“What are your expectations?” Job applicants are asked this question. A prospective boss might want to know what you hope to accomplish and what would be anticipated if hired. Sport coaches need to respond to this question when reporters ask about the coming season. Pastors may open with this inquiry in a pre-marriage session.

What are your expectations? As common as the question is to our ears, we Christians ought to ask it for a far greater reason. The close of the church year puts our focus on the end times. When Christ comes again, what are we to expect?

The Bible informs us of some of the signs. For example, in Matthew 24 Jesus lists for His disciples these indications of the final day: false Christs and false prophets will appear; there will be wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes; believers will be persecuted and many will fall from the faith; the sun will be darkened and the moon not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky; and the Gospel will be preached throughout the world before the great day arrives. Another section of Scripture, Revelation, chapter 21 adds: “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be!”(21:7)

This warning is recorded for all in the world to know. The Last Day should hold no surprises. The expectations of the unbelieving world may take various forms, but the Bible is clear. What the Bible says will occur, will indeed occur.

However, the question at the beginning of this article is meant to be personal. What are your expectations? What are you—a child of God, one brought to faith in God’s saving grace by the power of baptism—what are you to expect? You and I do not in the least deserve God’s goodness. All natural indications should be that God’s hammer would fall on us in eternal punishment. But God in His mercy sent Christ to live and die and rise, taking the punishment in our place, and so we have peace with God. Through faith in the forgiveness obtained by Christ at the cross and distributed to us at the font, at the table and in the powerful Word, we have a never-ending life of happiness and glory awaiting us!

Note how the apostle Paul writes of that day in his first letter to the Christians at Thessalonica. “[W]e who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (4:15-18)

Expectations? Absolutely! The very One on whom all of our expectations rests is the very One who will greet us and usher us into glory forevermore. What a life is yet to come! Await it with joy!