 is on. Let's pray and let's get started today. Father we thank you for this time together. Thank you for the opportunity to be in your Word. We welcome you Holy Spirit to speak to us, to teach us, to establish Lord your Word in our hearts, that we may grow in your truth, that we may grow in your Word, be established and learn how to live by your Word and apply your Word to our life situations and our walk of faith. We pray that our ears will be open to you here, our eyes will be open to see, our hearts will be opened to understand. We thank you Father in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay good morning once again welcome everyone. Those of you joining us in the online class and those of you here. So last week we talked about or we outlined how to exercise faith as an outline and talked about you know what do we do when we see failure right? Sometimes we don't see you know there may be times when our prayer or our exercise of faith doesn't see the outcome right? So what do you do in such moments or such times? It doesn't mean there's something wrong with faith or there's something wrong with God or his words. It just means that you and I are learning how to exercise faith right? And so we have to continue to practice, continue to walk in faith. We have no choice. We can't go back on the Word of God. We have to live by the Word. We have to walk by the Word and live by faith. So make sure that I encourage you to you know distribute the notes from last week's. Today we're going to go into some additional aspects regarding faith. Let me just go ahead and share the PDF. We're going to spend a little bit of time on talking about the power of collective faith right? So that means not only is faith important for us personally as individuals. But most often we're all part of a community of believers right? We are walking along with others. We are journeying together with other people. For example here in the Bible College, this is all the students here. It's like a little community. You're together or think about church as a church. We are a community, a family and we are all journeying together. So in certain matters we can have collective faith. That means we can all believe together for the same thing. You know whether two or more, two or more can have faith, can come in agreement in faith or something. So that's what we're talking about. Collective faith. And we see in the Bible also. We see that in scripture. So we must understand how we can have collective faith for certain things. Now it may be two of you or it may be ten of us or maybe a hundred of us or more. It doesn't matter. The number is not the issue. But the fact that two or more are agreeing together on the same thing. To have faith for the same thing. The principles are the same. That means we must all have faith in the same way. It comes through the Word of God that we base our faith, our collective faith on the Word of God. Because God says we are having collective faith for something. Whether it's for the healing of a person, whether it's for provision, whether it's for any kind of miracle. Because God has spoken his word, the same principles apply. But we must all apply it together. So we're having collective faith for the same thing. So let's look at some scriptures along these lines. In Matthew chapter 18 verses 18 and 19, Jesus teaches us about this. He says, I surely I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you lose on earth will be lost in heaven. Again, I say to you verse 19, again I say to you, if two of you agreed on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. Notice that. He says, if two of you agree. So previous verse, he said, look, you can do things like this. You can bind. It'll be bound. You can lose and it will be lost. In other words, there is such authority placed in the church, in the body of Christ, that we can allow things to happen or we can prevent things from happening here on earth. But how do we see that happen? How is that going to take place next to us? Verse 19, it's going to happen like this. If two or more of you, part of the church, part of people who believe in Jesus, two or more of you agree, then you pray, you ask. Agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. And that word agree in the Greek is a very interesting word. It's a word from, you know, which is similar to the English word, symphony or harmony. So when 12 more of us are in harmony, we are together, then we ask, it is very powerful. It will be done. He says, it will be done by my Father who is in heaven. So it's important that when we are praying together, that we are in harmony or symphony, we are together. You know, one person may be leading in prayer and that's okay, but the rest of us must be in agreement with that. You know, we must be in harmony, we must be in symphony with that, you know, be of the same mind. So he's teaching us here that when we are in a place like this, we can experience, you know, God answering prayer and saying things happen. Now in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes tells us, you know, two Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9, two are better than one. There's a good reward for their labor. That means whatever they