Advent of the Messiah

If you're just joining us in our Advent Series this month, Shadow and Light, we've been looking at scriptures from the Bible that formed the basis for Handel's Messiah, that famous piece of music. And today we've been anticipating this since Thanksgiving, really. Our choir and orchestra, singers from Monovus to Christian High School under the direction of Tony Dana, are going to present—not prevent, they're not going to prevent this—they're going to present this. Highlights of Handel's Messiah, who's excited about this? I'm so excited I can barely speak.

So listen, I want to take just a few minutes to set this up for you because maybe you're not used to classical music or you don't really know what this is all about. If you listen to the backstory of this, I know you're going to be totally riveted. Somebody once said that Handel's Messiah is to Christmas concerts what It's a Wonderful Life is to Christmas movies, right? Something that's old and yet still so profound, it has so much emotional resonance for audiences even today. Now why is that? I think it's because it's full of both the pain and the hope that Handel experienced when he was writing this, but also that the original readers of the scripture were experiencing.

So here's the backstory. Are you ready for this? George Frederick Handel was born in Germany, moved to London, England as a young man, and in London in those days you had to write big music to get people's attention. These days, you know, we think of classical music going to a classical concert. We think of something sedate and meditative, but in those days spectators at concerts, and this is a contemporary engraving from a newspaper in the mid-1700s, they would wander around, they would crack peanuts and eat them, they'd spit, they would boo, they would sometimes even riot if they didn't like the music, much like our junior high group here at church. Just kidding about that.

But it was more like going to a modern rock concert, right, or a baseball game, and Handel thrived in that environment. He'd write maybe a couple of ballads in his pieces, then he'd come back with a big bombastic piece of music. Specifically, he specialized in Italian opera with big sets, big costumes, big music, but after about 25 years, this kind of music suddenly fell out of style, and Handel's career stalled out. He went bankrupt. He lost many, if not most, of his friends. He even had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, and so he very likely was depressed and discouraged and feeling like his best days were behind him, and probably we would not even have ever heard of Handel, because his opera music just wouldn't have made it, right? 300 years later almost, down to our time, except for what happened next in his life.

It was at this low ebb that a friend of his, Charles Jennings, sent him a letter filled with Bible references about the Messiah. Messiah comes from a Hebrew word meaning "the anointed one" or "the chosen one" that God would one day send to the world, Jesus Christ. Now, there's no evidence that Handel was particularly a religious guy, so for a long time that letter just sort of gathered dust on his desk in his office, but once he opened the letter and looked up those verses, he was inspired, and here's what happens next. He locks himself in his office for 24 days straight, hardly eating, hardly drinking, just writing like a madman.

His original manuscript survives to this day at the British Museum. I've had a chance to see it with my own eyes. You can look at it. It's clearly very rapidly written, and it's full of inkblots, and what many have said look like his own tear stains, and it's been said that after writing the Hallelujah chorus, there it is right there. You can see his writing. Hallelujah. His assistant heard weeping through the locked door of his office, and so he forced open the door to see Handel standing there, pen in hand, tears streaming down his face, and he looked at his assistant and said, "I did think I saw all heaven before me, and the great God himself."

Now, Handel didn't write anything autobiographical, so we just kind of have to infer from the things that he did, but here's what he did next. He did something completely unusual for those days. Instead of premiering the Messiah at some big fancy London concert hall, he moved the two premier concerts way up north to Dublin, Ireland, to kind of a second-rate music hall up there. Dublin in those days was very impoverished, and he put on his concert there as a benefit for two charity hospitals and a debtors' prison. In fact, it was this very prison in Dublin, Ireland.

In those days, if you were in debt and you couldn't pay your bills, you know what happened? You went to prison. Let me show you the inside of this. This place was filled with people only because they owed money, but with the proceeds from the concerts, 147 men were set free from debtors' prison because Handel paid all of their debts that night. How fitting is that, right? Because the Messiah is about how Jesus came to set us free from the debt of sin.

Well, the Messiah instantly became a classic. It made Handel a legend to this day, and after thinking his career was over, his final years were even better than all the years that went before. But not only does the music of the Messiah reflect the emotional state that Handel was at, it also reflects the emotional state of the people who first heard the Bible verses that it's based on. A lot of people don't realize that every single word of the Messiah comes straight from the Bible. In fact, we put those verses in your program.

