Advent small group questions: a 4-week Bible study on hope, peace, joy and love, with answers from the verses

Good Advent small group questions walk your group through a short passage each week and ask three things: what the text says, what it means, and what changes this week. This 4-week study follows the four themes many churches use for Advent (hope, peace, joy, love) with Isaiah 40, Micah 5, Zephaniah 3 and 1 John 4, plus leader answers drawn straight from the verses.

Advent 2026 begins on Sunday, November 29, and its four Sundays fall on November 29, December 6, December 13 and December 20. Christmas Day is the following Friday. If your group meets midweek, run week 1 the week of November 29 and finish the week before Christmas.

Many Advent question sheets online are tied to one church's sermon series, like this Advent 1 question sheet. This guide stands on its own: you need Bibles, this page and about 15 minutes of prep per week. It also avoids the passages our 4-week Christmas Bible study uses (Isaiah 9, Luke 1 and 2, Matthew 2, John 1), so you can run Advent first and the Christmas study in January without repeating yourself.

The 4-week Advent study at a glance

The theme names and their order vary from church to church. Some churches put love second, and some use different names entirely. If your pastor is preaching a series, match that order and keep the passages.

How to run a 60-minute Advent small group

• 0:00 Arrive (10 minutes). Snacks and a warm-up question. Each week below has one.
• 0:10 Read (5 minutes). Read the main passage aloud twice, with two different readers. The second reading is where people notice things.
• 0:15 Discuss (30 minutes). Pick 6 to 8 questions. You won't get to all of them, and that's fine. Start with observe questions even if they feel easy: they get quieter people talking.
• 0:45 Pray (15 minutes). Use the prayer prompt for the week, then share requests.

Prep: Read the passage once early in the week and once the day of. Read the leader answers, but don't read them out like a key. Let the group find the answer in the text, then confirm it with the verse.

If your group is new to inductive questions, our guide to the SOAP Bible study method explains the same idea in four steps (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer), and members can use it on their own between meetings.

Some people in your group will want more of the story than four short passages give them. Bible Academy has 200+ Bible stories explained, each with a short quiz, including the angel's announcement to Zechariah and the birth of Jesus.

Week 1 (hope): Isaiah 40:1-11

Warm-up: What's something you waited for as a kid that felt like it took forever?

Context in two minutes: Isaiah speaks to a people who will lose everything to Babylon. Chapter 40 turns from judgment to comfort. All four Gospels connect the "voice... in the wilderness" to John the Baptist (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23), who prepared the way for Jesus. Our Isaiah book summary gives the big picture.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Observe: what does it say?

1. What is the very first word God tells the prophet to say (verse 1)? How many times does he say it?
2. According to verse 2, what has happened to Jerusalem's "warfare" and "iniquity"?
3. What does the voice in verse 3 tell people to prepare?
4. What fades, and what stands forever, in verses 6-8?
5. How is the Lord described in verse 11?

Interpret: what does it mean?

6. Why do you think God starts with comfort before he says anything about preparing?
7. The Gospels say John the Baptist was this voice. What did "preparing the way" look like in his ministry?
8. Why would "the word of our God shall stand for ever" (verse 8) give hope to people who had lost their land and temple?

Apply: what changes this week?

9. Where do you need comfort right now, and where do you need to "make straight" a path for God (a habit, a relationship, a schedule)?
10. Titus 2:13 says Christians are "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." How would your week look different if you were waiting for Jesus to return the way Israel waited for him to come?

Leader answers for week 1

Prayer prompt: Thank God for one promise he has already kept in your life. Ask him for patience in one thing you're still waiting for.

Week 2 (peace): Micah 5:2-5

Warm-up: Where do you go, or what do you do, when you need some peace and quiet?

Context in two minutes: Micah prophesied in the same era as Isaiah. Chapter 5 names a small town, Bethlehem Ephratah, as the birthplace of Israel's coming ruler. Centuries later, when Herod asks where the Christ will be born, the chief priests and scribes quote this very verse (Matthew 2:5-6). See our Micah summary and the full list of prophecies about the birth of Jesus.

