5 Prayers Feared In Hell
John Knox
Was a fiery 16th-century Scottish reformer whose preaching shook thrones and whose prayers thundered in heaven. His spiritual authority was so fierce that Mary, Queen of Scots, once said:
Mary, Queen of Scots
“I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe"”
Do you know how to pray? Do you know how to go to war for your kids? Generations? Region? We are need to learn to contend!
Do you ever stop and just pray for someone? This can be a huge way to evangelize. Few people will turn down prayer.
Non-Christian: “Thoughts and prayers” There’s no atheists in a Fox Hole! Here’s how real prayer works!
What if you could hear Jesus pray?
5 PRAYERS FEARED IN HELL
01. THE MAGNITUDE OF GOD
John 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you…
What comes out of your soul in the final moments shows us what’s inside of you. This is that moment for Jesus and what He wants is God’s glory.
Prayer is not optional but essential. Jesus taught. Now He prays.
Jesus prays to glorify God. This is His hearts sole focus. This how mature believers think and pray.
John 17:2, 6
…since you have given him authority over all flesh…And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
If Jesus isn’t God this is a wild thing for Him to say (vv.2-6)
He has authority over all flesh
He gives eternal life
He glorified God completely on earth
He radiates in glory before the world existed
The Father is glorious:
1 Timothy 6:16 ...who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
The Son shares in that glory:
Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
I imagine walking with Jesus gave the feeling you were in the presence of Someone with the greatest imaginable gravity
Being in front of Jordan Peterson
Jesus didn’t just have human weight, He had and has divine gravity. He prayed like it. When you listen to Jesus pray in this chapter you’re eaves-dropping on a conversation in the Trinity.
When we pray, we should start with God. Why? We need our imaginations lifted higher than this reality and to enter the throne room of the almighty.
02. THE GOSPEL OF GOD
John 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
You and I need to receive the words of Jesus. The Word is the good news that Jesus, the Son of God, came FROM GOD to earth ultimately to die for our sin.
Not yet Believer, receive the Gospel. If you have not received that Gospel, that’s the what God wants you to do today.
Believer this is WHY you can pray. The Gospel is the one basis and reason you and I CAN pray! It’s what gave us access to the Father!
Believer, pray the Gospel: Meditate long in prayer on its truth. Let it re-shape the way you approach every situation by applying the Gospel’s truth to how you pray over each of life’s situations.
Shift in the next verse:
John 17:9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
Prayer is not optional but essential. Jesus taught them. Now He prays for them.
03. FOR THE UNITY OF THE BODY
John 17:11, 21 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one…[21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
This is a prayer for the unity of the Church–all believers. He prayed something unreal: that we would be ONE as the Father is one.
Why would God be so concerned with unity? It’s simple, the Church is designed to be a taste of Heaven that people in the world can find as refuge from the chaos…
You and I have the opportunity to be the answer to Jesus’ own prayer. We ask for so much from Jesus, but we can also live out an answer to His prayer.
Join a group
Forgive and restore a relationship
Honor others by speaking well of them
Pray for the Church
Give/Tithe → “Where your treasure is…” TEXT BUILD
Serve others by joining a team
Create space for new believers (Become a New Believers Group Leader) TEXT LEAD
Jesus moves the prayer to not just the internal unity of the church but external impact of the church.
04. FOR THE MISSION OF GOD.
John 17:14–19
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [15] I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Holiness is not about being in the world but not of the world.
Three cultural engagement frameworks:
Escapism – Withdrawal from culture to preserve purity
Syncretism – Blending with culture at the cost of truth
Invasion – Entering culture with conviction and clarity
Learn to pray missionally:
Start a prayer list with names of non-christians.
Put a map of the West Valley and pray a circle around it.
Prayer walk around your neighborhood and this school.
Pray for a sending center. TEXT BUILSD
05. FOR THE INCREASED HOLINESS + PERSEVERENCE.
John 17:24–26
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26] I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
He wants the Father’s love to be shown through you and me and for us to shine His glory to the end.
One thing I wish I could do is go back and listen to my grandma pray. She was a true and genuine prayer warrior. My grandma prayed in a way that my mom grew up fearing, and that everyone in our family feared.
Her prayers echoed through generations:
My kids are her great grand kids.
My kids and grandkids will be products of her prayers.
This church is a product of her prayers.
Any impact our church has outside of this church will be too.
Let’s pray like that.