Terry Virgo On The Church

"The book of Ephesians probably is the one that most emphasises the place of the church. It's interesting that Jesus said to His disciples 'go and make disciples of all the nations' and the strategy they immediately took on board was to go and plant local churches. That was the way they saw that they were going to fulfil that commission to make disciples. That was the way they chose to do it.

"And so we're very much in line with that Biblical arrangement, that you go and plant churches, you go and gather people together. That's the way we fulfil the commission of the Lord Jesus to 'go and make disciples of all the nations'. It's very important then, that you're built into a local body and of course Ephesians highlights the place of the church in several ways; it talk about a temple, not of concrete or stones but of living people that are built together as a context for the presence of God. It talks about the church as a bride in Ephesians 5, that relationship of intimacy... and then it speaks of the church also by implication as an army, it says we're soldiers, we're to put on the armour, we're to fight. And then in this particular chapter in Ephesians 4 it talks of us as a body together"

This is a quote from a sermon by Terry Virgo at ChristChurch London. You can download it here.