There is a small detail about the Bible that often surprises people when they first hear it… That is that for most of Christian history, people read the Bible without chapter numbers or verse numbers. Chapters were only added around 1205 AD, and verses came later, in the 1500s. Before that, people simply read the Bible as one flowing story.
When scholars divided the Book of Isaiah, they gave it sixty-six chapters, the same number as the books in the whole Bible. They also divided it into two main parts. The first part has thirty-nine chapters, and the second part has twenty-seven. Those numbers match the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.
Whether that was planned or whether it just happened that way, Isaiah seems to reflect the story of the whole Bible. The first part contains many themes we find in the Old Testament: warnings, judgment, covenant, and God's call for his people to return to him. The second part is filled with comfort, hope, salvation and the promise of a better future.
That second half begins with words we know from John the Baptist: "Prepare the way of the Lord." As it unfolds, Isaiah speaks of God's servant, filled with the Spirit, who suffers for his people. He speaks of God's salvation reaching the nations. And he ends by describing a new heaven and a new earth.
Isaiah is a book that looks backwards and forwards at the same time.
That is exactly what we see in our reading today from Isaiah (51:1-6) as God tells his people to look back to remember Abraham and Sarah. Remember where you came from. Remember the faithfulness of God. Remember the promises he has already kept.
But then God tells them to look forward as well. Lift up your eyes and trust me.
Looking back and looking forward is something all of us do.
Looking back can be good. We remember people who shaped our lives. We remember lessons we learned. We remember times when life was difficult and yet God carried us through. Looking back helps us see that God has often been at work, even when we didn’t realise it at the time.
But faith is about more than remembering the past. Isaiah does not allow God's people to live only in their memories. God who helped them before would help them again. God who made promises in the past would keep his promises in the future.
So Isaiah calls them to hope. Not wishful thinking or pretending everything will be easy, but biblical hope, trusting God because he has proved himself faithful before. And that hope is centred on Jesus.
In our Gospel reading (Matthew 16:13-20), Jesus asks his disciples a simple but powerful question.
"Who do people say that I am?” The disciples give various answers. Some say John the Baptist. Some say Elijah. Some say another prophet. Then Jesus asks the question that really matters. "But who do you say that I am?”
It is one of the most important questions in the whole Bible and Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Peter sees what others cannot see, recognising that Jesus is the one that God had promised. The hopes of Isaiah, the promises of the Scriptures, and the longing of God's people all find their fulfilment in him.
Jesus tells Peter that this faith, this confession, is the rock on which the Church will stand… It is faith, confessing Jesus as the Messiah, upon which the Church is built, it is not built on any building or tradition. It is built on the good news that Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
That is why Isaiah's words still matter today because we can look forward with hope because Christ has come.We can look forward with hope because Christ is with us now. We can look forward with hope because God's promises are secure.
Paul takes that hope and asks what difference it should make in our lives. In Romans (12:1-8) he urges Christians to offer themselves to God as a living sacrifice. But as he does that, he starts with God's mercy - not by listing rules. He begins with grace.
Paul knows that when people truly understand how much God loves them, something begins to change. They begin to think differently. They begin to act differently. They begin to see other people differently.
Faith is not simply about knowing things about God. It is about allowing God's love to shape our lives. Paul also reminds us that following Christ is not something we do alone.
We are part of one body and within that body, each person has gifts and has something to offer. That is a wonderful reminder that each person matters and that is an important message in a world where many people feel lonely, forgotten, or as though they do not belong.
The Gospel tells a different story. A story of every person being made in God's image and loved by God. A story where every person matters, with no exceptions. And every person is invited into God's family.
Perhaps sometimes we are a little reluctant to talk about that invitation - we don’t want to pressure people. Yet Isaiah spoke clearly. Paul spoke clearly. The early Christians spoke clearly. They spoke about Jesus because they believed he changes lives.
They had found hope in him, and they wanted others to discover that hope as well - and our task too is not to force people, but to point people to Jesus though our words, our actions and in the way we live.
As we think of how blessed we are, of the chances we have to live out our faith, those blessings should lead us to gratitude. Everything we have is a gift from God and gifts are meant to be shared.
That is part of what it means to be the family of God - A family that serves, encourages, welcomes, hopes, loves.
And that love should reach beyond the walls of the church - out to our neighbours, to strangers, to those who agree with us and those who do not. It reaches to those who are easy to love and those who are difficult to love.
One of Isaiah's best-loved promises comes a few chapters earlier: "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles."
Those words remind us that hope is trusting God day by day. Hope gives strength when we are tired. Hope gives courage when we are afraid. Hope reminds us that we are never alone.
God is with the weary, the grieving, the lonely, those who struggle. And we see that most clearly in Jesus.
So today, let us hear the message of these readings. A message to look back and remember God's faithfulness. Look forward and trust God's promises. Look to Christ and hear his question: "Who do you say that I am?"
Like Peter, may we answer with faith. Like Paul, may we offer ourselves to God. Like Isaiah, may we live with hope.
Charlotte Elliott captured that response wonderfully in her hymn Just as I Am. She reminds us that we do not come to Jesus because we have everything sorted out. We do not come because we are perfect.
We come because he invites us. "Just as I am.” That is the good news of the Gospel.
Jesus welcomes us as we are, forgives us, loves us, and begins and continues his work within us…. So may we remember the blessings of the past, trust God for the future, and place our faith in Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
And may we follow him with gratitude, courage, and joy, sharing his hope and love wherever he calls us to serve. Amen
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