What does Acts 5:25 mean?

Many signs have surrounded the apostles lately. A couple of fishermen healed a man born lame (Acts 3:1–8) and then, despite having no training to speak of, gave an eloquent theological defense of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 4:8–13). A group of Jesus-followers from Galilee have joined well over five thousand people in proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead (Acts 4:4). And when the priests arrested and imprisoned the leaders of this new sect, they disappeared from their prison cells without disrupting the locks on the doors or the guards standing in the hall (Acts 5:17–19).

Now, these men immediately return to the scene of the crime and continue preaching. Of all the signs, this is one that should give the council pause. Why would these men go back to the same place of their arrest and continue doing what got them arrested? If they were riling the people up to rebel against the Roman occupation, that would be one thing. But they're talking about the resurrection from the dead, which isn't illegal, and repentance from sins, which is certainly not illegal. How is this message worth getting arrested again?

Instead of stopping to figure out if the message these men is preaching is true, the council only hears rebellion against them and a threat to their authority. They value power and position more than God's truth. Both Jesus and Stephen accuse them of figuratively killing the Jewish prophets of God instead of listening to them (Luke 11:47–51; Acts 7:51–52). They did kill Jesus and Stephen (Acts 7:52–60), and they will be very tempted to kill the apostles (Acts 5:33).