1. Our Lord said in John 14:20, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."
2. This means that those of us that are saved are in Christ, and Christ is in us.
3. The phrase "in Christ," or its equivalent “in Him,” is used many times in the New Testament. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
4. The phrase "in Christ" states a position in Christ which means nothing less than an organic union with Christ. This union is formed supernaturally through the power of the Holy Spirit the moment one is saved.
5. The Bible gives various figures to illustrate this union. One of the figures is given in John 15 -- the vine and the branches.
6. In John 15:5, our Lord said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
7. The life of God is in the vine, and the vine is the Lord Jesus Christ. The branches are not outside of the vine -- they are part of the vine.
8. Another figure, found often in Paul's epistles, is the head with its various members in the body. Paul says in I Corinthians 12:27, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."
9. Our union with Christ is compared by Paul to that between the head and the members in the body. Christ is the head of the body.
10. Charles Wesley wrote, "Alive in him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine."
11. Not only is the believer “in Christ,” but Christ is in the believer (John 14:20; 15:4, 5).
12. Those that have been born again have received eternal life. Jesus said in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Eternal life and abundant life.
13. Unsaved people think salvation is nothing more than joining a church or changing religions or following certain rules, etc.
14. Just yesterday a woman angrily refused a tract, asking me, "Is this religion?"
15. Different religions teach various rules and rituals, but Jesus gives us eternal life -- new life imparted, not reformation or religion or ritual or rules.
16. Have you received this eternal life? Are you in Christ? Is Christ in you?
17. According to II Corinthians 13:5, all Christian profession is to be judged by this: “Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (Salvation).
18. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “Christ liveth in me.”
19. And in Colossians 1:27 he said, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

I. OUR SAFE PROTECTION (JOHN 14:20).

1. This is taught throughout the Bible. David said, "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower" (Psalm 18:2).
2. Proverbs 18:10 says, "The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."
3. However, when we come to the Gospel of John we learn that not only is the LORD our rock, and our fortress, and our deliverer, and our strong tower, but we are in Christ, and Christ is in us (John 14:20).
4. A.T. Pierson said, "Such a phrase suggests that He is to the believer the sphere of this new life or being. Let us observe -- a sphere rather than a circle. A circle surrounds us, but only on one plane; but a sphere encompasses, envelopes us, surrounding us in every direction and on every plane. If you draw a circle on the floor, and step within its circumference, you are within it only on the level of the floor. But, if that circle could become a sphere, and you be within it, it would on every side surround you -- above and below, before and behind, on the right hand and on the left.

"Moreover, the sphere that surrounds you also separates you from whatever is outside of it. Again, in proportion as such a sphere is strong it also protects whatever is within it from all that is without -- from all external foes or perils. And yet again, it supplies, to whomsoever is within it, whatever it contains. This may help us to understand the great truth taught with such clearness, especially in the New Testament. Christ is there presented throughout as the sphere of the believer's whole life and being, and in this truth are included these conditions:

First, Christ Jesus surrounds or embraces the believer, in His own life; second, He separates the believer in Himself from all hostile influences; third, He protects him in Himself from all perils and foes of his life; fourth, He provides and supplies in Himself all that is needful" (In Christ Jesus).

5. Our Lord said in John 14:20, "At that day ye shall know..." Our Lord was referring to the Day of Pentecost (cf. John 14:16-19).
6. Our Lord said, "At that day ye shall know..."
7. We know by experience; we know by the witness of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16); and we know by the Word of God.
8. The Lord Jesus is in the Father, and we are in Christ, and Christ is in us (John 14:20). This guarantees eternal security.
9. Ephesians 1:13 says, "Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise."
10. John Phillips wrote this guarantees "the transformation of our lives in (Christ) by the transmission of His life through us" (Exploring the Gospels, John).

