Audio Recording Sermon Manuscript: Our Epistle reading this week begins with chapter 1, verse 1. It is at the very beginning of a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the congregation that existed in the Greek city of Corinth. It is customary that we go about doing these kinds of things in a certain way. Among us we might begin a letter or an email by saying, “Dear So-and-so…” And then, before we get into the subject at hand, we might talk about things that are a mutual concern of the author as well as the recipient. One farmer might write to another farmer about the weather and how the crops have been growing. Old friends might begin a letter by talking about mutual acquaintances that they had recently come across. You get the idea. It is quite common for the beginning of a letter to speak to things that both the letter writer as well as the ones receiving the letter would find relevant. With the writing of Holy Scripture the Holy Spirit by no means despises these sorts of things. The vast majority of the Bible is quite ordinary in the way that it speaks. Only some of the prophetic works like Ezekiel or Daniel in the Old Testament or Revelation in the New Testament speak in a more exalted way. Otherwise you might say that the Holy Spirit wears everyday clothes when he inspires the authors of Scripture. The letters of Paul that we have in the New Testament certainly follow this typical pattern. Whenever Paul addresses a letter he is immediately thinking about the connection that exists between himself and those he is writing to. It is not surprising that he talks about Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for this is their shared interest. Already in the very first verses of the letter he is foreshadowing and preparing the ground for what he would like to say to them. He often lays out divine truths at the very beginning that he will apply to his hearers so that they can gain a greater understanding of them. Although Paul has not addressed a letter specifically to any one of us, nor to our congregation, what he says can also be applied to us because we have the same connection to him as these people to whom he was writing 2,000 years ago. We believe in the same Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit as they, so what Paul says to the Corinthians also applies to us. With that in mind there is a lot that we can learn from this little introduction to his letter. Therefore, today we will look at what Paul says to the Corinthians with the idea of also applying it to ourselves. First of all, Paul says where the letter is directed: to the church of God in Corinth. Then he adds a phrase that describes them. He says, “Those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, who are called as saints.” The important word behind “sanctify” and “saint” is “holy.” To sanctify means to make holy. A saint is someone who is holy. Holiness is something that is strictly limited to God and is only available through an association with him. There is no way for anyone or anything to be holy except by being in a relationship to the only source of holiness, which is God. So what Paul is saying is that the members of this congregation have been made holy in Christ Jesus, and that they are holy. This is the reason why the Father sent his Son. It was to make sinners into saints. Then Paul adds this: “along with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” The congregation to which a person belongs is important. It is not by accident that certain people end up in certain congregations. It is the Holy Spirit who calls us and gathers us into congregations. But the Holy Christian Church, the fellowship of saints, is larger than any individual congregation. As Paul says, it is made up of all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord. Another way of saying this is that what makes a person a Christian is faith in Jesus as his or her Lord. For without fa