Failure to Thrive

Failure to Thrive in 1 Corinthians 3

Well this morning we're going to begin the new year with a short series in 1st Corinthians 3. God willing we will take each of the five Sundays in the first month of 2022 to go through this one chapter in 1st Corinthians.

Remember that last year we went through the first two chapters though. It's been some time. But again, we begin just 1st Corinthians 3 this morning where this whole chapter 1st Corinthians 3 has Paul rebuking the Corinthians and rebuking them primarily for their infantile Behavior their progress in the stature of Christ Paul found was stymied because they never quite digested the baby food of the basics.

They hadn't grown because they hadn't comprehended some elementary lessons. And they tried to move on too quickly away from them into the deeper things when they hadn't gotten the foundation that they needed.

In their factions there were jealousies there was strife. Everywhere indicating to Paul that what they needed was a refresher course. No, you're not advanced. Let's stay here on the basics is really what he's doing.

He needed to convince them that they're not as advanced in the faith as they believe themselves to be as they thought themselves. To be there were babes their infants in Christ. They were in a sense perennially children.

So with that brief introduction, please stand for the reading of God's Word. I will preach from verses 1 through 4 this morning, though. Each Sunday as we're in this I'm going to read the entire chapter 1st Corinthians 3.

But I brothers could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk not solid food for you were not ready for it. And even now you're not ready for you're still of the flesh.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you. Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says I follow Paul and another I follow Paulus. Are you not being merely human?

What then is a pause? What is Paul? Servant through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I Planted a Paulus water, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he waters are one and each one will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field God's building. According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood the haystraw.

Each one's work will become manifest. For the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss though He himself will be saved but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you. If anyone destroys God's temple God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you are that temple.

Let no one deceive himself if anyone among you. Think see that he is wise in this age. Let him become a fool that he may become wise for the wisdom of this world is folly with God for it is written He catches the wise in their craftiness.

And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile. So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.

All are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's. Please be seated. Let us pray and ask God to open our eyes. Heavenly Father. Do just that do what we cannot do ourselves. By your spirit open our eyes to the glorious truths of your word.

Enlighten us father to the path that we must take make us more like Jesus Christ this day even by the preaching and the hearing of your word and we ask father that you would be glorified in all this that you would watch over our spirits and Lead us in the path of righteousness in the way that we must go.

We ask father now That the words of my heart the meditations of my heart will be acceptable and pleasing in your sight our rock and our Redeemer. Pray your blessing upon us now in Jesus name. Amen, there we go.

Jesus Christ and Him Crucified as the Key to Wisdom

Well, I have for you this morning Actually the key to all wisdom. I Have for you this morning a truth Upon which the fate of every human being rests including your own. I'm going to give you the solution to all the puzzles of life in five easy to digest words.

It's a very short phrase and once you comprehend this very short phrase, you're going to be wiser than your enemies. You're gonna have more understanding than many of your teachers as the psalmist says.

Men search and men strive for the kind of insight I'm going to give you in a moment. Job chapter 28 and verses 12 to 15 tells us how desirable these words I'm going to give you and with this key to all mysteries that you're going to have.

How desirable it is and how much trouble men are willing to go through in order to have this? It says in Job 28. But where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding. Man does not know its worth and is not found in the land.

Of the living the deep says it is not in me and the sea says it is not in me. It cannot be bought for gold and silver cannot be weighed as its price, but you have it here this morning in five words I'm going to give you a truth.

That's cold from a greater hole. Especially for the initiated. Especially for those who are ready to enter the inner sanctum of great knowledge. Are you ready for this? Here it is. Jesus Christ and him crucified.

It's really that simple. Jesus Christ and him Crucified men have been searching for the key to life to unlock the mysteries of life. Why are we here how then should we live? Jesus Christ and him Crucified.

No, this is the message. Paul was determined would be the sum and total of his ministry to the Corinthians. Those five words I gave you come directly from the end of chapter 2 verse 2 where he said for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him Crucified and you can almost hear the Corinthians saying really Paul.

