NOTES for Act 4:23-31
The reaction of both the apostles themselves and the early Christian Church to the threats from the Sanhedrin is revealing. They take no measures for their own protection. They simply hand the whole situation over into God's hands. One could, of course, think that they were simply unable to do anything more. But that was not entirely so. Of course, the threat was serious, but there were things they could have tried to change. In any case, they could at least have tried to discuss some plan of possible action.
But no one does anything of the kind. Nothing like it even comes into anyone's mind. What is this: carelessness? Despair? Clearly not: the apostles do not at all look like careless or desperate people. The point is something else: they understand that what the Sanhedrin is trying to attack cannot be defended by human means.
And it does not need such defense. If Christianity were a religion, then of course one could try to defend it by some human powers and means. But the issue is not religion, but life. The life of the Kingdom. A Kingdom which only someone with no understanding at all of what it is would try to defend by human powers and means. The Kingdom does not need human defense. People who live this life are another matter: they do sometimes have to defend their life. But how can you defend your life if it, like the Kingdom itself, is, according to the Savior's word, "not of this world"?
Clearly, in only one way: by not getting in its way. By not getting in the way of its manifesting itself in all fullness. And this means continuing to live the life of the Kingdom to the extent that it is open to the one living it at that specific moment. Paying no attention to everything else. Understanding that in any case and in any situation this is the Christian's main work. And that it becomes all the more central when a Christian is required to betray this life, to renounce it for the sake of anything at all.
At that point, maneuvering and attempts to find a compromise doom a person to complete and unconditional defeat. For the Kingdom can enter a person's life either unconditionally or not at all. And if a person surrounds its presence in his life with some conditions, compromises, and the like, then the Kingdom will not be in that person's life. And Christ will not enter his life either: why put a person who is embarrassed by your company in an awkward position? That is why the apostles do not try to undertake anything in response to the threats of the Sanhedrin. They only ask God to enter this situation and resolve it as He considers best. For Himself and for them.