are working towards, there's a good reward, there's a good outcome. So two are better than one. So there is the advantage of being together united. And we see in the New Testament, we see many examples of this, right? So we're going to look at some examples of collective faith in action in the New Testament, primarily, of course, in the Book of Acts. You see some of the things that they prayed for together. In the early church, after the day of Pentecost, the church was born, lots of people being saved, miracles were happening. They also started facing persecution, right? The chief priests or the religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders, wanted to stop this new faith. People were believing in Jesus Christ. They were preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. They had crucified Jesus Christ thinking they can stop everything. They crucified him, but then Jesus rose from the dead within two months, when he cost happened, and now there's explosion. People, you know, thousands of people are following Jesus. So it really upset the religious leaders, the Jewish leaders. So they called Peter and John. You know, this was after the healing of the layman. They called Peter and John. They said, say, he told you, you must not preach and teach in the name of Jesus. No, don't do that. You know, and they threatened them. We don't know exactly all that they said, but they may have said, if you do it, we'll kill you or whatever. So they threatened them. Don't preach and teach in the name of Jesus. So what did Peter and John, we see here in Acts chapter 4, verse 23, after they let go, they went back to their own companions, amongst all the other believers, and they told them, hey, this is what the chief priests had told us. They said, if we preach and teach in the name of Jesus, they'll come and kill us, so they'll come and harm us, so to all these, they have threatened us. This is what they have said, but then what did they pray? Look at verse 29. This is what they all agreed and prayed. So this is two or more bringing together. This is collective faith. What did they pray? They said, Lord, you listen to all their threat nicks. See, God, you're hearing all their threat nicks, but you give us boldness that we may speak your words. That means, God, we don't want to become fearful just because they are threatening us. You give us boldness. You give us boldness that we will speak. And verse 30, verse 31, and God, you stretch out your hand to heal and let signs and wonders be done in the name of your Son, Jesus. So they prayed for two things, basically. They said, Lord, you give us boldness so we can boldly preach. And, God, you do miraculous things. You stretch out your hand. You do signs, wonders, miracles. So they prayed for that. And the Bible says, verse 31, when they had prayed, the place was shaker. So there was an immediate response. God is saying, yes, shaking the place. They experienced a phenomenal thing happening. But what's important is, right after this, after they prayed like this, when you go to chapter 5, I'm not sure if I put these scriptures here, but you will see right after in chapter 5, chapter 6, mighty things began to happen. In chapter 5, you read that people started coming from all the neighboring cities, they started coming to Jerusalem. And they started bringing people into Jerusalem and they were putting them on the streets, that at least the shadow of Peter might come on them. And Peter's shadow, God was using Peter's shadow to heal the people. So this is chapter 5, the very next chapter. So they prayed like this. They said, God, give us boldness and you stretch out your hand to heal. Let signs and wonders be done in the name of your holy servant Jesus. And with great power, they were able to give witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And then these kinds of things started happening. Even Peter's shadow was causing people to be healed. So people started coming from other cities. Something is happening in Jerusalem. Let us go there. They started bringing their sick people and things are happening. In Acts chapter 6, another strange thing happened. And two people, Ananias and Sapphira, they sold lands and they brought only part of the money. Acts chapter 5. Correct, correct. Thank you. Correct. Acts 5. So it's still happening and it's still in Acts 5. My mistake. Acts 6 is about the food. Acts 5. So the beginning of Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira. So they sold the land and they brought only part of the money. They kept some part. They brought it. So the problem was they were being dishonest. They pretended that they are bringing everything. See, they would have been no harm if they came and told Peter, Peter, we sold the land. 50% we are keeping. We are giving 50% as they offered. No problem. But they were just being dishonest. They pretended like they're bringing everything. Now think about this. At that time, the judgment was so severe because of a small matter. They just lied. A matter like that. Both of them died. How serious. So the question many times people ask is, why was the judgment so severe? See, they lied. Today, creatures lie while preaching. Nothing happens. They may have done something