Newton on Handel’s Messiah

John Newton is famously known for writing the hymn “Amazing Grace.” On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols recounts how Newton’s love of both music and God’s Word prompted him to preach 50 sermons on Handel’s Messiah.

In 1784, John Newton started a fifty-sermon series on Handel's Messiah. In the first sermon, he wrote this, "Conversation in almost every company for two or three weeks past, has much turned upon what is called the Commemoration of Handel, and the grand musical performances at the Abbey on that occasion, and particularly the performance of the Messiah."

Well, this was the summer of 1784. Handel's Messiah was first performed in London back in 1743 during his lifetime; but in 1784, it was performed again, and it was the musical event of the century. As Newton says, "Conversation in almost every company was dominated” by this event of the Commemoration, these five performances from May through June of Handel's works and of the Messiah. A 535-voice choir filled Westminster Abbey to perform the Messiah. Elaborate broadsides were plastered all over London to make sure every single soul knew about this concert. It was hailed as the musical performance event to date.

There sat John Newton in his study in his church in London, St. Mary Woolnoth on Lombard Street. Newton loved to preach about Christ. In that first sermon, he mentioned how preaching about who Christ is, about the effects of his obedience unto death, even the death on the cross, that that is the center of preaching. He says that he had often wished for some sort of form that could help him paint a picture for his congregation, for his hearers, to know who Christ is and be able to think through the stages of the incarnate Christ through his life of obedience and on to the cross and his resurrection and ascension. As he heard all of the buzz around Newton's Messiah, he found it. So, he embarked in June of 1784 on almost a year-long sermon series through the book of Isaiah and, using the words from Handel's Messiah in commenting on the music of it, you know Newton was just at home in the pulpit as he was at the composing table of music. He is, after all, one of our great hymnists. He brought his congregation to see, through the beauty of this musical masterpiece, who Christ is.

At one point in that first sermon, Newton says that hopefully many of those in the congregation were able to hear it. But he says, "If you were not able to hear it, ere long death shall rend the veil, which hides eternal things from our view and introduce them to that unceasing song and universal chorus, which are even now being performed before the throne of God." If you didn't get to hear Handel's Messiah in Westminster Abbey in May or June of 1784, don't worry, there is going to be a musical performance that will top that yet, and that is that eternal chorus that is going on in heaven.

Well, he also says in this first sermon, "In the meantime," that is, in-between Handel's performance and our going to heaven and our glorification and our joining the eternal chorus, "In the meantime I have thought, that true Christians may without the assistance of vocal or instrumental music, find a higher joy in the humble contemplation of the words of the Messiah than they can derive from the utmost efforts of musical genius." So, he led his congregation by the hand starting with Isaiah 40:1, and that beautiful verse where this prophetic book with chapter upon chapter of judgment upon judgment now changes its tone and says, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." It not only served as the opening line for Handel's Messiah, but it also served as the opening verse for John Newton's fifty-sermon series on the Messiah preached in 1784 and 1785 in London.

Well, that's Newton on Handel's Messiah. I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.