Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message August 17, 2025

2 Timothy 1:12

Theme: The secret to confident endurance in the Christian faith is in truly knowing Christ Himself.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This is an important weekend for me. Yesterday—on August 16—I celebrated the fifty-second anniversary of the day when I placed my faith in Jesus Christ and became born again. Before that day, I could say that I knew about Jesus. I had certainly heard of Him, and had understood that many people believed He was the Son of God. But that was all I knew. I only knew a few things about Him—and even then, I didn’t know those things very deeply. Whatever things I knew about Jesus, I only knew from afar. But it was on that evening—fifty-two years ago—that I was watching a television program. I didn’t know at the time that it was a Billy Graham crusade. I just turned the television on and was surprised to hear the testimony of someone who talked about Jesus as if she truly ‘knew’ Him. It was the famous singer Ethel Waters. She spoke of Jesus in a way that was strange to me—as if she had a personal relationship with Him. To me, Jesus was only a person from history; but she talked about how much she loved Him. And as I listened, I couldn’t get over how impressed I was that she truly ‘knew’ Him, and that she had sincere joy in a relationship with Him. I didn’t know that such a thing was possible. I was a sinner; and I didn’t think I could have any kind of relationship with God at all—let alone know His Son Jesus Christ. But later on, Billy Graham came on the television screen and explained how I could have a personal relationship with Jesus by faith and that He would cleanse me of all my sins and help me to live a brand new life. I prayed that evening to place my trust in what Jesus did on the cross, and asked Him to transform me. And He did! I entered that night into a personal relationship of love with the heavenly Father through faith in Jesus; and the Lord Jesus has been changing my life ever since. That was fifty-two years ago. I know that many of you here this morning have a similar story. And I believe that you would agree with me that there’s all the difference in the world between ‘knowing’ about Jesus … and truly ‘knowing” Jesus personally. Knowing Jesus in that life-transforming way is what this morning’s passage is about. It’s just one verse—in 2 Timothy 1:12; but it’s a verse that has given hope and encouragement to countless Christians throughout the centuries. It has upheld them in their faith during some of the most difficult trials imaginable. It has also upheld me. In it, the apostle Paul wrote;

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).

The apostle Paul didn’t just ‘know about’ the One whom he believed. Rather, he truly ‘knew’ Him in a deep and personal and relational way. And that’s what made all the difference in his trials.

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Now; a few weeks ago, we had been studying the larger context of this passage. And back then, I suggested to you that we needed to give a whole Sunday morning’s time to this one verse. It is very much worthy of careful attention. If we were to make a list of the verses that every Christian ought to commit to memory, I feel sure that this verse—2 Timothy 1:12—should be on that list. So; let’s take a moment to remember the context in which it’s found. In 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul was writing his final letter to his young friend and ministry colleague, Pastor Timothy. Only a year or two after he had written his first letter to Timothy, Paul had been arrested and put in a Roman prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus. Paul had been cast into jail for preaching that gospel many times before; but he knew that this time, he would not be released. He was about to be put to death. And so; this letter gives us the final words of one of the most faithful, devoted Christians in history as he was about to die for the Lord Jesus whom he loved. Pastor Timothy knew this. And it tempted him to be a little fearful. But in 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul told Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Timothy didn’t need to be afraid. Paul went on to encourage him in verses 8-11 by saying;

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles (vv. 8-11).

If you’ll look those words over carefully, you’ll see that Paul encouraged Timothy by giving him some tips in how to overcome his fears: that is, by trusting in the power of God, by remembering that both he and Paul had been called to the ministry of the gospel by God Himself from before time, by keeping his eyes on the Lord Jesus who has already gained the victory over death, and by following the great examples God had given him of devoted faithfulness to Christ. Paul even pointed to himself as such an example. He reminded Timothy that he himself had been appointed as a preacher, and apostle, and as a teacher of the gospel. He knew the reality of all these things in his own personal experience; and that was why he kept on with his work—though it cost him greatly. That’s when he said, “For this reason”—that is, because of this divine appointment to ministry—“I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” And do you see what made the difference for Paul? It wasn’t just that he knew ‘what’ He believed—even though he certainly did know what he believed. And it wasn’t that he simply knew about Jesus and found inspiration in Him as a historical figure. The difference was in the fact that he knew the resurrected Lord Jesus experientially and had a personal relationship with Him. He knew Him whom he had believed. He knew Jesus in such a way as to love Him with all his heart and soul for having died on the cross for him, and to trust Him for all that would happen in the trials he was undergoing, and to have placed all his hopes and expectations for the future upon Him—even at the cost of his life. In fact, it wasn’t very long after he wrote those words that Paul was made to place his head on a block of wood, to hear the swish of the executioner’s ax, and to suddenly gaze upon the face of the Jesus he loved and trusted so much. And what was the secret to Paul’s endurance in it all—all the way to the end? It was that he knew Jesus—truly knew Him. So then, dear brothers and sisters; this one verse shows us something that we need to understand—something crucial for our daily life of devotion to Jesus. And that’s that the secret to confident endurance in the Christian faith—even in times of great trial and hardship—is in truly knowing Christ Himself. This verse is a call for you and me to make sure that we, ourselves, sincerely know Jesus as Paul did.

