Advent Sermon Series Ideas: Four Weeks, With Sources

Advent 2026 begins on Sunday 29 November and has four Sundays: 29 November, 6 December, 13 December and 20 December. Christmas Eve falls on Thursday 24 December.

Each series below gives one text per Sunday and a question worth researching before you start writing. Every text is covered by the public-domain commentaries in the OpenLumin corpus, so you can read what Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Matthew Henry and John Gill say about it side by side. The big idea, the application and the words stay yours.

Week 1 (29 November): Isaiah 9:2–7, light for people walking in darkness. Research question: who did Isaiah's first hearers expect the promised child to be?

Week 2 (6 December): Isaiah 7:10–14, a sign given to a king who would not ask for one. Research question: what did the sign mean for Ahaz before it meant anything to Matthew?

Week 3 (13 December): Micah 5:2–5, a ruler from small Bethlehem. Research question: why does Micah stress how small Bethlehem is?

Week 4 (20 December): Matthew 1:18–25, God with us. Research question: how do the names Jesus and Immanuel work together in Matthew 1:21–23?

Isaiah 9:6 gives the promised child four names, which makes a natural four-week series: Wonderful Counselor (29 November), Mighty God (6 December), Everlasting Father (13 December) and Prince of Peace (20 December).

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the names one at a time. On “Mighty God” they note that “Unto us . . . God” is equivalent to “Immanuel” (Isa 7:14), which ties this series to the Christmas readings in Isaiah 7 and Matthew 1.

Week 1: Zechariah's song, Luke 1:67–79. Research question: what does Zechariah mean by the Dawn that will visit from on high (1:78–79)?

Week 2: Mary's song, Luke 1:46–55. Research question: which Old Testament songs and promises does Mary echo?

Week 3: Joseph's obedience, Matthew 1:18–25. Research question: what does the account show about Joseph before he is told what to do?

Week 4: The shepherds, Luke 2:8–20. Research question: why might the news come first to shepherds in the fields?

Many churches light one Advent candle each Sunday and name them hope, peace, joy and love, though practice varies between traditions. A text for each: hope, Isaiah 40:1–5; peace, Luke 2:8–14; joy, Luke 2:10–11, “good news of great joy that will be for all the people”; love, 1 John 4:9–10.

This series works well when the congregation already knows the candle liturgy. Research the texts first and let them, not the candle names, set what each sermon says.

Read each text cold and pray over it before you open any commentary. Then gather the evidence: the original-language terms, the historical setting and what named scholars have said, so that each claim in your notes can be traced to a source.

Several of these texts have free verse pages on OpenLumin that quote all three commentaries: Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Matthew 1:23, Luke 2:14 and John 1:14.