Sure, Jesus was a prophet in that social sense: he railed against his society from an idealistic, absolutist moral or spiritual standpoint. All of these social critics were countercultural rebels. They would have felt alienated from their society because they found they couldn't compromise their principles. The compromised masses either have no moral or philosophical principles to start with or they're just better at compartmentalizing.
This is just a sociological take on that side of religion. There's no need to posit divine revelation to explain what I recently called the ancient cold war between intellectuals and the less reflective masses (some links below).
I don't quite see how you're supporting Sentell's platitudes here just by suggesting that the prophets were divinely inspired. I'd say they were artistically or philosophicall inspired. They were great writers or orators. Do we think all great artists are divinely inspired, as if our species isn't so creative without guidance from an extraterrestrial intelligence? Personhood (the combo of consciousness, intelligence, autonomy, and imagination) is evidently a great source of creativity. Adding God to the mix is superfluous.
