Acts 8:13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
Yesterday we talked briefly about what success is, and how to define success for a believer. In the following chapter, Acts 8, you find three men who illustrate what success is, what it is not, and how what you hope to get out of ministry defines what you put into ministry to begin with. The three men in question are Stephen, a martyr, Philip, a deacon and an evangelist, and a man named Simon. What you find is that they had three very different lives and two very different perspectives.
First, you have Stephen, who preached the truth of a risen Christ and was killed by the religious leaders. He was martyred for his faith. Second, you have Philip. The Bible says that as persecution intensified Christians “were all scattered abroad” and went everywhere preaching the gospel. Philip, who was part of this, preached the gospel, did great miracles, and saw many people saved.
So, you have two men who are called upon to serve the church. One was Stephen, who was martyred, and the other was Philip, who had great success. A third man, Simon, comes on the scene and helps us to see the similarities and distinctions between Philip and Stephen. Simon wondered, seeing the miracles that Philip had done, and said, “Give me also this power.” When Peter heard this he said, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.”
What is going on here is a simple truth: what you put into your ministry, your service to God, depends on what you hope to take out. Do you think Stephen’s intent and purpose for doing what he was doing was to be a martyr? No! Stephen’s purpose was to give the good news of the gospel to people. The result of that was that he was martyred. Philip had the exact same motivation. His motivation was not to do great wonders or to be sought after, but it was to preach and teach Jesus Christ. They were the same in their motivation, but they were different in the way things panned out for them on this earth. They were more alike than they were dissimilar.
I think it is important that we seek neither to be a martyr nor to be rich when we are serving Christ. Now, one may become a martyr or become rich, but the bottom line is that what you seek from your ministry determines what you put into it. What brings us to a distinction is Simon. Did he want what Stephen had, to be a martyr? No. Did he want what Philip had, notoriety and money. Yes. What he failed to realize is that both Stephen, who died, and Philip, who was a great success in our terminology, were motivated by the same things. Simon was motivated purely by what he could do to become a great person.
We are living in a day where we can look at people who have served God and say, “Wow, that guy is cool. Everyone likes him. He travels wide and everyone listens to him. He is a snappy dresser and that is what I want to be!” This can often be true of preachers. A young man sees a preacher who is prominent, travels widely, and is admired and thinks that is what he wants to do. He is not talking about what that preacher actually does, preach the gospel; he is talking about what that preacher is as far as personality and maybe even money. That is a trap.
We should give reverence and respect where it is due, but none of us should ever set out to merely be rich or prominent in serving God. If you want to be rich or prominent, go do something else. Don’t clutter the ministry with that. Simon was living the wrong way because he was motivated by the wrong things.
Whether serving God has made you a lot of money or has brought you hardship, you are a success if you are doing what God has given you to do. What you do in ministry today depends on what you hope to get out of it.