In his sermon, Jason Dohm explores John 17:6-8, where Jesus prays, laying the groundwork for requests He will make for His disciples. The sermon highlights how Jesus manifested His Father's name to His disciples, revealing the essential character of God. This manifestation forms the basis for Jesus' upcoming prayers, as it demonstrates the disciples' faith and connection to God's will. Dohm underscores the repeated themes in John 17, such as the giving of a people by the Father to the Son and the world. He explains that the disciples were given the grace to discern that Jesus' words and works were from God, setting them apart as the Father's possession given to the Son for salvation. Dohm encourages believers to use this model of prayer, establishing biblical truths to support their requests, and assures them of Jesus' ongoing intercession on their behalf.

The sermon text today is John chapter 17 verses 6 through 8. We'll read from verse 1 for context. John 17 verse 1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you as you have given him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified you on earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do and Now oh father glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was I Have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you.

For I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you send me." The title of the sermon this morning is, praying the grounds for upcoming requests. Last week we began chapter 17. It's an eight week journey, so this is week two of eight. The entire chapter, all 26 verses, are the prayer of the Lord Jesus to His Father on the night before His substitutionary death on the cross. The beginning of the prayer, what we studied last week, verses 1-5, Jesus prayed regarding the exaltation, the glorification of Himself and His Father through the work of the cross.

He actually said, the hour has come. The hour being that one appointed hour in human history where the Son of God would take the sins of His people on His shoulder and make peace with His perfectly righteous Father. That great act of bringing His righteous Father together with the sinful people who He desired to set His love on, The purpose of it was to glorify Himself and to glorify His Father. So He began His great prayer in John 17, praying that. Our text today actually sets up requests that Jesus will make to his Father for his disciples beginning in next week text.

So that the actual request for his disciples won't begin until next week. Our text next week will begin in verse 9. I pray for them and then He will begin to pray requests for them. So our three verses today, verse 6, verse 7, verse 8, is Jesus praying things that set up His requests which we will embark on next week. Jesus is laying the groundwork for His intercession.

Jesus is establishing the fundamental truths which connect His requests to His Father's will. So this is exactly how I want you to see these three verses. He's connecting what will be His requests with His Father's will. Why should Jesus pray for these men? And why should his Father act in response to his prayers?

Both of those things are established by what Jesus prays in these verses. He's setting the grounds for the requests that he will make going forward in this prayer. Let's ask for the Lord to help us. Jesus, you are God, you are the great head of the church, you are the only mediator between God and man. I thank you for your never-ending intercession for your people.

Right now, as we meet to consider your Word, there you are at the right hand of your Father, interceding for us, pleading for our help. God, use this prayer in John 17, use the preaching of Your Word to convince us that it's true, that You are actively involved every moment in pleading for the good of your people. What a glorious truth. We really want to believe it. To have it at the forefront of our thoughts.

We pray that you would help us in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's begin by looking at verse 6. So I'll be rereading verse 6. Please follow along.

John 17 verse 6. Jesus prays, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word." In this verse, Jesus asserts that He has made His Father known to this given group. So if you're taking notes on the handout, you're filling in blanks. Asserts and given fills in the blanks.

Jesus asserts, he claims, he states, he declares that he has made his Father known, he has made his Father manifest to this given group. They were a group of men who were given to Him out of the world. To manifest is to reveal or make known. To take what is hidden and to unveil it, to display something. Jesus prays to His Father that He did that, that He has already done that, that He made His Father known to these men, That he took what was hidden about the Father and he unveiled it and made the Father plain to them.

That he displayed the Father to them. The disciples here being prayed about, you can either take that narrowly or broadly. Narrowly would mean there are 11 men, Judas is not there, Judas left earlier in the evening, there are 11 men who really truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are real followers, not a fake follower, but real followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are 11 men and they are hearing His voice there and those are the 11 that He is praying for. It could be that disciples can be taken more broadly, and it's all those who have trusted in Jesus up until that time, you cannot tell definitively from the text.

