Page Content Won't Show Up

I’m creating a custom template for the first time and can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong since there is explanation of how to call pages in codex (at least that makes sense to me).

It seems like index.php was being called. Do I need page.php? I made one the same as index.php with the same results. I even copied the loop out of the default theme but that only displayed the comments.

This is my index file:

<?php get_header(); ?>

<main>

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

<?php endwhile; else : ?>
	<p><?php _e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' ); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

</main>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Thank you for any help!