Are you seriously? That's simple that Elementary go on Paul. Don't you realize how smart we are? The schools that we went to the degrees we've attained the accomplishments of our life. Don't you know who we are?

I mean just look at the men that we've chosen to follow. I mean, come on Paul. Look at how I stick to a polis the great and the eloquent the handsome the charismatic a polis. Aren't I brilliant for having attached myself to him?

I'm not like that lame-brain over there who attaches himself to. Well Paul to you. Who doesn't speak that? Well, and it's not that impressive. Well, of course these are not quotes. These are the tone and tenor though of what Paul saw in the Corinthian Church.

And the reason why he says you're still babes in Christ. You're not ready to move past the baby food the milk. They were infants who had failed to thrive. Not that the Apostle who is Christ's chosen instrument had left anything off the table.

That would help them to thrive that would have actually made them thrive had they taken it. They take there. They'd taken their first bite they chewed it halfway they swallowed it partially. It never went down into their bodies into their spiritual bodies.

Of course, it's a metaphor to then spread that nutrition through their body and grow their muscles and grow their bones and Make them more and more into the stature and the image of Jesus Christ. They took one taste.

Didn't quite swallow it and then they left the less the rest untouched and tried to move on to the banquet table. With the richer foods, but they weren't ready. All of us here today we're at different levels of our comprehension of the faith.

We're growing at different paces. We're growing in different areas. We have a woman over there who's learning to respect her husband as a gospel witness while we have a man over there who struggles Against his temper.

We have a Christian scholar wrestling with some ancient text while the child next to him is Putting their full attention trying to understand the resurrection. We're all in different places. We're all at different levels as we grow together.

Into the stature and the image of Jesus Christ. But the point there being God willing we're growing. We're moving. We're getting somewhere. Individually and as we grow individually, we're pulling others in this body up with us.

Like any good parent Paul feeds his children or fed his children what they needed at the time. He took into account their age their habits their diligence just as parents do today. And by all this he determined what their spiritual diet should be.

Well like children they desire the more sumptuous fare at the adult table or like children. They desire the candy bar rather than the good food set before them. Like children they didn't appreciate the basics and They tried to leap into the more advanced things before they Comprehended the real meaning of this key to all mysteries.

I unlock your life for you. We're gonna say it again and again in this message Jesus Christ and him crucified. Well spiritual infants need to be addressed as infants says but I brothers could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ.

This flows from the end of chapter 2. Where the very last part of chapter 2 he wrote these words. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him. And he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things. But it is himself to be judged by no one. So he doesn't address them as natural persons. Okay, we need to understand that because if he had addressed them as natural persons He would have meant that they weren't converted at all.

Well, he calls them brothers he calls them infants but infants in Christ. So we understand that their conversion itself is not what is in question here. They heard the gospel they believed the gospel their faith was in Jesus Christ and his cross.

So he doesn't call the natural people belonging to the world. But neither can he call them spiritual people who act as though they belong to the kingdom of God. I had wrestled with this. Because for me for a long time I believed okay, you cannot be a carnal Christian.

Too often we think of this term carnal Christian and it gets into our lingo. We sort of think okay carnal. That means fleshly that means like of the world but Christian. So that means I can compromise the faith.

Sometimes I can you know dilly-dally over here with the things that the flesh makes me desire. And I still get to be called a Christian. Well, yippee, right. I can act this way. I could be like my old self, but I can come to church on Sunday and Act holy with the rest of them.

Well, no. What Paul is saying is you're acting as though in the flesh. They were infants in Christ. He says my brothers could not address you as spiritual. That is their thoughts their opinions their motives.

Ascribable to the Holy Spirit on the soul. He couldn't speak in of that way, but it's people who are in essence physical beings only. Infants in Christ. Now infants is not always used negatively. Jesus in Matthew 11 25.

