Sermon For New Believers

Rooted and Built Up: Five Marks of a Life Growing in Christ

Colossians 2:6-15 And Acts 2:41-47

You received Christ Jesus as Lord. Now walk in him. That one sentence from the apostle Paul in Colossians 2:6 is as simple as it gets and as demanding as anything in the New Testament. Walk in him. Not just begin in him. Not just visit him on occasion. Walk in him, the way a person walks a familiar road every single day, step after step, in all kinds of weather.

Paul wrote to the church at Colossae because he was worried about them. They had come to faith. They had received the gospel. But there were voices around them pulling them in other directions, offering them something that sounded more sophisticated, more complete, more spiritually impressive than simple trust in Jesus. And Paul's answer to all of that is not a longer list of rules or a more complex theology. His answer is this: you already have everything you need in Christ. Go deeper in him. Stay rooted in him. Keep walking in him.

That is the word this congregation needs today, whether you came to faith last month or forty years ago. Because the Christian life is not a moment. It is a walk. And the question Paul is pressing on every one of us is this: how do we keep growing in the direction we started?

This sermon will answer that question by working through two passages together. Colossians 2:6-15 gives us the theological foundation. Acts 2:41-47 gives us the practical picture of what that foundation looks like when it is lived out in a real community of believers. From these two texts we can identify five marks of a life that is genuinely growing in Christ.

Lesson One: Stay Rooted In What You Received

Paul writes in Colossians 2:6-7: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude."

Notice the agricultural image. Rooted. A tree that is not rooted does not simply stay where it is. It falls. It dries out. It gets carried off. Roots are not visible, but they are everything. They are what connect the tree to its source of life.

Paul is saying that the way you received Christ is the same way you continue in Christ. You came to him with nothing but need and faith. You keep coming to him the same way. The Christian life does not graduate from dependence on Christ into something more advanced. It goes deeper into dependence on Christ.

This matters because there will always be something on offer that promises to supplement or improve what you found in Jesus. Paul calls these things in verse 8 "philosophy and empty deceit, based on human tradition." He is not dismissing all learning or wisdom. He is warning against anything that displaces Christ as the center and the source. The answer is not to be suspicious of everything. The answer is to be so well rooted in Christ that you can tell the difference between what nourishes and what does not.

Practical significance: Stay close to the Scripture that first showed you who Christ is. Return to the gospel regularly. Do not let familiarity breed distance. The root is the relationship.

Lesson Two: Know What You Have In Christ

Before we move to the practices of the early church in Acts, we need to sit with what Paul says in Colossians 2:9-15, because these verses are the theological foundation for everything else.

Paul says in verse 9 that in Christ "the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily." And then in verse 10 he says something remarkable: "and you have been filled in him." Not partially filled. Not provisionally filled. Filled. In Christ you lack nothing that is necessary for life and godliness.

Verse 11 speaks of a spiritual circumcision, a cutting away of the old self, accomplished not by human hands but by Christ. Verse 12 connects this to baptism, which Paul describes as a burial and a resurrection. In baptism the believer declares publicly what has already happened spiritually: the old life has been buried and a new life has been raised. This is why Baptists practice believer's baptism by immersion. It is not a ritual that saves. It is a declaration that Christ has saved, and the physical act of going under the water and rising again is a picture that tells the whole gospel story.

Verse 13 says God made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven all your trespasses. Verse 14 says he canceled the record of debt that stood against you. Verse 15 says he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in the cross.

This is not a list of things you must achieve. This is a list of things that are already true of every person who is in Christ. You are filled. You are forgiven. The record is canceled. The enemy is disarmed.

Why does this matter for how we grow? Because you cannot grow from a posture of fear or shame. You grow from a posture of security. You do not obey God to earn his love. You obey God because you already have his love and you want to walk worthy of it. Growth in Christ begins with knowing what you already possess in him.

