AND TO WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN: kai anamenein (PAN) ton huion autou ek ton ouranon: (1Thes 4:16,17; Ge 49:18; Job 19:25-27; Isa 25:8,9; Lu 2:25; Acts 1:11; 3:21; Ro 2:7; 8:23-25; 1 Co 1:7; Php 3:20; 1Thes 1:7; 2:7; 2Ti 4:1; Titus 2:13; Heb 9:28; 2Pe 3:12,14; Rev 1:7)

And [how you] look forward to and await the coming of His Son from heaven (Amp)

and to be expectantly waiting for His Son from heaven (Wuest) 

The fact that the saints are actively, eagerly awaiting the Second Coming is a reflection of their steadfastness of hope in (see note 1Thessalonians 1:3)

Wait (362) (anemeno from ana = upon, Vine says it intensifies meaning of meno + meno = abide, remain) conveys the meaning of expectant waiting—sustained, patient, trusting waiting. It pictures an eager looking forward to the coming of one whose arrival was anticipated at any time, waiting for one whose coming is expected.

In an extra-biblical writing (2Clement 19:4) anemeno is used figuratively of time in the phrase "a blessed time awaits (the devout)". In another use it describes debtors who are to pay up without "waiting for" the time allowed them. This verb is used in Modern Greek.

Anemeno is used only here in NT and 4 times in LXX - Job 2:9, Job 7:2 = "as a hired man who eagerly waits for his wages", Isa 59:11 = "we hope [wait for] justice", Jer 13:16.

KJV Bible Commentary writes that  anemeno

means more than just wait; it emphasizes an expectant and active attempt to live for His glory in the meantime. It is an attitude of faith toward the complete fulfillment of the messianic promises of the Old Testament in the second coming of Christ. (Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary: Nelson)

Vine writes that anemeno...

carries with it the suggestion of waiting with patience and confident expectancy.

To wait for the Lord's return is a sure characteristic of a true believer. The present tense can be rendered "keep on waiting". Waiting for the return of their Lord and King was their lifestyle, the habit of their life, the truth that colored all their daily activities and afflictions.

To the first century believers the advent of Christ was not regarded as a distant possibility, but as an imminent probability!  (See discussion on imminency)

Expectant looking
(for Jesus' return) is a good antidote for
 Apathetic living.

Who are you looking for today? Remember Jesus could come back today! Are you ready to meet Him in the clouds? (See the related study on "The Blessed Hope" where hope is God's absolute assurance to believers that He will show them future good)

Beloved do not be deceived like those who say...

Where is the promise of His coming? (see note 2 Peter 3:4)

What is your view of world history? Are you were living with the assured conviction that Jesus will return? The trustworthy promise after the Resurrection was...

Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, Who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11) (Maranatha! Our Lord Come!)

His victory over death makes this promise completely credible. And this truth emphasizes why we must always speak of His resurrection when we proclaim the gospel. There is no good news without Jesus' resurrection!

See the same powerful, predominant NT theme of waiting and looking expectantly for the King, our Lord Jesus Christ, in these other word studies - apekdechomai and prosdechomai.

As F F Bruce writes...

To wait for him has ethical implications; those who wait are bound to live holy lives so as to be ready to meet him (see notes 1Thessalonians 3:13; 1Thess 5:6; 5:7; 5:8; 5:23, 1John 2:28, 3:2-3). (Bruce, F. F. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Word Biblical Commentary series. Waco: Word Books, 1982)

Note that in first and second Thessalonians each chapter (in both epistles) ends with a reference to the second coming of the Lord! We look back to His first coming, but among these early believers the great hope lay in His coming again. This should likewise be the mindset of modern believers! When was the last time you contemplated the return of the King?

The Second Coming of the Messiah was the ever-present hope of the early church, and that hope was a prominent theme in the Thessalonian epistles. The answer the Thessalonians gave to the threat of persecution and possibly even death was a firm belief in Jesus' resurrection. Jesus gave His unfailing Word that...

