New Beginnings

(Key Verses: John 8:1-11, John 4:1-42, 1 Peter 1:3, and 2 Corinthians 5:17)

I think Easter is the best day of the year. I believe it’s the best because it’s the day we get to celebrate Jesus defeating sin and death! Easter is a wonderful day of celebration not just because of what Jesus did, but because of what that means for us on a personal level. Jesus paid my penalty so that I could have a relationship with Him and a second birth- a new beginning. That is the topic I want to focus on today, new beginnings. 1 Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. Because of Easter, we have a “living hope” in Jesus Christ; one that has brought us out of death and into life!

However, there are many of us that may intellectually know that we’ve been made new but aren’t living like that’s true. So, I want to focus on the story of two woman from the Bible, we don’t know either of their names, but their stories are well known: the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery. (If you are unfamiliar with either of the accounts, they are found in John 4 and John 8.) The first thing we find out about both of these women is that they are sinners, and not only sinners, but their lives are defined by their sin. The woman at the well has had many marriages and divorces, and is living with a boyfriend, and the woman caught in adultery is exactly that, caught in her adultery. Their sin, just like all of ours, has earned them the punishment of death, and by all rationale, they are the last people that Jesus should want a relationship with. Do you ever feel like that? Undeserving of the love of Jesus because of your sin and your past? What does Jesus want to say to us today, who know about Easter, but aren’t living like people who have been saved from our sin? I don’t think we need to look any further than how Jesus responds to these two women. Jesus gives a directive to one, and an opportunity to the other that I believe are exactly what we should do.

Looking first at the woman caught in adultery, Jesus says, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” The first thing we should do is to leave our life of sin behind. During our series on Colossians we saw in chapter 3 this call to “put to death” the things of the flesh. Both passages are saying the same thing, we need to actively choose to put the old self to death, and instead live in the new self, in the new beginning that Jesus purchased for us on the cross. This woman was defined by her sin, she was an “adulteress,” but Jesus tells her that that isn’t who she is any more. She can choose to leave that life of sin and believe in Jesus! We too need to make this active choice to leave our life of sin and to no longer let the name of any sin define us.

Jesus tells the second woman, the one at the well, that He is the Messiah. In doing so He gives her an opportunity. Did you ever notice what the woman’s response is to Jesus? John 4:28-30 records it as, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” This woman who has been trapped in her isolation and sin becomes a missionary to her town! She is invited into the privilege of sharing Jesus with others, and that is what Jesus is inviting us to today. Not only are our sins forgiven, but we are invited into the beautiful adventure of helping others know who Jesus is so they can have freedom and a new beginning as well!  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Who in your life is weighed down by their sin? In a moment they could go from death to life, from guilty to acquitted, from slave to free, and you know the one who has the power over sin and death, the one who pulled off Easter- Jesus!

Jesus gave both of the women a new beginning, a fresh start, one defined by His love and grace and not by their sins or failures. Jesus offers that same new beginning to all who call on Him as Lord and Savior. As we enter spring and having just celebrated Easter, I think it’s the perfect time for us to reflect on both new beginnings and whether or not we are living like we believe we have been given one.  Here is my hope for us all: That we would live in the reality of the new beginning we’ve been so graciously given through Easter! That we would leave behind the sin of our past, live as the new creation that we are, and take the opportunity to share with those around us the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!