships the messenger. unit #7
Sin is essentially the exchange of the giver and the gift — pursuing God's good gifts while rejecting Him as the One who made them. unit #8
Peter worships the law instead of the Lawgiver, and Cornelius worships Peter instead of God — both exchange the giver for the gift, worshiping wonderful things that were meant to point them to God. unit #10
Sin is explicitly religious — both Peter's and Cornelius's sins are rooted in worship, and the enemies of the Lord often have the appearance of godliness while denying its power. unit #11
The most glorious commonality between these sins is that both are forgiven — God is patient and steadfast, and He offers forgiveness through Jesus Christ to all who believe. unit #13
God actively pursues His enemies through Jesus Christ, offering Himself up on the cross to pay for the very sins that rejected Him. unit #15
Jesus is appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead, and when we compare ourselves to His sinless obedience, we see that we do not measure up. unit #16

Quotations· 3

"Peter always was a blunderer in his early days, and he has not grown out of his old habits of honest impetuosity." — Spurgeon (unit #3)

"Not so, Lord is an odd jumble of self-will and reverence. Of pride and humility, of contradiction and devotion." — Spurgeon (unit #3)

"whoever is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general, or the propensity of his own heart in particular, must acknowledge that self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart. Therefore, as the apostle excellently observes, we go about, we fetch a circuit to establish a righteousness of our own, and like the Pharisees of old, will not wholly submit to the righteousness which is of God through Christ our Lord." — George Whitefield (unit #5)

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Full transcript

31,774 characters 19 units ~35 min reading time

0 · Oswald frames the sermon series by announcing an extended study of Acts 10-11, explaining that these chapters form the centerpiece of Acts and have generated multiple sermon outlines

anytime soon. And there are a couple reasons for this, but I think this is probably the point in time where I tell the kids in the car, okay, it's not really a 1-hour drive, it's a 10-hour drive. Surprise! A couple reasons for this. One, I'll be taking a couple weeks off in February, and so I won't be able to get all of my Acts 10 and 11-ness out for a while. But the bigger reason is, is that as I have studied this book over the last year, I really have come to believe that Acts 10 and 11 are really kind of the centerpiece of the book. Now numerically it's not the center of the book, but I think in many respects it's the centerpiece of the entire book of Acts. And I have actually been looking forward to preaching these two chapters the whole time I've been preaching through the book of Acts. As I go through a chapter, what I will routinely do as I study it personally is I will write out potential sermon outlines based on what I'm reading. And as I read through Acts chapter 10 about 2 months ago, I came up with more than 10 distinct sermon outlines based on this chapter. Now, I won't be doing that, um, but, but just so you know, like, it's going to be a little bit.

1 · Oswald introduces the series structure centered on essentialism — identifying the basic nature of gospel realities

And so I, I think what we're going to do here, one of the things that I see very clearly in Acts 10:11 is there's an essentialism that is present here. A bunch of questions are asked along an essentialist trajectory, and that means like, what is the basic nature of the gospel? What is the basic nature of the Christian life? And so on and so forth. And so I want to kind of give you an outline of, of where I think we're going to be over the next few weeks— well, the next month or so. So I put this slide together. So today we're going to talk about the essence of sin. In. And then next week I have a friend coming in. I will be here, but I have a friend named Sean Powers. He's a pastor in Des Moines, Iowa, and he preached a sermon series on Jonah. I think it was maybe like a 6-week sermon series on Jonah. And he and I were talking, and I don't know if you've noticed this, I haven't explicitly called it out, but did you notice that in the story of Peter there are parallels with the story of Jonah? Joppa is the place Peter goes to flee flee, bringing the gospel, bringing the word to the heathen nations. Jonah doesn't want to be that guy. He doesn't want to be that messenger. And so he goes to Joppa, and he is attempting to flee this divine mandate to go into a pagan people and proclaim the truth. And so he goes to Joppa to get on a boat and tries to head out to sea. And somewhere off the coast of Joppa, he is thrown overboard, and so on and so forth. And then you have Peter, whose Aramaic name is what? Remember this? Simon Bar-Jonah. And he winds up in Joppa, and he is commissioned to go to the pagans with the good news of the gospel. And he is, instead of spending 3 days in the belly of a fish, he is— he has a vision that happens 3 times. And of course, 3 is a really big number for Peter. In a bunch of different areas. So what I thought would be interesting is I won't— I don't expect Sean to call any of those parallels explicitly out, but it just seemed like a really good time to reacquaint ourselves with the Book of Jonah. So he's gonna come. He just preached a like a 6-week sermon series on the Book of Jonah, and he's gonna condense all that and come next week and share the story of Jonah. As we've got Peter in Joppa, we might as well, you know, we might as well think about Jonah a little bit. And then the following week, uh, we're gonna talk about the essence of God's work in the world. And then for the 7th and the 14th of February, we've got two great older men coming in— Dave Quillow on the 7th and Greg Dernberger on the 14th. And I don't know what they're gonna share. But then back on the 21st and 28th, we'll be back into this essentialism kind of idea. We're gonna talk about the essence of life change and then the essence of evangelism. And then on March 7th, The essence of Christianity.