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)

Because I live, you also will live (John 14:19)

The Thessalonians were confident of their victory over death.

Hiebert comments that

to wait for means "to await, expect, wait up for" and pictures them as people who were eagerly and expectantly looking forward to the coming of One Whose arrival was anticipated at any time; the present tense gives this as their continuing attitude. Clearly the Thessalonians viewed Christ's return not simply as the consummating event due to take place in the indefinite end time but as something to be actively expected in the near future: it is assumed rather than asserted in these early letters that Christians of that generation may hope to witness it. This picture of anticipation carries the further suggestion of being ready to receive the One whose coming was awaited. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians) (Bolding added)

Waiting is a recurring theme (see notes 1Thessalonians 2:17; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 4:16; 4:17;  5:8, 5:23). In fact this epistle is only 88 verses long but has at least 14 verses referring to Christ's Second coming.  In his last recorded words Paul wrote young Timothy that

In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. (see note 2 Timothy 4:8)

Writing to Titus on the isle of Crete Paul reminds him that

the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. (see notes Titus 2:11, 2:12,  2:13)

Hiebert adds that

This anticipation of Christ's return characterized the Christian church from its very beginning. Acts makes it clear that it was an essential part of the preaching of the gospel. That Paul laid considerable emphasis upon this hope in his preaching at Thessalonica seems clear from the perverted charge against the Christians in Acts 17:7 when read in the light of the Thessalonian epistles. This eschatological hope is the keynote of these epistles. It had taken a firm hold on the Thessalonian believers. If their serving a living and true God distinguished them from the Gentiles, this expectant hope for Christ's return distinguished them from the Jews. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

James Denney sounded an important note when he wrote that...

That attitude of expectation is the bloom, as it were, of the Christian character. Without it there is something lacking; the Christian who does not look upward and onward wants one mark of perfection.

Spurgeon once said...

Remember Jesus till you feel that He is with you, till His joy gets into your soul, and your joy is full. Remember Him till you begin to forget yourself, your temptations, and your cares. Remember Him till you begin to think of the time when He will remember you and come in His glory for you. Remember Him till you begin to be like Him. (And all God's people cry "Amen!")

Much of modern Christendom has lost this expectant waiting for the return of Christ, much to its own impoverishment. This "blessed hope" is under attack today, even within ecclesiastical circles.

It would appear that the early Christians believed that Christ might come at any time, even in their days; the first advent, being so recent, excited within them the expectation of the immediateness of the second. Hence the doctrine of the second advent occupied a much more prominent place in the thoughts of the primitive Christians than it does in ours. It was to them a living power; believers then lived in constant expectation of the coming of the Lord; whereas the teaching of the present day has in a measure passed from it. Its uncertainty, instead of exciting us to holiness and watchfulness, is too often abused as an encouragement to sloth and security." (The Pulpit Commentary: New Testament; Old Testament; Ages Software  or Logos)

Henry writes that

this is one of the peculiarities of our holy religion, to wait for Christ's second coming, as those who believe He will come and hope He will come to our joy. The believers under the Old Testament waited for the coming of the Messiah, and believers now wait for His second coming; He is yet to come. And there is good reason to believe He will come, because God has raised Him from the dead, which is full assurance unto all men that He will come to judgment, Act 17:31. And there is good reason to hope and wait for His coming, because He has delivered us from the wrath to come. He came to purchase salvation, and will, when He comes again, bring salvation with Him, full and final deliverance from sin, and death, and hell, from that wrath which is yet to come upon unbelievers, and which, when it has once come, will be yet to come, because it is everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, Mt 25:41.

The hope of the second coming of Christ was real and powerful with the Thessalonian believers who had made an ''about face'' from (dead) idols to serve a living an true God.  In the NT, hope is always the expectation of something good. It is also something we must wait for. In the NT, unlike the OT, just what we hope for is carefully explained. The mystery that the OT does not solve is untangled in the NT, and we are told about the wonders God has in store for us.            