But thou, Beth–lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

Observe: what does it say?

1. How does verse 2 describe Bethlehem? Is it impressive?
2. What does verse 2 say about this ruler's "goings forth"?
3. What will the ruler do in verse 4, and in whose strength?
4. What does the first line of verse 5 call him?

Interpret: what does it mean?

5. Why do you think God chose a town that was "little among the thousands of Judah"?
6. "From of old, from everlasting" (verse 2) points beyond an ordinary king. What does it tell us about who Jesus is?
7. Verse 5 says "this man shall be the peace." What's the difference between having a peaceful moment and having a person who is your peace?
8. Romans 5:1 says, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." How is peace with God the root of every other kind of peace?

Apply: what changes this week?

9. December is loud: finals, work deadlines, travel, family tension. Where is your peace most under pressure this month?
10. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth" (John 14:27). What's one way the world offers peace that doesn't last? What would it look like to receive his instead?
11. Is there one relationship where you could be a peacemaker before Christmas?

Leader answers for week 2

Prayer prompt: Name the situation that steals your peace. Pray Romans 15:13 over each other: "the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing."

Week 3 (joy): Zephaniah 3:14-17

Warm-up: What's the best surprise you ever got, or gave?

Context in two minutes: Zephaniah is one of the shortest prophets, and most of it is a warning of judgment. Then the last chapter breaks into song. The people are told to rejoice because the Lord has taken away their judgments and is "in the midst" of them. Our Zephaniah summary shows how sharp that turn is.

Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Observe: what does it say?

1. List the commands in verse 14. How many are there?
2. What has the Lord done, according to verse 15?
3. Where is the Lord, according to verses 15 and 17?
4. In verse 17, who is singing, and over whom?

Interpret: what does it mean?

5. The people are told to rejoice because of what God has already done, not because life is easy. Why does the order matter?
6. "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee" (verse 17). How does Christmas, God coming to live among us in Jesus, fulfill that in a way Zephaniah's hearers could only hope for?
7. Most of us picture ourselves singing to God. What changes when you picture God rejoicing over you "with singing"?

Apply: what changes this week?

8. Nehemiah 8:10 says, "the joy of the Lord is your strength." Is your joy this month built on how December is going, or on God?
9. Isaiah 35:3-4 says, "Strengthen ye the weak hands... Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not." Who in your life needs that kind of encouragement this week? What will you say to them?
10. What's one way your group could bring joy to someone who finds December hard?

Leader answers for week 3

Leader note: Joy week can be heavy for anyone grieving. Name it gently. Biblical joy is not pretending; in Isaiah 35:10 joy comes as "sorrow and sighing shall flee away," which means sorrow was real first.

Prayer prompt: Each person thanks God for one specific thing from this year, then the group prays for anyone who's finding the season hard.

Week 4 (love): 1 John 4:7-14

Warm-up: What's the most thoughtful gift you've ever received, and what made it thoughtful?

Context in two minutes: John writes to churches who need to know they truly belong to God. In chapter 4 he defines love, and he defines it by Christmas and the cross: God "sent his only begotten Son into the world." Our 1 John summary has the background.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Observe: what does it say?

1. Where does love come from, according to verse 7?
2. How did God show his love, according to verse 9?
3. What does verse 10 say love is, and what it is not?
4. What do we "ought" to do, according to verse 11?
5. What does verse 14 say the Father sent the Son to be?

Interpret: what does it mean?

6. Verse 10 says love starts with God loving us, "not that we loved God." Why does that matter for someone who feels like they haven't done enough this year?
7. "Propitiation" means a sacrifice that turns away God's anger at sin. Why would John connect the manger to the cross in the same sentence?
8. Verse 12 says no one has seen God, "if we love one another, God dwelleth in us." How does a church's love make an invisible God visible?

Apply: what changes this week?

