A Prophet Has No Honor

When did Jesus testify that a prophet has no honor in his hometown?
And having come to His hometown, He was teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is this not the son of the tektonos? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James and Joses and Simon and Judas and His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” So they were offended by Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:54-58).

Is it still true that a prophet has no honor in his hometown?
False prophets abound today. When God does raise up a true prophet, many of those who knew him before God called him try to keep him in his previous position in their social network and reject him as a prophet of God, as the Jews in the synagogue were trying to do to Jesus above.

How can we distinguish a true prophet from the false prophets?
A true prophet never contradicts what God wrote in the Bible, and what God says through a true prophet always is true or comes true: “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing is not or does not come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).

So why did the Galileans receive Jesus this time?
Some of them apparently had seen the miracles - “all the things” (John 4:45) - He did in Jerusalem during the feast.

Are they now true followers of Jesus?
Not necessarily, but they are interested in Him doing some miracles for them too. There is a difference between followers of Jesus and consumers of Jesus.

What is the difference?
Followers of Jesus love, worship and follow Him for what He did on the cross to pay the penalty due for our sins (see John 18 and John 19), so that we can spend the rest of eternity with Him in heaven instead paying that penalty on our own in the “everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8) of hell. Consumer of Jesus are interested primarily in having Him do things to make the rest of their life on earth more comfortable.

Which are you?