He thanks God that he reveals himself to little children. In Matthew 21 6 he quotes the psalm out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies. You have ordained praise. He uses a different word in Matthew 18 4 but brings across the same meaning where Jesus says whoever humbles himself like this child is The greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

You see we all enter the kingdom of heaven as infants. That's what Jesus means in John chapter 3 when he's talking to miss Nicodemus. In order to enter the kingdom of heaven. You must be born again. Must be born again born an infant born a newborn a baby.

But you're not supposed to stay there. You're not supposed to stay there as a baby you're meant to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. We're meant to grow stronger by living more and more in accordance with Christ's Word.

Infantile behavior and being of the flesh are described as really the same condition here He says but as people of the flesh and as infants in Christ he puts those together they're paralleled. So we need to ask how does the infancy relate to fleshly behavior.

Infants of Christ and you're acting as though of the flesh. How do these work together? We can answer it with another question is to to to what do infants react? What do we use infants respond to. Well the answer is that infants react to the needs of the moment.

Let's say they're hungry. What do babies do when they're hungry? Well, the mothers know right away, right they cry. When babies are hungry they cry. Crying is a sign of emotional distress. The baby only knows what the flesh is communicating and the flesh is communicating.

I'm hungry. I don't understand being hungry. I don't like being hungry and after my many many hours of living I Don't have a perspective to know that some moment pretty soon I won't be hungry anymore because somebody will take care of it.

I'm hungry now. The flesh is telling me. I don't like it and i'm crying about it. I don't like this. I'm, not sure i'll ever stop being hungry and I cry until this need of the moment this fleshly need is satisfied.

I think this is the meaning that paul's trying to get across to the corinthians and perhaps us. That to be of the flesh is the same as to be an infant. In this sense that as an infant you can only react to the moment.

To the need of the moment without a longer perspective. And to the need of the moment, which is basically just a communication from the flesh. I ask is that you? You know, it could be almost all of us at one time or another.

A situation comes up. We need to take action. We determine a course and off we go on that course reacting to this need of the moment forgetting the basics. Forgetting this first fair that the apostle feeds.

Which is what? Jesus christ and him crucified. The corinthians had failed to thrive. Because this founding principle was something that they just kind of brushed past and wanted to get on to the more sophisticated stuff.

The stuff they could brag about. The stuff they could talk in academic tones with each other and seemed so smart. And leaving behind this one core principle that really unlocks all the rest. It'd be like moving into differential calculus, but you didn't learn how to add subtract multiply and divide.

It's not as though the lord through paul had kept anything away from them. It's not as though today. That the lord through the scripture through his spirit through your pastors has left anything deficient for you.

As it was for the corinthians so it is for us today. That by his spirit by his word by the graces he gives us through the body of christ in the church. The fair has been set for you. So we need to ask ourselves as we look at this one chapter these first four verses is am I?

Taking of what christ has through his grace. By the means of grace he's given me taking advantage. Have I partaken of the fair that he's set before me. Because paul for the corinthians and christ through his spirit today has kept nothing from them and nothing from you.

The lord provides all you need for growth into the image of christ. Verse two he says I fed you with milk not solid food for you are not ready for it. And even now. You are not ready. He's a wise and a caring parent.

He's the one who was a father of that church small f Father at church by having founded that church. You can read about that in acts chapter 18 and 19. But he was a wise parent. He was a caring parent.

He knew what they needed and he fed his flock what he knew they could handle. Well milk and solid food, of course are metaphors for the depth of his teaching. There's only a metaphor and we can't squeeze it too tightly for the details because if we do we squeeze out all its meaning.

But the idea here is still you have to get the basics down before you move to the more advanced teaching. A teacher doesn't teach first grades or abcs and then assign an essay. She teaches them how to form words and how to put together sentences and eventually says tomorrow bring me a paper and give me One paragraph on what's your favorite dessert or something like that?

Now the corinthians thought themselves to have arrived the moment they heard the gospel. They said okay. We've got this gospel. Okay, paul jesus christ and him crucified. Okay. Now, let's move on. Let's get into the deeper things.

Let's get into the mysteries. Let's get into the things that give me status and prestige for myself. Because we got that other thing. We got it paul. We understand it. How can you ever understand that?

