iMessage & Facetime activation error

on my brand new and first MacBook Air ever owned. I logged into iCloud successfully with photos, notes, mail everything. My only issue is iMessage and FaceTime. When I try to log in and I click the button nothing happens, or if something does happen and it moves me to a different screen it says, "iMessage could not be activated at this time." Ive had my MacBook since Christmas and it is currently January 10th 2019. How do I fix this? Ive tried following youtube tutorials, reading articles about it and nothing has worked.