The Age Of Disclosure

[0:00] The truth is out there. Do you recognize that tagline?! I can tell sort of how old you are! I can tell you about the unexplained paranormal and these agents that investigated it.

[0:34] And it was very popular. It was one of the most popular shows of the 90s actually because of our culture's fascination with the unknown. Especially the UFOs and the possibility of aliens.

[0:46] Ever since the, what was it, the 1940s or 50s, the Roswell mystery in America. There's been so much talk and mystery and rumors surrounding UFOs and aliens.

[1:01] And you know people have always wondered, are these just hoaxes? Are these just people wanting attention? Or is there something to it? And the question has been at the back of popular conscience for decades now.

[1:15] As we look up into the stars and we look at the, and we realize, you know, astronomers tell us, the millions, billions of other galaxies out there.

[1:27] That are we alone? Are we alone in the universe? Is anybody else out there? Well this week, this very week, a documentary was released on Amazon Prime called The Age of Disclosure.

[1:41] And it's caused a lot of waves because this documentary claims to blow the lid off the UFO question.

[1:52] And it claims that we actually have evidence of alien visits to Earth that have been covered up for decades. And now, a number of whistleblowers have come forward and are interviewed on the show.

[2:04] And these are high level people, government people, from government departments, advisors to presidents, who come forward and have said, now it's time for the public to know the truth.

[2:17] It's The Age of Disclosure, they call it. Now, I looked this up. If you're interested, it costs 350 rand just to rent, to watch it at the moment on Amazon Prime.

[2:28] Which I find quite ironic for a movie that wants the truth to be out there. But anyway, it's caused a lot of stirs and it's caused a lot of people to ask questions and to wonder what the truth really is.

[2:41] Which is, of course, the topic of today's talk, the truth. Now, whatever you think about aliens, there is actually a much bigger question that humans have had for much longer.

[2:53] And that is the question, is God out there? Is God actually out there? That question is far more important than the question of aliens.

[3:08] Fascinating as that may be, you know, whether there's other forms of life in the universe. A much more important question is, but is there a God who made the universe?

[3:20] Is there a God behind all this? That is the question that humanity has been asking for thousands and thousands of years. And that is the most important question of our lives, really.

[3:31] The answer to that question in your life will determine what you live for and how you live. And if there is a God out there, well, what does He want?

[3:44] What is He like? Is He a he or a she? Is God a they? You know, different religions for thousands of years have had different answers to those questions.

[3:56] And the question, really, we should be asking is, how can we really know? Now, we're in a church. We believe certain things about God. But you might be sitting there today or you might be listening to this recording going, but how can you really know that?

[4:09] Muslims believe different things. Buddhists believe different things. How can we really know what is really the truth about God? Well, in the Bible, there are writings of ancient Hebrew prophets who lived thousands of years ago, centuries before Jesus even came.

[4:31] And we've got the writings of these ancient Hebrew prophets. And they spoke about a different age of disclosure.

[4:43] They spoke about a time in history where God would make it clear to us that He is there and who He actually is.

[4:56] And it's what we read in the first of those verses in Isaiah's prophecy that we read earlier. I'll read it to you again. Isaiah 9, verse 2. It says this.

[5:06] The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.

[5:20] So this is, and I just want us to concentrate on this verse today, this part of the prophecy. What he's prophesying here, this ancient Hebrew prophet, is that one day something would change that would move humanity from darkness to light.

[5:35] That what we did not know before about God, as humans in general, will now come to light. There will be certain things that we can actually know about God that we didn't know before.

[5:46] And the prophet prophesied that this would happen one day. But then, this is kind of, this is the Old Testament, right? Now, if you don't know much about the Bible, it's split into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

[5:59] And there's roughly about 500 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, which starts with the arrival of Jesus. And as we read on from Isaiah in the Old Testament, what we discover is that the age of disclosure that he spoke about, where God would actually make himself known to humanity so that we can really know who he is, we discover it's already begun.

[6:25] It's already begun. And it began at the first Christmas. That's why we're looking at this as we approach Christmas time this year.

[6:37] Because that very first Christmas that we're remembering and we're celebrating was the beginning of what the prophets spoke of as an age of disclosure where humans could now know who God really is.

[6:51] It was really, if you think about it, the first Christmas gift we ever got. The gift of truth about God. And unlike Amazon Prime, it's free, this gift of truth.

[7:06] It's free to access to anyone who is willing to look at it. But what's really interesting and quite strange is many people don't want to look at it.

