A familiar saying asserts that “seeing is believing.” However, when it comes to biblical faith, this order is reversed. Those who look at the world through eyes of faith must train their vision to perceive reality as the Scriptures define it. Stephen saw a reality that the religious leaders could not. One of seven appointed by the fledgling church to make sure that the Hellenistic widows in the church were not overlooked in the daily distribution of food, he was also a compelling teacher whose teaching was accompanied by “great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8).

Stephen’s teaching provoked so much opposition that he was arrested and brought up on false charges before the Sanhedrin, the same body of religious leaders that had handed Jesus over to the Romans for execution. His defense, which was an extended recitation of the history of God’s people that highlighted the unbelief of the religious leaders, so infuriated them that they ground their teeth. But Stephen looked up and told them that he could see the glory of God and the risen Christ “standing at the right hand of God” (vv. 55–56). This was a “vision” in the sense that it was something that Stephen saw, but it was no figment of imagination.

Two important features stand out in Stephen’s description. One is the location. The description of Jesus as standing at the right hand of God’s glory echoes Jesus’ own words to the Sanhedrin at His trial in Luke 22:69. The other is the fact that Jesus was standing as if to welcome Stephen directly into God’s presence. The “young man named Saul” mentioned in verse 58, who watched with approval as Stephen was stoned to death, would soon become a follower of Jesus and go on to write that a Christian who is “away from the body” is “at home with the Lord” (Acts 22:20; 2 Cor. 5:8).

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