It goes without saying that Jesus was not the Messiah of conventional wisdom--a military prince to deliver Israel from Rome; instead, they got a pacifist with a whole new way of living. No one had the unique character of Christ that forgave His enemies and had compassion on the multitudes; no one had exhibited such unprecedented conduct like turning the other cheek or practicing what He preached to such a magnitude; no one demonstrated such unparalleled claims like being the incarnation of God--yet people were puzzled as to His very identity: He didn't go around advertising that He was the Son of David, neither did He ever deny it. He did speak in figures of speech at first but didn't always beat around the bush--His enemies knew full well what He was claiming. He didn't have a publicity agent to promote Him, but the word sure got around that He couldn't escape the adoring crowds and curiosity seekers.
In short, no one has ever had His credentials, just like George Gordon, Lord Byron said, "If ever a man were God, or God was a man, Jesus was both." For instance, he despised duplicity and hypocrisy in others, and yet he was so straightforward and guileless Himself. This is notable because normally familiarity breeds contempt, and the closer the disciples got to Him the more they saw their sin, not His and respected Him to the point of worshiping.
Jesus is unique and cannot be pegged or put in a box to be analyzed: No one ever spoke like Jesus; He is easily the most outstanding personality of all time and easily the dominant figure of Western Civilization; His ethic is unheard of to the time in formulating the Golden Rule; He is the greatest teacher, lived the holiest life, has the most adherents, made the biggest impact on history, and He is by far the leader par excellence of mankind (John Stuart Mill, atheist, called Him the "guide of humanity") and the greatest man of letters, William Shakespeare called Him his Lord and Savior in his will. Without an army He has conquered more hearts, without going to formal school or penning anything He has inspired more songs, books, poetry, and sermons that can be counted! Even Napoleon wandered at His influence over man and said, "I tell you, I know men, and Jesus was no mere man!"
Let's examine some credentials of the God-man: His enemies concede more than you might realize in saying He was innocent blood, truly the Son of God, having no fault to crucify for, and did nothing worthy of death. His friends like Peter testified that He was the Son of the living God, and Thomas cried, "My Lord, and my God." The thief on the cross unwittingly said that "He saved others." The chief priests and elders couldn't deny the miracles (it was common knowledge!) that He wrought and even plotted to kill Lazarus because of his testimony. Some of the strongest credentials are the 333 prophecies He fulfilled to the letter of at least 456 details. He had all the witnesses you could ask for John the Baptist announced the inauguration of His ministry; the Holy Spirit was there at His baptism; the soldier at the cross realized He was the Son of God; Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus; a heavenly chorus of angels sang at His birth; More than 500 eyewitnesses saw Him in His resurrected body at one time; He was showered with gifts by magi; (the books couldn't all be written) ad infinitum.
The sign of His virgin birth, given as fulfillment of prophecy (Is. 7:14) was a biological anomaly, but is wholly consistent with His character: If a man lived the kind of life He did and died the way He did, you would believe Him when He claimed a virgin birth, unlike Alexander the Great, who claimed his real father was a snake!
To mention in passing that His historicity is vouched for by pagan as well as religious or spiritual sources is only common sense. Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus, et al mention vital facts about Christ inadvertently and what seems fortuitously. One can no longer dismiss the Scripture record as legend or myth because these didn't have time to develop and the timeline places them in the first century mostly before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
We would have no reason to believe in His deity had He not risen from the dead to prove it as the ultimate credential--this is a historical fact that can be vouched for by more various sources than any antiquarian fact. His miracles were not denied but attributed to Satan--even the historian Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews claimed miracles done and the Jews never denied this. The point is that He didn't just do fantastic miracles to attract attention, on-demand, or for selfish reasons, but only as signs of His nature and out of compassion. In multiplying the loaves He was proclaiming Himself as the Bread of Life; in raising Lazarus as the Resurrection and the Life, etc.
In application, we have to realize that we present Jesus to the world and people look at our personal credentials: What manner of person are we or what are we really made of in a crisis? Our testimony shows our true colors and there comes a time when our actions may speak louder than our words. To some people, Jesus would never measure up because He isn't what they are looking for; and likewise, we will be rejected by the world and we must learn that the world hated Him and will hate us also. We have the honor to bear our cross, which pales in comparison to His, and to suffer for Jesus in ways that He never did to complete them and so that we can share the fellowship of suffering as Paul did and said in Philippians 3:10 (ESV) which says, "[T]hat I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings [the fellowship of His sufferings] ...."
In sum, John couldn't have said it more clearly: "This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true" (John 21:24, ESV). I appeal to no higher authority than Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, because He is the highest authority and is self-attesting. This means that Jesus measures up and to appeal to any other authority than to Him is to dethrone Him and exalt that authority to God-like status.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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