Acts 5:25

And there came one and told them, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are in the temple standing and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them, but without violence; for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them.

Lest they should be stoned ... The popularity of the new faith was such, at the moment, that the Sadducean priests simply did not dare to arouse the anger of the Jerusalem mob. It is not to be thought that the Christians would have stoned the officers, although some of the new converts might have joined in such a resistance, but rather that the non-Christians whose sympathies were all with the disciples might have broken into violence if provoked.