Two young brothers, Nathaniel and John Chapman, entered the
Black Bear Tavern, the largest building in Pittsburgh back in 1788.
They were looking for a place to sleep in this little village on the
Western Frontier. All of the rooms were filled, so they had to sleep
on the floor in the corner of the bar. Little did the bar keeper
realize that one day one of these brothers, John, would become one
of the most famous characters West of the Allegheny Mountains.
John had been to Harvard, and had also been a missionary
preaching the doctrines of the Swedish mystic Swedenborg. He
came to Pittsburgh because it was the point from which people
departed for settlements in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
John and his brother went up the Allegheny River to visit an
uncle. When they found his cabin enemy they decided to settle there
for awhile. John noted that there was an absence of fruit trees in the
area, and he decided to do something about it. He found an
neglected orchard and set out hundreds of apple tree shoots.
Clarence Macartney in his book of historical studies called Right
Here In Pittsburgh says, "This was probably the first nursery in the
West." John became so concerned about orchards and the
providing of fruit for the people moving West that he made it his life
work to plant apple trees.
He said, "Fruit is next to religion. I use to be a Bible missionary
down in Virginia, but now I believe I'll be an apple missionary. He
chose a very fruitful profession, and he was a marvelous success at
it. He became known all over the country as Johnny Appleseed.
Everywhere he went he carried his bag of apple seed and he planted
them. He said, "I am going to sow the West with apple seeds,
making the wilderness to blossom with their beauty, and the people
happy with their fruit."
On horseback, in canoe, and on foot he roamed the wilds of
Western Pennsylvania, Southern New York, and Ohio. He kept a
cabin near Pittsburgh. He dressed with ragged, ill fitting, faded
garments. He went barefoot and had long black hair that fell over
his shoulders. He made friends wherever he went as he sowed his
seeds and preached from the Bible. When the Indian wars raged
through Ohio, he was the only white man who could go on roaming
the woods and not be killed, for the Indians also loved him. For 50
years he lived a vagabond life risking every danger to sow his seeds.
More than once he was brought down by malaria. Robert Luccock
in The Last Gospel tells of how on one occasion he was found by a
pioneer in an Ohio River settlement dying with an intense fever. He
did not know who he was, but he called for a doctor. The doctor
came and seeing him clutching a bag of seed with the initials JC
burned into the leather said, "It's Jonathan Chapman that good
Samaritan of Pittsburgh come to settle among us. Praise God from
who all blessing flow."
At the age of 79 Johnny Appleseed died at Fort Wayne, Indiana
where he is buried. Monuments have been created in his memory,
and many legends have surrounded his career. In the U. S. Senate,
General Sam Houston of Texas paid this eulogy to Johnny
Appleseed: "This old man was one of the most useful citizens of the
world in his humble way. He has made a greater contribution to our
civilization than we realize. He has left a place that can never be
filled. Farewell, dear old eccentric heart. You labor has been a
labor of love..." We are interested in this life, because his life of love
and fruit illustrates the ideal of the New Testament for the
Christian. Our goal is not apples, but our goal is fruit. As Peter
indicates here, and as the whole Bible makes clear, the purpose of all
virtues, including love, is that they might lead us to fruitful living.
Johnny Appleseed dressed like a bum, had his hair like a hippie,
had habits as strange as John the Baptist, and was just a very
unusual man, but he became a great success because fruit was his
aim, and he fulfilled that aim. Without fruit he would have been
considered an eccentric old fool and a mad man. Fruit made the
difference, and fruit will make the difference for all of us between
failure and success.
Fruit is one of the key themes of the Bible. God is a God of fruit,
and all that is in harmony with His will is fruitful. Paradise was
paradise because of the fruitfulness of nature. To be put out of
paradise was to have to labor for food, for the earth was less fruitful
outside of paradise. When paradise is regained, Rev. 22:2 describes
it as possessing fruitfulness beyond anything we, or Johnny
Appleseed, could ever imagine. A tree bearing 12 kinds of fruit and
yielding its fruit every month.
The Godly in the Bible are often likened to a tree, and the effects
of their godliness to fruit. In Psa. 1 he who delights in the law of
God, "..Shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields
its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he
does, he prospers." Success and fruit go together.
Paul was a Johnny Gospelseed going everywhere sowing the seeds of
life in Christ. He says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the increase. The whole ministry of the church is symbolized in fruit
bearing. Jesus sent forth His disciples that they might bear fruit.
It was no accident that the Holy Spirit came upon the church at
Pentecost. This was the great feast of harvest when the fruits were
gathered in. What delight God has in harmony and beauty of
symbolism. The coming of the Spirit was the beginning of the
harvest of the church. Three thousand souls were saved that day,
and the church immediately began to bear fruit. The dry bones of
Israel were clothed with living flesh. The desert of Israel began to
bloom like a rose, and began to produce the fruits necessary to
refresh the world and bring new life to all.
