A dream?

Acts Chapter ch 11:19 - ch12

Suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself
Shock and surprise! This passage always makes me laugh. Imagine Peter realising that he had not been dreaming, he really was standing in the streets, thankfully with his clothes on. So he goes to the house of Mary where they don’t even open the door just get excited within! ‘Peter’s at the door’ the overjoyed servant girl exclaims, without opening it!

12:7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.
8Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him. 9Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
11Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating."
12When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"

The Keys to Heaven

Illusionarycontructs

Acts Chapter ch 10-11:18

Peter's Vision
This is a long passage but as it is all one section worth reading as one. Peter was told he was the rock on which the Church would be built. Also that he would be given the keys of Heaven. Here is the passage:

17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

There is much discussion about what is meant by Peter being the Rock and having the Keys to Heaven and that what is meant by him ‘binding or loosening’. I just wonder if in Acts we discover an explanation, what do you think?

Is it that Peter was shown the vision of the unclean animals so that he would then be able to make the decision to follow Christ’s desire to enter the home of this Gentile and begin the loosening of the restrictions which kept the ‘unclean’ out of Jewish faith system? Is it that Peter was given the strength to return to those in Jerusalem and explain so that they would ‘praise the Lord’ and give the Gentile believers their blessing?

What do you think?