II. OUR STRONG POSITION -- "Ye in me" (14:20)

1. People today are very weak. They need Christ.
2. People today are very confused. They need Christ.
3. People today are very worried. They need Christ.
4. People today are very angry. They need Christ.
5. People today are very unstable. They need Christ.
6. People today are very troubled. They need Christ.
7. Twice here in John 14, our Lord says, "Let not your heart be troubled" (14:1, 27).
8. In a message on our strong position in Christ, W.H. Griffith Thomas quotes Macbeth asking the doctor, "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?"
9. In Shakespeare's famous play, the doctor had just told Macbeth that his wife, Lady Macbeth "is troubled with thick coming fancies, That keep her from her rest."
10. There are many disturbed people in this world today -- troubled, anxious, worried, upset, nervous, agitated, full of guilt and shame.
11. Many years ago, at the World’s Fair in Chicago, a conference was held of all the major world religions. An old-fashioned preacher named Cook was chosen to represent the Christian faith, and he was given an opportunity to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over all the religions of all the worlds.
12. After all of the others -- Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems, and so on -- had spoken, this Dr. Cook went to the podium and quoted from Shakespeare’s play "Macbeth."
13. Lady Macbeth was furiously rubbing her hands and she said, "Out, damned spot! out, I say...Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!"
14. This preacher gave his recitation of Shakespeare and he was so effective it almost seemed like Lady Macbeth herself was up on the stage. The crowd listened quietly and attentively as Lady Macbeth looked at her hands indelibly stained with the blood of the innocent King Duncan, and cried, “Out…! Out, I say!”
15. Then Dr. Cook asked, “Are there any religions here this day that could cleanse the hands of Lady Macbeth? Cleanse her from murderous blood? From guilt? Who has a religion that could cleanse her hands of this sinful stain, this spot that incriminates and condemns?”
16. One man stood to his feet and said, “I have no remedy for cleansing, but had I been able to talk to Lady Macbeth before she sinned, I might have been able to keep her from sinning.”
17. Another stood to his feet and said, “I have no remedy for cleansing, but if I could have talked with Lady Macbeth, I could have helped her have peace of mind in spite of the fact that her hands were stained with blood.”
18. Then Dr. Cook asked again, “Is there anyone who has a remedy for cleansing this condemning spot of which she has cried? Who can remove it? Who can cleanse it? Who can get it off her hand—this guilt, this sin?”
19. All was quiet. No one had a remedy.
20. Finally, the preacher said, “The Bible has a remedy. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sin” (I John 1:7).
21. When Jesus said, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you," He spoke of acceptance ("wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved" -- Eph. 1:6); and He spoke of pardon, and access, and righteousness.
22. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." "In Him." This is our safe protection, our strong position, and...

III. OUR SURE PROVISION -- "I in you"

1. In Christ, the believer finds a new sphere of life with sevenfold blessing (from A. T. Pierson, In Christ Jesus).
2. First, justification with its new standing and acceptance before God.
3. Second, sanctification with its new power for holy living in the Spirit of God.
4. Third, fellowship with God in the actual practical walk in newness of life.
5. Fourth, exaltation to the heavenlies in an earnest or foretaste of a heavenly life.
6. Fifth, compensation for all present self-denials and sufferings and renunciations for Christ's sake.
7. Sixth, identification with Christ in His present hidden life at the right hand of the Father.
8. Seventh, glorification when our Lord returns
9. When Christ says, "I in you," that speaks of power.
10. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
11. When Christ says, "I in you," that speaks of peace (Jn. 14:27; 16:33).
12. When Christ says, "I in you," that speaks of hope. Colossians 1:27 says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."
13. When Christ says, "I in you," that speaks of our new life in Christ. We serve God not out of fear, but out of love (John 14:15). Obedience is the true expression of love.
14. We have power over sin because Christ is in us. First John 3:6 says, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not."
15. When Christ says, "I in you," that speaks of answered prayers (John 14:13, 14).
16. When Christ says, "I in you," that means we are indwelt with all the power of God because Colossians 2:9 says, "For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."
17. Ephesians 3:19 says, "that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
18. When Christ says, "I in you," that means we are indwelt with the power of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 17).
19. John 1:16 says, "And of his fulness have all we received."
20. When Christ says, "I am in you," that means no loneliness (Jn. 14:18).

No, never alone,
He promised never to leave me,
Never to leave me alone. — Ludie D. Pickett

CONCLUSION:

Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see;
But in God’s Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me.
 
Christ liveth in me,
Christ liveth in me,
Oh! what a salvation this,
That Christ liveth in me.
 
As rays of light from yonder sun,
The flowers of earth set free,
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ living in me.
 
As lives the flower within the seed,
As in the cone the tree,
So, praise the God of truth and grace,
His Spirit dwelleth in me.
 
With longing all my heart is filled,
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell
That Christ liveth in me. — Daniel W. Whittle