9. John 3:16 says "God so loved the world, that he gave." What would it look like for you to give something costly this Christmas (time, attention, forgiveness), not only presents?
10. Who is hard for you to love right now? What would one step toward them look like before December 25?
11. Is there someone you could invite to a Christmas Eve service or share the gospel with this year? Our guide on how to share your faith at Christmas has practical ideas.

Leader answers for week 4

Prayer prompt: Read 1 John 4:19 together, "We love him, because he first loved us." Thank God for his love, then pray for the one hard-to-love person each of you named.

Questions for the week after Christmas

If your group meets between Christmas and New Year's, use this short wrap-up instead of starting something new:

1. Which of the four weeks (hope, peace, joy, love) spoke to you most, and why?
2. Revelation 22:20 ends the Bible with "Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Advent looks back at his first coming and ahead to his second. Which one do you think about less, and why?
3. What's one habit from Advent you want to keep in January?

Our New Year Bible study for small groups picks up right where this ends, with four weeks for January.

Keep your group in the Word between meetings

Four short passages are a good start, but most groups get more out of Advent when people read on their own during the week. Our Advent Bible reading plan has one reading a day from November 29 to Christmas, and it pairs well with this study. For a student group, the Advent youth group lesson on Simeon and Anna works as a bonus night.

To check what stuck, try a short Isaiah quiz or a round on John the Baptist at the start of a meeting.

Quick quiz: Isaiah

In the year of which king’s death did Isaiah see the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up?

AhazUzziahHezekiahJotham

What did the seraphim cry to one another in Isaiah’s vision?

“Glory to God in the highest!”“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God”“Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts!”“The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble!”

What name will the virgin give to the son announced to Ahaz as a sign?

ImmanuelShear-jashubEliakimUzziah

Continue the quiz

There are many more questions like these in Bible Academy, each with its explanation and verse. Start free, no card needed.

If people in your group want a daily rhythm that doesn't depend on willpower, Bible Academy's reading plan goes at 1 to 5 chapters a day with a calendar, a streak and a short quiz after each reading.

Frequently asked questions

What are good Advent small group questions?

Good Advent small group questions move from what the passage says to what it means and what changes this week. For example, on Isaiah 40:1-11: What is the first word God tells the prophet to say? Why does God start with comfort? Where do you need comfort, and where do you need to prepare the way for God this week?

What are the four themes of Advent?

Many churches use hope, peace, joy and love for the four Sundays of Advent, often lighting one candle each week. The order and names vary from church to church, and the themes are a church custom rather than a command in Scripture. Each theme is rooted in the Bible, for example "the God of hope" (Romans 15:13) and "the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

What Bible passages are good for an Advent Bible study?

Strong Advent passages include Isaiah 40:1-11 (comfort and the voice in the wilderness), Micah 5:2-5 (the ruler from Bethlehem), Zephaniah 3:14-17 (God rejoicing over his people), Isaiah 11:1-10 (the Branch of Jesse) and 1 John 4:7-14 (God sent his Son). Luke 1 and 2 also work well if you're not doing a separate Christmas study.

When does Advent start in 2026?

Advent 2026 starts on Sunday, November 29, three days after Thanksgiving. The four Sundays of Advent are November 29, December 6, December 13 and December 20, and Christmas Day falls on Friday, December 25. A weekly small group can run this 4-week study and finish just before Christmas.

How do you lead an Advent Bible study for young adults?

Keep it to one short passage, read it aloud twice, and start with easy observation questions before moving to meaning and application. Young adults usually engage best with honest application questions about December pressures like finals, travel and family. Leave 15 minutes for prayer, and send the next passage ahead so people can read it first.

Is Advent a Catholic tradition?

Advent is observed by Catholic and Orthodox churches and by many Protestant churches too. It isn't commanded in the Bible, so churches are free to keep it or not. The heart of it is fully biblical: remembering how God's people waited for the Messiah and looking forward to Christ's return (Titus 2:13).