small. They make it look so big. All kinds of things happen in church. Nobody drops down dead. Things just continue. But in the early church, Ananias and Sapphira, one lie, not even five times, not even two times, one lie, which was they pretended they had given the whole offering. But no, they kept part. And they lost their lives. They fell down dead. Why is that? The reason we can give, it's not explained for us in chapter 5. But the reason we can most likely is because where there is great glory, there is low tolerance for sin. Where there is great glory, there is low tolerance for sin. So think about it like this. In the presence of God, the glory of God fills the place. When Lucifer had a thought, Isaiah 14 says, he taught within himself, I will ascend to the throne of God. I will be like the most high. When pride came into his heart, he could no longer stay in the presence of God. He was thrown out. Where there is great glory, there is low tolerance for sin. Lucifer, he was one of the archangels. That means one of the chief angels that God had created. And God had put so much in him. The Bible says there was wisdom, there was beauty, there was music. All these things were in Lucifer. He was called Son of the Morning. He was in the presence of God. He was an archangel like Michael and Gabriel. But when he had a sinful idea, a wrong idea, rebellion, out of God's presence, thrown out of heaven. So where there is great glory, low tolerance for sin. So the same thing here, in the early church, there was great glory. Now God's presence, God's spirit was moving in a very unusual way, great glory. And where there is great glory, there is low tolerance for sin. So you imagine, Ananias and Safara once, we would think one small problem, one small thing they did wrong. God, they lost their lives. So something to keep in mind. It's not necessarily on the subject of faith, but as we pray for more of the presence of God, as we say, God, you want more of your glory, more of your presence. We must also keep in mind greater glory, lesser tolerance for sin. That is what we are asking. We are asking for more glory means be ready for, you know, that everything. Because where God's presence is, there is nothing unclean. So just keep that in mind. So that's what happened. And we're going back to prayer. You can think about this. They pray, Lord, give us boldness and you stretch out your hand and you do mighty things. Science wonders miracles. And that's what happened. Acts 5, Acts 6. In Acts 6, you see many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So even the priests who were, you know, the religious leaders who were opposing, even they became obedient. They even came to faith access. So God answered this prayer. There's the prayers in very powerful ways. They had angelic visitations. Angels came and released Peter and John from prison and delivered them. Acts 5 and so on. So we see that. Another example we see in the book of Acts is how Peter was released from prison in Acts 12. So King Herod, he killed James. This was James, the brother of John. So we have James, James and John, and then we have James, who was the half-brother of Jesus. So James was the half-brother of Jesus. He wrote the epistle of James. But then this James is different. This James is James and John, the brother of John. So James, the brother of John died as a martyr. He was killed by King Herod. And then King Herod caught Peter, put him in prison. So he's thinking, you know, King Herod is thinking, if I start killing the leaders, I can stop this movement. So that's his idea. If I kill the leaders, James was a leader, apostle, kill. If I can kill Peter and kill the apostles one by one, I can stop this. So he killed James, he caught Peter, put him in prison. The intention was, I will kill him. But then Acts 12 verse 5 says, Peter was in prison, but what was happening? Constant prayer was being made. Suddenly the believers were praying. So collective prayer. You're seeing again collective prayer. That means more than one person is praying together. We don't know how many. Whatever the number was, they were praying. And they had gathered in the house of John Mark. So they were in the house of Mary, who was the mother of John Mark. So they were in this house. They were all praying. So it was like a house prayer. We don't know, maybe 50 of them. I don't know how big those homes were. Let's assume, say about 50 people were all praying together. And they were praying for Peter. It is quite possible. Others were also praying in different places, different homes. We are just having one record here of this group of believers who were praying in the house of Mary, who was the mother of John Mark. And so they were praying. And while they were praying, God sends this angel and delivers Peter. And it is so amazing because the angel comes to Peter says, get up. And as they're walking out of prison, the doors are automatically opening. And Peter thinks he's having a dream. He doesn't feel like this is real. He thinks this is a dream until he comes out. And then he realizes I'm actually out of the prison. So there was a supernatural deliverance. It was not a normal thing. They're supernatural, the angel of God. So we don't know how it