2 · Oswald defines essentialism as identifying the bare minimum attributes necessary to make a thing what it is

Now, I want to talk about this word essence for a minute and introduce the series as it relates to this idea of essence. And I think I've got a picture to show you. Yeah, there we go. Let you process that. So, so we got plenty of essential oil people in our church. I thought you would appreciate this. I thought those of you that are not essential oil people would appreciate this as well because you've probably been given essential oils by the essential oil people. So I just thought this could bring us all together. What do we mean when we say essential oil? What do we mean when we say the word essence? Well, we're talking about the central piece of a thing, the deepest sort of set of ingredients necessary to make that thing a thing. The idea— this is a philosophical way of thinking— and it's just this idea that there are a set of attributes in everything that are necessary to make that thing a thing. And if you take those bare minimum attributes out, you no longer have that thing that you had before. This is, I think, an important skill to develop because life is just so full of options and upgrades and so on. And so maybe at some point it's good just to Remember, okay, this is what a car is. You know, it's not a CD player. It's— CD player, man, I'm so old. It's not a GPS package. It's not a hotspot. A car is a thing that moves people. Having a sense of what something essentially is, like what is church essentially? That's a very important question. It's been a very important question this year. Theologically, having this capacity for essentialism of naming the thing that is the purest form of of whatever, it's essential, it's important. God himself does this. For instance, Jesus gives us the essence of the law, right? He gives us the essence of the law. What's the essence of the law? To love God with all of your being and to love your neighbor as yourself. He's saying this is the essential message of this broader idea. So I think essentialism is a good thing. I think it's not a silver bullet. You can go too far with it. You wouldn't jettison the whole law just because Jesus told you that the Great Commandment is the law essentialized. But it's a good thing, and I think it's really good now as everything starts shaking and, and the foundations seem to be being destroyed, to sort of ask, like, what is this thing that we're talking about? What are the— what is the bare minimum amount of ingredients necessary for us to have a biblical worldview? And so on and so forth.

3 · Oswald identifies two sins in Acts 10 — Peter's refusal to eat unclean food (v14) and Cornelius's worship of Peter (v25-26) — and argues that both involve worshiping Peter

And today we're going to do this on a number of topics through Acts 10 and 11, but today we're going to do that related to the essence of sin. Now, this is not a passage that you would think about if you were wanting to think about sin. There's not a lot of monumental carnage everywhere in this passage. Like, this is not one of those passages where sin just leaps off the page. Page. In fact, as far as I can tell, we only see 2 sins here, and they are different from one another in some ways, but they're also similar in some ways. And the 2 sins I see in this passage are found in verse 14 and verse 26. So let's deal with these. Let's look at these and see, as I'm reading this, see what you can see. What do these things have in common? Like, what What do they together reveal to us about the essential nature of sin? So let me first read Peter's sin starting in verse 9. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.' And the voice came to him a second time, 'What God has made clean, do not call common.' This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. So there's an instance where Peter basically says no to God. And we'll examine this in more detail in a moment. Now look at verse 25. Peter finally decides, I gotta go. God's told me to go. So verse 25, when Peter entered, he shows up at Cornelius' house, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. So we've got the sin alarm is going on right now. Somebody other than God is being worshiped. But Peter lifted him up, saying, stand up, I too am a man. So what do these two sins have in common? What do you think? Well, interestingly enough, one thing they might both have in common is they might both be worshiping Peter. So we know that Cornelius sinned in verse 25 and 26. That's worshiping Peter. It says it. But maybe Peter's sin is also worshiping Peter. What is this idea? By no means, Lord, I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. I think Peter is worshiping an idea about himself. I think Peter is worshiping his own character, his own track record. Seems like Cornelius is obviously worshiping Peter, but seems like maybe Peter's worshiping Peter. Just a few verses earlier, Spurgeon says of this statement, "Not so, Lord." "Not so, Lord" is an odd jumble of self-will and reverence. Of pride and humility, of contradiction and devotion. And he goes on to say that this combination of words makes no sense. If he's responding to a request from the Lord, he shouldn't say no. These two phrases, Lord and no, don't ever go together. And then Spurgeon says, Peter always was a blunderer in his early days, and he has not grown out of his old habits. Of honest impetuosity. We've got this instance, and let's think about Peter in particular in this instance. Peter's got a view of himself that is more important to him than the view that he has of the Lord. He's caught in a self-righteousness that he doesn't see as self-righteousness because that's rare that we see our own self-righteousness. And he's caught up sort of worshiping the ideal version of Peter.

