Alan Kosmatka Funeral Sermon

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. John 3, verses 1 -16.

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There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

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Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

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Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the

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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the

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Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

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So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to Him, How can these things be?

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Jesus answered, Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly,

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I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

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If I had told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

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No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the

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Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave

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His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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In the name of Jesus, and you say, Amen. For God so loved the world that He gave

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His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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This is our text. Alan Kotsmatska, hard -working farmer, crane operator, employee at American Crystal, obedient son, faithful husband, and father and true friend.

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He loved to work with his hands, work with wood, love to fish. Life goes by so quickly, does it not?

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You know, it was only yesterday when Alan was young and alive, strong and hardy. You know, it was only yesterday when

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Alan would ride his bike to his favorite spots on the Red River with his fishing pole in hand and a bucket of worms.

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It was only yesterday that Alan would ice fish with his buddies Victor and Florian. In youth, we have our whole lives ahead of us.

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And when our children are small, we appear to them as strong and indestructible.

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As the years add up, though, and they add up quickly, we learn that our strength doesn't last, and soon we become weak, and oftentimes that weakness comes with pain and with suffering.

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The days of playing, fishing, the days of falling in love with the woman of your dreams, working with your hands, putting in a hard day's work and looking at what you've accomplished with that strong sense of satisfaction and pride, those moments with your son teaching him how to throw a ball, catch a fish, drive a car, they all become memories.

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And then slowly and quietly, you yourself become a memory as death comes to visit you, as death comes to visit us all.

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We breathe, we cry, we love, we laugh, we toil, and then finally we rest.

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It's all so precious, and it's all so awful all at the same time. And we want to know what it all means.

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Why are our lives a vapor? Why must we toil as hard as we do to pay our bills and buy our groceries?

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And why is this life so short and so difficult? How is it possible that one day we are young and carefree, and the next day we're weather -worn, tired, spent, and then no longer here?

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How is it possible that one day at church you're exchanging vows with the love of your life in front of the altar, and then the next day your earthly remains are in front of the altar as your friends and family and community are gathered to say their goodbyes?

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This is not just Alan's story. This is your story, too, and it's mine.

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And if God had not given us the answer to these questions, then life would seem short, life would seem mean, and life would seem meaningless.

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But I tell you this, Alan knew the truth about this life. And Alan was not only a hard -working farmer, crane operator, employee at American Crystal, woodworker, fisherman, obedient son, faithful husband, and father and true friend.

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He was also a baptized believer in Jesus Christ. Alan was born from above, and because of that, we are not here to say goodbye to Alan.

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We are here to say, we'll see you soon. And with this thought, let us return again to our

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Gospel text for this morning. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the

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Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Jesus, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

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And Jesus takes this statement, almost in a way ignores it, and then he says this,

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Amen, amen, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born... And the

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Greek word says anothen. It's an interesting word. We translate it in our English as born again.

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But it can actually mean born from above. It's one of those weird words. It kind of has a dual meaning. It's difficult to tell what

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Jesus is talking about. So he says, unless one is born anothen, maybe born from above, maybe born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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But that statement is amazing in and of itself. Who here doesn't want to see the kingdom of God?

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Who here doesn't want to see the God who made us, who made the universe, the stars, the earth, the soil that the farmers are putting their crops into the ground, the one who hung the moon and set the sun on fire?

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All of us want to see that God. We also want to see his kingdom. And Jesus says, unless one is born from above, he cannot see this kingdom.

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But Nicodemus, thinking that Jesus said that somebody had to be born again, like a second time by crawling into his mother's womb, thinks that Jesus is speaking nonsense.

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And so he says, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

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Jesus answered, Amen. Amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the

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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Referring to baptism. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

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That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born from above.

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The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

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So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?

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You know, you can just see his brain exploding. Boom! Doesn't get it. Jesus says, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

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Amen, amen, I say to you. We speak of what we know. We bear witness of what we have seen. But you do not receive our testimony.

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If I have told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

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No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And now things get really interesting in the text.