That tells you that it doesn't matter much. If It mattered a lot, you'd be able to tell definitively from the text. For what it's worth, I think it's to be taken narrowly. I think he's praying for the eleven that are hearing his voice at that time. But since all that he says is true of all disciples in that time and in every time.

It doesn't much matter. Jesus revealed the name of His Father to His disciples. The name is the essence of all that is included in the essential character of. To have hidden truths about God unveiled to you about his essence, what he's really like, the essential character qualities of this unseen God, that is to have his name displayed to you. We've been studying the attributes of God by A.W.

Pink. All of those mighty attributes all taken together plus more, that's not a comprehensive study of who God is, it's a really good study, but it's not an exhaustive study. All of those mighty attributes of God taking together combine together to be the name of God. God as He really is. God in His essential qualities.

Listen to Moses' experience in Exodus 33 and 34. If you're fast enough, you can join me there. This account begins in 33 with Moses desiring to have God show him, show Moses his glory. So he asks for it. And then we get the interchange and then in 34 we get what God actually does.

So this is Exodus 33 verses 18 and 19 and he Moses said please show me your glory Then he God said I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." So God actually begins to describe Himself right then. I will proclaim the name of God before you. I'll be gracious to whom I'm gracious. That's part of my essence.

I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. That is God as He really is. Now we pick up in chapter 34 verses 5 through 7. Now, chapter 34 verses 5 through 7. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, with Moses, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. God passes before Moses and he declares his name, his essence, what he's really like his essential qualities to Moses. This is to have the name of the Father manifest to you. It is to have what was hidden about God unveiled, the veiled pulled back so that He is on display and you see Him as He is.

Lloyd-Jones in one of his sermons on this section begins to list off the names by which God reveals Himself in the Old Testament. He starts with Jehovah, the I AM God, the self-existing God who doesn't need any fuel, he doesn't need food, he doesn't need anything to exist, he just exists. And then, through the course of the Old Testament, God divides that out, meaning He gives you more names for Himself. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our Banner, that God is a banner over his people.

Jehovah Shalom. The Lord our peace. Jehovah Sitkanu. The Lord our righteousness. Lloyd-Jones goes further.

He gives more names. It would be an extensive study, a wonderful study. These names of God make known God as He really is. So Jesus prays to His Father to lay the groundwork for the intercession that will follow in next week's text. I made Your essence, your essential character, known to these men.

I unveiled you to them. You were hidden to them, but I pulled back the veil so that they could see you as you really are. We're right to ask, how did He do that? How did Jesus manifest His Father's name to His disciples? He taught.

He lived. He did mighty works. He went to the cross. Let's camp on each one of those just for a moment. Jesus unveiled His Father through His teaching.

We've been studying John, he's always talking about His Father. He's always talking about His Father. He taught, He gave words to unveil the essential nature of God so that His disciples would see God as He really is. Jesus unveiled His Father through his life. If you want to see the perfect character qualities of righteousness lived out, where do you go for that?

You look at Jesus' life. He revealed the perfections He revealed the perfections of God in how He responded to enemies, in how He discipled His people, in how He related with the sick, the blind, the obstinate, and on and on. If you want to know what the essential character qualities of God look like in a life lived, you look to Jesus. He was manifesting his Father's name through his life. Jesus unveiled his Father through his mighty works.

Chapter 11, Lazarus, Come forth. Here comes Lazarus. They have to unbind him from his grave cloths. The dead don't stay dead when Jesus is manifesting the name of his Father. Life and death is Nothing to God.

We learn that about God in chapter 11 from what Jesus does when He gives sight to the blind, when He gives hearing to the deaf, when the mute speak, when the lame walk. We're learning about God Not only that he can do anything, but that he has compassion on the suffering. Aveiled God is being unveiled through the mighty works of Jesus. And finally, and most significantly, Jesus unveils His Father by going to the cross. By the way, in all of chapter 17, in all of this prayer, He's praying as if the cross has already happened.

