Matthew 21:42-46 Stones and Rocks
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: July 12 & 15, 2019 Matthew 21:42-46
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
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’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
(Understanding the Text) Jesus is quoting from Psalm 118. “This is the gate of the LORD; 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 the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!” (Psalm 118:20-27). Just reading this Psalm, I would not have guessed that it is a Messianic Psalm, but Jesus applies it to Himself. Isaiah also calls the Messiah a stone. “therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘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: Whoever believes will not be in haste.’” (Isaiah 28:16). Again, if I did not know the symbolism, I would have a difficult time knowing that this was a Messianic statement from the context. Zechariah also speaks of a stone. “Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.” (Zechariah 3:8-9). This is a more obvious Messianic prophecy, but its meaning would have been obscure until after Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection.
(Revelation of God) The religious and secular leaders of the Jews rejected Jesus. Many people today reject Jesus. Satan himself rejects Jesus. That does not in any way change who Jesus is. It was and is their loss. They are to be pitied for the ignorance that would choose to live immersed in the evils of this world rather than under the protection of someone who loves them dearly. I cannot fathom the kind of love that keeps on loving like that. Rejection did not overcome the building of the temple. Just as Zerubbabel faced mountains of trouble when he tried to rebuild the temple, Jesus faced problems in instituting the new temple, but He succeeded because He made Himself the foundation and cornerstone that we are set against.
We are broken when we come against Jesus, but that is part of the healing process that begins as we come to new life. As long as we accept Him, we can be healed. Those who reject Him cannot survive an encounter with Him. Ever since sin came into the world, humans have not been able to enter into the presence of God without damage to themselves. God’s glory would kill us now because we are not connected to His healing presence, but God wants to be with us, so He found a way to be with us without killing us; however, if we do not connect to Him in the way that He made for us and we try to face Him directly without that protection, we will be destroyed.
(Understanding the Text / Prayer) “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” The kingdom of God had been given to a group of people on earth. They should have manifested its presence among them, but they didn’t. Nowhere could a person see a manifestation of the character of God among His supposed people. They were just as vain, proud, selfish, arrogant, and exclusive as the pagans around them. I fear that this may be the case for the church also. I pray that I will not display the world, but instead that the world will see You when it looks at me.
The apostles would refer back to Jesus as the cornerstone or the rock again and again.
“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” (Acts 4:11-12).
“but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame'” (Romans 9:31-33).
“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18-22).
“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” (1 Peter 2:4-8).
(Application) Jesus is the one person that we cannot ignore and live. He cannot be dismissed as a good man or simply a prophet. He is so much more than that, and it is not until we confront who He is that we can live. Apart from Him, we are powerless and fearful, but connected with Him, we are transformed. Apart from Him, we are dead, but in Him we are alive and reconstituted into someone new. Our old thoughts and ways become broken, and we think and feel and react in new ways because we have seen Jesus.