Eternity Now
Living His Reality in an Age of Uncertainty
The Far Post
Anyone who has ploughed a field with a tractor knows the rule. If you look down at the ground right in front of the wheel, your furrow will wander. Every stone, every tuft, every dip pulls your eye and your hands with it. By the time you reach the end of the land, the line looks like the route of a man walking home from the hotel on a Saturday night.
So farmers teach you something that sounds backwards: do not look at the ground in front of you. Pick a post at the far end of the field — a fence pole, a tree, a white stone — and fix your eye on it. Keep your eye on the far post, and the near ground takes care of itself. The furrow runs straight.
Here is the strange thing. The man who looks at the far post is not ignoring the field. He ploughs it better than anyone. He simply refuses to let the near ground set his direction.
This morning I want to talk about that far post. About eternity. And I want to suggest that eternity is not only the destination at the end of the field — it is the thing that keeps the furrow straight today.
1. Everyone Is Ploughing Toward Something
Every human being is looking for three things: identity, purpose and meaning. Who am I? Why am I here? Does any of it matter?
And our generation has a ready-made answer. You hear it in schools, in boardrooms, on social media and, if we are honest, in many churches: "Make a difference. Leave a legacy. Make the world a better place." That, we are told, is the meaning of life.
Now, let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with making a difference. A person who leaves a place and environment better than they found it has done something good. But notice the quiet assumption hidden inside the slogan: that this world is the whole field. That the near ground is all there is. That if meaning cannot be found here, it cannot be found at all.
The Preacher in Ecclesiastes saw something much more meaningful three thousand years ago:
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NKJV)
Eternity in the heart. That is why the slogan never quite satisfies. We are creatures built with an eternity-shaped longing, trying to fill it with a temporary world. Augustine said it in the fourth century: You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
So the question is not whether you are ploughing toward something. Everyone is. The question is: what is your far post? What is your long-term focus?
2. What Did Jesus Talk About?
If we want to know where Jesus fixed His eye, a good place to start is simply to listen to what He talked about.
You may have heard the popular claim that Jesus spoke more about hell than about heaven. But heaven, hell, judgment and eternity are not separate subjects. They are one subject: the life to come. Of the roughly 1,944 verses in the Gospels that record Jesus’ words, about 250 — some 13 percent — speak directly of heaven, hell, eternal life or His coming Kingdom. But that counts only the verses that use the words. Now add everything else He said about the life to come: His return and how to be ready for it (Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13, Luke 12, 17 and 21), the parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13, and the parables that warn us to be prepared for judgment — the ten virgins, the talents, the wedding feast, the sheep and the goats, the rich man and Lazarus. Count it that way, and roughly 650 of those 1,944 verses — about one third of everything Jesus said — are about eternity and how to prepare for it.
And the rest of the Gospels points the same way:
The central theme of Jesus’ preaching was the Kingdom. Matthew alone uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” some thirty-two times, and across the four Gospels “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” together appear more than eighty times. His first sermon was about it. His parables were about it. His last forty days before the ascension were about it.
Of the twelve times the word Gehenna — the word our Bibles translate as “hell” — appears in the New Testament, eleven come from the lips of Jesus. No one in Scripture warns about judgment more seriously than the gentlest Man who ever lived.
And in John’s Gospel, the phrases “eternal life” and “everlasting life” appear some seventeen times — and most of them are not in the future tense. More on that later.
So when you lay it all out, a picture emerges. Jesus was not a life coach with a few religious footnotes. About a third of everything He said — the Kingdom, the age to come, the judgment, reward, eternal life — was about the far post. He ploughed every heart-field in Galilee with His eye fixed on eternity.
3. He Lived from the Far End of the Field
Listen to how the writer of Hebrews describes the way Jesus faced the hardest furrow of all:
Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV)
“looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“For the joy that was set before Him.” There is the far post. Jesus did not endure the cross because He was a stoic who enjoyed suffering. He endured it because His eye was on something beyond it.
And He taught His disciples to plough the same way:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19–21 (NKJV)
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 (NKJV)
Notice how He relocates fear. Not the man with the gun and crime. Not the economy. Not the changes in weather and climate change. The only fear worth having is the fear that takes eternity seriously. Everything else is near ground.
Now someone will say: be careful. We all know the old saying about people who are “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” Their eyes are so fixed on the sky that they walk straight past the hungry man at the gate.