He's already beyond the sacrifice in the sense of which he is praying. We're going to encounter that throughout the prayer. Nothing reveals who God is in His righteousness and in His mercy. Back to last week, He is just and the justifier. He is perfectly righteous.

That can never be compromised. That was never compromised. The Gospel doesn't compromise it. And yet, He is a God full of mercy. He could never compromise His mercy.

The Gospel displays His mercy without compromising His justice. God is unveiled more than anything else through the cross. Jesus says this of His disciples, Father, you gave me these men out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me. One of the things we will discover as we work our way through chapter 17, this prayer of Jesus, is the development of certain themes, the ongoing repetition of a few different streams of thought.

Here we have two. One, the giving of a people by the Father to the Son. That's all over this prayer. Two, the world as a theme. That's all over this prayer.

Let's Just very quickly, let me prove that that's the case. The giving of the people by the Father to the Son. We've already seen it in verse 2. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him." What we are encountering in our text this week was already encountered in our text from last week. Here it is in our text, that's number 2.

Then look at verse 9, I pray for them, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours." That's number three. Look at the second part of verse 11. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me. That's number four. Look at the second part of verse 12.

Those whom You gave Me, I have kept. That's already number five. There are more. We could keep chasing it. A theme is developing.

A repetition on a topic. Jesus is praying and comes back to it and comes back to it. So we'll be hitting this theme again. What about the world? We see it in our text here in verse 6.

You have given Me these men out of the world. We see it again in verse 9. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me. We see it again in the beginning of verse 11.

Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to you." We see it again at the beginning of verse 12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. We see it in verse 14. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world as I am not of the world.

It's all over the place. By the way, that's not the end here. We could encounter it more. I thought you would be satisfied with four or five examples of each one, but we will be encountering them every week. Before Jesus ever encountered these men, they were the Father's possession.

Before any of these disciples ever met Jesus, they were the Father's possession, and the Father gave them to the Son. Let's watch Paul work out this theology. Turn to Ephesians 1 and 2. Paul actually unfolds what Jesus is teaching in Ephesians 1 and 2. So turn there.

We're going to just watch Paul work through The fact, the theological truth, that the Father possessed this people and gave them to the Son. Listen to Paul in Ephesians 1, 3-6, and then we'll skip to 2. Skip around there a bit. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3-6, Paul writes this to the Ephesian church. Remember recently saved pagans, Ephesus Ephesians.

Ephesians 1 verse 3, Paul writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So verse 3 in simplicity, bless the Father for being the Father of Christ. Verse 4, just as He, God the Father, chose us in Him, Jesus, God the Son, before the foundation of the world, so when was this people selected, before the world ever was, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Verse 5, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Verse 5 says that God the Father destined us beforehand, He predestined us to adoption as sons.

God had already decided to adopt a people into His family that were not part of His family by Jesus Christ to Himself. Verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the beloved. The Father giving a people to the Son to save. Accepted in the beloved. God should be praised because He made people who were unacceptable acceptable in the beloved.

The beloved is His son. Chapter 2 verses 1 and 2, then I'll skip to 4 and 5. Chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. Paul writes, and you, Ephesians, just barely out of paganism, He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. Now I remember in our text, they were in the world, They were yours, you gave them to me, is what he prays.

This is exactly what Paul is teaching here. He made these dead in their sins Ephesians alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins because they were once walking according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Now skip down to verse 5. But God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved." So the disciples were in the world.

They were in the condition that Paul describes in Chapter 2. In the world, in a cursed world, under the curse of the world, dead in their sins, but they were the Father's possession before time began. They were predestined to adoption and they were given to the Son. Now why were they given to the Son? Jesus has already prayed this.

So back to John 17, look at what Jesus said in John 17 verse 2. He tells us why the Father gave a people to Him. Verse 2, as you have given Him the Son authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. So why did the Father take His own possession and give that people to His Son? That that son would give eternal life to all that he had given him in order to save us.