Lesson Three: Grow Through The Word And Prayer

Acts 2:41-42 describes what happened immediately after three thousand people came to faith on the day of Pentecost. Luke writes: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer."

The word devoted is worth pausing on. It does not mean they attended occasionally or when it was convenient. It means they gave themselves to these things with intention and consistency. And the first thing on the list is the apostles' teaching, which is to say the Scripture.

New life in Christ requires new nourishment. The word of God is not supplemental to the Christian life. It is essential to it. You cannot grow in a direction you cannot see, and the Scripture is what shows you the shape of the life Christ is forming in you. Reading it regularly, hearing it preached, studying it with others, meditating on it in the quiet of the morning, these are not religious obligations to check off. They are the means by which the Holy Spirit does his forming work in you.

Prayer belongs alongside the word because the word shows you who God is and prayer is how you respond to who God is. Together they form the rhythm of a life that is genuinely growing. You hear from God through Scripture. You speak to God through prayer. Neither one alone is sufficient. A Christian who reads the Bible without praying is gathering information without relationship. A Christian who prays without the Bible is speaking into a conversation they have not been listening to.

Lesson Four: Grow Through The Church

Acts 2:42 includes fellowship and the breaking of bread alongside the word and prayer. Verses 44 through 47 expand the picture: the early believers were together, sharing life, meeting in the temple courts and in homes, eating together, caring for one another's needs. And the Lord was adding to their number daily.

The church is not a building you attend. It is a community you belong to. And belonging to a local congregation of believers is not optional for the person who wants to grow in Christ. It is the ordinary means by which God grows his people. You need the accountability of people who know your name. You need the encouragement of people who share your faith. You need the challenge of people who are further along in the journey. You need the opportunity to serve people who are in need.

This is also where the Lord's Supper belongs. When the early church broke bread together, they were doing what Jesus had commanded them to do in remembrance of him. The Lord's Supper is not a sacrament that confers grace. It is an ordinance that proclaims grace. Every time the church gathers at the table, it declares the death of Christ until he comes. It is a corporate act of remembrance and proclamation, and it belongs at the center of the gathered community.

If you are carrying something heavy right now, the church is not a place where you have to pretend otherwise. The early church shared everything, including their need. The fellowship of believers is meant to be a place where real burdens are carried by real people together. If you need practical help, pastoral care, or support of any kind, the body of Christ is where you bring that need. And if professional support is what the situation calls for, the church should be the first community to encourage you toward it, not away from it.

Lesson Five: Grow Outward In Witness And Holiness

Acts 2:47 says the early church was "having favor with all the people." Their common life was visible to the people around them, and it was compelling. The gospel was not just something they believed privately. It was something they lived publicly.

Paul's language in Colossians 2:6 about walking in Christ points in the same direction. A walk is visible. People see it. The way you treat people, the way you handle money, the way you speak about those who are absent, the way you respond to suffering and injustice, all of it is a form of witness. Holiness is not a list of prohibitions. It is the shape of a life that is being conformed to Christ.

And that life draws people. The Lord added to the early church daily because the early church was living in a way that made the gospel credible. Your growth in Christ is not only for your own benefit. It is for the sake of the people around you who have not yet found what you have found.

Conclusion

Let me bring this together. Paul's word to the Colossians is his word to every one of us: you received Christ Jesus as Lord, now walk in him. That walk is rooted in who Christ is and what he has already done. It is nourished by the word and prayer. It is sustained by the community of the local church. It is visible in a life of holiness and witness.

You do not have to have it all figured out. You do not have to be far along before any of this applies to you. The invitation is simply to take the next step. Open the Scripture. Pray an honest prayer. Show up for the community. Let Christ do in you what only he can do.

He is able. He is faithful. And he is not finished with you yet.

Sources Consulted

The Holy Bible, Christian Standard Bible. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.

F. F. Bruce. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984.

N. T. Wright. Colossians and Philemon. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1986.

John B. Polhill. Acts. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992.

Thomas R. Schreiner. New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.