What does Acts 5:30 mean?

The members of the Sanhedrin are concerned the people will realize they murdered Jesus and rebel or even stone them (Acts 5:26, 28). Peter boldly declares that they not only killed Jesus, they cursed Him by hanging Him from a "tree" (Deuteronomy 21:22–23). In fact, the council was worried about this before they even arrested Jesus, and wanted to wait until after week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread (Mark 14:1–2). They took the opportunity Judas gave them, however, and arrested Jesus late at night, out in the countryside. In order to shift the public blame off themselves, they blackmailed Pilate to order Jesus' death (John 19:12) and incited a crowd to demand Pilate release an insurrectionist instead (Matthew 27:20–23).

Even though the council stands behind the necessity of the death of Jesus (John 11:49–53), they don't want the people to get upset with them. Jesus was always popular among the people, and His apostles are proving to be as well, both for their ability to perform miracles and their message (Acts 5:12–16).

It's unclear if "God…raised Jesus" means He enabled Jesus' powerful public ministry or if it means God raised Jesus from the dead. If he means the resurrection, that would be consistent with Peter's previous arrest (Acts 4:1–2). It would also fit with Paul's successful courtroom tactic: getting the Sadducees and Pharisees to fight amongst themselves instead of convicting him in a sham trial (Acts 23:6–10). It's even possible Paul—then named Saul—was present at this event, and later remembered Peter's example during his own arrest.