Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. Steve: Good morning. 

Scott: I already know how you're doing, so...  

Steve: That's right. Because this is part two. We're recording two on the same day. Scott: Yes, so let's jump in. No chitchat. 

Steve: I hope people have had a week to chew on and meditate on and be edified by  the fact that Jesus is the rock, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  

Let's pray first. Father, thank You for helping us during the first podcast. Now help us  afresh right now. Give me the ability to speak of things that are, in a sense, way  beyond my comprehension and yet which You helped me to see in some capacity. I  pray that you help us all to see more about Jesus in this talk. In Jesus' name. Amen. Scott: Amen. 

Steve: In my notes, I have a big heading here. We've been talking about the rock,  which was the source of water, which was reinforced from the Pentateuch, all the way  through Isaiah, including Nehemiah. It's present throughout scripture. I think people that had been schooled in the first covenant, you might say, the first  testament, the Old Testament, the people that had been schooled in this were familiar  with this concept that the rock was a huge part of their heritage. 

They would have died of thirst in the wilderness if God hadn't provided water from the  rock. They would have died of hunger if God hadn't provided manna from heaven. As  we know from John 6 and other places, Jesus was the bread of life. What we're going  to see today is that He was also the rock, the source of water.  

1 Corinthians 10:1‑4, Paul is talking, ”I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that  our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized  into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank  the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them,  and the Rock was Christ." 

I remember when this was beginning to dawn on me, I did something which I rarely  do. I looked up online commentaries to see what people thought about that sentence.  "The rock followed them, and the rock was Christ." I found a Bible teacher from my  state of Pennsylvania, and in his article he drew a picture. It was a cartoon picture,  like a VeggieTales image of a rock as a water fountain that was following the children  of Israel and providing water. 

Scott: Nice. 

Steve: The point is he didn't try to spiritualize it. He didn't try to say, "Well, this is the  hidden meaning." He simply said, "There was a rock that followed the children of  Israel, and that rock was Christ." There's another scripture in the New Testament. Acts 4:10‑12. The context begins in verse 5, ”The rulers and elders and scribe were  gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John  and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family. When they had set them  in the midst, they inquired, 'By what power or by what name did you do this?'" (They’d  performed a miracle.) 

"Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, 'Rulers of the people and elders,  if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by  what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the  people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom you crucified,  Whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you well.'" Peter was speaking before a who's who of the spiritual elite in the nation of Israel.  Peter was an unlearned man in their estimation. Later we read, “They were astonished  that these uneducated common men were so bold and articulate."  These two uneducated men were standing before the spiritual elite who were experts  in the Old Testament, and very familiar with the rock that had provided water for  them in the wilderness. Otherwise, there would not have been a nation. Peter says, "This Jesus is the Stone." I'm going to stop right there. He's talking to  people that knew about the stone. They knew about the rock. These men were very  familiar with this concept, unlike our generation. 

Peter continued, "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." I don’t know how I missed this. I've read the Bible many times, and when I read it, all I  could see was a man was healed in the name of Jesus, and the name of Jesus is the  name by which we are all saved. I even memorized Acts 4:12 when I was in seminary  as a salvation verse. 

If I'm talking to someone about Christ, I employ that passage, "There's salvation in no  one else, no other name." I got that, but somehow, I missed that one sentence that  says, "This Jesus is the stone." He has become the cornerstone. These spiritual leaders  knew what he was talking about. They responded, "Don't talk about this anymore." Let's read some more about this stone, this cornerstone. Psalm 18:19‑23, "Open to  me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to  Jehovah. This is the gate of Jehovah, the righteous shall enter through it. I thank You  that You have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is Jehovah's doing. It is marvelous  in our eyes." 

This is what Peter was quoting from. 

Peter, this unlearned fisherman, had spent a significant amount of time with the  stone, the cornerstone. He has been with Christ. He knew Who he was talking about,  and he knew its roots were in scripture. 

Isaiah 28:16, "Therefore, thus says the Lord Jehovah, 'Behold, I am the One Who has  laid as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure  foundation.'" Now, I'm getting goosebumps even reading this, but you see what He  says there. He's not just laying a stone or a foundation stone or a tested stone, but He  uses the word "precious cornerstone." 

That word "precious" is precious. This is not a big mineral outcropping. This is a  tested stone, a foundation stone in Zion, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation.  See if this sounds familiar. 

Matthew 21:42, Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures, 'The stone  that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing, and  it is marvelous in our eyes.'" This is Jesus.  

1 Peter 2:4-8 this is Peter again, ”As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men  but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are  being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices  acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

“For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen  and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is  for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders  rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘a stone of stumbling, and a rock of  offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”  If we quickly read through this like I have done for a generation, without  comprehending what I'm reading I miss a lot. But if I go slowly and chew on each  word, I see it differently. I spent part of a day one weekend, looking into the Greek  and Hebrew roots and cross references of these verses in 1 Peter 2, and it was  astounding to me how much Peter was conveying in this passage. He was not only a precious stone, He was chosen. Notice that these verses also  include us, "You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house  to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus  Christ. For it stands in scripture, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone,  chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame."'  We are among these living stones, and He is the living stone. He is the chosen and  precious cornerstone that was laid in Zion by God himself. 