Friends, there is an eternal conspiracy for the good of His people. The Father and the Son and the Spirit have conspired together to reach down into a cursed world, into the lives of undeserving sinners, and to make many, many objects of His grace, trophies of His grace, to prove that He is a God not just of justice but also a God of mercy, a God of compassion. Finally, in this verse, Jesus says of His disciples, they have kept your word. That's the last phrase in verse 6, which is the verse we are looking at. They have kept your word.

At this point, some commentators, many commentators say something like this, the saving work of Christ in a disciple produces obedience, produces the keeping of God's Word. That is very true. That is very not the point that Jesus is making. Did Jesus' disciples keep his word in that sense? In the sense that they obeyed his word?

The honest answer is sometimes yes, often no. Sound familiar? Sound like any other disciples of Jesus you know? Sometimes yes. Often, no.

That ground is certainly not solid enough to be the basis for Jesus' petitions to his fathers that follow. It is not intended to be the basis of his petitions that follow. In the Greek lexicon, the primary meaning of this Greek word, which is rendered, kept your word, the primary meaning is to attend to carefully, to attend to carefully, and to take care of. And the same word is used in verse 11, in verse 12, in verse 15. Now listen to the usage of the same word, they kept your word, the same word, Greek word used in 11, 12, and 15.

Verse 11, Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me. So in verse 11, it's the Father doing the keeping and it has nothing to do with obeying the disciples. It has to do with keeping His grip on the disciples. Holding fast the disciples. It's used again in verse 12.

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. In verse 12, it's Jesus doing the keeping. It has nothing to do with Jesus observing the sayings of the disciples. It has to do with Jesus keeping His grip on His disciples, holding them fast. Verse 15, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

Again, it has nothing to do with an observance of, it has everything to do with keeping His grasp upon them even in the face of the evil one. Holding them back from the grasp of the devil, holding them in his own grip. Jesus means that sense of the word. They have kept your word. They kept his word like God keeps the believer.

Like Jesus holds back a believer from the evil one. Jesus' disciples clung to his word. They persisted in their belief When many did not persist in their belief. This is exemplified by John chapter 6. Turn to John chapter 6.

We've been here many times. We'll not escape John without coming here many more times. I'm confident. John chapter 6 is really pivotal in many ways. John chapter 6, beginning with verses 60 and 61.

So if you're there with me, John chapter 6, 60 and 61. Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can understand it? The crowds have been swelling, Jesus is doing miracles, Jesus is feeding multitudes, everybody is happy about the things that are going on, and then Jesus says, unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no part in me and people say We didn't sign up for that 61 661 when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this he said to them does this offend you? Now skipping down to verse 66. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

They were followers in name only. They stopped following. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more than Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, clinging to His Word. The good words, yes. The hard words, yes. Not letting go of His Word. They have kept Your Word.

Jesus is going to Jerusalem. The last time he had been in Jerusalem, they had tried to kill him, his disciples, I forget which disciple it was, that said, let us go with him, that we may die with him. They were serious about clinging to His Word. So that's verse 6. Now again, this is glorious theology, but it's not a sermon.

It is a prayer. Jesus is praying these things. Jesus is praying this about His disciples to establish a basis for upcoming requests. Jesus came to unveil His Father, to make His Father known more than any other revelation. There is glorious revelation before the New Testament here, but well beyond any revelation that had been received, Jesus did and does that.

He unveils His Father. He shows His Father in His essence as He really is, His essential characters. He did that for these men and that forms the basis of Jesus' prayers. This is why Jesus is praying for them because they are the ones who have seen the Father as He is. They are the ones given by the Father to Him in order to save.

So Jesus is praying for them And he's laying the groundwork for why his father should act in response to his prayers. Moving on to the next two verses, we're going to keep seven and eight together. They're so tightly connected that I don't think it makes sense to separate them. So verses 7 and 8. John 17 verses 7 and 8.