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Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

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You see, Jesus was referring there to a story in the book of Numbers where the children of Israel, after being set free from slavery in Egypt, remember the whole

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Exodus story? They made movies about it. You know, Charlton Heston, you familiar with that? The whole parting of the

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Red Sea? Yeah. So they get into the wilderness. God had rescued them mightily. And what do they do?

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They grumble against God. We can't stand this worthless food that you're feeding us, God. Did you bring us out into the wilderness to have us all die out here because there weren't enough graves in Egypt?

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And so God punished them by sending a bunch of fiery serpents into the Israeli camp.

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And they were biting people, and they were dying. And then they realized, ooh, we've sinned.

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And so they prayed to God. They went to Moses and said, Pray to God on our behalf to take away the serpents.

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And Moses didn't take the serpents away. Instead, God told him to go and create a bronze serpent.

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Hang it on a pole. And anyone who was bit by one of these serpents could look at it, literally just look at it, and they would live.

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And you're thinking, well, that's kind of interesting. But what Jesus is saying here is that that snake on the pole in some way represents

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Him. Because what did they do to Jesus? They nailed Him to a cross. They hung

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Him, and He died. And Jesus says, much like the way the children of Israel looked at that bronze serpent and lived, look on Me, your crucified

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Savior, and you too shall live. But not life as in you'll avoid death here and now.

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Instead, the life that Jesus offers is to bring you back from the dead. That is what

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He has promised us. And then we have this wonderful verse that every one of us knows because we've heard it a thousand times.

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In fact, they even have a guy who goes to football games and stands behind the goal post with the big clown hair on.

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And he holds up the sign that says John 3 .16. This is what this text says. For God so loved the world.

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You think God's angry? You think God's mean? You think God has it out for you? That's not what this text says.

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This text says that God loves the world. Are you part of the world? I am.

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You are. That means God loves you. He loves you so much that He literally gave

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His only begotten Son so that whoever, that's me, that's you, whoever believes in Him should not perish, but will have eternal life.

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So God loved Alan Kutsmatzka so much that He gave His only begotten

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Son, Jesus Christ, to bleed and to die for his sins. In the waters of Alan's baptism, the

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Roman Catholic church where he was baptized, Alan's sins were washed away and Alan was buried and raised with Christ and born from above.

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And because Jesus Himself has conquered the grave, you may have heard about it, on the third day, after Jesus was crucified for our sins under Pontius Pilate, Jesus rose bodily from the grave.

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And because of what Jesus has done, and because Jesus washed away Alan's sins, and because Alan had faith in these promises,

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Alan has not perished. Alan has, presently, eternal life.

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And this is what He wants you to know. God doesn't only love Alan Kutsmatzka.

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God loves you. And He loves you so much that He sent Jesus to bleed and to die for your sins.

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And Jesus is calling you, just as He's called Alan, to repent of your sins and to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.

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And you too will not perish. But like Alan, you will have eternal life.

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For the day is coming, Scripture says, that that same Jesus who was crucified, died and was buried, rose again and ascended into heaven,

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He's going to return in glory. And He's going to judge the living and the dead. And on that day, all who are in Christ will burst from their graves, having been resurrected, just as Jesus was resurrected.

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And on that day, Christ will judge the nations, and He will create a new heavens and a new earth.

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And we who are in Christ will spend eternity with Him in a world without sickness, a world without disease, a world without death, a new world without end.

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And all of this is a gift of God, given to us by grace, by God's great mercy and love for us, received by faith.

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Eternal life, for free, given as a gift, because of God's great love for Alan and also for you.

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So do you believe funerals are a great time to think about our own mortality?

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Each and every one of us is on our way to the same place. And each and every one of us has a rendezvous with Jesus.

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And because Jesus has bled and died for our sins, nobody on the judgment day needs to hear from Christ, depart from me,

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I never knew you. Each and every one of us, because of what Christ has done for us, has that opportunity to have eternal life.

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Repent, believe, and today is not a day to say goodbye to Alan. Today is just a day to say we'll see you soon.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

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All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.