He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 See, with radical statements like these it’s impossible to simply place Jesus in the "good guy with great intentions" category. Because if these statements aren’t true it means that Jesus was either a blatant liar or He was absolutely out of His mind and insane! Kind of makes you think doesn’t it? You see, if what He is saying is true it means that my eternal destiny lies in the balance of my single decision to accept Him, or reject Him.

Question: with claims like these what proof did He offer to validate such claims, how can we know that Jesus is all that He said He is? It’s a great question and one that Jesus readily validates which brings me to our third and final consideration as we distinguish Jesus from all the other "religious leaders" in world history.

What is it that sets Jesus apart from all these other guys that claim to have the answer as to how one is made right in the sight of God? Well, apart from Him being the Son of God, apart from the radical claims concerning Himself that He made, I’ll give you two words… "The Resurrection."

One day the religious leaders of Jesus’ day asked Him the same basic question. They said, "‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt 12:38-40. What’s that? Jesus said that even as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Which is to say that He would be dead for three days; but even as Jonah was brought back out of the bowels of the great fish after three days (alive) even so death wouldn’t be able to hold Him down but that He would rise again on the third day! Listen friend, Buddha is dead, Confucius is dead, Muhammad is dead, Jesus is alive! He’s ascended on high and is seated upon the throne at the right hand of God! The bible records for us the fact that there were over five hundred eye witnesses to the risen Christ at one time (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)!