Jesus cursed the fig tree because it had no fruit. It was a symbol
of Israel. Israel was cut off because she was barren and unfruitful,
and a new branch was grafted in, which was the Gentiles. God just
will not tolerate perpetual unfruitfulness. Jesus tells us clearly why
Israel was replaced by the church to represent the kingdom of God
on earth. In Matt. 21:43 he said to the Jewish leaders, "The
kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation
producing the fruit of it." Even the kingdom of God is of no value if
it produces no fruit. Every gift of God and every virtue is of no
value if they do not produce fruit.
Jesus was very fruit conscience. In the Parable of the Sower He
taught that much seed is choked out before it bears fruit, and so is of
no value. But some seed goes on to bear fruit, and some a hundred,
some sixty, and some thirty. Not all seed is equally fruitful, but any
fruit is some measure of success. John the Baptist required fruit as
evidence of repentance. Jesus said that by their fruits you shall
know them. Fruit is the test of all truth. That is why Paul warns
Christians not to partake of the unfruitful works of darkness. The
Christian should be so fruit conscience that he does not waste his life
on what is unprofitable. This is even so in spiritual experiences. We
are urged to aim for the best and most fruitful gifts.
In I Cor. 14:14 Paul says, "..if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays
but my mind is unfruitful." The good can be the enemy of the best
and rob us of fruit. All we do needs to be evaluated according to its
fruitfulness. We can get caught up into the 7th heaven in emotion
but if we do not turn this spiritual experience into some sort of
fruitfulness, it is all in vain. Fruit is what counts, and fruit alone is
success. Even the death of Christ is a fruit issue. In John 12:24 He
says, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain a wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit." A
seed that does not die and thereby bear fruit is of no value. It is as
worthless as a dead rock. Success for a seed is in bearing fruit, and
if it cannot bear fruit without dying, then dying is the only way to
success. So it is with the seed of David-the Lord Jesus Christ, and so
it is for all who follow Him. Whatever the cost we must pay the
price to bear fruit, for fruit is success.
In the light of all this, which does not begin to cover all the stress
of Scripture on fruit, we can see why Peter makes the goal of all
these virtues the escaping of an unfruitful life. This is the worst
possible fate for a Christian to be a dead an barren branch. The
world desperately needs a army of Johnny Gospel-seeds planting the
trees of life in the wilderness of the world.
When Julian the Apostate was Emperor of the Roman Empire,
this is what he wrote to a pagan priest: "Let us consider that
nothing has contributed so much to the progress of the superstition
of the Christians, as their charity to strangers. I think we ought to
discharge this obligation ourselves. Establish hospitals in every
place, for it would be a shame in us to abandon our poor, while the
Jews have none, and the impious Galileans (thus he calls the
Christians) provide not only for their own poor, but also for ours."
Here is pagan testimony to the fruit bearing power of agape love.
The love of Christians even gets their enemies to do good works just
to try and keep the church from getting all the credit. God alone
knows all the good evil men have done in order to keep others from
turning to Christ. Government programs of welfare do much good,
but they rob the church of her fruits. People now look to the
government when they use to look to Christians motivated by the
love of Christ to meet their needs.
We seldom stop to realize that even good works divorce from the
Gospel are the means by which the powers of darkness can keep
people from turning to the light. If Satan can meet all a man's needs
on the physical level, why should he turn to the church or to Christ?
This means the government programs compete with the church for
the allegiance of men, The church must be actively engaged in
demonstrating love on every level, and do it in the name of Christ,
for only as men see that we are motivated by His love will they turn
to Him.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the gifted Negro poet, felt deep
bitterness over the injustice to his people. He was a cynic and his
poetry reflected this.
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
An never a laugh but the moans came double,
And that is life!
Before he died at the age of 33 he experienced the love of Christ
in his own life, and he was transformed. Instead of the soar and
bitter fruit of despair, he bore the sweet attractive fruit of the Spirit,
and he wrote,
A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us,
And joy seem sweeter when cares come afar,
And a moan is the finest foil for laughter,
And that is life!
Paul Dunbar became a success before he died because he boar
the fruit of the Spirit, and fruit is success. This is the goal for every
Christian. We must produce that fruit which attracts the hungry
soul to Christ. If the church is ineffective today, it is because they
are like neglected orchards. The fruit is small an unappealing.
Hungry minds and hearts are looking elsewhere for satisfaction. We
must each strive to produce fruit according to our gifts. God does
not expect a grapevine to produce watermelons, nor does he expect
an apple tree to produce corn. Each is to produce according to its
gifts. You are not to compare yourself with anyone else, but to
measure how effective you are in the use of your own gifts. If you
have the gift of helping others and no one is thanking you for your
help, you are not using your gift, and are not producing fruit.
Evaluate your gifts in the light of whether they are producing fruit.
Fruit is what we give back to God for the gift of salvation.
Salvation is what we accept from God, but fruit is what we achieve
for God. Salvation is a gift from God, but fruit is a goal we reach for
God. Salvation comes as free grace, but fruit comes by fertile
growth. Salvation is God's investment in us, but fruit is the interest
we return to God on His investment. May God help us to be
successful in our service for Him by striving to bear fruit, for fruit is
success.
