Acts 1:16 - Exposition

Brethren, it teas needful that the Scripture should be fulfilled for men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, A.V.; spake before by the mouth of David for by the mouth of David spake before, A.V. It was needful , etc. So our Lord declared, "The Scriptures cannot be broken" ( John 10:35 ); and "All things must be fulfilled which were written" ere. ( Luke 24:25-27 , Luke 24:44-46 ). It is most important to our Christian integrity that we should view the Scriptures in the same light as our Lord and his apostles did, as containing real prophecies, spoken by the Holy Ghost. (Compare the manner in which the sixty-ninth psalm is here quoted with that of Hebrews 3:7 .) So the Creed, "I believe in the Holy Ghost …. who spake by the prophets" (comp. Acts 4:25 ; Acts 28:25 ). Who was guide , etc. If St. Peter had only been addressing his brother apostles, who were well acquainted with the treachery of Judas, it would scarcely have been natural to introduce these words; they would have seemed rather to be explanatory words added by the historian. But the circumstances might be very imperfectly known to many of the hundred and twenty brethren assembled on this occasion; and if so, the reference to Judas's treachery would not be out of place in St. Peter's mouth.