17 because he was numbered among us, and did receive the share in this ministration, 18 this one, indeed, then, purchased a field out of the reward of unrighteousness, and falling headlong, burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed forth, 19 and it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, insomuch that that place is called, in their proper dialect, Aceldama, that is, field of blood, 20 for it hath been written in the book of Psalms: Let his lodging-place become desolate, and let no one be dwelling in it, and his oversight let another take. 21 'It behoveth, therefore, of the men who did go with us during all the time in which the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day in which he was received up from us, one of these to become with us a witness of his rising again.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Acts 1:17-22
Commentary on Acts 1:15-26
(Read Acts 1:15-26)
The great thing the apostles were to attest to the world, was, Christ's resurrection; for that was the great proof of his being the Messiah, and the foundation of our hope in him. The apostles were ordained, not to wordly dignity and dominion, but to preach Christ, and the power of his resurrection. An appeal was made to God; "Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men," which we do not; and better than they know their own. It is fit that God should choose his own servants; and so far as he, by the disposals of his providence, or the gifts of his Spirit, shows whom he was chosen, or what he has chosen for us, we ought to fall in with his will. Let us own his hand in the determining everything which befalls us, especially in those by which any trust may be committed to us.