4 · Oswald applies the Peter passage to contemporary struggles with indwelling sin, arguing that many believers worship the future better version of themselves rather than Christ

Friends, I'll just tell you point-blank, as I walk with folks through struggling with sin, you know, they've got some sort of indwelling sin they're struggling with, they're like, why haven't I gotten— why hasn't this gotten any better at all? It's like, well, one of the reasons is that I think you're worshiping and idolizing you set free from this sin, not the Lord. I think that your goal, your god, can easily be you cleaner than you are now, you more morally upright than you are now. That is a beautiful thing, a good thing, but that's not who you're called to worship. The future better you, that's not who you're called to behold and keep your eyes upon, to long for. The future better you is a consequence of you beholding and longing and loving the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is that sneaky self-righteousness that creeps in that if we're honest, if we're given eyes to see, I think we would know that this is something that has happened to us. This is such an easy trap to fall into. Luke 18:10, two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing by himself, prayed thus: God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says, I tell you this: this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

5 · Oswald establishes the doctrine that self-righteousness is the last idol rooted out of the heart, citing Whitefield

So what do these two sins have in common? I mean, in a very interesting way, they both are worshiping the same man, right? What else? What else do these sins have in common? Well, I mean, before I go there, I do want to say about self-righteousness, George Whitefield had this perfect description of the problem of self-righteousness. I want to hit this really quickly. He says, whoever is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general, or the propensity of his own heart in particular, must acknowledge that self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart. Therefore, as the apostle excellently observes, we go about, we fetch a circuit to establish a righteousness of our own, and like the Pharisees of old, will not wholly submit to the righteousness which is of God through Christ our Lord. So maybe when you're in your 20s, you're like, so what does this whole Christian life look like after I've gotten married and I don't have this gross sin in my life anymore? What does Christianity in your 40s look like? Well, it just looks like getting whopped by God all the time for self-righteousness. Like, this is the last thing. This is the last horizon. You'll have this deal with until you're dead. The tendency to fall into boasting about what you are not, comparing yourself with your moral lesser, who is only your lesser because God has arranged a different set of circumstances for them, as we referred to a few weeks ago. This idea of self-righteousness, boy, it's rough. And it takes a long time and a lot of consciousness to not fall into this.

6 · Oswald signals a shift from the first commonality (worshiping Peter/self-righteousness) to the second commonality between Peter's and Cornelius's sins

So now moving on from there, what's the other thing that we see these two sins have in common?

7 · Oswald identifies the second essential commonality: both sins involve worshiping a gift of God rather than God Himself

Well, I think you could say that these sins also have in common worshiping a gift of God rather than God Himself, which is highly related to what I just said, right? But in both of these instances, you have men who are worshiping something good, but something less than God.

8 · Oswald articulates a biblical definition of sin as the exchange of giver and gift, citing Romans 1

If I were called to define sin, I would talk about that. I think that is the Bible way of discussing sin. Romans 1 would say it's the exchange of the giver and the gift. It's the rejection of God the good Father while seizing the inheritance you have because he has been such a successful and fruitful worker. Sin is the story of the prodigal son in many respects. It's the idea that God has been so lavish, so generous, because that's just who he is, that he's filled the world with amazing things, and we As sinners pursue those things rather than see those things as an invitation to know the one who made them.

