observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath The Gospel of Thomas saying 27

observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath

The Gospel of Thomas saying 27

32 [27]. "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the Kingdom. If you do not make the Sabbath the <true> Sabbath, you will not see the Father."

Jesus says, 'If you do not fast with respect to the world, you will not find the Kingdom of God“. But another saying in that gospel (Saying 14) seems to reject external acts of piety, including fasting, as things that can lead to sin, possibly because of pride or hypocrisy.

The fasting 'with respect to the world' in saying 27 could therefore be intended as a metaphor for general 'Fasting to the world' must mean withdrawal from a worldly; it is an abstention from the world (which itself implies other forms of ascetic denial), that involves becoming a 'solitary' (which itself implies other forms of ascetic denial). It is not fasting which is rejected in saying 14 but only hypocritical or empty fasting, which does not reflect a genuine indifference to the world."  

"If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the Father."

Here the finding of the Kingdom and the seeing the Father are the same term If you do not Draw near to God than you will not see the Kingdom this is done by the studying the bible the spirit-word, with prayer and meditation, everyday!

“observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath”

Here Jesus is not telling us to observe the Sabbath under the law of Moses but to observe the true Sabbath The Greek expression occurs in the LXX at Lv 23:32; 2 Chr 36:21. It does not simply mean 'to observe the (weekly) Sabbath'. In Lv 23:32 it refers to the Day of Atonement, which is to be kept as a real Sabbath. Hence, it is likely that we should understand the expression in this saying in a metaphorical or a spiritual sense. Cf. Heb 4:9 and Justin (Dial. w. Trypho 12, 3; PG 6, 500), who uses sabbatizein in the sense of a spiritual Sabbath opposed to the formal Jewish observance; for him it consisted in abstention from sin."

If the answer be made that sacrifice was superseded by the death of Christ, it has to be rejoined that the same is also true of the Sabbath; "the body (or substance) of which is of Christ", as Paul says in the words already quoted. We have the true Sabbath in Christ, who said "I will give you rest", or Sabbath. Under the law, a man laboured in his own works to establish his own righteousness with a sense of burden that was grievous to be borne, feeling it a yoke, as Peter says, which they were not able to bear (Acts 15:10). The "strength of sin", as a destroyer, lay "in the law", as Paul testifies (1Cor 15:56). It condemned sinners to death, and all were sinners, who "through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb 2:14).

On the first day of the creation-week God said, "Let there be light, and there was light;" so on the first day of the week "THE TRUE LIGHT" came forth from the darkness of the tomb "like dew from the womb of the morning." This event constituted the day after the Sabbath, or eighth day, the day of the Lord's resurrection; and therefore styled by His disciples "THE LORD'S DAY." It is a day to be much remembered by them, because it assures them of their justification "in Him," of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of His ruling or "judging the world in righteousness" as Yahweh's king, when they also shall reign with Him as kings and priests of God (Acts 17:31; Rom 4:25, 8:11; 1Cor 15:14-20; Rev 5:9-10).

This day is also notable on account of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and His disciples after His resurrection (John 20:19-26). He ascended to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from His crucifixion; and seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being that Lord's day styled "the day of Pentecost," the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in His name.

The observance of the seventh day was obligatory only upon the Israelites so long as the Mosaic code was in force, being "a sign" between God and them. The Sabbaths belong to the land and people of Israel, and can be only kept according to the law while they reside in the country. This will appear from the fact that the law requires that "two lambs of the first year without spot" should be offered with other things "as the burnt-offering of every Sabbath;" an offering which, like all the offerings, & c., must be offered in a temple in Jerusalem where the Lord has placed His name, and not in the dwelling places of Jacob. Israel must therefore be restored to their own country before even they can keep Sabbath. Then, when "the throne is established in mercy; and He (the Lord Jesus) shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness" (Isa 16:5), then I say, "shall the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, come near to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God: and they shall hallow my Sabbaths" (Ezek 44:15-24).

