{"id":44275,"date":"2011-01-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/philip-yancey-discusses-jesus-view-on-prostitutes\/"},"modified":"2011-01-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T00:00:00","slug":"philip-yancey-discusses-jesus-view-on-prostitutes","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/philip-yancey-discusses-jesus-view-on-prostitutes\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Yancey Discusses Jesus&#8217; View on Prostitutes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his book <em class=\"citation\">What Good Is God?<\/em>, Philip Yancey writes about being invited to speak at a conference on ministry to women in prostitution. After some discussion with his wife, Yancey agreed to accept the invitation as long as he could have the opportunity to question the women and hear their stories.<\/p>\n\n<p>At the end of the conference Yancey had the following conversation with the women:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I had time for one more question. &quot;Did you know that Jesus referred to your profession? Let me read you what he said: &#39;I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.&#39; He was speaking to the religious authorities of his day. What do you think Jesus meant? Why did he single out prostitutes?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>After several minutes of silence a young woman from Eastern Europe spoke up in her broken English. &quot;Everyone, she has someone to look down on. Not us. We are at the low. Our families, they feel shame for us. No mother nowhere looks at her little girl and says, &#39;Honey, when you grow up I want you be good prostitute.&#39; Most places, we are breaking the law. Believe me, we know how people feel about us. People call us names: whore, slut, hooker, harlot. We feel it too. We are the bottom. And sometimes when you are at the low, you cry for help. So when Jesus comes, we respond. Maybe Jesus meant that.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3380,3524,3760,4089,4110,4141,4394,4529,4530,4675,4775,4782,4790,4805,4808,5038,5059],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-44275","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-dependence","tax_ctp_tags-grace-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-guilt","tax_ctp_tags-help-from-god","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-powerlessness","tax_ctp_tags-receiving-christ","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-rejection","tax_ctp_tags-repentance","tax_ctp_tags-rescue","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-poverty"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Philip Yancey Discusses Jesus&#039; View on Prostitutes - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/philip-yancey-discusses-jesus-view-on-prostitutes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philip Yancey Discusses Jesus&#039; View on Prostitutes - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book What Good Is God?, Philip Yancey writes about being invited to speak at a conference on ministry to women in prostitution. 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