I have spent a lot of time in Matthew and Mark, and I have read through the NIV Application Commentary on Luke by Darrell L. Bock.  However, I was challenged in my reading that I have read to know about God rather than to know God.  In my relationships with people in evangelical circles, I have found that many Bible studies have focused on the technical reading of the text, developing context, and not the relationship of the text to real life.  A woman at our church is trying to help her group apply the text to life, but they keep replying in the third person.  They distance themselves from the text and speak in theoretical terms.  It is easy in an introduction to Luke to see how Theophilus needed to know a history of Jesus.  Perhaps he needed a solid foundation, perhaps he was a lawyer putting together a defence of Paul, perhaps he was a Roman official needing to see how Judaism and Jesus were connected.  However, I think he was a follower of Jesus whose faith was reinforced by knowing more about the Jesus he was committing to.  From the outside it would be an interesting academic exercise to talk about Jesus and his early followers.  I think that Jesus would have Luke act as a person who introduces him more fully to us.  What does he require of us?