November 1, 2026 · All Saints’ Sunday · No sign-in needed
November 1 Sermon Passages — All Saints' Sunday: three ways to speak of the saints
All three readings ask what it means to belong to God's people, but they answer it differently. Revelation offers a vision of heaven, 1 John a family claim, and Matthew a description of character lived out now. Skim the three summaries below, then pick whichever one fits the saints sitting in your pews this November.
Which passage will you preach this Sunday?
These are passages a sermon can take on this Sunday. The order is not a ranking — read the introductions, then tap the one that draws you and it opens below.
Passages follow the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL); “Occasion” passages are options we add for the season. If your church follows its own calendar or preaches through a book, carry on as you were.
Gospel
Matthew 5:1-12 Blessing Turned Upside Down
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about who Jesus calls blessed, and why that list runs against what the world calls fortunate.
The passage at a glance
- Jesus sits down on a mountain and teaches his disciples, with a crowd listening in.
- He names nine groups of people - the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek and others - and calls each one blessed.
- He closes by telling his hearers directly that the same blessing, and the same persecution, now belongs to them.
Ways the sermon can go
Blessed now or blessed later?
Some beatitudes promise a present reality (theirs is the kingdom), others a future reversal (they will be comforted). Preaching the tense honestly costs you a tidy single answer.
A description, not a ladder
Read the list as describing what kingdom life already looks like in these people, not a nine-step climb to blessedness. This costs you the appeal of a clear action plan.
Who is missing from the room
Ask who in your own congregation matches each group named. This grounds the sermon in specific people, but it means you have to actually look before Sunday.
Where sermons commonly slip
Turning blessings into commands
Preachers often flip 'blessed are the meek' into 'be meek,' quietly replacing Jesus's pronouncement with an assignment.
Skipping the persecution verses
Verses 11-12 get dropped because they are uncomfortable, leaving a tamer, happier list than Jesus actually gave.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon name all nine groups in verses 3-10, or only the easier, familiar ones?
- How many times did the sermon use an imperative verb (be meek, be merciful) instead of describing a state Jesus pronounces blessed?
- Did the sermon address verses 11-12 on persecution, and how much time did it get compared to the earlier verses?
One application for this week
This week, write down the name of one person you know who fits one of these nine descriptions, and visit or call them before Sunday.
Epistle
1 John 3:1-3 Children Now, Something More Later
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about the gap between who we already are as God's children and who we have not yet become.
The passage at a glance
- John marvels at the love the Father has given, naming believers children of God right now.
- He admits the world does not recognize them for this, and that believers themselves do not yet see what they will fully become.
- He ends with a present task: everyone who holds this hope purifies himself, because of what is coming.
Ways the sermon can go
Already a child, not yet finished
Preach the now/not-yet tension directly - children now, but the shape of that is still unfolding. This costs you a neatly resolved ending.
Unrecognized by the world
Build the sermon on verse 1's claim that the world does not know us. This names a real friction with outsiders, but risks sounding defensive if overdone.
Hope that purifies
Trace how hope in verse 3 produces a present discipline of self-purifying. This connects the future to daily life, but requires defining 'purify' carefully so it does not become works-righteousness.
Where sermons commonly slip
Overclaiming the unseen future
Preachers sometimes describe exactly what believers 'will be,' when John explicitly says this has not yet been revealed.
Turning verse 3 into pure self-effort
The call to purify oneself can be preached as willpower alone, cut off from the hope that verse 3 says produces it.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon claim specific details about what believers 'will be,' beyond what verse 2 actually states?
- How many times did the sermon use the word 'hope' from verse 3, and did it tie that hope to the purifying that follows?
- Did the sermon address the world's non-recognition named in verse 1, or move past it without comment?
One application for this week
This week, tell one person outside the church, in plain words, that you consider yourself a child of God, and notice how they respond.
Old Testament
Revelation 7:9-17 A Crowd No One Could Count
If you choose this passage, the sermon becomes a sermon about a vast, mixed crowd standing safe before God's throne, and what that promise means for people grieving now.
The passage at a glance
- John sees a crowd too large to count, from every nation and language, standing before the throne and the Lamb.
- An elder identifies them as those who have come out of great tribulation, their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb.
- The vision ends by describing their life before God now: no more hunger, thirst or tears, because the Lamb shepherds them.
Ways the sermon can go
A vision for the grieving
Preach the passage as comfort for people mourning specific deaths this year. This fits All Saints' directly, but risks turning the sermon into eulogy rather than exposition.
Who counts as 'every nation'
Lean into the deliberately uncountable, multi-national crowd as a claim about who belongs. This opens a question about your own church's makeup, at the cost of a harder, less comforting sermon.
Tribulation now or later
The 'great tribulation' in verse 14 can be read as a specific future ordeal or as the ordinary suffering of faithful life in any age. Naming both readings costs you a confident single timeline.
Where sermons commonly slip
Turning the vision into a timeline
Preachers sometimes use this passage to argue for a specific sequence of end-times events that the text itself does not spell out.
Skipping past the blood imagery
The washing of robes in blood in verse 14 can get quietly dropped in favor of only the comforting verses 16-17.
Three things to check on the recording afterwards
- Did the sermon address verse 14's image of robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, or move straight from verse 9 to verses 15-17?
- Did the sermon assert a specific end-times timeline or sequence of events beyond what the text states?
- Did the sermon name specific deceased members of the congregation, and if so, how many times?
One application for this week
This week, write down the name of one person from your church who has died, and bring that name with you to the service on November 1.
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