9 · Oswald illustrates the exchange of giver and gift with an extended metaphor of a young man finding a red thread in the snow

Now, I don't know if this is gonna go off well. It worked well with a group of guys like 2 months ago, but I started thinking a lot about this metaphor of, well, how do you explain this exchange issue? And I get this idea of this young man, he's walking in the snow down the street, and and he sees a red string coming out of the front door of a cottage, and it's just like hanging out the front door. Door's closed, but the string is kind of out in the front yard a little bit, and, and it's sort of just there, and he can really see it because the snow is white and this red string is just really pronounced in that white snow. And so he has a couple choices. 2 choices. One, this is beautiful thread and he could just kind of like grab it and cut it and put it in his pocket and go on his way. And this is safe because he doesn't know what's attached to that red string. He doesn't know why the red string's there and like he could walk away with some red string which, you know, okay, red string. The other choice is more risky and that is to follow the red string to the door, knock on the door and figure out, like, where did this string come from? Well, what he doesn't know is that like 20 minutes earlier, a beautiful young woman his age went outside in her red sweater to gather firewood, and her sweater got hooked on, on the woodpile a little bit, and so it was kind of unraveling as she was walking back into the cottage. And so the reason there's a red string in the front yard is because there's a beautiful woman inside in a red sweater, you know. Now, the selfish man cuts the string, goes on his way. The selfish and fearful person cuts the string, takes the gift that is presented to him, and goes on his way. The bold, the curious, the adventurous knocks on the door. And when he knocks on the door, he finds a grateful young maiden with an unraveling sweater in a warm cottage. And so he is rewarded because he doesn't try to take the gift from the giver. Friends, the story of sin is that God has filled the world with red threads. With evidences leading us to Him, with breadcrumbs, right? And the whole beauty of this is that if we will simply follow the beauty of sex or the beauty of marriage or the beauty of children or the beauty of wealth, if we'll simply follow these threads to the place they originated, we will find the Creator of all these things, and we will be forever united with this One of whom the Bible says at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. But we're broken inside, and we're the dope who would just cut the thing and take it. And that's what sin is. Sin is the taking of these amazing clues that the Lord has dropped throughout the world, taking those as like your God. As your goal, as your chief desire.

10 · Oswald returns to the Acts 10 text and applies the red thread metaphor: Peter worships the law instead of the Lawgiver; Cornelius worships Peter instead of God

And so what sin we see in this passage has to do with that very thing. Peter seems to be fascinated with himself, seems also to be worshiping perhaps the law more than the Lord who gives the law. Now don't get me wrong, I love the Bible. If you're visiting here, you wouldn't know that, but But people know, I have deep Bible nerd tendencies. I love God's Word. But have you ever been in a church or found this of your own state where the Holy Trinity becomes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Scriptures? Have you ever seen a church that worships the Bible instead of the God of the Bible? Have you ever gone there? Well, Peter's in a place where he's worshiping this gift of the law this revelation of dietary requirements that he saw in the book of Leviticus. Peter's in this place where he's worshiping something God has given him, not listening to and worshiping God himself. And Cornelius is the same way. Cornelius sees Peter. Now, Peter is an impressive— I know we just saw him being impetuous and dumb, but Peter is an impressive figure. Just before he goes to Cornelius's house, remember, he had raised someone from the dead. And prior to that, he had healed a bunch of people and preached sermons where thousands were converted, and so on and so forth. Peter is a man of high reputation at this particular moment. And so Cornelius sees Peter enter his house, and he falls down and worships him. And this is the tricky thing about sin: the things we are tempted to love more than God are actually amazing. They are actually wonderful things. But they're meant to point us to someone who is so wise and kind and good and true and beautiful that he had the capacity to make these things, and then the character and the disposition to lavish them upon the world. They're made to be threads that we follow to see the one who made them, not mere objects of worship.