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Now; look closely at the words that we find in the middle of this verse. Paul said, “ I know whom I have believed …” Paul didn’t just know about Jesus, but knew Him by personally walking with Him and trusting Him and depending on Him. For Paul, it wasn’t a matter of mere intellectual awareness or mere religious belief. It was a deep, loving, personal relationship with a wonderful Person named Jesus. And this teaches us that …

1. WE MUST TRULY ‘KNOW’ THE ONE WE HAVE BELIEVED.

In the original language, the word that Paul used for ‘knowing’ Jesus isn’t the usual word for simply knowing a thing intellectually. The common word for knowing something in just a mere ‘informational’ way is the Greek word ginosko. It usually describes a knowledge by which we learn about something in a relatively incomplete way—but by which we may make progress in our understanding of that thing. It would be the word we’d use if we wanted to say, “I know a little French”, or “I’m getting to know more about baseball.” If someone asked if we knew someone else in a ginosko sort of way, we might respond by saying, “Well, yes; I think I’ve heard of him before. I don’t know him, but I know of him.” That’s how we’d know something or someone in a ginosko way. But the Greek word that Paul used in this verse is a different word than ginosko. The word that Paul used in this verse is oida. And it’s a word that describes a full and complete, and wholly perceptive grasp of a thing. If I wanted to say, “I know a little French,” I’d use the word ginosko; but if I wanted to say, “But I have a friend Jean Baptiste grew up in Paris and taught at Sorbonne University, and who has even written textbooks on classical French literature; and if I had any questions about French, I call and ask him because that guy really knows French as a personal, living language”, then I’d use the word oida. I could say, “I know a Frenchman in a ginosko way who really knows French in an oida way!” There’s something that the Lord Jesus once said that powerfully illustrates this difference to us. In John 8, He was being confronted by the unbelieving leaders of the Jewish people. He responded by telling them that it was the heavenly Father who honored Him—even though they said that they honored God but didn’t believe in Him. And He told them in verse 55,

“… you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word” (John 8:55).

When He told the religious leaders that they didn’t know God, His Father, He spoke of a ginosko kind of knowledge. He was saying that they didn’t even really have the basic ginosko knowledge of His Father; because if they did, they would have honored Him as God’s Son. But He knew the Father with an oida kind of knowledge—a knowledge that was deep and personal and thorough and experiential and relational; a knowledge that was demonstrated by His love for the Father and by His obedience to the Father’s commands. And that, dear brothers and sisters, is the kind of knowledge that Paul said he had of the Lord Jesus when he wrote that he ‘knew him who he believed’. It was that kind of knowledge of Jesus that enabled him to endure through the many ups and downs of life. It was the kind of knowledge of the Lord Jesus that enabled him to say, in Philippians 4:12-13;

I know [oida] how to be abased, and I know [oida] how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:12-13).

Do you know Jesus in that way? Do you know Him with the kind of perfect and complete and experientially thorough knowledge that motivated Paul? Do you have a relationship with Him in which you love Him and trust Him and obey Him in the daily matters of life? It’s very sad that someone in church can hear all about Jesus all their lives long—and have even been taught significant theological truths about Him from the Bible—and still not really know Him in a personal and relational way. They can understand the things the Bible says about Him; but still not have entered into a relationship with Him so that they love Him and depend on Him in a personal way. Think of it! In the Gospels, Jesus never told the people who heard Him, “Become a Christian.” He never told anyone, “Join My religion.” He never told anyone, “Embrace My philosophy.” Instead, He told people, “Follow Me.” He told Peter and Andrew, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19). He told Matthew the tax collector, “Follow Me” (Matthew 9:9). He told the rich young ruler to “come. follow Me” (Matthew 19:28). He said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). He made ‘knowing Him’ not just a matter of head knowledge, but of personal relationship. He said,

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

And so; do you know Him in that way? Have you prayed, “Lord Jesus, I know about You; but I want to truly know You. Help me to follow You, and obey You, and depend upon You, and trust You, and experience life-transformation through You, and grow to love You more. I want for my experience with you to be like Paul’s; who once said, ‘Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead’ (Philippians 3:8-11). Help me, Lord Jesus, to truly know You!” If you truly know Him as Paul did; then you’ll know His power in your life … as Paul did.

