How terrible it will be for you! For you build monuments for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them! So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors, because they killed those for whom you are building monuments. That is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles. They will kill some of them and persecute others,' so that this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that was shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who died between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation!
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 amazing in our eyes'? That is why I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce fruit for it. The person who falls over this stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush anyone on whom it falls."
If we are being questioned today for a good deed to someone who was sick or to learn how this man was healed, you and all the people of Israel must understand that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus from Nazareth, whom you crucified but God raised from the dead. He is 'the stone that was rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.' There is no salvation by anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved."
As you come to him, the living stone who was rejected by people but was chosen and precious in God's sight, you, too, as living stones, are building yourselves up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, so that you may offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. This is why it says in Scripture: "Look! I am laying a chosen and precious cornerstone in Zion. The one who believes in him will never be ashamed."
Therefore he is precious to you who believe, but to those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone they stumble over and a rock they trip on." They keep on stumbling because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.