11 · Oswald identifies the third commonality: both sins are explicitly religious

In fact, it's so crazy, if God were not so lavish and generous, we would not be so sinful. Our broken nature interacts with the beauty, the truth, and the goodness of God in all the wrong ways. The third thing that these sins have in common: there's just a religiosity a pseudo-religiosity perhaps you could say, with these sins. The idea is they're both running in explicitly religious channels. Peter's sin is rooted in religion. Cornelius' sin is rooted in religion. You know, this is unbelievably overlooked as we consider the nature of sin. You know, I'm convinced that if you guys haven't started a Bible reading plan or if you're figuring that out still, I would encourage you one thing: read one gospel every quarter, year-round. Just make sure you read all four gospels once a year and spread them out a little bit. Here's why. The gospels just teach us the rhythm of life. They teach us what life is going to be like. They teach us who the bad guys are. And this is key, because who are the bad guys in the gospels? The Pharisees, right? And what does that tell you about the nature of sin? You see here, these two sins in Acts 10 are explicitly religious. They're explicitly related to worship. And then we remind ourselves, we remember that in the Gospels, yeah, like the bad guys were explicitly religious. I don't actually believe the word religion is a bad word. I don't think religious is a bad word. I'm simply pointing out that it is easy to forget that we as creatures were made to worship. And so that all of our sin has a worshipful component. We think we're doing right. Peter thought he was doing right. Cornelius thought he was doing right. And we think we're doing stuff that we should do. At least some of the time, just don't forget that there is an explicitly religious undertone to the enemies of the Lord. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul says it this way: But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Now here's the That's the key. They have the appearance of godliness. How is it possible that these people have the appearance of godliness? Because that's what happens. That's what people do. They co-opt the language of Scripture and they use it for their own evil purposes. So when these people who are disobedient to parents disobey their parents, they will often cloak it in religious language. Like, I'm just about the truth, or I'm just about love, or I'm just about this or that. Like, yeah, no, you're just about you. But you've learned the trick that the devil practices, and that is to use explicitly religious language against your parents. Over and over and over again, we must be reminded, especially as there is right now perhaps a new religion being created in the country at this moment, that the tendency to isolate particular attributes of God against everything else— God is love— the tendency to worship one attribute, the tendency to camouflage yourself in one particular virtue of Christianity and use that camouflage as a means to snipe other people. Yeah, we've got to remember that sin often has explicitly religious context. And we've got to remember that these people, that many people, that even us can have the appearance of godliness while denying its power and that we're supposed to avoid such people. And verse 6 says, for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

12 · Oswald summarizes the three commonalities (self-righteousness, worshiping gifts instead of the Giver, religiosity) and then pivots to the fourth and most glorious commonality: both sins are forgiven

So what do these sins have in common? I think there's a lot of self-righteousness, at least on Peter's part. There's this obvious worshiping of the gifts instead of the Giver. There's this religiosity to these sins. There's this explicitly worshipful kind of thing going on here. But here's the thing that they both have in common also. They're forgiven. They're blotted out. They're thrown away.

13 · Oswald proclaims the fourth and most glorious commonality: both sins are forgiven

This is the most glorious thing they have in common is they really didn't get in the way ultimately of God accomplishing His work in the world. And they didn't offend God out of using both of these men for His glorious purposes. I mean, the reason why this passage isn't full of sin carnage is because God's steadfast and patient. He sees these things as speed bumps rather than disqualifying, you know, terrors. The amazing thing about having God as a Father is, yeah, He's perfect, but He's not a perfectionist. He's patient and kind and trustworthy and steadfast, and He walks with His children through all sorts of things. And so the most beautiful thing that these two sins have in common is that they're washed. They're gone. They're clean. They're forgiven. They're cast into the sea of forgetfulness. As far as the east is from the west, so they have been removed from Cornelius and Peter. Verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said, truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, with power, and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him up on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

14 · Oswald illustrates the exchange of giver and gift with two hypothetical scenarios: a parent who loves the idea of babies but not their child, and a parent who loves football but not their son

I got to thinking about like what would happen if you had a baby and you love this little fella, and then he like got older, you know, he's not a baby anymore, he's 2. You don't love them anymore because what happened is actually you only love the idea of babies. You don't love your kid, you just love the baby thing. And like, what would happen? What would that— how gross would that be? How terrible would that be if a mother decides 2 years in, well, I was kind of into babies all along, it wasn't my kid, it was just the concept of babies. Or, you know, suppose you've got a son who plays sports and You're a dad and you're just totally engaged and you love going to football games or whatever. And then one day, like, he gets hurt, he can't play football anymore, and you realize that all the time you invested in him and spent with him, it wasn't about him because you loved football. Like, you loved to go to football games and tailgating with other parents, and you didn't actually care about your kid, you just cared about football. Friends, these are disgusting tragedies, right? This is how we treat God. Easily, easily in each one of your rearview mirrors is an instance in which a moment was revealed that that was essentially the state of your heart, my heart. That you were not so much into God as you were a gift that God had, or a thing God was doing, or a thing God promised to do. And the fickleness of our hearts has been revealed, if you'll think about it, to see that indeed we, we have loved the gifts more than the giver plenty of times. Now think about this. Imagine that son of yours who you decided you didn't love anymore after he stopped playing football. Imagine like he spent his whole life devoted to taking care took care of you. Imagine he like went out and got a good job and made sure that you— you got sick and couldn't work and he made sure you were taken care of. He comes over to your house all the time and makes sure that you've got the food you need and so on and so forth. What if that son who you just stopped loving because he doesn't play football anymore, what if he just laid down his life and loved you forever? That's the gospel story. The very one we jettison in favor of the stuff He makes, the very One we turn our back on when He doesn't produce the things we want, the very One we give up on, this text says in Acts 10:34-43, this is the One who pursued us. The One we got rid of, the One we jettisoned, the One that we let go of, the One we turned our back on, He pursued us.