Here it is again. Paul speaking in Ephesians 2:20‑22, "We are His house, built on the  foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The chief cornerstone is Christ Jesus  himself, in Whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy  temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place  for God by the Spirit."  

I don't know how your noodle is doing now, but there it is. 

Scott: It's fine.  

Steve: We are reading scriptures which are based on Isaiah 28 and Psalm 18. Peter,  Paul, and Jesus reference it. Jesus Himself is the chief cornerstone. I went into Revelation one time and I looked at Jerusalem coming down out of heaven  of which Christ is the cornerstone, and the foundation, the gates and the foundation  of that city are the apostles and the prophets. 

“He carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy  city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its  radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall,  with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the  twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the  north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall  of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve  apostles of the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:10-14) 

I thought, "Wow." We are being built into this. We are being built into this dwelling  place for God by the Spirit. We are living stones. He is the stone. We are the living  stones. We're following Christ, and as Christ's followers, we are a part of this holy  Jerusalem in the Lord. 

You read the Old Testament every year like I do, and so this is not unfamiliar to us,  but I can't imagine how somebody who's hearing this for the first time is feeling. I  hope that they will run and get the transcript and look up these verses, or simply look  up “cornerstone" or "the foundation stone” or "the precious cornerstone." Look it up in your concordance, and you'll find it's there. All right, what are you  thinking now? 

Scott: I just typed in "rock" in the search bar on the Bible Gateway, and there's so  many verses. I then clicked on Psalms, which it says there's 28 different places where  it mentions the rock. Many of these verses have been turned into worship songs at  camps and whatever that I've been to, where "Blessed be my rock."  Like, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer." "God is my rock in Whom I  take refuge." "Who is the rock except our God?" "The Lord lives. Praise be to my rock."  All of this stuff would have been familiar to the leaders and the Sanhedrin and all that. 

In addition to him quoting Psalm 118, "This is the cornerstone, the stone the builders  rejected has become the cornerstone," they'd also have all these verses that they were  familiar with from Psalms and everything else about the rock, and they would know  the rock that was in the wilderness with them. 

They're either going to get it and start worshiping Jesus, or they're going to kill these  people for blasphemy. There's not really any middle ground allowed in what's going  on here because Peter is he's leaving no room, no wiggle room. You're either going to  worship Jesus or you're going to reject him completely after hearing that. Steve: You're right. Keep going. That's a really good observation, though. We've made  it common by using it like a metaphor in songs. 

Scott: Way more than metaphor. 

Steve: Yes. I'll read you three from Deuteronomy 32, which is a powerful chapter. I  have a friend who enlightened me on this concept of the rock, and he said the same  thing. He commented, "Once I saw it, I saw it everywhere. It's all through scripture,  but at the beginning, I didn't see it, but then once I saw it, it was there." Deuteronomy 32:4, "The rock, His work is perfect. All His ways are justice. A God of  faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He." This clearly talking about  God.  

32:15, "Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, stout, and sleek. Then he forsook  God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation." 

Verse 18, "You were unmindful of the rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who  gave you birth." This rock, when you read all these verses together, how can I put  this? It's not just a piece of stone. It's not just a piece of mineral. It bore them. It was  tied into creation. It was tied into God's nature himself. 

I think this would be a good place to wrap this up. Remember Jesus was trying to help  them understand the bread in John 6 and basically said, "You saw stuff come down  from heaven, and you said, 'I can eat this.’" 

You didn't understand that this was God giving it to you." In other words, they saw the  bread, but they didn't make the connection that it was the bread of heaven, the bread  of angels. They didn't have spiritual comprehension. All they saw was bread, and in  this regard, all they saw was a piece of stone. They saw a rock, but they didn't see it  spiritually.  

At some point, you had to say to yourself, "How can this manna feed millions of us for  decades?" That's God Who’s doing this. They didn't see God. They just saw bread.  How can this rock be a source of water? All they saw was water. "Hey, our thirst is  assuaged. Our hunger is taken care of. We have bread and water." They didn't have spiritual eyes to see that this was God doing this. They were  unmindful. They forgot Him. They didn't see Him. They saw things naturally. They didn't see things spiritually. We have to be careful that when we read scripture that we  see things that we need to see. Did that makes sense? 

Scott: Totally. 

Steve: Father, thank You for revealing these things to us. Even today, I've sensed Your  Spirit helping me to see things even as I'm reading through this. Give us spiritual eyes  so that we don't just see Your hand supplying to us, but that we see Your hand. That's  the point. 

Help us not just to see bread and water, but help us to see Jesus in Jesus. Help us to  see God Who supplies all of our needs. In Jesus' name. Amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.