Almost every railroad in the world has a schedule and a table, too, of ticket prices pegged to where you want to sit and where you’re going and when you need to travel. When someone doesn’t know the schedule and they hear the train coming, I’ve heard of folks risking life and limb, crossing the tracks right in front of the biggest diesel locomotives imaginable so that the engineer even feels compelled to sound his horn to warn them that they’re foolishly risking their lives. Are you ever in such an all-fired hurry yourself?
I know someone who worked next to the train depot for years, often with his shop door open, so he saw people from all over the world coming through our town wanting to know when they can catch the train and where they can buy a ticket. He said they’d stick their heads in the door and ask, “Where can I get a ticket?” Some were a little worried about it as they asked, but some were downright frantic. My friend wanted to tell them not to kill themselves to get the train and not to worry about getting a ticket. He told them they could get a ticket on board, he’d say, “Wait a bit—the train will be along soon.” He’d tell them the inbound side was across the tracks—but he’d warn them, “Don’t run in front of any trains to get there.” Sometimes he’d step out of the shop and look at the tracks running off into the distance, all shining in the sun, taking people off to the big city of Boston or bringing them out here to our little town, and he wondered at how upset people sometimes were about missing the train. They sure did run for it at times!
They were often in such a hurry—but I know that if he—and they—had more time, he would have liked to tell them about another train that’s coming—a train that doesn’t run on any schedule that anyone has. That train’s more worth getting on than any other train running on any other set of rails in the whole wide world, and, he knew, you could get on that train just about anywhere—the train stop is a lot nearer than a lot of people think! I guess he wondered at times that while some people were risking their lives to get on that train to Boston, they were not more desperate to get a ticket for the other train he would have told them about. For this one, he knew, you didn’t need a schedule and you didn’t even need a ticket. You don’t need a schedule because you can get on anytime and you don’t need a ticket because the fare’s already been paid for—and that’s a good thing, too, because the cost of riding this train is beyond what anybody can pay, even for just that one-way ticket. And he knew this train was going somewhere so important, so truly wonderful! I think he’d say that if you want to do something desperate to get on a train, this is the one train worth doing that for.
It’s the train to heaven we’re talking about here—and the fact of the matter is that it’s all very real and very serious and there’s no greater question a man or woman will ever ask themselves than this: How do I get a ticket for that train? Many of us feel sorrow or despair, or frantic or guilty, as we run through life, trying to find happiness here or there—thinking a plane or boat or train or car can take us away from trouble and bring us some peace of mind that we’re yearning for, but it eludes us and everyone wonders if they’ll ever really find that lasting peace. All the while we must know that sooner or later we all will encounter great troubles that will force us to bow to the inevitable. We run to make trains and keep appointments in order to get somewhere to escape trouble and pain or to find happiness, and all the while we hardly realize we’re also running to escape our mortality. But it is relentless and enters the homes of the powerful and famous as well as the apartments in the poorest projects; it visits the leaders of the world as surely as it does the folks riding into Boston on the 12:07.
Everyone on trains everywhere must deal with this great fact—our very real mortality. Indeed, before this year ends, many people reading or hearing this message will not be able to catch a train that will take them away from their fate even one day longer. But we hide our eyes and divert our minds from that inevitable appointment. I know we often don’t think of the other train—the one to heaven—until we’re looking at death ourselves, or know someone who is. Many say “I’m not concerned about such trains.” They may say, “I’ll think about that later.” Isn’t it strange that people should spend such energy to get catch a train to make a buck or get ahead—or even to meet a friend—and yet don’t take so much as five minutes to consider the only train that can help them deal with the final appointment we each will face?
Do you ever wonder if death might not be the end—but if it’s not, then what? A man who was both a poet and a king once wrote, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.” Another man, one of the first apostles of Jesus, wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” That’s the way people speak when they get on the train my friend likes to talk about. He says that when you’re on that train, you can look ahead to death with calm assurance. I think my friend is right. When you’re on that train you know that this life, with all its beauty, pain, joy and sorrow, is only a dressing room for eternity.
Jesus paid for our ticket on Calvary’s Tree
The ticket for the train was bought for you by Jesus of Nazareth long ago. He’s the one who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25). Who needs that ticket? Everyone! For “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Those words are from the Bible, which says that without this passage on the train for heaven all a man or woman has to look forward to is certain judgment—for all will be judged after death according to this same Book. Because of our selfish ways our judgment will be something to fear beyond all imagining, for just as there’s a heaven, there’s also a hell. But God has provided a ticket that will deliver any person who accepts it from such a deserved judgment. A fearful looking forward to judgment need not be a person’s bitter end; dying instead can be a bright dawning when you’re on His train. You can have hope in the face of death because Jesus Christ is alive and promising to be the savior of all who trust in Him. His train is a train of hope.
You can claim that ticket just by believing in Him. The ticket says “The holder of this ticket is one who believes Jesus came down from heaven and was born into this world 2,000 years ago, that he was the only man who never sinned and who died on a cross outside Jerusalem to pay for all my sins. He was buried and rose from the dead three days later and was seen by many witnesses before He ascended to heaven. He will come again to judge the world.” Now that’s quite a ticket, isn’t it! Did you know that this same Jesus came into the world not to judge you, but rather to take the judgment each person fully deserves for all his or her selfishness, meanness, lowness and injustice to God and to others? With His death on the cross, because he was perfect and innocent, He took the punishment for every hateful and harmful thing you and I deserve, and in so doing, took away all the guilt we have accrued. He did it for love. If you believe this, there’s a ticket on this train for you! Indeed, you have that ticket right now, by faith, even though you can’t see it.
Won’t you take it? Jesus Christ bought it for you by his substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus, the only innocent man who ever lived, gave His life to pay for all the wrongs that you are guilty of—and that I am guilty of, too. This was the price of your ticket—and mine. If you get on board you are headed for that kingdom that is coming when He returns from heaven. People, get ready! There’s a train a comin’ and it’s picking up passengers from coast to coast. All you need is faith to hear that diesel humming. He paid for the ticket, so just get on board! You only need faith to claim that paid-for ticket! He bought your ticket to the coming eternal kingdom that will have no end. Won’t you accept it? If you pray with faith, don’t you know He hears you? He loves you, even as the Good Book says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).
You don’t need a schedule and the ticket’s been paid for. We don’t know when our time will come, so won’t you run now to get on board?
God bless you,
Paul
All you need is faith to hear that diesel humming. He paid for the ticket, so just get on board!