15 · Oswald traces God's active work through Acts 10:36-43: God sends His Son to preach peace, anoints Jesus with the Spirit, raises Him from the dead, chooses witnesses, and appoints Him as judge

And you can see if you look through verses 36-43 that God is just doing all sorts of work over and over again. God is mentioned as being active in all of this. Verse 36: As for the word that he sent to Israel, what does God do when he decides to come to earth? I would picture, you know, robot destroying these terrible people kind of thing. No, he sends his Son to preach peace to his enemies. Verse 38, God anoints Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power, and Jesus goes about doing good. Why? For God was with him. Verse 39 and 40, the people killed Jesus, God raised him up. Verse 41, God chose witnesses of the resurrection. Verse 42, God appointed Jesus to be the judge of the living and the dead. So the same person, the same being who is infinitely worthy of our worship, who's given us lavishly, all amazing things. The same person we keep rejecting, keep turning our back on, keep giving up, He pursues these very people all the way to the cross, offers Himself up to pay for the very sins which consistently jettisoned Him from our hearts.

16 · Oswald focuses on Jesus as judge (Acts 10:42-43), a neglected piece of the gospel

Let's lock in on verses 42-43 for a second. We'll be done. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. This picture of Jesus as judge, as we'll see later on when we talk about the essence of evangelism, this picture of Jesus as judge is probably one of the most neglected pieces of the gospel story. But here's what we want to do right now, Lord willing, through the power of the Spirit, power of His Word. You have felt your sin judged today. You have identified right now through this process, you have identified that when compared to Jesus Christ, you simply don't measure up. Jesus Christ did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He didn't even presume, though it was entirely His right, He didn't even presume self-worship. He gave Himself up entirely. And of course, the whole interesting prospect of being God on earth is this idea that all of these things that you've created are now sort of hung out there like like the thread. Do you follow the thread to the Father, or do you just grab it and move on? And Jesus was tempted like we are, yet without sin, so that even in the garden, when he knew the bitter cup of the cross was coming, he's like, Lord, your will. Father, your will be done, not mine.

17 · Oswald calls the congregation to compare themselves to Jesus, the coming judge, which exposes self-righteousness and the fickleness of their love

And so you should compare yourself. This will get rid of all your self-righteousness right now. Just compare yourself to Jesus. Because that's the judgment that— that's the only judgment that matters, and that's the only judgment that's coming. And compare yourself to the judge, Jesus, and then understand this remarkable idea. And honestly, it should— it should floor you. Judge yourself against Jesus. See the fickleness of your love. See the many ways you've exchanged creation over Creator. And then realize Jesus has not done any of that, and then realize this: He is offering to give you His righteousness. He's offering to give you His love for the Father that never got sidetracked or awash in idolatry. He will give that to you for free, and He will take your terrible track record and forgive it. Understand this moment, just even right now on an average January Sunday morning, this moment is the kind of moment in which people are born again simply because sin has been judged and Jesus has made his offer. I will give you my righteousness and take your sin away. That's beautiful. That's, that's extraordinary.

18 · Oswald closes with a prayer of worship, acknowledging the clarity of sin revealed in the sermon and the fickleness of the congregation's hearts toward God

Let's take a moment to pray and worship the Lord who made this incredible offer. Lord, we just bow our hearts before you right now, and we just say The clarity of the sinfulness of our sin, Lord, has been put on display today to some degree. We have seen the fickleness of our hearts toward you. We have seen the tendency to love and make our lives about things you've made.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Jan 12, 2020

Truth, Beauty, Community

The local church is called to pursue truth and beauty in community as a reflection of Christ's diverse excellencies, making the church a place where people can both gaze upon beauty and inquire of truth.

Psalm 27:4

Jul 5, 2020

Love God Alone, Love Neighbor Rightly

We cannot rightly obey the command to love our neighbor until we first ruthlessly obey the command to love God alone with our whole being, jettisoning every idol—especially the idol of comfort—that distorts our understanding of love and prevents us from achieving unity in a divided moment.