So listen, you got to hear this emotional backstory of these verses, and I'll illustrate with some drawings from a very old German Bible that I have at my house. These verses were written originally to Jewish prisoners in Babylon almost 500 years before Christ. Their nation was in ruins. The Bible describes them as "weeping beside the rivers of Babylon." They were depressed. They were discouraged. They felt like all their hope was on hold. But then into that darkness, a light was promised. God's Word came with comfort, saying, "Your life is not over. You have a future because the Lord is coming to visit you." There's hope for you.

And this message is so relevant to our day today with the headlines filled with so much bad news. And people feeling like hope is on hold. It is more important than ever to listen to the same words. There's light dawning in the darkness. There is hope for the future. The message for Handel and for those Jewish captives and for Christians today, for you and me, is this: so often when we feel God is done with us, He is just getting started. Can you hear that today? Can you hear that comfort for yourself? Wherever you feel like your hope is on hold right now, there is new life for you. There are second chances for you. There is salvation for you.

And so I invite you right now with that backstory, just open your heart and open your ears to the music, but especially to the Messiah, because I believe He is here with us, with you, right now. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Speak ye, comfort of me to Jerusalem. Speak ye, comfort of me to Jerusalem. And cry unto her that a warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.

The voice of Him who cries in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for God. And so to those feeling hopeless and their life in ruins, the message comes from God's prophet, "The Lord is coming to His people." But at this point, in the music of the Messiah, the tone shifts. It's as if the people hear, "The Lord is coming to His people." Oh, no. The new international version puts it this way, "But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears, for He will be like a refiner's fire."

In other words, God is so majestic, so awesome, so holy. How can I stand before Him? It's really kind of a reality check, the realization, yes, we are victims of injustice and we are also unjust. Bad stuff was done to us, but we've also done plenty of bad stuff. None of us is righteous. So who can stand before His presence? And now in the music, this very dramatic spiritual tension builds. Is this promised visitation of God something to anticipate or something to dread?

And so after that tension, there is reassurance. The good news is this. Yes, the Lord will come to His people. The Messiah will arise. Not as a warrior, not even as a judge, but He'll come to us first as a baby. Unto us, a child is born who will be the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the son of the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And here's the really good news. He came not to condemn the world, but to save the world, like a gentle shepherd, as you'll hear the choir sing, carrying His people like little baby lambs close to His heart.

And like a shepherd, He lays down His life for His sheep. Yes, He will purify us by His own sacrifice on the cross to make us new. And then one day, the Messiah will return to make all things new and all suffering and all injustice and all evil and all death will all be gone, and He will be worshipped as King of kings and Lord of lords and all renewed creation will sing, "Hallelujah." I'm looking forward to that day, aren't you?

You know, they say that when King George first heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" song, he stood overcome with emotion to honor the King of kings. And since that day, the tradition is that everybody else stands when the "Hallelujah Chorus" begins. That'll be the last song you'll hear in about four songs from now. And so we invite you then to stand and listen as the choir sings those beautiful words from the book of Revelation, but internalize all of this.

Just think of what these words must have meant to those early Christians who first heard them. They were living under the thumb of Roman oppression. Caesar, the emperor, seemed to have all power and truly all seemed lost. Their lives were just chaos, just like those Jewish captives in Babylon, just like Handel when he first heard these lyrics. But they chose to believe that the Lord God omnipotent still reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. And so instead of saying, "Look what the world has come to," they chose to say, "Look who has come to the world." And that perspective shift is what's contained in these next lyrics and what we all really need right now.

Let me just get really personal here. One of the greatest paradigm-shifting moments of my life was when I, as a pastor, first truly understood the gospel, which is that Jesus Christ came, the Messiah came, and His message was not, "You know what? You are seriously underperforming, and you need to just try harder to do better." Now, He came with a message, "You know what? You are lost and in darkness, and I love you so much. I am here to save you and transform you." Now, that is a message of comfort and joy and not a burden.

And so if you have ears to hear, listen. When the choir sings the invitation from Jesus, come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and He will give you rest. O unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, unto us a son is given, O unto us a child is born, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, unto us a son is given, O unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, O unto us a son is given, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called, "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

O unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called, "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

God bless you. Merry Christmas. We hope to see you next weekend on A Christmas Eve. Bye-bye.