Well, what about the third thing that Isaiah prophesied, that this would occur “in the last days”? Shortly before Jesus ascended back to heaven, His disciples asked Him if He would “at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel,” Acts 1:6. And Jesus said this to them on that occasion: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His Own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…,” Acts 1:7-8 [KJV].

The Lord makes it known here that power, the power that He speaks about, will be associated with the coming of the Spirit of God, the coming of the Holy Spirit. When we establish, then, the time of the coming of the Holy Spirit, we will also know when the power came and when the kingdom, which is the church, had its beginning.

Well, when was that? Let’s look at the first part of Acts, the second chapter. In Acts, chapter 2, beginning with verse 1, we read, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance,” [Acts 2:1-4]. Jesus had said that the Spirit would come. When did the Spirit come? He came on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came, and He came upon…no, not the assembled multitude, not even upon the 120 who were in the upper room. He came upon the apostles. He filled the apostles.

And the apostles spoke with new tongues, that is, tongues that were new to them—not some gibberish that was unable to be understood, but they spoke in languages, “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” They were even charged with being drunk, Acts 2:13 [“Others mocking said, ‘They are full of new wine.’”]. Peter defends them, though, and says, “It’s only the ninth hour; these men are not drunk at all,” [Acts 2:14-15: “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.”].

What Peter would state next would confirm another of the prophecies that we have been looking toward here. Yes, Peter would say that what the people were seeing, what they were witnessing on that occasion, what they were hearing, was that which was spoken of old by the prophet Joel, Acts 2:16-17: “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh….”

Here we learn that the events of Pentecost transpired during “the last days.” And so, the three fundamental facts of Isaiah’s prophecy were fulfilled on Pentecost, on this Day of Pentecost, this being one of the major feast days for the Jews. But it was also 50 days after the Passover. This particular Pentecost was 50 days from the crucifixion of our Lord. It was 10 days after He had ascended back to the Father. Oh, this was a special Day of Pentecost.

And so, this Day of Pentecost that took place was when? According to Joel, it was “in the last days.”That was his prophecy. That was his prediction. Peter confirms that that is what’s taking place, that what they’re seeing, what they’re hearing, is what Joel had spoken about would take place “in the last days.” This is—that was—“the last days.”

All of the nations were assembled there in Jerusalem on that Day of Pentecost. The children of Israel—that entire nation—was represented by those who were assembled in the city of Jerusalem on that day. We know that people came by the millions. I’ve read estimates that the population of the city of Jerusalem, which in the 1^st Century was ordinarily somewhere around between 150,000 and 200,000, would swell to somewhere in the vicinity of 2 million people during the Passover feast. And many of those who had come for the Passover would stay that extra 50 days for the Day of Pentecost. They would come from everywhere. Scripture shows, of course, the wide-spread dispersion of the Jewish people, of the children of Israel. And we see named there, by the way, in Acts the 2^nd chapter, the languages, the tongues, that are being heard, beginning with Acts 2 and verse 8: “‘And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs — we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.’ 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘Whatever could this mean,’” [Acts 2:8-12]?This list is representative of the regions, of the areas, where people had come from. They were hearing the dialect that they were familiar with.

I noted one author who pointed out the regions, the broad regions of this area that this represents. For example, this list represents the eastern part, including Babylonia, Mesopotamia, all of those nations; all of those lands in the eastern part; then Syria to the north—several cities and areas of Syria are mentioned; then all the way down to the south to Egypt and all they way over and up into Europe—Rome. All of those are mentioned. “All nations” were assembled there.