Mark 12:31

Nov 29, 2020

Dragon Slayers: The Heroic Christian Life

Christians are called to be dragon slayers—instruments in Christ's hands who enter the lives of others to help them confront the sins, sicknesses, and bullies they cannot defeat on their own—and setting one's life in this direction will generate momentum that produces unexpected kingdom fruit.

Acts 9:31-43

January 17 · This sermon

Worshipping the Gift Instead of the Giver

Sin is essentially the worship of God's gifts rather than God Himself — the exchange of Creator for creation — yet Jesus offers to take our sin and give us His righteousness in return.

Acts 10:9-43

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Acts 10:9-16, Peter receives a vision commanding him to eat unclean food, yet he refuses. What does Peter's refusal reveal about what he…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the essence of sin—the worship of God's gifts rather than God Himself—from its roots in self-righteousness through its religious disguise, to the glorious exchange Christ offers at the cross.

Prayer

The Exchange of Gifts for the Giver

Father, we come before You in worship, acknowledging that You alone are worthy of our affection and allegiance. You are the Giver of every g…

Family table

What Are We Really Worshiping?

This prompt invites your family to notice the sneaky ways we can worship good things instead of God Himself—not just bad things. Listen for…

Couples

Worshiping the Giver, Not the Gift

What gift of God—whether your own righteousness, a spiritual discipline, or even a future version of yourself—did the sermon expose that you…

Memorize

Acts 10:42-43

This verse stands as the sermon's theological climax—it names Jesus as judge and proclaims the exchange of sins for righteousness through belief in Him, which is the entire remedy for the essential sin of worshiping gifts rather than the Giver. It captures both the diagnosis (our need for judgment and forgiveness) and the cure (Jesus's substitutionary work and appointed authority) that the sermon unfolds.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Acts 10:9-16, Peter receives a vision commanding him to eat unclean food, yet he refuses. What does Peter's refusal reveal about what he is actually worshiping in that moment—and how is his refusal itself an act of worship?

Acts 10:9-16

→ What does it mean that Peter is worshiping the law rather than the Lawgiver who gave it?
Cornelius, a God-fearing man who prays and gives generously, falls down and worships Peter when they meet (Acts 10:25-26). How is Cornelius's sin—worshiping the messenger—fundamentally the same sin as Peter's refusal to eat unclean food?

Acts 10:25-26
The sermon claims that sin is essentially 'the exchange of the giver and the gift'—pursuing God's good gifts while rejecting Him as the One who made them. How does this definition help us understand sins that don't look obviously rebellious or pagan, but appear religious and even godly?

Romans 1

→ Can you think of a good gift from God that you have been tempted to worship instead of worshiping God Himself?
The sermon suggests that we often worship 'the future better version of ourselves' rather than Christ—a form of self-righteousness that masquerades as sanctification. What is the difference between pursuing growth in Christ and worshiping the idea of who we might become?

Luke 18:10-14

→ How does this kind of self-worship actually prevent the gospel humility that true sanctification requires?
What is the fallen condition that Peter and Cornelius share in common—the spiritual weakness or blindness that their sins reveal? What does this tell us about the nature of sin itself?

→ If both a legalist and an idolater commit the same essential sin, what does that suggest about how we diagnose our own hearts?
Peter addresses Cornelius by saying, 'Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name' (Acts 10:43). Given that both Peter and Cornelius have exchanged the giver for the gift, how does Jesus Christ—in His person and work—address this essential sin that grips every human heart?

Acts 10:42-43

→ What does it mean that Jesus pursued His enemies to the cross and offers to exchange His perfect righteousness for our sin?

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

Monday Luke 18:10-14

The Pharisee's prayer reveals what the sermon calls 'the sneaky self-righteousness'—we worship our own moral performance and future improved selves rather than Christ. Notice how the tax collector's plea for mercy, not his self-improvement, is what justifies him; we too are invited to abandon confidence in our own righteousness and grip only the mercy of God in the gospel.

Tuesday Romans 1

Paul traces idolatry to its root: humanity 'exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images' (1:23), worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. This is precisely the pattern the sermon identifies in both Peter and Cornelius—each exchanges reverence for God Himself in favor of what He has given (the law, the messenger). We see here that sin is fundamentally this inversion of worship.

Wednesday 2 Timothy 3:1-7

Paul warns of those who have 'the appearance of godliness, but deny its power' (3:5)—religious language and pious behavior masking hearts that serve themselves. Peter's scrupulosity about the law and Cornelius's honor paid to Peter both wear the clothes of devotion while they worship the gift rather than the Giver. We must ask ourselves where our own religious practices mask a subtle exchange.

