Have you ever seen those guys who are the security guards for the president of the USA, or maybe for the Prime Minister?  They are always in the way, they are always there, and it seems like they know better than the person they are guarding just what they should do.  Save that image.  Let us pray. 
Father, we know that you sent your Son to serve us and to save us.  Help us really understand how that works in our lives, and help us take that and use it to help others.  May we never get in your way, but always be working to serve you.  Amen.  Now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. 
Most of us have known at least one person who thought he or she was waay more important than they really were.  It may have been in school, it may have been someone you worked with, it could have been anybody.  They were there in the bible, and now they are all around.
An even bigger problem is those people who don't realize just how important they are.  You know some of them, too.  You might even be one, because we've got a lot of them.  They were there in the bible, too.  Moses, for one - God called to him from a burning bush. 
Now it isn't every day you see a burning bush - one that isn't consumed by the fire - and it is even less frequent that you hear a voice coming from it.
God called to Moses, and Moses was afraid to answer.  He didn't dare look - everyone knew that to look on the face of God was dangerous.  When God told Moses that he was going to deliver His people from Egypt, his answer, translated into a more modern idiom, was something like "Sure!  Right!  Me and what army?" 
Moses was important - he was important to the people of Israel, he was important to their freedom, he was important to God.  But when we read the story of how Moses finally did deliver his people from captivity, all through we can see those little signs that he still didn't think he was really worthy to do the job. 
Then there are those people who know they can do the job.  They know it better than you do, even if you are the one who trained them.  Peter was one of those.
Last week we heard how Jesus called Peter "petros", the rock.  Jesus said that on this "petra" - this stone - Jesus would build his church.  Did I tell you last week that this is the first place in the New Testament we find the word "church"?  In fact, we only find that word in 4 places in the gospels, all in the book of Matthew, and all the others come after this.
Jesus told Peter "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."  Peter has been called the cornerstone of the church.  If you have been around anyplace that a public building was put up, you probably saw a cornerstone put in place.  They are usually pretty big, and the cornerstone is the first stone put down. 
If this church had been built from stone blocks, it would have a cornerstone.  Then the rest of the church, or building, goes up from that.  The direction of that first dressed stone gives the direction of the sides of the building.  Pretty important. 
But if there was a cornerstone - what do you think would happen if it was pulled out by itself?  The building wouldn't fall down - a building gets its strength from more than that one stone.  You have probably seen stone or brick arches, maybe even built one or two.  The strength comes from all the stones working together.
Earlier, I asked you to think about bodyguards.  I think when Jesus told Peter that he would base his church on the faith that Peter had shown, it went to his head - maybe just a little bit.  Peter was one of Jesus' followers, a good one.  I think he changed with that remark of Jesus. 
When a bodyguard is watching out for someone, he always walks in front.  The person he is guarding may want to do something, but the bodyguard will decide if it is safe.  If he doesn't thnk it is, they just have to do something else.  And suddenly, Jesus reminds his disciples and Peter about something - "that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." 
And Peter reacted like a bodyguard instead of a disciple.  If you don't think he had any ideas about being a bodyguard, do you remember the little scene in the garden of Gethsemane, where Peter pulls a sword and cuts off the ear of one of those who came to get his Master? 
"God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you."  At least Peter had the decency to pull Jesus aside from the others to say this.  Peter knew who his leader was now - and now he wasn't ready to lose him. 

You know how some people are when you try to tell them something, and before you are finished they have an answer for you?  They never even listen to everything you have to say - they have their mind made up from the first few words.  I think that was Peter's problem here.  Peter heard the words "suffering", "be killed" - and he didn't listen any farther. 

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