Acts 5:28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us
I have observed that people’s perceptions of the big picture are usually based on the microbe. Let me give you an example, here at the Bill Rice Ranch people usually make their judgment about how the Ranch is doing based on one week of camp, even if it is a friend who has come for many years. For instance, if things seem a little slow and subdued for whatever reason, they may think, “Wow, the Ranch is having a bad year.” Well, we may or may not, but based on that week they make a judgment.
On the other hand, I’ve had people come to the Ranch on a packed-out week and things are just humming and they say, “Wow, the Ranch is really growing, isn’t it?” That may or may not be true, but the point is their whole perception is based on their one week. Likewise, people who serve here on the Bill Rice Ranch can kind of judge success or failure, not on how the big picture is going, but by the day. If you have a bad day, people don’t appreciate you. You stubbed your toe and, oh, things are not going well. If you have a great day, it doesn’t matter how the big picture is going, you think, “Wow, things are going great!”
When you get to Acts 5, you are reminded that ministry is personal but it is not about you. In Acts 5 we have two examples of this fact. One is found in the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a possession, gave money to the church, and said “This is all the money from the property we sold.” They were not obliged to give all their money from the property they sold, but they lied and said that the money was everything they had received. Now, a man named Barnabas had actually given all the money he received from his property and other people had done similar things. So, it seems Ananias and Sapphira were doing a good thing but for a bad reason. Their “ministry” was not about giving, it was about receiving, receiving praise and recognition for their pride. So, ministry is personal, but it’s not about you. You can see this when it comes to the matter of praise.
If I receive praise, either it is wood, hay, and stubble, just me, or it is God’s working through me and He should receive the credit for that. If God does the work, then God gets the credit. He should receive the glory. The Bible tells us that the apostles realized that they had not lied to a man, they had lied to the Holy Ghost and tempted the Spirit of the Lord. So, it wasn’t about them, it was about something far greater. They had made ministry, serving God, about them and receiving credit of men.
God judged them severely, and after their deaths the Bible tells us twice that other people heard what had happened and they feared. Well, people hearing and seeing them was exactly what they intended, things just didn’t happen the way they intended. They thought people would say, “What a generous couple this is!” Instead, they saw God’s judgment from lying to God Himself because they wanted the praise of men.
On the other end of the spectrum, think about the apostles who were persecuted for preaching the truth. They were thrown into prison by the authorities, God freed them, and they went right back out in obedience to God and spoke “all the words of this life.” What were they preaching? They weren’t preaching a thing, but a Person. All the words of this life are the words of the life of the resurrected Jesus.
The persecution wasn’t about them. It was about this life, this man’s blood, the name of Jesus. Over and again, they are told to preach in this name or warned do not preach in this name. It wasn’t about them; it was about Jesus. The persecution they received was not because people personally hated them, although that may have been true. They were persecuted because of Jesus.
Likewise, in their pride, Ananias and Sapphira thought the ministry was about them. They didn’t intend to lie against the Holy Spirit; they intended to do good things in their own power. The disciples could have been discouraged because of the persecution they faced, but they weren’t facing persecution because of them, but because of Jesus.
The bottom line is that whether we receive good or bad because of what we do, what we do should be a matter of ministry for Jesus and not for us. At the end of the day, ministry is personal, but it’s not about you; it is about the living Lord Jesus.