Withdrawal of the Holy Spirit 

With regard to the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit’s record of the words of the Lord Jesus in John 9:4-5 are most interesting. The verses read as follows: “We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”. 

The context is one of miracles – the healing of the blind man, and the refusal of the Jews to accept this sign of the Lord Jesus’ anointing. A word by word examination shows these verses to be very much part of the context, 

“WE MUST WORK THE WORKS…..” 

When we compare these words with John 5:36, we see that the above-mentioned clause means the working of miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit was a testimony from God to the authority of the Lord Jesus and later of the apostles (cf. Heb. 2:3-4; Mark 16:20). The Lord uses the term “we” (R.V. and R.S.V.) and not “I”, so indicating that the verse relates not only to the Lord himself but also to the apostles. 

“NIGHT COMES, WHEN NO ONE CAN WORK” 

The Lord is most definitely saying that the time would come when the Holy Spirit works ceased. Micah 3:6 is most interesting in this connection, for the Spirit there prophesies that the sun would go down on the prophets and the day would be black over the Jewish nation, and that it would be night without vision (cf. Joel 2:31). Associated with this prophecy in Micah 3 is the destruction of Jerusalem because of the stubbornness of the Jewish leaders (v.12). 

“AS LONG AS I AM IN THE WORLD, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD” 

Whilst the Lord Jesus departed to the Right Hand of the Ancient of Days before Pentecost, he was still in a real sense with the apostles in their ministry. Mark 16:20 reads, “And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it”. Matthew 28:20 reads, “.,,lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age”. That the “close of the age” refers to the close of the Mosaic age is evidenced by Hebrews 9:26 and I Peter 1:20, an age which closed with the destruction of Jerusalem which commenced in A.D.70 and was completed as prophesied in Micah 3:12 in A.D.135. 

In short, then, in John 9:4-5 the Lord Jesus clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit would be withdrawn at the end of the age, i.e. A,D. 70, approximately 38-40 years after it was given to the disciples at Pentecost. (Compare with the Holy Spirit’s guidance of Israel in the wilderness journey – Isaiah 63.)