all happened, but maybe there were many angels opening the gates, removing his chains, doing all this. And he just finds, all the chains are gone. I can be free. As I'm coming to the gate, the gate is opening. Coming to the next gate, gate is opening. So maybe all these angels are doing these things. And Peter is brought out. And he comes all the way to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, and even the believers who are praying could not believe Peter is out of prison. They were all taken by surprise. But the point is this, you see the result of their prayer, collective faith or collective prayer. You know, that was our supernatural deliverance. We see not a very interesting thing in Acts the 14th chapter. In Acts 14, 19, 22, when Paul and his team come, they'd gone to, let's say, whether they were in Derby, I think it was. Yeah. So they were in Iconium. Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derby. So this must have been outside Lystra. Yeah. Okay. So Lystra, Iconium and Derby, there were three cities that were close to each other. Okay. So they had gone from Antioch. This was on their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas. They'd gone from Antioch, which was in Turkey. So in the New Testament, there are two cities called Antioch. Just keep in mind, just for you to understand. There's one city called Antioch, which was in today's Syria, modern day Syria, that means north of Israel, Syria. And that Antioch was the home church of the Apostle Paul. That's where he began his ministry. So Antioch in Syria. So Paul and Barnabas were there. And from that Antioch, this Acts 13, they were called or sent by the Holy Spirit to go on their missionary journey. But there's another Antioch, which was in the district of Sidia, PSIDIA, Sidia, which would be modern day Turkey. So there's Antioch in Turkey. Same name, but in a different place. So from there, they were other small towns, Iconium, Lystra, and Derby. They were all close to each other. And you know Timothy. So Timothy was from that area, Lystra and Derby. He came from there. So when Paul, he went on his missionary journey, first missionary journey, it's very likely that Timothy's grandmother and mother, and maybe Timothy himself, believed in Jesus Christ on their first missionary journey. They went through these places of Iconium, Lystra, and Derby. They're all next to each other. So they go from Antioch, they come to Iconium, and then from there they come to Lystra. Now what happens in Lystra is these Jews from the other cities in Antioch, and Iconium, they come, they catch Paul, they drag him out of the city, they stone him, they stone him, they drag him out of the city, and they leave him for dead. So it's not easy to imagine this. A man is stoned, dragged out of the city, and left as though he was dead. So when we say he was stoned, they didn't throw one stone. It means they must have many stones. He must have been very bad, bleeding, must have been injured in so many places, bleeding, because they left him for dead. Okay, he's dead, leave him. What happens in Acts chapter 14? It says, and look at the verse 20. However, Acts 14-20, however, when the disciples gathered around him, he, Rosa, went into the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby, verse 21, and when they had preached the gospel to that city, and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Now try to imagine this. A man has been stoned, he's bleeding everywhere, he's been dragged outside the city, and he's left for dead. If you take him to the hospital, put him in the hospital, it might take six months for him to recover. They will have to bandage, they may have to do a lot of stitches, a lot of treatment, we don't know, maybe his bones were broken, we don't know. But that kind of injury, that kind of stoning, maybe six months to get all right. But what happened here? It says the disciples stood around him. They stood, I don't know, what do you think they did? It doesn't tell us, you know, this verse doesn't tell us, but I'm sure they didn't stand there and say, oh Paul, so sorry, tomorrow we'll arrange a funeral, we're very sorry for you Paul. I'm sure they didn't do that. They may have, it doesn't tell us here, but it is very likely they all stood around Paul, they must have prayed for him. So you can imagine in your minds, right? There's group of disciples, they're all around Paul, and they are praying for him. Now it also doesn't tell us how long they stood around him. You know, is it five minutes or five hours? We don't know. It doesn't tell us. I'm just trying to imagine that they must have stood around Paul, the disciples must have prayed for him. But something miraculous happens. It says he rose up and he went to the city. A man who has been stoned, left for dead, he gets up and he goes back to the city. And next day he's starting on his journey. That means it had to be America. It's not possible other than that. For a man who has been stoned and left for dead, for him to get up, go back to the city, and next day to start on his journey. So in the natural, if he was in hospital, six months to recover. But here next day he's back. So we don't know. All those details are not written down for us