John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

Where others acknowledge that Jesus did live, they report him to be a good teacher. Sound wisdom is appreciated in most secular societies because wisdom is not religious in form. Many books have been written that share wisdom, not all of them are religious in design.

Even here Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, acknowledges Jesus as a teacher, sent of God but does not acknowledge Him as God. The history of Israel is full of prophets who moved in power. For them, another prophet moving in power was not out of place. What was not expected or accepted was the understanding that God Himself would take on human form.

Expectation seems to be key in our understanding of who is Jesus. Nicodemus had an expectation of the Messiah which was at odds with what He saw in Jesus. It was in the next verses that Jesus confounded Nicodemus’ expectations.

John 3:3-4 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

Jesus confounds expectations. When I made Jesus the Lord of my life, I had expectations. He confounded my expectations and I am a believer. Imagine what He will do those who only call him teacher, or a prophet, or wise in their view? Confounding expectations can only happen for those of us who see Christ.

Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Christ is the revelation.

Matthew 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

If there is one issue which points directly to why anyone would not believe in any religion it would have to be the issue of resurrection. If there is no resurrection, what is the point of any religion? I once asked a Buddhist why she was a Buddhist and her reply was, “So that I will be kinder to my fellow man.” My reply to that was, “You do not need religion to do that.”

The issues of an afterlife are not totally unique to Christianity. A desire for immortality is common within natural man. Beliefs of an afterlife vary within different belief systems as to what that looks like and how it comes about. Reincarnation is a form of resurrection with a different method of understanding. It is not seen in these days, so a fair amount of skepticism is to be expected.

1 Corinthians 15:17a And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain;

Faith fails if there is no resurrection. So how can we know by faith that we believe in a risen Savior? If we do not have a reasonable answer, why should anyone believe our witness?

2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

We believe in the promise of resurrection because He has kept His word in the other promises. It is not that much different than any relationship we develop with mankind. If they keep their word, we gain trust in what they say. Broken trust breaks fellowship. I can say as a faithful witness, God has not broken one promise with me.

Those promises are manifested in Christ and if you do not abide in Christ, those promises are not to you.