Jesus christ and him crucified. What does it mean that we start out with the name jesus. Think about this. Think about this milk that you're given as an infant jesus the name given to jesus when he was born.

The angel says you shall call his name jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. The son of god was not eternally forever jesus. That came at a moment in time when god sent his son to come and die for your sins.

Christ means the messiah. The one who shall save his people the expected one the hope of israel for so many centuries and yet when he came. They didn't receive him but all for all who did receive him.

He gave the right to be called children of god jesus christ and not just jesus christ and something else. Him that one that only one jesus christ the son of god him and him alone crucified. Died for your sins he was dead and buried and raised on the third day jesus christ and him crucified.

There's your baby food. And there's the founding principle that foundation that brings you into the more sophisticated the deeper knowledge of christ. Not that we can boast. That we know him better. Follow him more closely.

Become more and more like him. By delving more and more into his word by applying it more and more in our life at every situation. Well, they thought then that they were done when they heard that basic message.

And then confident in their own ability to discern all the ramifications of the lord's atoning sacrifice. What did they do? Having not taken of that fair having not pondered having not digested it if we press that metaphor.

They fell into worldly ways. You see they hadn't digested it hadn't really Permeated all of their thinking all of their thoughts all of their motives all their agenda. They didn't do away with their worldly selves.

Their sectarianism was proof positive that they moved too quickly from the basics. That jesus died for the sins and rose again was nice, but they wanted more they wanted wisdom. They won the intricacies.

They wanted something to boast about they wanted something honestly to divide over. Is what alarmed the apostle here. And we'll dig into this just a little bit this morning and more as we go through this chapter in coming weeks.

But all this proved that they still needed the basics. They were stuck there like infants and to be stuck there and to be called infants in the lord. Even though they had in christ and that's good news to be called infants is hard on the ego.

Well, they wanted the big stuff. They wanted the sophisticated stuff. They wanted the impressive stuff right away. Do you remember the first men in black? When I don't remember the character's names. But it's tommy lee jones takes will smith into the armory and he's good.

He was told give the young guy. Give the new guy a weapon and of course. The older guy tommy lee jones, he takes this big bazooka looking thing for himself. And will say yeah, that's what i'm talking about.

That's what I want. He gets his little pistol, right? Looks like a baby squirt gun. And he's really disappointed with that. He says yo, you get the big gun, you know, you remember this. Now he finally has to fire that gun and the recoil knocks him back through the wall and blows up half a city block.

Well, he hadn't appreciated what he had. That little thing that looks so unimpressive to him and sometimes We need to remember that this so-called little thing that we start with. Is much more impressive much more influential.

Than we often think jesus christ and him crucified. Is that your starting point for everything? Is that the thing that you're still trying to digest? That's where the lord provides what you need for growth in him this core basic.

Paul had given the corinthians all that they needed in those five words. And likewise you have what you need to grow and progress in the lord jesus give good gifts to his people. That's ephesians 4 18.

He leaves nothing out. You know if we look back at isaiah. In chapter 5 i'll just read a couple of verses from there. It was god looking at the vineyard that he had planted. What he means is his people israel.

And he said let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a vine a wine vat in it.

And he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. Well, the point there is that the lord when he planted his people when he brought them into the promised land gave them everything. Everything in terms of houses that were built that they didn't build but they were dwelling in those houses.

Taking advantage of crops that they had not planted and most importantly They had his presence and the lord looks at them and says why are you acting this way? I gave you all that you needed nothing needful.

That the lord has not provided to you. In order to become more like jesus christ in order to progress more and more into his image and that's the real point here. Nothing needful that the lord has not given to you.

He's giving you faith to repent and believe the gospel. He's giving you the holy spirit within you residing within you. He's giving you the scriptures to guide you. He's giving you a church to help you grow.

He's giving you a hope in christ is true and unwavering all the means of grace. As you come together for teaching in sunday school for hearing the word proclaimed as we are this moment. For taking to the lord's table as we will god willing at the end of this service this morning.