[7:18] Ever since the age of disclosure began, there have been many people who have not wanted to look at it. Well, today, I want to challenge you not to be one of those people.

[7:31] But first, we actually need to, before we look at what we can know about God, we need to ask the question, well, why was God hidden in the first place? Right? If God is really there, why didn't he just make himself known from the beginning?

[7:46] That's a fair question, right? Well, that's the thing. He did. He did make himself known from the beginning. When we look back, we see that's exactly what happened.

[7:59] The Bible claims there was a time when humans and their Creator had this intimate relationship. That we as humans lived in this close relationship where we knew our God.

[8:13] We knew who made us. We knew God. We interacted with God, the Bible says. God was as real and as accessible as the person sitting next to you.

[8:24] But it didn't last. Why? What happened? Well, we read on. We realize what the Bible reveals is that humans broke our relationship with God.

[8:37] Great as it was. We thought what would be greater would be complete freedom to do whatever we wanted to do and not have someone ruling over us.

[8:49] And the moment we read about that, right at the beginning of the Bible, there's a little voice in the back of our minds that says, yeah, that's true. You know, we know that's true because we know that that's our inclination.

[9:04] That's our natural instinct. We don't want to listen to what God says. We don't want to take heed. We want to go our own way. We want to do our own thing. We want to be in charge of our lives.

[9:18] It's something we all by nature still do. But that is how the darkness began. That is how the relationship got broken. And that is when the dark things entered into our world.

[9:29] You see, this darkness that Isaiah talks about, that people are walking in, is not just a darkness from knowing God. It's other dark things that come as a result of a broken relationship with our Creator.

[9:44] Dark things entered our world, like scarcity, not having enough. Sickness. Our bodies not working properly. And, of course, death itself are the things that entered the world as a result of the broken relationship with the life giver and Creator.

[10:02] When we are separated from the giver of life, life becomes limited. Life becomes difficult. Life becomes frustrating. But all of those things entered the world when we broke relationship with our Creator.

[10:18] But also, that is why, as the ages passed, and as generations passed, we lost the knowledge of God we once had.

[10:30] We once were in the right relationship with God. We knew Him. There was no question that God was here. That there was a God. Because we could talk to Him. We knew Him. But since that breakdown of relationship over the ages, that knowledge has become more and more lost.

[10:47] We lost the knowledge of God we once had. To steal a line from another movie. History became legend. Legend became myth.

[11:00] And God passed out of all knowledge. That is why you and I don't automatically know the God who made us. We don't.

[11:11] By ourselves, we don't know anything about, and we can't know anything about, the God who made us. By ourselves. With our own resources. You see, because unlike other things we can know, and we can know many things in this world.

[11:26] We've got amazing scientists and people who have discovered so much. We can know a lot of things, but we can't know God in the same way as we can know these other things.

[11:36] The reason is because, unlike these other things, God is the only source of information about God. There's no other way we can get information about God other than God Himself.

[11:51] So, science can't tell you anything about God. Science is the major way we know about the things we know. By observing the made world and observing how it works.

[12:03] We can't do that with God. We can't observe God scientifically. Because God, by nature, exists outside of what science can observe. Because He made the things science can observe.

[12:13] He made science. So, science can't pin Him down. Science can't observe God. God is the only source of information about God.

[12:25] And so, this is really important to understand. The only way to know anything about God is through having a relationship with God. And so, if there's a broken relationship with God, we actually lose the ability to know that there is a God at all.

[12:42] And that is why, you know, if you found the, say, hundred cleverest people in the world, you took the most intelligent, most knowledgeable people from every field of study and gathered them all together.

[12:57] The best scientists, the best biologists, the best physicists, best astronomers, the best historians, the best archaeologists. And you put them all in a room together. And you gave them a week.

[13:10] And you said to them, work out who is God. With all of your scientific knowledge, with all of your tools, with all of the things you can do, I want you to put your heads together and tell me who is God.

[13:25] Well, you know what would happen? They would all come up with different answers. They would debate and they would argue. And at the end of the week, they would come to you and their conclusion of all their discussions and all their research would be, we don't actually know.

[13:43] The cleverest people in the world wouldn't be able to tell you who God is with all of their resources, with all of their methods. That is what being separated from God results in.

[13:55] You see? When we are separated from God, we are separated from truth about God. We can't know Him. That is the result of what we call the fall. As we saw earlier, the Bible says we all like sheep have gone astray.

