Nearly 300 years after George Frideric Handel, the German-British composer, completed Messiah, it remains one of the most popular pieces of baroque music, attracting audiences whether they have faith or not.

Writing in the 1950s, Percy Scholes in The Oxford Companion to Music describes the work as the “most imperishable” of Handel’s oratorios.

It is typically thought of as a Christmas work, but in fact it was first performed around Easter, on 13 April 1742 in Dublin.

But it’s neither just a Christmas work or just and Easter work because the scripture that it encompasses is so much wider.

The words from Handel’s Messiah are derived from Old Testament prophesies about Jesus, from the gospel accounts of Jesus’s birth (in Matthew and Luke), from Romans, from 1 Corinthians and from Revelation.

So it is thus wider in scope than a typical nativity play. No doubt most people don’t get too bogged down in the words, but I think it’s worth listening to with a bible in hand or Bible Gateway in a browser.

To give you a flavour of just how biblical it is, here are three of the most popular parts of the Messiah, one taken from each of the three parts that the work is split into.

Part one: setting the scene

The words of Handel’s Messiah begin in Isaiah 40, where we hear right at the start some encouragement that God wants to share with his people. God has not forgotten the promises he made them and has forgiven their sins.

The words quickly move into the prophesy about John the Baptist as the voice crying in the wilderness.

These two components, therefore, frame the gospel story that is about to be told. In the rest of part one, in addition to some more Old Testament prophesy, we find a retelling of Jesus’s birth from Luke 2.

Part two: Hallelujah chorus

By the end of second part of Messiah, we have heard about the purpose of Jesus’s death and we reach the Hallelujah chorus. This is undoubtedly the most famous part of the entire work.

It is is a composite of verses from Revelation. That’s quite unusual for what people might think is a Christmas anthem but it reflects the enormous scope of the work.

“For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” comes from Revelation 19:6.

“The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord” comes from Revelation 11:15. It says (in the Authorised Version):

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Part three: God’s plan to renew creation

In the third part of Messiah, the heavy lifting is done by 1 Corinthians 15. Just like the Hallelujah chorus, it’s future looking. Here are verses 52-57 from the New Testament for Everyone translation. Handel is using the Authorised Version but I think this translation gives us a a very accessible way of grasping the meaning. It reads:

This is how it will be, you see: the trumpet’s going to sound, the dead will be raised undecaying, and we’re going to be changed. This decaying body must put on the undecaying one; this dying body must put on immortality. When the decaying puts on the undecaying, and the dying puts on the undying, then the saying that has been written will come true:

Death is swallowed up in victory!
Death, where’s your victory gone?
Death, where’s your sting gone?

The “sting” of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thank God! He gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.