Audio There is something that just seems right about being here this morning to celebrate Christmas here in worship on Christmas Day. In fact, long before Christians began to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25, Christians began gathering on Sunday to worship the Lord in commemoration of His resurrection, which was on a Sunday. It was several centuries before Christmas traditions began to arise, and nearly two millennia before observances such as we are accustomed to keeping began to develop. So, it is doubly fitting for us to gather together today for worship – first and foremost because it is the Lord’s Day, Sunday; and secondarily because this Lord’s Day happens to coincide with Christmas. If you are in the regular habit of being in a service like this on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, you are part of a very slight majority in America. A 2013 study by the Pew Forum reported that 54% of Americans do so. Meanwhile, the same study revealed that 86% of Americans gather with extended family or friends on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and the same percentage buy gifts for family and friends. It is reported that 79% of Americans put up a Christmas tree, and 65% send Christmas cards. If you wanted to be more creative in your Christmas celebrations, you could adopt some more unusual customs that are practiced elsewhere in the world. According to a 2010 article from Travel and Leisure’s website, in Guatemala, the devil is burned in effigy on a bonfire. In Japan, eating at KFC for Christmas is so popular that some locations require reservations. In Wales, friends go from home to home singing, accompanied by someone dressed up as a dead horse.[1] Or maybe you are like Ebenezer Scrooge, who sternly rebuked his gracious nephew, saying, “Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine!” To which his nephew said, “But you don’t keep it,” and Scrooge retorted, “Let me leave it alone then!” Undoubtedly your family has its own Christmas customs, as does mine. But if we really want to know how to celebrate Christmas, we need to look no further than the passage of Scripture which has just been read for us Luke 2:1-20. Here in the first Christmas, we find examples of the best ways for us to honor Christ and celebrate His birth in our Christmases! After the angel announced the good news of the Savior who had been born in Bethlehem, and the angelic host erupted in a song of cosmic praise, the shepherds, and those they encountered, celebrated the coming of Christ into the world in ways that we would do well to emulate! I. Come and behold Christ the Lord! (vv15-16) In the familiar song, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” we sing the familiar words, “Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels! O come let us adore Him, o come let us adore Him, o come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!” As we sing those words, we are giving voice to the ancient shepherds who heard the angelic announcement. While they were out in the fields with their flocks, the angel appeared and said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for youa Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” This was more than an announcement of good news, it was an invitation to come and meet this Child and behold Him for themselves. Notice what the shepherds did. They said to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehemthen, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” And we read that “they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as He lay in the manger.” How else should we respond to the good news, the Gospel, that a Savior has been born for us? We, who are separated from God by our sins, have been invited to come and meet the One who was born to take away our sins. The Christ of Christmas’s manger is the Christ of Easter’s cr