[14:13] But more than that, the sheep have forgotten that they even have a shepherd. That's the state the world is in at the moment. And that is what the Bible means.

[14:24] That is what the prophet Isaiah means. When he says we are walking in darkness. We are walking in darkness. None of us, by definition, know what is true about why we are here.

[14:40] Who the Creator is. And what to do with our lives. And that is why people live without any direction in their lives.

[14:51] They chase after whatever stimulates them. But then they get older and older and eventually die. And at the end of the day, there was no real, what were we doing here?

[15:02] So many people live without any real direction or purpose in life. And the Bible calls that walking in darkness. Maybe that's you as you listen to this.

[15:15] Maybe you're going, yeah, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know what life's about. Well, the Bible knows that.

[15:25] It talks about that. It's walking in darkness. It's a very good description of it, isn't it? Because imagine you were in a completely dark room that you'd never been in before. And you can't see a thing.

[15:36] You can't see your hand in front of your face. And you try to walk around in that room. What's going to happen? You don't know where you're going to be going. You don't know where the entrance is. You'll be bumping into things. You don't actually know what to do.

[15:46] That is the state of people today. Walking in darkness. Not knowing what to do with their lives. Not knowing where they're going. That is the default state of humanity. And it is very depressing.

[15:58] It is very sad. But you look around the world. Often we'll look into our own lives and we'll see, yeah, that's true. We are walking in darkness by default.

[16:11] But then we read this prophecy. In the prophet Isaiah. And he foretold something was going to happen. To switch on the lights.

[16:23] The people walking in darkness will see a great light. Now what is he talking about?

[16:36] What is the great light that he's talking about? Well, fast forward 700 years. From Isaiah when he wrote this. To a man who appeared in the northern region of Israel called Galilee.

[16:47] Galilee, which was exactly the region Isaiah said that this light would appear from. It was a backwater region. Nothing really important in Galilee.

[16:59] But this man appeared teaching people about God. But he was not like any of the other teachers that the people had ever heard. Let me read to you from Matthew 7.

[17:14] This is what the people experienced in Galilee. About this man known as Jesus. And he was teaching them.

[17:27] And it says, When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Because he taught as one who had authority.

[17:39] Not as their teachers of the law. He was a different type of teacher. He taught with authority. But what's really interesting wasn't just what he taught.

[17:51] It's what he did. He did amazing things. He did, we look back, we call them miracles. They were supernatural signs to show us that this man had authority from God.

[18:05] Things that defied science, defied explanation, for the purpose of making humanity pay attention. Even secular, non-Christian historians recorded that these things happened.

[18:19] That Jesus did these miracles. But what was interesting about them, when we read about them, is that they were all in some way undoing the separation that came when humans and God were separated at the fall.

[18:39] And all the things, all the dark things that entered in the world, Jesus' miracles addressed those dark things and undid them. He healed sick people. He restored sight to the blind.

[18:52] Each of his miracles was there to show us that he has come to push away the darkness and to bring light again. And so, as you can imagine, people were wondering, is this the man that the prophets spoke about?

[19:09] And they didn't know. Could this be? But then one day, Jesus made it clear.

[19:22] He was in a synagogue. And he picked up the scroll of Isaiah, this ancient prophet. And he read it.

[19:33] And I want to read to you what he said at the end of it. In Luke chapter 4, verse 21, he read Isaiah.

[19:44] He sat down. And then he looked up at the whole synagogue. And he said, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So he was, without any doubt, claiming that the prophecy of Isaiah is now being fulfilled.

[20:01] That God is coming close again. That the age of disclosure has begun. That's what Jesus is claiming. The age of disclosure has begun.

[20:12] You see, Jesus came to this earth so that you can know who your God really is. Jesus came. He's claiming here so that you can know who really made you and why he made you.

[20:23] John 1, verse 9. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

[20:43] And then verse 18. No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

[20:56] That is what Jesus himself claims. That is what the Bible claims about Jesus. That Jesus came to this earth to make God known.

[21:11] Before we were in darkness, we didn't know. We were separated from knowing. But once Jesus came, something changed. You can know your God now.

[21:23] He came to make God known. But, as we read on in the accounts of his life, we realize that's not all he came to do. You know, I said earlier that the only way we can actually know anything about God is through having a relationship with God.

[21:42] And that's why Jesus also came to deal with the thing that separates us from having that relationship. He came to deal with the very reason we were separated from God in the first place.

