1. The Rest of the Story was a Monday-through-Friday radio program originally hosted by Paul Harvey. Beginning as a part of his newscasts during the Second World War and then premiering as its own series on the ABC Radio Networks on May 10, 1976, The Rest of the Story consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects with some key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) held back until the end. The broadcasts always concluded with a variation on the tag line "And now you know the rest of the story."
2. Boxer Rebellion -- an Example of "The Rest of the Story"
In 1899 four newspaper reporters from Denver, CO, set out to tear down the Great Wall of China. They almost succeeded. Literally.
The four met by chance one Saturday night, in a Denver railway depot. Al Stevens, Jack Tournay, John Lewis, Hal Wilshire. They represented the four Denver papers: the Times, the Post, the Republican, and The Rocky Mountain News.
Each had been sent by his respective newspaper to dig up a story--any story--for the Sunday editions; so the reporters were in the railroad station, hoping to snag a visiting celebrity should one happen to arrive that evening by train.
None arrived that evening, by train or otherwise. The reporters started commiserating. For them, no news was bad news; all were facing empty-handed return trips to their city desks.
Al declared he was going to make up a story and hand it in. The other three laughed.
Someone suggested they all walk over to the Oxford Hotel and have a beer. They did.
Jack said he liked Al's idea about faking a story. Why didn't each of them fake a story and get off the hook?
John said Jack was thinking too small. Four half-baked fakes didn't cut it. What they needed was one real whopper they could all use. Another round of beers.
A phony domestic story would be too easy to check on, so they began discussing foreign angles that would be difficult to verify. And that is THE REST OF THE STORY.
China was distant enough, it was agreed. They would write about China.
John leaned forward, gesturing dramatically in the dim light of the barroom. Try this one on, he said: Group of American engineers, stopping over in Denver on route to China. The Chinese government is making plans to demolish the Great Wall; our engineers are bidding on the job.
Harold was skeptical. Why would the Chinese want to destroy the Great Wall of China?
John thought for a moment. They're tearing down the ancient boundary to symbolize international good will, to welcome foreign trade! Another round of beers.
By 11 p.m. the four reporters had worked out the details of their preposterous story. After leaving the Oxford Bar, they would go over to the Windsor Hotel. They would sign four fictitious names to the hotel register. They would instruct the desk clerk to tell anyone who asked that four New Yorkers had arrived that evening, had been interviewed by reporters, had left early the next morning for California.
The Denver newspapers carried the story, All four of them. Front page. In fact, the Times headline that Sunday read: GREAT CHINESE WALL DOOMED! PEKING SEEKS WORLD TRADE!
Of course, the story was a phony, a ludicrous fabrication concocted by four capricious newsmen in a hotel bar.
But their story was taken seriously, was picked up and expanded by newspapers in the Eastern U.S. and then by newspapers abroad.
When the Chinese themselves learned that the Americans were sending a demolition crew to tear down their national monument, most were indignant; some were enraged!
Particularly incensed were the members of a secret society, a volatile group of Chinese patriots who were already wary of foreign intervention.
They, inspired by the story, exploded, rampaged against the foreign embassies in Peking, slaughtered hundreds of missionaries.
In two months, 12,000 troops from six countries joined forces, invaded China with the purpose of protecting their own countrymen.
The bloodshed which followed, sparked by a journalistic hoax invented in a barroom in Denver, became the white-hot international conflagration known to every high school history student . . . as the "Boxer Rebellion." --Paul Harvey
3. We talk a great deal about the death of Jesus -- we will discuss the "Rest of the Story" today
4. Matthew 28.1-10
I. Jesus' Entrance Into the World
A. Birth -- ordinary and extraordinary
1, To an ordinary young woman in an ordinary Jewish town
2. Supernatural conception of a virgin
3. Angelic announcement to shepherds (low lives or special, tending the flocks to be used in the temple sacrifices?)
4. Subtleties in his birth
a. Bethlehem -- House of bread; bread of life; City of David -- right lineage
b. Shepherds -- Jesus is the good shepherd; AND Lamb of God
B. Life
"Jesus lived a good life in a wicked world to show that it can be done."
1. We know the present darkness -- it was present then, too
2. Jesus, , lived so close to God, it was as if the written words of God came alive -- John 1.14
3. He was so filled with the word of God that it was always on his lips -- even in his death -- Psalms 22; 31
II. Jesus' Exit From the World
Before we think about the crucifixion of Jesus, let's go back a few centuries and lay a foundation:
A. Covenant with Abraham -- Genesis 15
Centuries ago God made a covenant with a nomad in the Negev, wilderness. Abram
1. "Cutting Covenant"
2. Taking animals, cut in half, and make a blood path
3. Both parties would walk through the blood signifying that if they broke covenant, their blood would be required of them
4. God went through the blood path twice and by doing so he said that he would make sure his covenant would be fulfilled even if Abram and his descendants could not walk before him perfectly -- it was here that God promised to shed his blood and pay the price for us
B. Moses established the religious worship system for the nation of Israel
1. Daily sacrifices -- mid-morning; mid-afternoon (approximately 9 AM and 3 PM) -- each person could say to God at those moments, "You promised to pay the price for my failures." At the proper time the shofar sounded as a lamb or goat was brought before the altar and had its neck cut open and its blood collected;
2. Illustration of Marriage Proposal in Last Supper
a. Negotiation of Bride price; not for purchase but to replace loss of a daughter; high price as buying a house
b. When agreed on price, the groom's father would pour a cup of wine and give it to his son; the son would turn to the woman, and hold it to her and say, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which I offer to you." (I love you, I will give my life for you; will you marry me?); Her choice did not involve a word -- give the cup back, saying NO; or drink the cup, saying YES, I accept your offer and give you my life in response;
c. Last Supper -- Passover meal; third cup -- cup of redemption; Jesus lifted the cup and gave the Hebrew blessing; then he held it to them and said the unexpected -- this cup is the NC in my blood which I offer to you -- implication: I love you, passionate love of husband for wife; seemed odd to have a marriage proposal in Passover Seder -- yet would understand his love for them in his DBR
3. Passover at Jesus' crucifixion -- 9 AM and 3 PM -- Darkness at noon; "It is finished" at exactly at the time of sacrifice that the Jewish people had practiced for hundreds of years -- Mark 15.33-34
III. Jesus' Evidence to the World (Empty Tomb)
A. Garden near the place of execution of Jesus -- John 19.41
1. Place for food
2. New Tomb in or near the garden, cut from the rock -- to be used for generations; sealed by a stone that rolled over the entrance; burial and gathering of bones for ossuary
3. Joseph of Arimathea took body of Jesus and placed in his tomb, sealed it, and went away --38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. John 19.38-40
B. Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the Sabbath after Passover (Leviticus 23)
1. Combined the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread
2. This year Unleavened Bread was the very next day -- beginning at sunset
3. Feast that gave thanks to God for giving them life from the earth -- grain, etc. and trust that he would provide what they needed for harvest
4. Time of prayer for life from ground
5. At this time Jesus was buried, planted as the feast began Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12.24)
C. Who would roll the stone for the women?
1. Sequence -- Jesus came out of tomb -- angel rolled stone so disciples could look in and see that he was alive;
2. No stone could hold back the power of Messiah when it was time for resurrection
D. Feast of First Fruits -- resurrection -- But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15.20
1. Now we know the rest of the story, his Good News: He is not here, but has risen. Luke 24.6
2. Good news requires response