All the means of grace everything set before you. And yet we don't always partake. And when we do we take in such a cursory and a quick can I say in an infant way? And just brush past it. And don't stop and think about jesus christ.

And him crucified. We have a short time of meditation as the elements are being served for the lord's table. And we've moved the hymn away from that time so it's a quiet time. Do you take that time to consider what we put before you.

Before we partake and proclaim our faith in jesus christ and our hope in his return jesus christ. And him crucified. Now if I were asked to for a show of hands, which i'm not keep your hands down. But if I asked How many of you are satisfied in your progress in the gospel.

If I ask you to raise your hand are you satisfied with where you are from where you started when you first repented. And had faith to believe the gospel to where you are now in the image of jesus christ.

Raise your hand if you're satisfied with yourself. I wouldn't see any hands. I would hope not to see any hands. As I say keep your hands down. We can never hold ourselves up against jesus. And come away satisfied.

Paul wrote to the philippians in chapter 3 verse 12. He said not that i've arrived or excuse me already attained this or i'm already perfect. But I press on to make the knowledge of christ my own. Knowledge of christ is my word.

The knowledge of christ my own because christ jesus has made me his own. So we're always pressing on towards that image. As paul says in romans chapter 8 that god predestined us to be conformed to that image.

But if I asked you now How many of you are dissatisfied. How many of you who are dissatisfied have availed yourself of what christ has provided. Okay, so. Are you satisfied with who you are towards the image of christ hands down?

No, of course i'm not. Have you availed yourself of what christ has set before you in order for you to grow into that image? Have you? Hands down. Most of us have not taken the full fare. Christ and him crucified isn't really baby food.

I mean it's a metaphor and we can press that and Get a lot of snickers and laughs out of it, too. But we're not going to. Because paul's not saying anything even close to humorous here. Saying you haven't taken what has been set before you and you can't move on until you're past this and understand this.

And it permeates all of your life. Jesus christ and him crucified feast on this. Don't be ashamed at the totality of your defense. You're told to be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within you as peter says.

What's the hope that lies within you? Don't be ashamed if all you can say is jesus christ and him crucified because those aren't baby words. That unlocks everything it's not Baby food, it's not really milk.

You know, my father wanted his boys to be real men. I don't know if i've used this before as an illustration of sermon. I know i've told some of you this but way back in the 1950s in the early 60s, you know real men eat steak real men.

You know, they had all these images for what a real man was. My dad got in his head that real men are going to eat steak. So as soon as my brother who's two years older than me. He didn't warn me of this.

As soon as we had anything white coming out of our gun our jaws Meaning teeth were starting to show my dad wanted to eat steak. But of course we couldn't chew it. You know what? My dad did. He was a bit of an odd genius sort.

He he chewed it. He got the idea from birds. Who would chew the food and then feed it to their chicks? He pre-chewed it and he got it soft enough that when he put it and we could gum it and get the steak down.

We couldn't really do it. It's like an eagle for the chicks. He was trying to take care of it for us. But neither of us was really ready for it. We weren't ready for it. Paul antithetical to my father.

Was giving them What they needed what they could digest what they could actually chew on and he's saying this first. Thrive on this but they failed to thrive. They failed to take it in. They failed to understand the ramifications of it.

Fleshly Immaturity and Infantile Behavior

Verses three and four for you're still of the flesh. I gave you this food, but you're still of the flesh. You're still acting as though you're in the world. You're still behaving as though. You don't know anything about jesus christ and him crucified.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you. Are you not of the flesh behaving only in a human way? For when one says I follow paul and another I follow paulus. Are you not being merely human? So there's two explanations you're giving here both.

Preceded by that word for for you are still of the flesh and I explained verse two. That's why he kept them on the beginner's diet. Their life showed all the character of flesh all the character of unredeemed people.

They thought and behaved according to the whims of the moment. That's why he calls them infants. Like children, they were impulsive. Like unredeemed humanity. They thought themselves of themselves first and christ crucified as an afterthought.

When and if christ and him crucified invaded their mind, they set it aside. Like scarlet o 'hara and gone with wind they said i'll think about it tomorrow. Paul say no, you never really did stop and think about it.