[21:55] Jesus came to deal with the very reason the darkness came. which was our sin, our rebellion against our Creator, us wanting to go our own way. And if that rebellion, if those sins are not dealt with in my life and your life, we can never know God.

[22:15] In fact, we will never want to know God unless those sins are dealt with. Unless that rebellion is taken away. No matter how much light God gives in this earth, no matter how much He tells us, no matter how much He reveals, if our sin is not dealt with, you know what we will do?

[22:31] We will always scurry away back into the darkness when the light appears. And we will deny that the light is there. It's a human tendency to do that.

[22:43] It's a sinful human tendency. Whenever God reveals something about Himself, humans will scurry the other way. Like when you switch on the light, all the cockroaches, I know it's not a flattering metaphor, but it's a good one.

[22:56] You know, they scurry away into the darkness. That's what sinners do when God shows Himself. Jesus Himself said it. Later on in John 3, listen to what Jesus Himself says.

[23:07] John 3, 19 to 20. This is the verdict. This is Jesus talking to a Jewish teacher called Nicodemus. He says, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

[23:26] Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. And you see, that is why the most important thing Jesus did when He came here was even more than revealing truths about God.

[23:45] It was to go and to die on the cross to take the place of humans to die for their sins in their place. To deal with the source of the problem.

[24:00] To deal with the very thing that keeps you and me from knowing our God. Our sin. And Jesus, as the Son of God, was the only being, the only person who was uniquely qualified to be able to take on the sins of others.

[24:16] None of us can do that. No other person can do that. Only Jesus, the Son of God, as a human, can take on the sins of other humans. And that's what He chose to do, to remove the separation.

[24:28] And I want to take you there again. We often consider what Jesus did on the cross. But I want to read to you Mark's account.

[24:39] He was an eyewitness. And these are eyewitness accounts that he collated. And I want to read to you what he said about what happened when Jesus died on the cross.

[24:55] Some supernatural things happened. But one of them was this, Mark 15. Just listen. This is the day Jesus died.

[25:08] He had already been tried. He had been put on the cross by the Roman death squad. He had been there for hours in agonizing pain.

[25:19] And then we read, At noon, darkness came. Over the whole land.

[25:30] Until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice. Eloi, Eloi, lebasabachtini.

[25:41] Which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, not many people understand, especially then, why he said those words.

[25:59] But when we look back, we realize he was quoting, actually, an ancient Jewish song. And this ancient Jewish song that Jews would sing lamented.

[26:13] It was a song of lament about their separation that they experienced between them and God. And whenever they were in a particular difficult situation and they just felt separated from God.

[26:25] They felt the results of this darkness, this separation. They would sing this song, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus was deliberately quoting this song as he was on the cross.

[26:38] To tell us that he is taking on that separation now. That separation that humans have felt for thousands of years between them and their creator, he has now come to take on himself.

[26:52] He has come to take our place to sing that song for us. So that we don't have to. And did you notice, as I read there, did you notice the darkness?

[27:04] Did you, at the beginning? Darkness, supernatural darkness came over the whole land for three hours. As Jesus died. See what was happening? God was showing us that he was being, his son was being covered in darkness.

[27:22] And he was being abandoned. And he was being separated from his father so that we could step into the light. So that you could step into the light. That is why he came. That is why he died. So that you could step out of the darkness into the light.

[27:38] And we can do that now. You know why? Because by dying there, by taking that darkness on himself, by taking our sins on himself, Jesus has made the light safe for sinners.

[27:52] Which it wasn't before. It was something we would scurry away from. In terror. A holy God. But because Jesus has done what he did, the light is now safe for sinners.

[28:05] So we can step into it. We can know what is true. The question is, are you willing to do that? Are you willing to see what God has made known about himself?

[28:20] Because let me tell you, so many people don't want to do that. So many people still don't want to step into the light that has now come. So many people pretend that they can't know anything about God.

[28:31] It's all just a matter of your personal belief. And they don't look into it so that they can keep living their own way. Because, okay, I will be honest.

[28:42] Coming into the light is costly. Knowing God, actually coming to know who God really is and why he made you, is going to change your life.

[28:55] It can't. Not. It requires changes. When you admit that. When you see the truth. It requires a complete reorientation of your entire life to this new reality that God is there.

[29:08] But let me tell you, living in the light is so much better than living in the darkness. Jesus himself said in John 8, I am the light of the world.

[29:20] Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. That's how he described it. The light of life. What he was saying is that this light is the way to real life.

