iPhone 4s message app blank

I recently updated my iPhone 4s to 9.0.2. Last night my phone ran out of battery. I recharged it this morning but when I tried to go into my messages app which was showing 3 unread messages, the whole thing was blank. All my messages are gone. I tried to soft reset and it didn't change anything. I shut it down and restarted but nothing. I went to settings, messages and there was just the option to log into iMessage - when I try this, it says verifying for a long time, then gives me an error message saying : iMessage Activation Unable to contact the iMessage server. Try again. I have tried several times and I just get the same message. The same thing is happening with my FaceTime.

What can I do?