CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

  The Jewish leaders thought that since Jesus had been done away with that Christianity would die; that like the religion of Tudeus and Simon the Cyrene — that their faith would waver and everyone would disburse. That did not happen. Stephen kept the faith alive. What happened to Jesus happened to Stephen, and unless the apostles and deacons shut up, the Jewish mob would shut them up.

  Jesus died because he told the truth. He would tear down the Temple and rebuild it in three day (His death and resurrection.) He was referring to Himself. Stephen was accused of the same crime, and Stephen spent much time explaining to deaf ears that the Temple must and would be torn down because God never needed a building.

  A note to the reader: The invisible universal Church has at the present been nearly completed. Now it exists mostly of church buildings devoid of God, just like Herod’s Temple. Stephen explained to them the majesty of Solomon’s Temple in which God resided and the futility of Herod’s Temple which had become a “den of thieves.” In Jesus day, that was for the love of money. In the present age, it is because easy doctrine is more acceptable than tough truths! When the invisible universal Church becomes nothing more than church buildings without God, then Jesus will come again to physically save the remnant. The crucifixion was Jesus saving the immortal souls of His children.

  Now examine what Stephen was focusing on:

KEY PASSAGE:

55 (Stephen), being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, ⁵⁶ And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. ⁵⁷ Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him… (Acts 7:55-58)

  Stephen’s faith was stedfast as it was unwavering. Saul was the leader of the mob that stoned Stephen. Soon, Jesus would confront Saul in Person. Stephen and Saul had many things in common: both were zealots; Stephen zealous for Christ, and Saul, zealous for the God of Moses. Stephen understood that they were the same God. Why? Because of Stephen’s stedfast faith, he could see into the heavens, saw the Glory of God, and the Person God in the Son of Man, or Jesus.

  Stephen saw into the heavens because he stood up for Jesus. Saul saw into the heavens because he stood against Jesus. Stephen saw into the heavens because of his faith, whereas Saul saw into the heavens because for a few days, by grace, God allowed him to see into the heavens when blinded.

  Blind Bartimaeus experienced that special vision before. When Jesus began the restoration of Bartimaeus’ vision, before he could see clearly, he saw something that only those who know Jesus could see. He “saw men as trees walking.” When Bartimaeus looked at Jesus face to face, in his partial vision perhaps he could see into heaven. He apparently saw Jesus as the Tree of Life; to wit: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev 22:14). That “right” had been taken away back when Adam sinned, “So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen 3:24).

 The Garden “paradise” was heavenly Paradise and was manifested to a perfect man and woman. Once they saw sin and partook of it, their special vision changed. Paradise remained where it always was, in Jerusalem, but only those in Jerusalem with Divine vision can see into Paradise. Only by a “flaming sword” can anyone see into the Garden, or into heaven.

  The sword is what? The Word of God (Eph 6:17). Bartimaeus could see Jesus as the Tree of Life because the Word (the Sword) stood face to face with him.

  Stephen saw into heaven because he knew the Word personally and spiritually. He quoted the Word from the time that Abraham tithed to Him (Melchizedek) until he told the mob that they had killed the Person God. Stephen understood the Word in its entirety and spoke truth to the Jewish leaders. True to the Word, Stephen saw the Light, and could see into the heaven.

  The apostle John had the same bright eyes:

⁵ And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. ⁶ And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. ⁷ And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. (Rev 4:5-7).

  Although not specifically the same as the cherubim described by Ezekiel, these four “beasts” were likely cherubim guarding Jesus, the Tree of Life. The cherubim remain at their posts guarding the right to that “Tree” and for re-entry unto heaven. How could Stephen, John, and Saul see unto heaven, and perhaps Bartimaeus as well? There were seven lamps burning lighting the way. They are the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirits of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge and of fear of the LORD (Isa 11:2-3). Those are the attributes of Jesus (Rev 5:6). Jesus is the Light — all the seven lights.

  The light was there, the guardians of God were there, and so was a transparent floor (a ceiling from the world) called therein, the “Sea of Glass.”

  For those who know the Word, God can reveal them understanding by seeing unto the heaven. Note that none of those who saw heaven saw it from afar. It was right there… and in Jerusalem!

  As for me, I cannot see unto heaven. I will see it first-hand when I die. That is why Saul, afterwards Paul, saw death as “gain.” I see into heaven dimly with my mind’s eye, but at death, it will be as plainly as Stephen saw it. His faith was stedfast and clear. He believed in heaven so intensely that the blinder over his eyes was removed and he could see through the transparent Sea of Glass.

  My own experience of seeing into heaven was two-fold: (1)  I saw the Garden Paradise as New Jerusalem on the very foundation of Jerusalem. I understood that heavenly new Jerusalem remains right there, and that the city Jerusalem is New Jerusalem in heaven that, according to John’s vision, “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” (Rev 21:2). John saw “Jerusalem” in the heavenly realm appear in Jerusalem in the physical realm. Perhaps “coming down” is merely “sent” as Strong’s Commentary suggests as well. I believe that Heaven is there already, but when the time is right, will appear in earth, or the material realm. The Garden Paradise with the Tree of Life in its midst, will come back to its foundation, by then a great city! And (2), I saw trees in the Garden as the souls of men who would be born.

  Stephen saw something that most cannot see. None of the mob saw what Stephen saw because the Jews, excepting the patriarchs and prophets, could not see into heaven. Adam and Eve could because they were there. They were cast out of the heavenly Garden. It had been made spiritual but was manifested for their flesh to survive. With new flesh, after Adam and Eve are snatched out of their graves and returned to Paradise, they will have the same uncorrupted flesh that they had at the genesis of themselves.  They will have a re-genesis, and John had more than a “revelation;” he saw the reality of Paradise in the heaven.

  Stephen saw the “heavens opened.” Not that they came down for him to see, or even him being given telescopic vision. “Heaven” was right there all the time and God allowed him to see through the barrier between the earthly creation and the heavenly creation (Gen 1:1). Christians will not go to heaven. They shall be translated into heaven, from the visible realm to the invisible.

(picture credit: Getty Images)