But these Sabbaths will be no longer celebrated on the seventh day. They will be changed from the seventh to the eighth or first day of the week, which are the same. The "dispensation of the fullness of times" (Eph 1:10), popularly styled the Millennium, will be the antitype, or substance, of the Mosaic feast of tabernacles which was "a shadow of things to come." In this type, or pattern, Israel were to rejoice before the Lord for seven days, beginning "on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when they had gathered the fruit of the land." In relation to the first day of the seven, the law says, "it shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein." This was what we call Sunday. The statute then continues, "on the eighth day," also Sunday, "shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein." Again, "on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath" (Lev 23:34-43). Thus, in this "pattern of things in the heavens" the first and eighth days are constituted holy days in which no work was to be done. It also represents the palm-bearing or victorious ingathering of the twelve tribes of Israel from their present dispersion to the land of their fathers, "when the Lord shall set His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people" (Isa 11:11). Three times in four verses does Zechariah style the yearly going up of the Gentiles to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of Hosts, there, the "keeping of the feast of tabernacles" (Zech 14:16-19); an event which is consequent upon the destruction of the dominion represented by Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the re-establishment of the kingdom and throne of David. This national confluence of the Gentiles to Jerusalem is characteristic of Messiah's times; and of the true or real festival of tabernacles, when He will "confess to God among the Gentiles, and sing unto His name," and "they shall rejoice with His people," Israel (Rom 15:9-10). Referring to this time, the Lord says, "the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and My holy name shall the House of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcasses of their kings, far from Me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever" (Ezek 43:7-9). This is clearly a prophecy of what shall be hereafter, because the House of Israel still continues to defile God's holy name by their abominations; but when this comes to pass they shall defile it "no more."

After the declaration of these things, Ezekiel is commanded to show them the description of the temple which is destined to be "the house of prayer for all nations," with the ordinances, forms, and laws thereof. The Lord God then declares, "the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it," and when the Levites of the seed of Zadok shall approach unto Him. The "cleansing of the altar," and the consecration of the priests, is then effected by the offerings of seven days. "And when these days are expired it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and SO FORWARD, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, O Israel, saith the Lord" (verse 27). Thus the Lord's day, the day of His resurrection from His seventh day incarceration in the tomb, becomes the Sabbath day of the future age which shall be hallowed by the priests of Israel, and be observed by all nations as a day of holy convocation in which they shall rejoice, and do no manner of servile work at all.

This change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the eighth, or first day of the week, is also a type of the final rest to come when Jesus hands over the Kingdom to the Father. For before that time Christ and the holy ones will have been reigning over the nations on the earth and they shall rejoice for a thousand years. Then after the thousand years the constitution of the kingdom will be changed at that epoch; and the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first beginnings; for sin being taken away from among men, and death its punishment abolished the element of priesthood must be removed. Then the end will come when my son the Messiah shall deliver up the kingdom to me so that I may be all in all. And after seven days the world, which is not yet awake, shall be roused, and that which is corruptible shall perish. From this end, the Ages of the Ages takes their rise, and things on earth are changed no more.


In the 2Enoch 33:1 Enoch is told by the Deity that the eighth day is the beginning of the Ages of the Ages: 1”On eighth day I likewise appointed, so that the eighth day might be the 1st, the first-created after my week, and that it should revolve in the revolution of seven thousand, so that at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a time of not-counting, endless, with neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours.

27)# <Jesus said,> "If you do not fast [if you do not stop eating the falsehoods and deceptions of prophets that "He did not send" and religious leaders "He did not anoint or commission"] as regards the world [we are not to have any part with the world], you will not find the Kingdom [one must take leave of his worldly ways in order to find himself (where the Kingdom truly is - one cannot serve two masters)]. If you do not observe [see with your spiritual eyes] the [true] Sabbath [His rest] as a [spiritual] Sabbath [once you become His you cease from doing your own works (this is the beginning of your rest in Him) this is why when the Jews asked him about the sabbath; "Yet Jesus answers them, "My Father is working hitherto, and I am working."" for it is not a physical sabbath but a spiritual one for your soul], you will not see the Father [unless you observe His sabbath BY ceasing from your own works (sacrifices, offerings, customs, traditions, ordinances, etc..lower/outward {fleshly} forms) for these are all types and images of what you should already understand from a spiritual perspective to be fulfilled in Christ and you eventually]."