Thursday Philippians 2:6

Christ, though 'equal with God,' emptied Himself and humbled Himself unto death on the cross (2:6-8)—the ultimate reversal of all idolatry. While we were still exchanging the Creator for His gifts, Christ descended to bear our sin and restore us to true worship. This is the stunning pursuit of grace: the very One we reject pursues us to reconciliation.

Friday Acts 10:34-43

In Peter's proclamation to Cornelius's household, the gospel invitation stands clear: 'Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name' (10:43). The exchange has been made—Christ's perfect obedience for our sin, His righteousness for our idolatry. This announcement transforms both Peter and Cornelius from worshipers of gifts into worshipers of the Giver, born anew into the family of God.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

The Exchange of Gifts for the Giver

Father, we come before You in worship, acknowledging that You alone are worthy of our affection and allegiance. You are the Giver of every good gift, and yet we confess that we so often exchange You for the gifts You have made. Like Peter, we cling to our own righteousness and the law itself rather than loving the Lawgiver; like Cornelius, we bow before the messenger instead of worshiping the One who sent him (Acts 10:25-26). We are prone to worship the future, better version of ourselves — a subtle idolatry that masquerades as godliness while denying its power. We exchange the Creator for creation, clothing our self-worship in religious language and calling it obedience. Forgive us for this essential sin that clings to us even now.

Yet we glory in this: Jesus Christ, in His immeasurable grace, has pursued us as His enemies and offered Himself on the cross to pay the very debt our worship of gifts has incurred (Acts 10:42-43). He stands as the Judge of all the living and the dead, and in His sinless obedience, He has accomplished what we never could. In the gospel, we are offered the most glorious exchange — He gives us His perfect righteousness, and He takes our sin upon Himself. We are born again through this substitution, this radical grace that humbles us and fills us with gratitude.

Grant us grace, O God, to recognize the idols we worship in the quiet places of our hearts. Teach us to love the Giver, not merely His gifts. Make us a people compelled by the gospel to turn from every false worship and to bow before Christ alone. Give us courage to confess these things to one another, knowing that we are forgiven and accepted in Him. We commit ourselves afresh to the glad pursuit of Christlikeness, resting in the finished work of our Savior. To Jesus Christ, who has taken our sin and given us His righteousness, be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

What Are We Really Worshiping?

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to notice the sneaky ways we can worship good things instead of God Himself—not just bad things. Listen for moments when your kids recognize idols they didn't expect to find, and gently help them see how the gospel frees us from that trap.

In the sermon, we learned that Peter was worshiping the law instead of God, and Cornelius was worshiping Peter instead of God. They were worshiping gifts instead of the Giver. What are some good things—things that aren't bad in themselves—that we might accidentally worship instead of Jesus? (Think about things like being really smart, being good at sports, being popular, or even being 'the good kid.')

works for ages 8+

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Worshiping the Giver, Not the Gift

What gift of God—whether your own righteousness, a spiritual discipline, or even a future version of yourself—did the sermon expose that you've been worshiping instead of Jesus?
Where do we as a couple subtly exchange worship of Christ for worship of His gifts—perhaps our reputation, our spiritual progress, or our ability to 'get life right'—and how might repenting together this week look?
What specific area of your life needs Christ's righteousness to cover it, and how can we pray for each other's gladness in that exchange this week?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

Acts 10:42-43

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Why this verse: This verse stands as the sermon's theological climax—it names Jesus as judge and proclaims the exchange of sins for righteousness through belief in Him, which is the entire remedy for the essential sin of worshiping gifts rather than the Giver. It captures both the diagnosis (our need for judgment and forgiveness) and the cure (Jesus's substitutionary work and appointed authority) that the sermon unfolds.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

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# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Truth, Beauty, Community (Psalm 27:4, 2020-01-12)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2020/01/truth-beauty-community)
- [Love God Alone, Love Neighbor Rightly (Mark 12:31, 2020-07-05)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2020/07/july52020sermon-7-5-20-6-30-pm)
- [Dragon Slayers: The Heroic Christian Life (Acts 9:31-43, 2020-11-29)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2020/11/dragon-slayers-the-heroic-christian-life)
- [Worshipping the Gift Instead of the Giver (Acts 10:9-43, 2021-01-17)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2021/01/january-17-2021-sermon)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

The page itself ships with Schema.org Article + Church markup (with real geo coordinates), Open Graph + Twitter cards for share previews, and a canonical URL. Transcripts are server-rendered HTML — no JS dependency for the readable body.