But that was never true of Jesus. The Man whose eye was most fixed on eternity was the most useful Man who ever walked this earth. He touched lepers no one else would touch. He fed the hungry, healed the sick and wept at a friend’s grave. He went to a wedding and made sure the wine did not run out. On His last night He took a towel and washed His disciples’ feet. Eternity did not make Him distant from people. It set Him free to love them.
That is the far post again. The farmer with his eye on the far post is not useless in the field — he is the one ploughing straight. C.S. Lewis said it like this: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”
The real danger in our day is the opposite notion. We have become so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good.
And the reason Jesus could hold heaven and earth together is this:
Jesus does not live toward eternity as if it were somewhere He had not yet been. He lives from it. Listen to how He speaks of Himself:
“Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’” John 8:58 (NKJV)
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Revelation 22:13 (NKJV)
He stands in a dusty courtyard in Jerusalem, a man of about thirty, and says: I was before Abraham. He is the beginning and the end at the same time. Jesus is not merely looking at the far post. He is the far post — standing in the middle of the field.
That changes everything. It means eternity is not just a destination at the end of the furrow. Eternity walked into the field.
Eternity is not a destination only; it is an operating system.
4. Why Righteousness Gets Crucified
Now we have to face something uncomfortable. If Jesus lived perfectly from eternity — if He healed, fed, forgave and loved like no one ever has — why did this world crucify Him?
And it is not only Jesus. Moses was rejected by the very people he came to deliver. The prophets were stoned. Stephen was stoned. It seems that the more righteously someone lives, the more the world reaches for a hammer and nails.
We have seen the pattern in our own country.
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” 2 Timothy 3:12 (NKJV)
In a world ruled by chaos and lawlessness, ORDER is seen as a threat.
Jesus never tried to topple the Roman Empire. When Pilate questioned Him, He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Daniel never tried to assassinate the evil Nebuchadnezzar. He served him, told him the truth, and called him to “break off your sins by being righteous” (Daniel 4:27). And the evil man became a better leader because of Daniel’s influence — in the end Nebuchadnezzar praised and honoured the King of heaven (Daniel 4:37). Neither Daniel nor Esther would be appointed in any modern church today: the one was made chief over the magicians and those who practised witchcraft, the other served in the king’s brothel. Yet they were salt and light, and revealed God’s standard in the midst of an evil system. As Mordecai said to Esther, “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
How could they do it? Because their far post was not Babylon or Persia. They did not need to win the empire, because they already belonged to another Kingdom. That is what set them free to serve faithfully inside a system they could not fix — and to stand firm when it mattered. Daniel kept praying with his windows open, even though it meant the lions’ den (Daniel 6:10). Esther walked into the king’s court uninvited and said, “If I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16). Order does not come from overthrowing the system. It comes from people who live from eternity in the middle of it.
5. Bread That Lasts
So then: should Christians make the world a better place? Is that what Jesus asked of us?
It is worth noticing what He did not say. Jesus never said: “Go into all the world and make it a better place.” He said this:
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)
Make disciples. Not monuments. Not empires. Not even improvements. People.
Why? Because this world, as it now is, has an expiry date:
“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:17 (NKJV)
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10 (NKJV)
You cannot take a single possession with you:
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” 1 Timothy 6:7 (NKJV)
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26 (NKJV)
There is only one thing in this whole field that you can take with you across the fence: people. A farm, a pension, a reputation — all of it stays behind. But a person who has come to know Christ through your life will spend eternity alongside you.
To me, it is astonishing that parents will choose to make their children attend a school sporting event, with no promise that their children will become career athletes, rather than attend church or a youth camp. Sport is not wrong. But we drive our children to every practice and every match for a trophy that will gather dust, and then wonder why they drift from the one thing they can carry across the fence. Paul put it plainly: “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). Sport carries no promise. Godliness carries a promise for this life and the next.
Does that mean the bread does not matter? Does it mean we stop feeding, healing, building, serving? Look at what Jesus did. In John 6 He fed five thousand people. Real bread. Real fish. Real hungry stomachs filled. He did not hand out tracts to starving people.
But the next day the crowd came back — not for Him, but for breakfast. And Jesus refused to become their baker:
“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.’” John 6:26–27 (NKJV)
“And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” John 6:35 (NKJV)
The bread was real. But it was a signpost, and the crowd mistook the signpost for the destination. Their survival needs were met — and they wanted to stay in survival mode forever, because it was easier than meeting the Bread of Life.
