Gladiators

Introduction

Wikipedia defines a gladiator as an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. Gladiators were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated ^[1].

Message	Key People	Scripture	Downloads	Audio
Gladiators	Worship Leader: An effective corporate worship leader, aided and led by the Holy Spirit, skillfully combines biblical truth with music to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, thereby motivating the gathered church to join him in proclaiming and cherishing the truth about God and seeking to live all of life for the glory of God. ^[2]	Foundation Verses: I Chronicles 15:22 Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music, for he understood it.

Illustrations

Praise Him – http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-apostle/praise-him

Background: The Gladiator

The original gladiator of the Roman Empire was a star of entertainment in an arena where only the strongest survived. Today’s gladiator is a weapon of mass worship. This gladiator can entertain the masses; however, he or she is not there for mere entertainment.

God’s Praise Gladiators

A praise Gladiator is a star of God’s army who wears the full armor of God and leads the masses into an arena of praise toward God.

The gladiator skilfully uses the instrument of praise to usher God’s people into His presence. Psalm 100 instructs us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord; to serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with singing. We enter into His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise. The gladiator lives a lifestyle of praise and worship toward God. His or her daily life is filled with songs of praise to the Lord and he or she meditates on the goodness of God both day and night. The gladiator is a prayerful person who is able to enter into the presence of God with thanksgiving and praise. These are tools of the Holy Spirit to open the realm of worship before His congregation.

The gladiator is not just a singer; not just a musician; not just a prayer leader. The gladiator is a sword in song; a shield in instrument; and a prayer warrior. The gladiator is part of the Lord’s army that rises up to stomp the enemy’s kingdom down. The gladiator brings glad tidings and is ever grateful toward God for His goodness and all of His mighty works. The gladiator is a vessel that will be filled by God with His glory in order to show God’s presence and how one should approach God’s throne. The gladiator is a glad servant of God and a leader in all things pertaining to worship. The gladiator only worships God and puts no other god before Him. The gladiator is powerful and able to cause multitudes to praise and enter into worship of the Almighty God.

The gladiator’s weapon is praise – be it by song or instrument or collaboration of musical tools. The gladiator may be formally trained or instructed by God with no formal training of this world, as God is the author of music and talent and is able to teach the willing gladiator to war with his or her talents. The gladiator may be skilled in one or several musical tools including but not limited to his or her voice other instruments such as drums, guitars, pianos, etc. Gladiators seek God for what and how to minister in order to provide an effective ushering of God’s people into His presence. They may seek God for what song(s) to sing and or melodies to play. Gladiators are often song writers as the Word says, “Sing unto the Lord a new song” and God gives new utterances to His praise as He will.

Gladiators not only present the art of praise with mastery of the tools of praise, they also are protected by the founder of worship – that is God Himself, because they worship Him in spirit and in truth, and God seeks such to worship Him. Therefore He is invested in their well being that they may do that work to which they have been called.

The Levites

Originally, worship was the job of the Levitical priesthood. Now, there are neither Jews nor Gentiles in the realm of God’s spirit. We can all receive the spirit of adoption, whereby we can call God, “Abba,” meaning father ^[3]. The Levitical priesthood was a heritage of all things pertaining to worship in the house of the Lord. The Levites were responsible for maintaining the atmosphere of praise and passing those skills to their children to be carried out in the next generation. Moses who was God’s chosen deliverer for the Children of Israel from Eqypt, and Aaron the brother of Moses were Levites. Aaron was anointed to minister service to God’s minister (Moses). The Levite is a minister to ministers. Those who serve the Lord are ministers of His grace to others. The leaders of praise and worship are ministering to those to who minister to others and those who need healing that comes through praise of God. God chooses different people to serve in this important area of ministry.

Friom, “Levites” by Wayne Blank ^[4]…

Levites are the descendants of Levi, one of the Tribes Of Israel, the Children Of Jacob (Genesis 29:34). The term is generally used, from the perspective of The Bible, to identify the part of the tribe that was set apart for the secondary duties of the sanctuary service (1 Kings 8:4, Ezra 2:70), as assistants to the priests, who were also Levites. Although all priests were Levites, not all Levites were priests.

The Tabernacle Prior to the Exodus, when the Israelites escaped the slavery of the Pharaoh of Egypt (see Who Was The Exodus Pharaoh?), the ancient way of worship was yet observed, with the firstborn son of each household inheriting the priest’s office. That was changed at Sinai (see Wilderness Journey) when a hereditary priesthood from the family of Aaron was established (Exodus 28:1). The Levites were natural allies of Moses because Moses himself was of the tribe of Levi (Exodus 2:1-2,10).

Levi had 3 sons – Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. From those branches of the family, the Levites were organized into 3 levels of service: The first level was composed of Aaron and his offspring, who were descended from Levi’s son Kohath. They formed the priesthood. The second level was made up of all of the other descendants of Kohath who were not descendants of Aaron. They were in charge of the most sacred parts of the Tabernacle (Numbers 3:27-32, 4:4-15, 7:9). The third level consisted of all of the descendants of Gershon and Merari, who were given lesser duties (Numbers 3:21-26,33-37). The Levites served at the Tabernacle from age 30 to 50 (Numbers 4:3,23,30). They were not counted for military service in the armies of Israel, but were set apart for service to God (Numbers 1:45-50, 2:33, 26:62). Levites had custody of The Tabernacle (as illustrated above, see also What Happened To The Tabernacle?) (Numbers 1:51, 18:22-24). The Gershonites camped on the west of the Tabernacle (Numbers 3:23), the Kohathites on the south (Numbers 3:29), the Merarites on the north (Numbers 3:35), and the priests on the east (Numbers 3:38).

PSALM 100

A Psalm of thanksgiving and for the thank offering.

¹Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!

²Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!

³Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!

⁵For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.

We’re God’s Gladiators

In Jericho, God didn’t command us to stand still. We don’t stand still; the generation that stood still has died. Moses said to that generation, “Hey, stand still and see the salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13) – because they had the slave mentality – but remember, God’s response was an urgent “Go forward!” Now, this is not the generation with the slave mentality; this new generation has the warrior mentality ^[5].

Footnotes

[1] Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Gladiator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator

[2] What Does a Worship Leader Do? – http://www.worshipmatters.com/2006/01/25/what-does-a-worship-leader-do/

[3] Romans 8:15 – For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!

[4] “Levites” by Wayne Blank

[5] We’re God’s Gladiators – http://www.pastorchrisonline.org/topicalblog/prayer/2014/02/18/we%E2%80%99re-god%E2%80%99s-gladiators/

Topical Sources