18 January 2026
All of us can have a new beginning through, and because of, Jesus Christ. Even you.
Special Stake Conference
Please Join us as for a special session of stake conference with Elder Patrick Kearon.
10:00 AM General Session at the Heatherwood Buidling
Messages From General Conference
Jesus Christ and Your New Beginning
By Elder Patrick Kearon
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
A Scriptural Understatement: Jesus Went About Doing Good
Jesus “went about doing good.” We read that simple report in the book of Acts. What an enormous understatement that is! Jesus surely did go about doing good! He is the very essence—and source—of goodness! He devoted His entire mortal life to doing good. He is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant,” infinite in goodness and everlasting in mercy.
Any attempt at describing or summarising His goodness and mercy would be an understatement! Truly, as the Apostle John tried to express, if we were to attempt to record every manifestation of the Saviour’s goodness, “even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
Jesus Christ Offers Each of Us a New Beginning
The specific examples we do have immortalised in scripture of Jesus going about “doing good” stir deep awe and wonder, especially when we really consider what it might have been like to be there, to witness His miracles, to receive His teachings, and to experience His healing. He conversed with the social outcasts, He touched the diseased and unclean, He brought comfort to the weary, He taught liberating truth, and He called sinners to repentance. To each leper, blind man, and adulterous woman; to the lame, the deaf, and the dumb; to every grieving mother, desperate father, and mourning widow; to the condemned, the shamed, and the suffering; to the dead in body and the dead in spirit, what He did was offer a new beginning. Yes, another staggering understatement!
Everything He said and did provided a new beginning for each of those He healed, blessed, taught, and relieved of sin. He didn’t withdraw from them, and He certainly won’t withdraw from you. Imagine in this moment hearing any of these life-giving words from Him:
“Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
“Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.”
“Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
“Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
The Saviour’s words to these individuals were brief, but with them He painted vast new horizons of forgiveness, healing, restoration, peace, and eternal life. And the glorious news is He offers the same new beginning to you and to me. All of us can have a new beginning through, and because of, Jesus Christ. Even you. New beginnings are at the heart of the Father’s plan for His children. This is the church of new beginnings! This is the church of fresh starts!
This Is the Church of New Beginnings
With baptism by water and the Spirit, we are “born again” and can “walk in newness of life.” How much hope does that new beginning bring to one who has trudged under the burden of sin or suffered from the effects of a troubled life and dysfunctional relationships? Jesus needed no forgiveness of sin Himself or a fresh start in life, yet He was baptised, showing us in high relief the way to the new beginning He has carved for each of us.
And our new beginning doesn’t just happen once. We tend to think that our baptism is our one shot at a new beginning. It isn’t. We don’t have just one chance. These new beginnings can happen every day! And certainly every week as we eat a small piece of bread and drink a tiny cup of water in remembrance of the gift of our perfect Saviour, who died for the express purpose of giving us as many new beginnings as we need! Jesus gives us as many new beginnings as we need.
With commitment and rejoicing in a new life in Christ, we can become “a new creature,” where old things pass away and all things become new. What reprieve does that kind of new dawn bring to a soul who keeps trying, through continuing to choose faith in our Redeemer’s power to heal and restore, despite the crushing setbacks of living in a fallen world? The Saviour never gave up on His commitment to fulfill the will of the Father and complete His divine atoning mission, even through pain that caused Him to tremble, to bleed from every pore, to suffer body and spirit, and to pray that the bitter cup might be removed. Again, He was demonstrating for us what faithful endurance with God looks like.
With every covenant we make and every effort we give to keep it, we can receive “a new heart” and a fuller measure of “a new spirit.” Little by little, the more we invite His goodness into our hearts and cast out the self-defeating voices in our heads, we become His people because we truly make Him our God. Jesus so keenly wants to be our King and our Shepherd and our Prince of Peace, and we can choose to make Him so in our own hearts and minds.
Elder Patrick Kearon
