In addition to what Pastor Bobby talked about in his first message of the series concerning the Greek concept of Logos being a divine force, I would also like to suggest that John had the Hebrew concept “the word [דָּבָר] (dabar) of the Lord” in mind as well. In addition, compare the first three verses of the Gospel of John with the creation story in Genesis 1, then do a search on the phrase “the word of the Lord” and see if you find a similarity.
Whether Greek or Hebrew, words matter; there are 18,899 words in the ESV translation of the Gospel of John, with 1,395 unique words. One of the ways that we can dive deeper into God’s word is by concentrating on those words.
In her book “Discover The Bible For Yourself” (Harvest House Publishers), Kay Arthur makes this suggestion; “In Chapters 1 – 12 mark the following keywords and their synonyms: believe, life, sign, judge (judgment), witness, love, sin, true (truth), Spirit, and king (kingdom).”
I would encourage you that as our pastors preach through John’s Gospel you use her suggestion to help you uncover more of what God has to say to us.
Terry Poperszky