The Gospel of Luke was written by a companion of Paul who was a physician. The Gospel of Luke emphasizes God's concern for the poor, the outcast, and the marginalized. The role of women and the work of the Holy Spirit is emphasized throughout. We start with the announcement of John the Baptist's birth and move forward.
It's easy to assume that earlier people were more likely to believe in magic. We think of them as less scientific. But just like us, they wanted to know the truth. Luke didn't simply take everything he heard about Jesus for granted. He investigated. He interviewed. He wanted to give Theophilus an accurate telling of the Gospel, so he found the eyewitnesses and recorded these things, that Theophilus might have certainty. People were making life-altering decisions based on what Luke was writing, and Luke didn't want them to be uncertain as to the truth of the matter.
It reminds us that our lives of faith are not built on rumors or guesses, but on trustworthy eyewitness testimony. This was tested. All of Scripture has been tested. We can have confidence just as early believers had confidence. Remember that many of those early believers had a very real life or death decision to make, and based on the evidence, they chose something that led many of them to death. They didn't choose this lightly, and that gives us comfort in knowing that the faith we share with those early believers was researched and built upon a strong foundation.
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