here. But I'm just trying to look at the situation and say that, hey, here's another example where believers prayed together with collective faith. That means they all prayed together. I'm sure they're all praying for his healing. They're standing around. They're praying for his healing, of course. They're praying God, make him well. Whatever words they may have used, I don't know. But they pray and you see the results. He got up, he went to the city, and next day he's going on his journey to go preach. And look at the boldness. He comes back to the same city. After preaching in Derby, comes back to Lystra, goes back to Iconium, goes back the same place where all these people came to stone him. He goes back there. Hello. I'm fine. I'm preaching Jesus. You can't stop me. But you see the collective faith. That because they prayed, something amazing happened, supernatural happened. You know, a man could be healed. A man, see the same stoning killed Stephen in Acts 8, Acts 5, 6, 7, Acts 8, he went to, so Acts 7, end of Acts 7. Stephen, correct? Okay. Stephen is stoned. He's dead. Same stoning kills Stephen is stoned. He's dead. So that's the way they stoned people. It's not one stone. It must have been many. I don't know how many, but they're stoned and they took him out of the city, left us dead. But when they pray, such an miraculous thing happens. Another example of faith. Some other things we can see in the New Testament. If you go to Colossians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, Paul is writing to the believers in Colossae, and he tells them this, Colossians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5. I say, let anyone should deceive you with persuasive words, for though I am sent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirits, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. So he's writing to the believers at Colossae. That means it's a church, a local church, a community of believers. And he's telling them, in the spirit, I can see your good order and steadfastness of your firm faith. So I want us to examine those words of good order and steadfast faith. What does it mean? If you look at it in the Greek, so it's nice to study the Greek words. I'll teach you a next semester when we do a course on hermeneutics. I'll share with you how to look up and all that. But the word order, both the word order and steadfastness are military words. So the word order means to be in proper unbroken rank or rank and file in a proper manner in which the soldiers stand. They don't say you stand in a proper order rank and proper file. Straight line, this way, this way, order. So that's the word, that's the meaning of the word order, to be in an orderly condition, unbroken lines and disciplined. And then the word steadfastness, it means a wall of defense. So in English, when you read it, it doesn't come to you. But when you look it up in the Greek, you get these understanding. And then you can look at it in the Amplified Bible. The Amplified Bible expands on certain words. And so you can see it very clearly in the Amplified Bible. If you read it then, Colossians 2.5 from the Amplified Bible, it puts it like this, for though I'm away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your standing shoulder to shoulder in such orderly array. So the word order means to stand shoulder to shoulder in proper order. So as a church community, we must also learn order. So why is pastor so strict and disciplined? Because order is important in the church. And that's what Paul is commanding in the Colossians. In the spirit, I can see you're standing in proper order. That means you're disciplined. Each one is taking their place. And he goes on, and firmness, and the firmness, and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ, the solid front of all of defense of your faith. What does that mean? It means that as a church community, their faith, their faith together, their collective faith was a wall of defense. So the enemy could not do anything to come in and hurt that community. So in the spirit, spiritually, they were in proper order, and their collective faith was a wall of defense, was a solid front, so the enemy could not come and penetrate and do anything. So you see, what does collective faith do? It becomes like a fortress, like a defense, wall of defense, protecting everybody who is inside. I understand that. So collective faith, faith together, you can see answer to prayer for miracles, you can see deliverance, you can see supernatural healing, you can see protection. So it's protecting the people. It's like a solid wall of defense, protecting that community together. Let me pause here to see if there are any questions. Let me check online if there are any questions. Okay, any questions from the online class? Okay, Nina. Nina, Joe, question. Is it only when there is greater glory, shouldn't it be the known, no deceit? Yeah, so Nina's question is, so we are focusing on, not the conduct, but we are focusing on the judgment that took place when there was great glory. So the norm is all of us must walk in holiness and purity. So wherever we are, that's the norm for us believers. But what we are saying is that when there is greater glory, the tolerance for