Looking up, he saw Jesus in the highest splendour, majesty and greatness, standing and ready to receive him. Nothing, but the possession of Stephen’s virtues and devotion can entitle us to his consolation and revelation. To enjoy a similar experience of a glorious eternity, our affections and ambition, our whole heart and whole treasure must be in heaven. The Lord, who had promised His presence, was with him at the critical hour of death. He saw his Saviour and Lord in heaven, standing and ready to receive him into his eternal home.

After hearing, Stephen declared: “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right Hand of God,” these devotees of religious tradition broke out into the most open rage, fury and madness. It was not lawful for them to put any accused person to death. “The Jews, therefore, said unto him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death,” (John 18:31). But they were so blinded and embittered by Satan that they broke their own law in defence of their tradition.

They were determined not to allow Stephen to live any longer because he declared that he saw heaven’s glory and Jesus at the right Hand of God. How great was their devotion to Satan on earth and how great their damnation and suffering in hell would be, except they repented. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, predicted their murderous acts as well as their eternal damnation in hell. “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill.” “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:34,33).

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Stephen’s spirit was immediately taken to heaven at death. The scriptures make it abundantly clear that the spirit immediately returns to God without waiting for the burial of the body before ascending to heaven, the eternal home of the righteous (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Philippians 1:21,23). “Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord,” (2 Corinthians 5:6,8).

“And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” This prayer, ‘Lord, forgive them,’ strikingly resembles the dying prayer of the Lord Jesus. Only Christian faith, Christ’s salvation in the heart with surpassing assurance and hope of heaven will “enable a man to utter such prayer in his dying moment. In answer to Stephen’s prayer, the Lord granted Saul repentance, mercy, forgiveness, salvation and grace to lead many souls to hope in Christ, holiness and heaven. Stephen’s dying prayer reached Saul and he became an effective preacher of “the faith, which he once destroyed.”

“And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” To sleep like Stephen, when the long night shall close our eyes, we must, as he did, commit our spirit into the Hands of the Lord Jesus, be perfectly content to leave the world at any time, in any manner He sees fit for us, devote ourselves entirely to His service, and be desirous of nothing, but that “whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s,” (Romans 14:8).

• Further reading (King James Version): Acts 7:54-60. Acts 7:54-56; 1:9-11; Mark 16:19; Hebrews 10:12-14; 12:2,22-24; Colossians 3:1-4,14-24; Titus 2:11-14; John 14:1-3,27; 17:22-24; 1Peter 1:3-5; 3:22; 2 Peter 3:12-14. Acts 7: 57,58,51-53; Deuteronomy 31:27; Jeremiah 6:10, 16,17; 9:25,26; Zechariah 7:11,12; 2 Chronicles 24:19-21; Matthew 23:31-35; 13:40-43; 25:41,46; Mark 9:42-48; Revelation 14:10-12; 20:11-15. Acts 7:59,60; Luke 16:22-26; 2 Corinthians 5:1,8; Philippians 1:21-23; Luke 23:39-43; 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Hebrews 12:22,23; Ephesians 3:14,15; Revelation 7:9-17; 14:13; 19:1,6-8.

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