So here is the balance. We do good in this world — not because good works will save the world, but because good works make the gospel visible and attractive:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)
The soul is the field. Good works are the ploughing. A farmer does not plough because he loves turned soil; he ploughs because he wants a harvest. No farmer who wants a harvest refuses to plough.
6. Babel 2.0: Engineering Heaven on Earth
Now let us look at the field we are standing in today. We live in what many call an age of uncertainty. Climate change. A fragile economy. Wars that start and do not seem to stop. Pandemics that remind us how thin the wall between health and death really is.
And our generation has answered that uncertainty with an extraordinary ambition. Medicine has given us longer lives than any generation in history. Now we hear talk of artificial intelligence and superintelligence that will solve disease, abolish poverty, and perhaps — some say it openly — defeat death itself. We do not want to die. We do not want to be sick. We do not want to be poor. We are trying to build an utopia, an Eden-like world here.
Here is the fascinating thing: that longing is right. God put eternity in our hearts. We were made for a world without death, disease and poverty. The longing is true. It is the blueprint that is wrong.
We have seen this project before:
“And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” Genesis 11:4 (NKJV)
Babel was not a tower of wickedness so much as a tower of self-sufficiency. Heaven, built from below. Immortality, engineered. A name, made by our own hands. Bricks then; algorithms now. The materials have improved. The project has not changed.
The problem with trying to make the temporal carry eternal weight is simple: it cracks. You cannot ask a pension to give you peace. You cannot ask a medical breakthrough to give you meaning. You cannot ask a machine to forgive you. Materialism and humanism are frantic for exactly this reason — they are trying to make the near ground do the work of the far post.
7. Eternity Now
And here is the good news, and it is better news than the tower-builders ever imagined. The heaven they are trying to build from below has already come from above.
Listen to how Jesus defines eternal life:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3 (NKJV)
Not “this will be eternal life.” This is. Eternal life is not first a length of time; it is a quality of life. It is knowing God. And it begins the moment you meet Him:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24 (NKJV)
“Has.” Present tense. “Has passed.” Past tense. Eternity is not only waiting at the end of the field. For those who know Christ, it has already started. Death does not begin eternal life; it only reveals what was already true.
And where is this Kingdom found?
“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.’” Luke 17:20–21 (NKJV)
“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17 (NKJV)
The Kingdom is not first a physical infrastructure project. It is an inner reality — righteousness, peace and joy, growing in the inner man, and from there spilling out into the world.
And to whom does Jesus give it? Not to the augmented, the insured and the well-connected:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:3–4 (NKJV)
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10 (NKJV)
“Theirs is.” Present tense again. The Kingdom is not a prize for those who have successfully built a better world. It is a gift for those who have discovered they cannot. The poor, the mourning, the persecuted — the very people the world counts as having failed at life — Jesus says: the Kingdom is already yours.
You do not have to attain it first. You receive it.
So we come back to the question we started with: where do we find identity, purpose and meaning? Not in making this world eternal. That project will end at a fence. We find it in being made Christ-like — in character, in stature and in essence — because Christ-likeness is the one thing in this field that does not perish. And, strangely, the person who lives most from eternity turns out to live the best life here. The man with his eye on the far post ploughs the straightest furrow in the field.
Back to the Far Post
Paul, a man who knew prisons, shipwrecks and beatings better than any of us, put it this way:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 (NKJV)
The economy is seen. The headlines are seen. The diagnosis is seen. The stones and dips in the field are all seen. Temporary — all of it.
The far post is not seen. But it is eternal. And it is standing in the field with you.
Jesus seldom ended a conversation with a lecture. He ended with a question, and then He let people walk home with it. So let me leave you with some of His:
? “What do you seek?” (John 1:38) — What is the far post you are actually ploughing toward this week?
? “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26) — What in your life are you asking to carry eternal weight that was never built for it?
? After the bread ran out, “Do you also want to go away?” (John 6:67) — Are you following Jesus for the bread, or for the Bread of Life?
? “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) — If He is the Alpha and the Omega, what difference does that make to Monday morning?
Keep your eye on the far post. Eternity is not only where you are going. It is where you can live from — now.