Jesus prays, Now they have known all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent Me." In these two verses, Jesus describes the faith of His disciples. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, describes, fills in the blank. Jesus describes the faith of his disciples. The flow of verse 7 and 8 is this, verse 7, for I have given them, because of verse 7, therefore verse 8 is the flow.

God gave the disciples the grace to discern that all they had been experiencing for three and a half years, beginning with the words which they had been hearing day by day by day, were from the Father. Let me say that again because I think it's the point of the two verses. God gave the disciples what? The grace to discern. That the things that they had been experiencing, starting with the things they've been hearing every day, the things they've been experiencing every day, God gave them the grace to discern this is coming from God.

This is coming from God in heaven. The things that we are seeing and experiencing are coming from God in heaven. The words that we are hearing are coming from God in heaven. Ever since we studied 1 and 2 Thessalonians a couple of years ago, I keep coming back to this verse, 1 Thessalonians 3.12. Listen to what Paul and Timothy and Silvanus write to the Thessalonians of 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13.

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing Because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God." What is this missionary team writing to their converts? We thank God all the time that when you heard the preaching that we brought to you, you had the grace to discern that it was God speaking. Notice He doesn't say, thank you for receiving our preaching as the Word of God. No, no, no. He's not thanking the Thessalonians.

He's thanking God without ceasing, that when they preached, they discerned. These are words from God. He's thanking God for it. He's crediting God with it. Not some right-headedness on the part of the Thessalonians, but God reaching down and convincing them that the preaching was words from heaven.

It was preaching from heaven. This is the evidence of God working effectively in a human heart. A room full of people, they hear the same words. Some say, these are the words of God, I know it. Some say, what's for lunch?

It's the same words. These people have grown up in the same home in many instances. This is evidence of God working effectively in a human heart. Jesus has been saying over and over and over again in the Gospel of John, my Father sent me. I am only speaking His words.

I am only doing his works. I'm speaking the words I was sent to speak by my Father. I'm doing the works that I was sent to do by my Father. Only those things, only those words, and the disciples were given grace to believe it. Most didn't believe it.

Many saw the same works. Judas saw all the miracles and he didn't believe. Judas heard all the sermons and he didn't believe. But they were given the grace to believe. So were they the Father's possession?

Yes, verse 6. And were they given to the Son? Yes, verse 6. And is there any evidence of this? Yes!

They were given the grace to believe that the things they were experiencing, starting with the words that Jesus was saying, were from the Father in heaven. Or to reverse it and to put it negatively, can this exist without evidence? Can being the father's possession and being given to the son exist without evidence? No way. Exist without evidence.

No way! There is not a category of people who are the possession of the Father, who are given to the Son, who do not then cling to His Word. Do not know that Jesus was sent from the Father to speak the Father's words and to do the Father's works. Do not receive Jesus' Father-given words. There is not a category of people like that.

The disciples of Jesus have these evidences of genuine faith. They may have many shortcomings, defects, sins, but they persist in believing the essential truths about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. They do have many shortcomings, defects, and sins. These disciples did have many shortcomings, defects, and sins. These disciples do have many shortcomings, defects, and sins.

They may not understand it all. They don't understand it all, but they believe it is the truth of God. Even the parts that they don't understand, they embrace. These are words from God. And you cannot part them from that.

You cannot part the disciples of Jesus from that. So in conclusion, in these verses, Jesus establishes why he is praying for these men, and why His Father should act in response to His prayers for them. You gave them to Me, Father. They have kept Your Word. They cling to Your Word.

When everyone else goes away in the face of the hard sayings, they hold fast to your word. They have known surely that I came forth from you, Father, and that you sent me. By the way, there's a distinction there. To think that someone is sent from God, the prophets were sent by God. To say you came forth from God has John 1, 1 in the backdrop.