[29:33] Not this passing away, temporary, frustrated life. But real, true life. Eternal life. The life that God made you and me for.

[29:46] It's the light of life. It's the light that demands change in our lives, of course. But it's the light that leads to life. So are you willing to step into? The light.

[29:57] That's how I want to finish today. By considering that question. Are you willing to step into the light? Because if the prophets of the Old Testament, and it's not just Isaiah.

[30:12] If the prophets and their prophecies point so clearly to this historical figure, Jesus, then you owe it to yourself to at least look into that, at least once in your life.

[30:27] You owe it to yourself to look at those claims. Now, if you have, and you've found that this is your God, and you've realized that, and you're a Christian, you've found God through Jesus Christ, then you can't just sit there and keep coming to church every Sunday.

[30:48] You've got to make what you've found known to others. You've got to use series like this to invite your friends, or tell them about what you know. So that they know this is not just your personal belief.

[31:02] Because that's what they think at the moment, right? Your friends at work, when they know that you're a Christian, they think, oh, it's just your personal, your own internal beliefs. They don't know that it's based on real things that have happened in history.

[31:14] They need to know. You can't keep it to yourself. We can't keep this to ourselves. Because God has actually made Himself known in history. The age of disclosure has begun. The records have been unsealed.

[31:25] The files are now declassified, and they are publicly available to anyone willing to look. And so if you have looked, if you have seen, then you need to help others to see that is why we are here.

[31:40] And if you haven't yet seen what God has publicly disclosed, then I need to ask you, are you willing to see? Are you willing to see?

[31:51] Because the question is not, is there enough evidence for God? There is ample. The question is, are you willing to see it? So many people are not. But if you are, I encourage you to make use of this church and others like us who exist to make this information known to you.

[32:12] And to answer whatever questions you have on it. We run a course particularly for this purpose. It's called Discover Jesus. We run it a few times a year. The next one is starting 26th of February.

[32:26] Not the 26th of February. February 2026. So it's in February sometime. We'll confirm the date. But register for that course. If you haven't done something like that yet.

[32:38] If you haven't looked at what God has disclosed. And you still don't know God. You don't know the truth about God. Please register for this course. Or something like it. And let me encourage you to do it now.

[32:51] You can do it via our Connect app. You can tap there. You can register for the course. You can give your details. And I encourage you to do that before you leave today. Okay. Before you leave today.

[33:02] If you are sitting there going. Yeah. I should look into this. Then do something about it. Register for this course. Because at least then we've got your name. And we can bug you.

[33:13] We can phone you back. And we can say. Hey. You registered for this course last year. This is when it is. Because if you don't do that. It's going to fade away. You're going to walk out of here. And other things are going to crowd in.

[33:24] I've been a pastor for a number of years. And let me tell you. Why I want you to register today. Because I know that there are forces at play. Who want to keep you in the dark.

[33:37] And so register now. Take a step. Do something. Don't do nothing. And if you're still hesitant. Even now. And you go.

[33:48] I'm not so sure that I'm going to want to do that. Well think about this. What do you have to lose? What are you risking? By doing a course like this. It's five weeks.

[33:59] One hour a week. At worst. You do it. And you decide that you're not convinced. And you've wasted a few evenings. At least. You know where you stand about Jesus now.

[34:10] Right? But think of what you have to gain. If this is true. You gain everything. You find the truth about the God. Who made you.

[34:22] You find out why you're here. And how to enter the internal life. God made you for. God made you for. The benefit far outweighs the risk. And so if you're still hesitant to register.

[34:36] Why? If you haven't looked into Jesus. And you don't want to. Why? Maybe it's because you love the darkness more. Jesus came so that you can know God.

[34:50] Do something with that. Because if you do. Jesus promises. You will know the truth. And the truth will set you free. Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord God.

[35:07] We thank you that you have. Made it possible for us to know. Truth. And we thank you that at Christmas. At that very first Christmas.

[35:20] Isaiah's prophecy. Started to be fulfilled. That light was coming into the darkness. Oh Lord. Would you help us. Who are so prone to want to stay in the darkness.

[35:31] Would you help us to step into the light. Those of us who have seen the light. Lord. Would you help us to make this known to others. This Christmas season.

[35:42] And I pray. Especially for anyone here. Or anyone listening to the recording. Who. Who has not yet stepped into the light. Lord. Would you help them to. To make a step.

[35:52] To do something right now. So that they don't stay in the darkness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.