Clarke comments on their (and our) hope:

To expect a future state of glory, and resurrection of the body, according to the Gospel doctrine, after the example of Jesus Christ, Who was raised from the dead, and ascended unto heaven, ever to appear in the presence of God for us.

Barnes rightly comments

that the return of the Son of God from heaven was an important point which had been insisted on when he was there, and that their conduct, as borne witness to by all, had shown with what power it had seized upon them, and what a practical influence it had exerted in their lives. They lived as if they were” waiting” for his return. They fully believed in it; they expected it. They were looking out for it, not knowing when it might occur, and as if it might occur at any moment. They were, therefore, dead to the world, and were animated with an earnest desire to do good. This is one of the instances which demonstrate that the doctrine that the Lord Jesus will return to our world, is fitted, when understood in the true sense revealed in the Scriptures, to exert a powerful influence on the souls of people. It is eminently adapted to comfort the hearts of true Christians in the sorrows, bereavements, and sicknesses of life.    

The Preacher's Commentary sounds an important note writing that...

This doctrine of the second advent is sadly neglected in many churches today and even rejected in some. Unfortunately, in yet others it is majored upon in the form of predictions. The recovery of a dynamic view of the Second Coming of Christ must be a matter of high priority for us. The technical term for this is eschatology, from the Greek word, eschaton, meaning “last” or “last things.” What is at stake in eschatology is not how to predict the end of the world, but how to understand what history is all about.

The second advent of Christ means that history is moving to a particular conclusion. That conclusion centers in the coming of Christ the King to establish eternally the kingdom of God which began with His first advent. The kingdom will be complete when, and only when, He comes again.

The inclusion of the concept of deliverance from “the wrath to come” is troublesome to those who are uncomfortable with the idea of a God of wrath. Such an idea is offensive to those who want only to stress the love of God. But the wrath of God is too prevalent throughout the Bible to be dismissed. God’s wrath is not to be regarded as the anger and ire expressed in human temper tantrums. Rather, His wrath is the other side of His love. It is the necessary corollary of His love, reminding us that our choices do indeed have significant consequences. God’s love and wrath are best seen as two sides of the same coin. (Demarest, G. W., & Ogilvie, L. J. The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 32: 1, 2 Thessalonians; 1, 2 Timothy; Titus. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson)

His Son from heaven - this is the only description of Jesus as the Son of God in the letters to the Thessalonians.     

Heaven is in the plural here so more literally reads "from the heavens" (See study on The Third Heaven)

Vincent commenting on from heaven writes...

Comp. 1Cor 15:47; 1Th. 4:16; 2Th 1:7. Paul uses the unclassical plural much oftener than the singular. Although the Hebrew equivalent has no singular, the singular is almost universal in LXX, the plural occurring mostly in the Psalms. Ouranos is from a Sanskrit word meaning to cover or encompass. The Hebrew shamayim (8064) signifies height, high district, the upper regions. Similarly we have in N. T. en hupsistois , in the highest (places), Matt. 21:9; Luke 2:14: en hupsielois in the high (places), Hebrews 1:3 (note). Paul’s usage is evidently coloured by the Rabbinical conception of a series of heavens: see 2Cor 12:2; Ephesians 4:10 (note). Some Jewish teachers held that there were seven heavens, others three. (See study on The Third Heaven) The idea of a series of heavens appears in patristic writings, in Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of the celestial hierarchies, and in Dionysius the Areopagite. Through the scholastic theologians it passed into Dante’s Paradiso with its nine heavens. The words to await his Son from heaven strike the keynote of this Epistle.

