The Cornerstone is the foundational stone of a building. It’s often a corner holding two walls together. The Cornerstone is the FIRST stone, and it sets the direction for every other stone. Jesus came to fulfill the mission of restoring humanity to a relationship with the Father and building a lasting body of people that would house His very Spirit. He came to redeem His people and to build a lasting, growing group of believers that form one body. This body has a shared mission: to go into all the earth and preach Jesus.
These were some of Jesus’s final words to His disciples, as recorded in Acts.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Jesus came and modeled what a Holy Spirit-filled life looked like. He showed us the power available when we accept Jesus and are baptized by the Holy Spirit.
He even told His followers that they would be able to do even more miracles than He did.
How? Jesus would be the first to triumph over death and rise from the dead, and then He would ascend to the Father and send the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower His people to build His church. He would give gifts to help them and to show the power that is available when Jesus lives on the inside of human temples.Jesus was to be the very FIRST stone. He was the first to build His Church, but the builders rejected Him.
We see this prophesied in Psalms 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
This means that He became essential to a relationship with the Father. The stone that Israel rejected is now the only way to salvation. A building cannot stand without its cornerstone.
Jesus confirms that He is the Cornerstone from the Psalms when He stated to a crowd of religious leaders,
Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief Cornerstone. Mark12:10
After Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter, the same Peter who denied Christ, is now filled with the Holy Spirit. He boldly tells his fellow Israelites what they did by quoting this same scripture.
Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected; He has become the Cornerstone.” Acts 4:11
Peter is saying Jesus is essential—He’s the only way. Then Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, ties all of this together by saying to a group of non-Jewish followers of Jesus that they are no longer foreigners but now fellow citizens with the Jewish believers because they are built on the same foundation as Jesus, the Cornerstone.
JESUS IS THE MAIN foundational stone that everything else is built on.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2: 19-22
Previously, you read about Jesus being the Rock and now these scriptures reveal that He is the MOST important Rock. Without the Cornerstone, the building cannot be sustained. The members of the church, that’s every follower of Jesus, are being built up together. Nothing can stop the force of the Church in the earth. Jesus said nothing could stand against His church. Not even the gates of hell would overcome it.
Look closely at the conversation between Peter and Jesus.
Jesus asks a question, and Peter answers with revelation. He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16: 15-18
Peter gets a revelation about Jesus before many others realize it. YOU ARE THE CHRIST, son of the living God. The deliverer we’ve been anticipating, it’s YOU!
Jesus replies that on this rock, He will build His church. On this revelation of Peter’s that Jesus is the Christ, the church will be built. Yes, Peter would have an essential role in establishing the church, and yes, Peter gets a new name from Jesus here, but if you dig deeper and look at the conversation.
Jesus declares that His church will be built on this revelation of His identity as the Christ, son of the living God. This can be applied to the church. Without Jesus at the center of it all, a church becomes just a building.
Dear Lord,
I praise You as the Chief Cornerstone! You are the builder of Your church. You are protecting and building Your church. Remind me daily that You are the center of my heart, the center of my faith, and the center of my Relationship with the Father. You, Lord, are the Cornerstone, and I recognize today my FULL dependence on You.
In Jesus’s Name, Amen.
Blessings and building with Jesus,
Vanessa Lynn