You were with God. You came from God. You are not just a prophet sent by God. You are God. There's the shadow of that there.

Three applications. One. This is a model for us for how to plead the promises. A pattern. You have a model here that you can use to plead the promises of God.

In prayer, I should build the grounds for my upcoming requests. I should connect my requests to the Father's revealed will. I should establish Bible truths about why I am pleading and why the Father should act in response. Jesus is doing that. You can do that in your prayers.

What might that sound like? Maybe something like this. God, you know all about my sinful anger. You know this dishonors you and calls into question my testimony of Christ. Please change me.

For your own name's sake, Do whatever it takes in my life to purge me of that so that my testimony about your son won't come under reproach. I'm bringing it under reproach by this anger that keeps manifesting itself in my life. God, break through. For your name's sake. This is a way that you build the grounds in your prayer for why you're praying and why God should answer your prayers.

Or how about this? God, you've given us these children. We see how far short we are. We pray like Paul, who is sufficient for these things? Can we make these children regenerate?

You've told us, bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord, but we know that they're like dead men until you raise them from the dead. God, Give us grace to preach the Gospel with power. Please send your Holy Spirit. We keep studying the Bible. We keep telling them about Jesus, but we know it does nothing without your Spirit.

Oh God, send your Spirit. Send your Spirit. You told us to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. We don't know how to do that unless you come and do the work that we can't do. Please.

That's one, this is a model for us, how to plead the promises. Like we see, we can establish Bible truths about why we are pleading and why the Father should act in response. God, you promised. Two, If you are the Father's possession given to the Son, He is interceding for you. If you are part of the people that God gave to His Son to save, remember why is the Father giving people to the Son?

That He might give eternal life to all that you have given Him. That's why. He is interceding for you. How do I know? Do you have the grace to believe?

If you have the grace to believe, you should have confidence that God is working in your life. So many don't have grace to believe. He is interceding for you. He's not praying for you. I think I said that last week.

It's the wrong word. He's interceding for you. All the constraints of the incarnation that He accepted for His time on earth, those are over. He is face to face with His Father again. So it's not right to say he's praying for you, he's interceding for you.

He's right there in his right hand saying, help him. Help him. Romans 8.34, 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. This prayer is just a foretaste of what Jesus is doing.

It gives us just a little glimpse into what Jesus is doing right now at the right hand of his Father. He is pleading that his people would get help from heaven. He is pleading. His Father is answering those prayers. So I guess two is just rejoice.

Rejoice. If you are the Father's possession given to the Son, He is interceding for you. We should be happy about that. Number three. Marvel at what Jesus does for poor, weak sinners.

It's marvel. It is on display. Sort of just barely beneath the surface here. Listen to J.C. Ryle.

Ryle says, it is evident that Jesus sees far more in his believing people than they see in themselves, or than others see in them. The least degree of faith is very precious in His sight. It will be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed. It is a plant of heavenly growth and makes a boundless difference between the possessor of it and the man of the world. Wherever the gracious Savior of sinners sees true faith in Himself, however feeble, He looks with compassion on many infirmities and passes by many defects.

It was even so with the eleven apostles. They were weak and unstable as water, but they believed and loved their master when millions refused to own him. The Lord Jesus did not despise the eleven because of their feebleness, but bore with them and saved them to the end because they believed. And He never changes what He did for them, He will do for us. Jesus doesn't need to pray about my sins, my defects, my weaknesses, because His blood covers them.

My sins are put away from me as far as the East is from the West because of His cleansing blood. This man who clings to Your Word, Father, Help him! This is a man who trusts in me as you have revealed me to be. Help him! He's not bringing my defects before the Father.

He's covered them. He's pleading for my good. God, I thank you for The glory of an opportunity to hear the voice of your Son praying to you. So instructive that He prayed, so instructive what He prayed. I pray that You would encourage us mightily By seeing His intercession for His people and knowing that they continue to this day, I pray that you would teach us, help us in our own praying by studying the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.