WHOM HE RAISED FROM THE DEAD, that is JESUS: on egeiren (3SAAI) ek (ton) nekron, Iesoun: (Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30,31; 10:40,41; 17:31; Ro 1:4; 4:25; 8:34; 1 Co 15:4-21; Col 1:18; 1 Pe 1:3,21; 3:18; Rev 1:18) (5:9; Mt 1:21; Ro 5:9,10; Gal 3:13; 1 Pe 2:21)

Raised (1453) (egeiro) means to waken, rouse from sleep, from sitting or lying, from disease, from death, from inactivity, from ruins. It means to lift up, raise up, arise again, stand up. Metaphorically, egeiro is used in the NT to describe to awaken from sluggishness or lethargy (see note Romans 13:11). It also refers as in the present use to be awakened up from death and so to be raised from the dead. The Thessalonian's acceptance and belief in the resurrection as an act of God, gave them confidence in the certainty of Christ’s return in power.

The resurrection was confirmation of the Father’s acceptance of the Son’s substitutionary death (cf. 1Cor 15). It is worth noting that all three persons of the Trinity were active in Christ’s resurrection: the Father—Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 33, 34, 37; 17:31; the Spirit—Ro 8:11 and the Son—John 2:19-22; 10:17-18.

Raised from the dead is the grand proof of His divine Sonship and thus Paul writes that Jesus

was established (openly designated, marked out, declared) with (literally "in") power (in a striking, triumphant and miraculous manner) as the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness. (see note Romans 1:4)

The Resurrection was the guarantee of God’s power to carry out the rescue of those who are His and to judge those who are not, for as Luke recorded in Acts...

He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. (Acts 17:31) (Note: The Scriptures generally attribute the resurrection of Jesus to the activity of the Father - Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30,31; 10:40,41)

And so the certainty (cf 500 witnesses did not lie in 1Cor 15:6) of His resurrection past carries the promise of His future return! If the one promise was fulfilled literally, the other promise is just as certain. A further proof of the gospel’s veracity is its ability to inculcate faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that is so demonstrably total and real that it causes the believer to predicate his life on Jesus’ return.

Calvin writes that Paul...

makes mention here of Christ’s resurrection, on which the hope of our resurrection is founded, for death everywhere besets us. Hence, unless we learn to look to Christ, our minds will give way at every turn. By the same consideration, he admonishes them that Christ is to be waited for from heaven, because we will find nothing in the world to bear us up, while there are innumerable trials to overwhelm us.

Warren Wiersbe emphasizes the point that...

Every chapter in 1 Thessalonians ends with a reference to the return of Jesus Christ, and that truth is applied to daily living. An eager looking for His return is an evidence of salvation (1Thes 1:9-10), a motivation for soul winning (1Thes 2:17-20), and an encouragement for holy living (1Thes 3:11-13). This truth is a comfort in sorrow (1Thes 4:18) and a stimulus to have more confidence in the Lord (1Thes 5:23-24). (Wiersbe, W. W. With the Word:  Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

Jesus (2424) (Iesous = Yeshu'a) means Joshua, Jehovah saves. The angel in Matthew 1:21 declared to Joseph...

And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. (Mt 1:21)

Commenting on this verse, C H Spurgeon wrote that...

The angel spake to Joseph the name in a dream: that name so soft and sweet that it breaks no man’s rest, but rather yields a peace unrivalled, the peace of God. With such a dream Joseph’s sleep was more blessed than his waking. The name has evermore this power, for, to those who know it, it unveils a glory brighter than dreams have ever imagined. (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit)

Marvin Vincent looks at the Name, Iesous writing of the Old Testament foreshadowing of the glorious Name of Jesus...

The Greek form of a Hebrew name, which had been borne by two illustrious individuals in former periods of the Jewish history — Joshua, the successor of Moses, and Jeshua, the high-priest, who with Zerubbabel took so active a part in the re-establishment of the civil and religious polity of the Jews on their return from Babylon. Its original and full form is Jehoshua, becoming by contraction Joshua or Jeshua.

Joshua, the son of Nun, the successor of Mos