I’ve always believed the accounts of Jesus’ miracles. I have carried that belief since the day I was first saved as a young boy. It has been an unshakeable belief in what the world considers to be impossible. In that belief, I held onto my young and innocent faith, never allowing myself to explain away the Lord’s miracles, replacing them with human explanations and a liberalized counterfeit version, thereby reclassifying what were truly astounding works of the Spirit as nothing more than myths.

Luke wrote two books in the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of Luke, which reveals the miraculous works of Jesus, and the book of Acts, which tells the miracles done by those who followed His Great Commission.

In the opening verses of the Gospel of Luke, he wrote to a man named Theophilus, “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught” (Luke 1:1-4).

Because Luke was a doctor, he was uniquely qualified to write an accurate account of the Lord’s work. He wrote his Gospel to Theophilus so he could “be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.”

Luke wrote another biblical account, the book of Acts. Again, he addressed his account to Theophilus, and for the Church today as a record of what the Church should look like in the various nations of the world where the Gospel is preached and demonstrated in power.

“In my first book, I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1 1-3).

Without certainty about everything Luke wrote and believing it to be the truth, we will replace the miraculous life of Jesus and His followers with nothing more than counterfeits sourced in disbelief and doubt. Only certainty in what the Scriptures tell us, can we move forward with God and do what He has commissioned us to do in His name.

All that is recorded about Jesus in the Gospels and the works of His first disciples in the Book of Acts had a purpose. These events were recounted so that we would believe in the greatest miracle of all, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Unresolved doubt and uncertainty are the pathway to the greatest deception of all, not believing in the Resurrection of Jesus. Paul wrote, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans 10:9). We can only openly declare that truth if we are certain of its reality.

Our belief requires certainty. That is why Luke wrote two magnificent accounts about the ministry of Jesus and those who would follow Him into the future. Those who continue to move forward in the Lord’s ministry are those who are certain about “the truth of everything you were taught.”