Heaven Did Not Know Him

At the beginning of his gospel (Jn. 1:10), John wrote of the Son of God, “He was in the world, and the world was created through him, but the world did not know him.”  It was revealed to Paul that from the beginning of creation, the Son of God had also been unknown in heaven.  Paul spoke of “the mystery of the Father and the Son” (Col. 2:2), “the mystery that was hidden from the Aeons (heavenly beings) and from generations of man, but now is revealed to His saints” (Col. 1:26).  This mystery, hidden from the beginning of time, was that there had been a Son somewhere in heaven with God, through whom God had created everything.  Nobody in heaven or earth knew that the Son existed until the Son was revealed in the man, Jesus Christ.

This means that at the beginning of his gospel, John could also have written this about the Son: “He was in heaven, and heaven was created through him, but heaven did not know him” (Jn. 1:10).

They Understood Nothing

It was not just Jesus’ prophecies of the rising from the dead or his statements about having come down from heaven that the disciples could not understand.

John 10:1–6

“Truly, truly, I tell you, he who doesn’t enter through the gate into the sheepfold, but climbs up at some other place, is a thief and a robber.  He who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens for him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  And once he has driven out his sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.  They will never follow a stranger, but they will flee from him because they don’t know the voice of strangers.”  Jesus spoke this allegory to them, but they did not understand the things that he said to them.

Truths that we all now take for granted, people of Jesus’ time on earth had never dreamed of and could not imagine.

Be thankful.  You live in an amazing time.