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So then; Paul could testify that he truly knew the Lord Jesus. He could say, “ I know whom I have believed …”

2. AND THEN, KNOWING HIM AS WE SHOULD …

… we can—like Paul—testify to the victorious power of Jesus in the midst of the greatest trial of life. In the midst of that cold, dark prison cell as he awaited his execution, Paul himself could write, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” Paul’s words in this verse help us to see that, by knowing Him whom we have believed—truly knowing Him—we will be enabled by Him to live a victorious Christian life to His glory. First, notice that, knowing Him—truly knowing Him who left the glory of heaven for us, walked on this earth as one of us, and willingly suffered the agony of the cross for us in order to save us and bring us to Himself forever—we will gladly endure all things for Him. At the beginning of this verse, Paul wrote, “For this reason I also suffer these things …” It was because the resurrected Lord Jesus had personally called him and appointed him to be a preacher, and apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, that he confidently endured whatever the Lord had called him to go through—even if it meant sitting in a prison cell awaiting death. He was gladly willing to do so because he knew Jesus experientially. Some time earlier in his life, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the believers in the ancient city of Thessalonica. They were suffering persecution for their faith. But they faithfully kept on declaring their faith in Jesus—even if it meant that they would suffer for doing so. And at the beginning of his second letter to them, Paul told them;

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer … (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5).

Why would they be willing to endure such suffering? It was because they knew the One in whom they had believed. And if we also know Him with that deep, personal knowledge of love, we’ll be willing to endure all things for Him, too. Second, notice that, knowing Him as we should—knowing the One who so lovingly suffered great shame on the cross for us—we will not be ashamed of suffering for Him. Paul wrote, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed …” Others may have been ashamed. In fact, as we read through this letter, we find that many who once had been willing to be associated with Paul and his ministry turned from him when they saw how he suffered. But he Himself was not ashamed to suffer for Jesus. The unbelieving people of this world may look upon us as we suffer for Jesus and consider us a pathetic joke. Friends and relatives may even be embarrassed by our faith. They may consider it a cause for shame to be called a Christian. They may even—in respect to the values and priorities of this world—consider it a genuine cause for condemnation to be associated with the Christian faith. But just think of what the apostle Paul once wrote in Romans 8:33-34;

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us (Romans 8:33-34).

Even though we may suffer shame in the eyes of this world for our devotion to Jesus—and even for our willingness to suffer loss for His sake—we ourselves don’t have to feel ashamed. If we truly know Him whom we believe—the risen Lord of glory—then we can be at peace; knowing that He stands at the Father’s right hand for us to intercede for us and to affirm the Father’s approval of us. And if God—who sent His Son to redeem us—is for us; and if Jesus—who willingly gave His all for us—stands ready to defend us, who then can be against us? Notice thirdly that—knowing Him who has risen from the dead in victory, and who now has the keys of Hades and Death in His hand—we will confidently trust our future to Him. Paul wrote, “for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him …” When Paul wrote that he was ‘persuaded’—or as it can be translated ‘convinced’—he used the same ‘perfect tense’ of the word that he used when he spoke of the completeness and thoroughness of his knowledge of Christ Himself. He was, in other words, fully convinced—in the most complete sense—that he could confidently place what he had ‘committed’ to Jesus into His safe-keeping; knowing the faithfulness of the Lord. What was it that he had entrusted to the Lord? Many Bible scholars have debated that question. But it makes sense to me to think that it was his very life, his hopes for the future, his aspirations, his comfort, his happiness, his eternal destiny—in other words, all of the things that someone else might have otherwise been tempted to protect for themselves by not suffering for Jesus. I feel very sure that Paul was thinking of what the Lord Jesus once said in Matthew 16:24-27;

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works (Matthew 16:24-27).

Paul didn’t try to cling to his life. He willingly laid it into the hand of the Lord Jesus for His safe-keeping; knowing that he would lose whatever he tried to keep for his own sake, but that he would keep what he willingly laid down for Jesus’ sake. And if we also know Him whom we have believed, we too can confidently place our entire future into His safe-keeping—knowing that we will receive it all back … and then some! And finally, notice that—knowing Him whom we have believed—we will a have joyful expectation of the day of His return. At the end of it all, Paul wrote that “He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day”. What ‘Day’ would that be? It would be that future day when Jesus would come back to resurrect Paul—and to resurrect all who have believed on Him—and reward their faithfulness to Him. Now; the Lord Jesus didn’t come back for Paul to deliver him from prison. As we all know, Paul died. And countless saints throughout the centuries who have also trusted Jesus, and who have also laid down their lives for Him, didn’t yet see Him return for them either. But as Paul once wrote to that group of suffering Thessalonian believers;

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

Paul himself was absolutely confident in this, and joyfully looked ahead to the coming of the Lord—even though he was fully aware that he would die before the Lord’s return. At the end of this letter, he wrote,

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; we too will experience a joyful expectation of the day of the Lord’s return—and our anticipation of glory—if we truly know Him whom we have believed. He is a mighty Savior who keeps all His promises to all those who trust Him!

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So then; as Paul declared,

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).

It has made all the difference for me when—that day fifty-two years ago—I went from merely knowing about Jesus to truly knowing Him as my Savior, my Lord, my Friend, and my reason for hope. He transformed my life—and is still transforming it—and will transform it all the way to glory. What about you? Do you know—truly know—Him whom you have believed? It will make all the difference if you do. It’s the secret to enduring in the Christian faith—even in times of great trial. AE AE