OpenGL显示列表的好处

I didn't understand what is the difference between opengl lists and other functions which encapsulates the drawing sentences. Today I asked Lu. He told me that using opengl lists can speed up the drawing when using it second or more times, i.e. functions encapsulating drawing sentences and opengl lists are the same when using the first time, but using opengl lists are more faster than the same function of the same goal.