What is the final look you are going for here? With woodworking, as with anything, the fewer variables you introduce the greater likelihood of a satisfactory result. In all honesty, when I read that description the first thing that pops into my mind is Why even spend the cash on Sapele? When you wet the (well sanded) sapele with mineral spirits you will see the color you will get if you just oil varnish the table. If that color isn't exactly what you want you need to adjust from there. DO NOT go buy a stain that is the color you want. Actually don't buy a stain at all. You will not find a single well respected "Fine Woodworker" that uses stain. That doesn't mean none of them adjust color. If all you have the money for is pine and you want it to look like cherry, that's perhaps a different discussion. Stain lays pigments on top of the wood. Sapele has a lot of beautiful nuances and chatoyance and you will lose most of them the moment the stain touches the wood.
You don't want to change the color, you want to adjust it. The best place to start would be shellac. You can get shellac that naturally has multiple tones from garnet to rudy to orange or blonde. If you look at the wet sapele and want it to be a little darker brownish red, put a thin coat of garnet shellac on it, and so on.
The next option would be a water based dye, not quite as easy to do as the shellac but a great product. With dye you have a wider range of colors to choose from and you can adjust the density of color by diluting just like with shellac. Most fine finishers use one of these two products. There are others but frankly, you don't need them for this project.
After you get the color you want you need to decide what you want the surface to look like. By this I don't just mean high gloss or satin; I mean do you want to see the wood pores or do you want a glass smooth surface? If the latter a pore filler may be the way to go. Fill the pores before using the shellac.
As for the final varnish, a lot of people like the Behlen's, though I'm not one of them. I'm a fan of Waterlox original or (gasp) Minwax poly. The Waterlox is fairly similar to the Behlen's except that it uses Tung oil instead of Linseed oil. Both the Waterlox and the Behlen's are pretty amber as far as "clear" finishes go so take that into account when deciding.
My finishing schedule would be: Tone if you decide to (with shellac), Two coats of whatever varnish you choose applied with a foam brush, Wait a couple of days and block sand the finish flat, Wipe on maybe two additional coats of the same varnish this time using a rubber or balled application pad wrapped in lint free cloth(sanding at 400-600 between.) If you want to rub out the finish with abralon or compound you need to wait until the finish is fully cured first, which will vary by product and location.
With sapele this should give you a pretty flat finish, I don't see the need to fill it but that's up to you.
P.S.- Please don't stain it.