That second four in that verse I just read for while there is jealousy and strife. Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way behaving like mere men? Well, there are flesh and blood humans like all of us are.

But not merely that not only that. They've been redeemed by the cross of christ. They had their faith in what he had done when he suffered for their sins. And what god had done for them through his son jesus christ when he went to that cross.

It's like in a flippant way. They looked at the cross said okay, so we're okay with god good. What's next? No, they guess stop there. Stay at that cross. Look at the cross. We portrayed to you jesus christ and him crucified as paul says to the galatians.

I made it clear to you. Stop there. Stay on that cross. They didn't. They moved on to jealousy and strife. They went immediately away for it. You know, you don't need to avoid following men to be free of free of the conviction here.

Anything that divides you from a brother or sister in the lord has to be suspect. Your first thought if it's making you have a distance from someone who also was redeemed by the blood of jesus christ.

And you're stepping away you're pulling away in relationship. It's cooling. And we've all been through this. And before you make that boundary before you step over that border and says i've made a border and here's a wall between us before all that.

What do you do? You put this in your mind five words. Straight from the bible out of a phrase. Yes. We know where it is jesus christ and him crucified. Jesus christ and him crucified. You don't have to follow paulist.

You don't have to follow paul. You don't say well i'm behind connelly and I like the older guy better. So you don't have to go to that ridiculous distance to be convicted by what the apostle paul has here.

Anything that divides. Has to first go through that sieve of jesus christ and him crucified. There are things to divide over. I will not have fellowship. I will not even name someone a christian who denies the deity of jesus christ.

If someone says jesus christ is not eternal god who always was and never was not. If you don't agree with that, I doubt your christianity. We're willing to divide over that. There's a oneness sect out there.

That doesn't believe that god is three persons. And we're not going to go into all the detail about that, but I would divide over that. But we have to be careful of those things. We don't have to make boundaries that the bible doesn't make.

We're too prone to setting boundaries that are ours and not from the scripture. Something like politics has caused far too much harm to the church in the last couple of years. The gospel of jesus informs our political views.

It informs our social views our views of justice and mercy and everything. But Few of us are so astute as to make these absolute lines and say if you believe that about this. Then I can hardly believe that you're saved.

I don't want to have anything to do with you. Sometimes it is necessary. But does it work through this jesus christ and him crucified. You know the rebels who gathered themselves are on absalon. Against david his father who was the proper king set there by god.

There's a good example. Absalom pandered to their flesh and they acting like mere men behaved according to the impulses of the flesh. Whenever you find yourself being drawn into a clique that defines itself in a way that leaves others out.

That says I follow this and you follow that stop. Go back to the baby's milk. Think of jesus christ and him crucified and let that control your thoughts behave according to him. And not according to the flesh.

The Cross as the Filter for Doctrine, Unity, and Maturity

Well, let me wrap this up. Are we saying here? That we need to avoid the deeper teaching of the bible about jesus christ. Well, absolutely not. Our motto here at silicon valley reformed baptist church is a deeper knowledge of christ.

So we do want to teach and we do want to delve in. And we do want to know the intricacies and the deeper things of christ and apply them to our life. So eschatology. The study of end things especially jesus return is all about what?

It's all about How he was crucified for our sins. That's 1st. Thessalonians 4 14. For since we believe that jesus died and rose again, even so through jesus god will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

So eschatology, which is one of the deep things of christ and we've studied it this past year. What's the key? What's the filter through which it all works and makes sense to us is jesus christ and him crucified.

If jesus is going to return and god's going to wrap up history, which he will. Why? Because christ died for our sins. And we will be with him. We'll follow a resurrection like his the mystery of the trinity.

One god undivided without beginning without end existing eternally as god father god the son god the holy spirit. How do we understand this? It's from the baby food. It's from the milk of the word jesus christ and him crucified.

How is that? It's because the son of god was not always jesus. That name was given him in time and space. God the father you read ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 through 14. God the father chose the people to be in christ the son.