Think for a moment of these two pictures from the pages of Scripture.
Judas “went immediately out: and it was night,” and he went “to his own place.”
Stephen “looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus.” He was “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
In Judas we see a man who had been in close company with the Lord for three years. He had seen all His wonderful works and heard His loving words, yet he turned his back upon Him who was the “light of the world” and he went out from His presence, out into the night. Controlled by Satan, Judas went to his doom—to his own place.
Look at the other picture. Alone, in the midst of a raging crowd thirsting for his blood, Stephen stands undismayed. Full of the Holy Spirit, he looks up. Heaven opens, and in the center of all the glory he sees a Man, the Man Christ Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Lost to everything but that vision, he fears not “them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:44And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. (Luke 12:4)).
What can they do? They can set his happy spirit free to go to its own place—the place where Jesus is. Stephen goes in—into the light, into the glory—to be with Jesus.
Tell me now: If God, in whose hand your breath is, were to withdraw for one moment His sustaining power and stop the beating of your heart, how would it be with you?
Still Jesus calls: “Come unto Me.” Have you come?
This verse contains the greatest possible blessing God could give:
salvation;
to the greatest possible number of people:
all the ends of the earth;
on the easiest possible terms:
by simply looking;
and is based upon the best possible authority:
because God says so.