Jesus the Raised Cornerstone
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Point: Jesus is the raised cornerstone upon which all creation will trip. Will you stand in new life, or remain grounded in death? Times of refreshing are from the LORD and are only found in the appointed person of Jesus Christ. He is God, the favor of God, and the person of God. Salvation is found in no one else.
I had a skateboard as a kid growing up, more like a deathboard. The manufacturer’s took a peace of plastic, molded it to look like a miniture surfboard with an upraised tail. I could not fit both my feet on it’s length, that’s how small it was....I believe they call them banana boards today (yes they are back and now you can have the same death defying fun that I did as a kid).
The wheels were made of the same high density plastic composite, not rubber. When spring had finally sprung in High Level, and the street cleaner, had gone through town, I would bring my skateboard out and attempt to skateboard.
I say attempt because most times you were taking your very physical life into your hands, but that was part of the fun. The street cleaning machine did not do such a great job, for what we called a skateboard. If you took your eyes off the pavement, you would soon find yourself lying on that very pavement you were trying to ride upon. Why? Because hard plastic wheels, with no suspension, on a northern alberta street, covered in snow 6 months of the year, that has been layered with sand and gravel is supposed to be a funtime!
You all think the term “roadrash” is from a motorcyclist spilling on the road. No, it’s from kids, living in High Level, trying to “skateboard” on a plank with hard plastic wheels and failing miserably because every little stone might as well be a boulder. Rediculous!
Just as rediculous as that story is, is trying to reject and/or avoid the truth about Jesus and His resurrection. The world believes that if it simply closes it’s eyes, shuts it’s ears, that one can avoid Jesus and the truth of Him and His resurrection. Is this true?
Paul says in Romans 1:19
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, as His disciples celebrated His person and entrance into Jerusalem was, Luke 19:40
He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
At the end of this Age, the Bible says that every person will see the coming of Jesus, one will not be able to not see and acknowledge Jesus coming.
Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, including those who pierced Him. And all the families of the earth will mourn over Him. This is certain. Amen.
So, you know who Jesus is? Who God is? He is the boulder on the street that every person is attempting to avoid, but will eventually crash and be stopped against, the little piece of gravel, that seems to be of so little significance to the world today.
Philippians 2:5-11 says of Jesus,
Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.
Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Who is Jesus? He is the Cornerstone of the Church.
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
What is a cornerstone? A cornerstone is the chief foundation stone of a building. It is the first stone set in the construction of a masonary foundation. It is the reference stone, to determine the position of all the other stones of a structure. It is the stone to which all other stones are set against.
Jesus is the reference stone to whom all creation is set. All creation is either in line with Christ, or out of line, there are only two choices. Am I in line with Christ? Does Jesus consider you in line with Him?
The Apostle Peter reminds us that we are “living stones”, being aligned with Christ and offering ourselves to God and His Church,1 Peter 2:4
Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God—
you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it is contained in Scripture: Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame!
A most important thing to remember about living aligned with Christ, you will be out of line with the world, you will be rejected because of being aligned with Christ.
The prophet Isaiah reminds us that Jesus was rejected by mankind because He preached salvation (Isaiah 53:3). We will be rejected by the world, because we proclaim salvation in only one person, Jesus Christ.
Whoever listens to you listens to Me. Whoever rejects you rejects Me. And whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.
Moses prophesied that God would raise up from Israel a prophet who, a Messiah-type, like him, who would lead Israel and the world through the dessert of wandering and the evil of the red sea, our world. Moses said, ‘Listen to Him because His purpose is to bless you and deliever us from the wickedness of ourselves.’
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.
And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’
God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
Who is the world? Ourselves, humanity makes the world what it is. That’s why there is a call for repentance with the call of Jesus. One’s life cannot be refreshed, be born fresh, without a repentance from the old man or woman of our lives, that has been born under the curse of sin and death.
Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
How many of the world have looked to the salvation of themselves, to the cast idols of man. We worship science, we worship medicine, we worship doctors who perscribe medicine, we look to things religious and spiritual; but how many of us look to the Maker of all things, in faith first? It seems like folly, but then again God instructed Moses to make a serpent, hang it on a poll, and have the people look at it if they wanted to be healed from the poison flowing through their veins (Num 21:8-9).
How many struck by the vipers of this world, will die in the wilderness, because they refuse to look and believe upon Jesus of the Cross? Jesus’ resurrection is a humiliation for the world, therefore they deny the truth, even though the poison of self-centered ego and denial flow through the veins?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
How many will suppress the truth when their lives are at stake? How many might take the chance to believe in Jesus and be healed? None, if Jesus’ news is not proclaimed. What is that news? That only in Jesus Christ is salvation found and in none other, because no other has given His life, died, and rose again to life through any other source than Jesus Christ!
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Why is Jesus the cornerstone that causes all of humanity to trip before Him? Because He is the Authority of all life; He is the Authority over all life and death. This is why Resurrection Day is so important, why it is so important to proclaim, because no one has done what Jesus has done! He has overcome death and hell and lives forevermore!
And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last,
and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
Why do we hold onto the idols of man, when Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades? Why do you live among the fiery snakes, drinking in their venom, and not look to Jesus for your healing? If life was given to the Israelites by looking upon a mere man-made bronze snake on a pole, how much more will the Lord God give life to those who look upon His Messiah and believe upon Jesus Christ for their salvation? So much more! John 3:14
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
I believe it is of the person of Satan that the symbol for life in our world is found to be one or two snakes wrapped around a staff. Some use Asclepius's staff (the Greek god of Healing), and some Hermes’s Caduceus staff (symbol of Commerce and peace). Point being, have we come to worship the system, represented by an idol, instead of the God who provides healing, through a symbol? Man does not hold the keys to Death and Hades, Jesus does. The medical system cannot cure sin, only Jesus does. Death can only be delayed, medically, but death has only been robbed of it’s power through and in and by Christ. That is a tripping point that the world, that the medical system has no explanation for…but God does, “I sent My Son to give life, by dying to death, and arrising to life. Death has no more sting, sin has no more hold, because Jesus lives forever more!”. Hallelujah, Amen!
What does the Bible say about the Deity of Jesus?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways.
In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,
For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,
And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to anyone He wants to.
This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill Him: Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.”
But Jesus kept silent. Then the high priest said to Him, “By the living God I place You under oath: tell us if You are the Messiah, the Son of God!”
“You have said it,” Jesus told him. “But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
What do we believe about Jesus? He is God. He is divine. He was fully-God, and fully-man. Having taken a bodily form, He died, on a cross, sinless, because of no wrong, bearing our sins, to give man life, by paying the cost of death for our sins, to satisfy the wrath of God. He rose three days later from the grave, was witnessed by the disciples, at least three times, and was witnessed ascending to Heaven, by these same disciples, as recorded in the fully-inerrant, fully-inspired, fully-authorized Word of God, the Bible, as originally written and given. Amen? Amen.
Why is Jesus the boulder that every person will trip against? Because He is the boulder that every person will face at the end of this age, our time, and at the beginning of the next. Jesus matters because He is the One who determines life and death.
“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,
because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
What will you do about Jesus? The cornerstone upon which the whole world is built and will come to fall. What will you do about Jesus? The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Amen.