sin, which means the judgment towards sin is also extreme, is also greater. Greater glory, greater judgment, or lower tolerance for sin. So that was the emphasis. But the answer to your question is at all times, as believers, we are called to walk in holiness. But the focus was on where there is greater glory, there's lower tolerance for sin. So we will see drastic judgment of God happening in those situations. And nowadays we know there's so much of sin in the church, but nobody drops down dead. It's just different now. Any other questions from online students? So any questions from here? Say that again, Prince. Yeah, so Moses, especially on the Mount, to Mount Sinai when he encountered God. Okay. Okay, so Prince has brought up a question where he says, you know, in the case of Moses, God told him to speak to the rock. This is the second time. And in so speaking to the rock, he struck the rock. And that was the consequences were very severe. He couldn't enter into the promised land. So my observation on that is, why was the judgment on Moses so severe? You know, because he was faithful. In fact, Hebrews chapter three, I think it was four says, Moses was faithful to God in all his house. So Moses was a very faithful servant. But yet, when it came down to this, it was just, you know, we would say a simple mistake. God said, Moses, speak to the rock, and he struck the rock. And he was also angry because people had made him angry. And yet the consequence or the result was very severe. God said, because you struck the rock, you cannot enter in the promised land. So my observation again, there is no chapter and verse on this, but my observation is, the reason the consequence was so severe was because he either he violated or he disturbed a revelation that God wanted to bring to the people. So first Corinthians 10 verse one says, the rock was Christ. So the rock followed them. It says, Corinthians 10 one, was Christ. So the rock was a type of Christ. So the revelation God was giving to the people is the first time the rock was struck and that was more than enough. You don't need to strike the rock more than once. The second time, you only need to speak to the rock. So that was the revelation God wanted to give to the people. The rock was Christ. The first time the rock was struck, the second time you only speak to the rock. You don't strike the rock two times. Christ was crucified only once. But Moses disturbed the revelation. Yes, he was angry. Yes, he was upset. But what was the instruction? Moses speak to the rock because the rock must not be struck twice. But Moses struck the rock. Now water still came because God cared for his people. People needed water. He was going to provide for them. But he had disturbs. The revelation God wanted to give to the people, which is the rock is struck once. The second time to receive the blessing, all we do is speak to the rock. So that's my observation. Now we can't prove it from chapter and verse, but what we can say is 1 Corinthians 10, 1-5 clearly says that rock that followed them was Christ. So we know that was Christ. Therefore we interpret what happened from that perspective. So in this case, in Moses' case, the consequence was severe because the revelation God wanted to give was in some way disturbed, or you could say corrupted because of what he did. Any other question? Yes, individual faith. Okay, so the question here is, is collective faith more powerful than individual faith? So I would respond to it like this. There are matters where individual faith is important, especially when it comes to things concerning your personal walk with God. So in those matters, individual faith is more important than collective faith. While collective faith is good, collective faith will not overwrite what God requires of individual faith. So for example, at a personal level, if God has called me, for example, if God has called me to be a pastor, now if there are 10 people praying for me and believing God, God make him a pastor, so they are having collective faith for me. But if I don't have faith to say yes to the call of God, their collective faith will not overwrite my personal lack of faith or obedience to God. The collective faith is important, but I must obey God. I have to say yes to God. You're understanding? So in certain matters, your personal faith and your personal obedience in faith is more important and collective faith cannot overwrite it. But in matters where it's something that affects all of us or where all of us are doing things together, like for example, signs, miracles or deliverance of somebody or so on, then our collective faith is more powerful than an individual faith. So we have to understand where collective faith should be applied, where a person's individual faith is necessary. Both collective faith can make it easier for that person. So if I am saying yes to the call of God to be a pastor, then the fact that 10 people are also praying for me will help me answer that call. So then their faith and their prayer is going to be of great value. But if I don't obey God, their prayer and collective faith will not help. It's time for a break. It's time for a break. We'll come back. We'll continue on this. Thank you. See you all in 10 minutes.