54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Acts 7:54-56

I believe this is the third time the Bible has described Stephen as someone who was filled with the Holy Spirit. How did the author of the Book of Acts – probably Luke – know that Stephen was filled? What did he do differently? Or is it just obvious that anyone who would confront the leaders the way Stephen did must have been filled with the Holy Spirit?

Lately I’ve been having discussion with my wife about heaven and what we really know about it. Stephen saw heaven and the only thing he said about it was that he saw Jesus at the right hand of God. In the end, that’s probably the only thing we need to know about heaven.

Mansions, rooms, angels, wings (wings!?), saints, streets of gold, no darkness, no tears.

Those are all insignificant compared to Jesus sitting at the right hand of God.

And that’s what we need to know about heaven.